The Blackberry PlayBook reviews have just started to come in and so far it is getting a massive thumbs up except for a few minor areas. I recently wrote an article on why I feel the PlayBook will be a serious competitor to the iPad 2 and now I am even more convinced of that. Here are some highlights of the reviews.
The Blackberry PlayBook Reviews
RIM is on track to bring us the Blackberry PlayBook 7″ tablet computer on Tuesday, April 19th. It has been priced to compete directly with the iPad at $499 for the 16GB model, $599 for the 32GB, and $699 for 64GB. As you will see in the review snippets below, there are some great things about the PlayBook but there are a few concerns as well.
Gigaom Blackberry PlayBook Review
Om Malik did an excellent hands-on review of the Blackberry Tablet from the perspective of an end user. He has been playing around with a PlayBook for a few days now and had some very interesting things to say about it.
He points out that the looks and design of the PlayBook are some rather high points. It seems that the PlayBook has a nice sleek black body with a rubber backing and the buttons are placed exactly where they need to be for convenience. One thing Malik points out about the overall design is that it “does not look much different from many of the Android Tablets”.
As for the Interface, the new Blackberry tablet is based on the QNX operating system which RIM acquired in April 2010. It appears that the interface and the experience are very much like any of the current Blackberry phones so much like the iPad is like the iPhone (actually it’s nearly identical).
Interestingly, Om points out that he loves the size of his iPad but he did find that the 7″ PlayBook was actually just as good and noted that it was very comfortable to hold an use – most notably when typing notes as it’s easier to hold and type than the 10″ tablets like iPad and Xoom.
One of the single best features of the PlayBook seems to be the new Webkit-based browser that can also run Flash. Malik found that the browsing experience was nearly the same as if you were browsing on your desktop. Flash, however, did suck the life right out of the battery (no surprise here).
The PlayBook does come with some default Apps but something of interest here is the apps for Twitter and Facebook and Gmail. They are not apps at all. Instead they are icons that link to the websites. This is interesting because apps are definitely something people expect but from RIM’s perspective “you don’t need an app for the web.” Hmmmm…not sure I like that answer RIM. While it’s true that the web provides a great way to use these services, the apps are better because they can be enhanced with more features.
Another thing with the Apps is that RIM says there are over 3,000 such PlayBook apps in the app store and that’s a great start but they are going to need to really get some devs onboard (which I’m sure they will do) to increase that number as it really does make a huge difference. Om points out that without a native Netflix or Kindle app, it’s kind of underwhelming.
The photos and video appear to be outstanding on the PlayBook and since it also ships with an HDMI port built in, you can take just about any HDMI cable and plug it into your TV. The video is clear, no stutters, and delivers an amazing media experience.
Now we get to what most reviewers are calling “deal killers”. The lack of a standalone email client, calendar or to-do list. Also, no Google Talk or Skype. In order to use these features (email, calendar, to-do list) you have to use Blackberry Bridge. This is a piece of software that you use to pair up with the PlayBook and then you can mirror Blackberry Messenger (BBM), contacts, messages, memos and the calendar.
At the end of the review Om pretty much summarizes it as one of the best tablets he has used. The hardware works as it should, the media and browsing is flawless and the overall experience albeit the lack of communications tools is going to give both Android and the iPad some competition.
[via Gigaom]
The Other Blackberry Reviews
More reviews are definitely rolling in as the larger media companies get their review units and write about them. Here are links to some of them but in general everyone is saying about the same thing. They feel RIM has a potential winner on their hands if they can get more apps, stand-alone communication tools, and address some of the crashes and bugs in the current version of the operating system.
Here is information on the PlayBook specs and pricing
So what do you think about the new Blackberry tablet after reading the reviews? Are you interested in trying it out? What features stand out the most?
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