The RIM BlackBerry PlayBook: A Preview

RIM's BlackBerry PlayBook is scheduled to arrive sometime in the first quarter (Q1) 2011 in the United States. As the device was sure to be on many technologist's personal wish lists for the upcoming holiday season, RIM is also aiming the device towards businesses as a viable computing platform and solution for the corporate workspace. Here is what would be users and potential buyers can expect from the soon to be released tablet device.

If there is one thing manufacturers seem to have in common when it comes to standing up to the iPad, it appears to be smaller size. RIM offers this trait in the PlayBook; it is a few inches smaller than the iPad, arriving with a 7" LCD HD display, with a sharp 1024 x 600 screen resolution. The PlayBook' screen also features one significant feature some other manufacturers are missing out on. While many others are only single touch, the RIM device will deliver a Multi-touch capacitive screen to its users.

Offering a significant reduction in size, and weight (especially compared to the iPad 3G model) dimensions for the BlackBerry powered tablet computer: 5.1" x 7.6" x 0.4" (or 130mm x 194mm x 10mm) with a weight of only 0.9 lbs (400g). While there are reports of an upcoming 3G (or perhaps 4G) PlayBook device, at the moment only Wi-Fi (802.11 a/b/g/n), and Bluetooth wireless technologies are included.

While there may a significant amount of buzz with the Android OS in general, and its arrival on tablet devices, RIM is banking on its own BlackBerry software and applications as a champion amongst its home and corporate users. Based on QNX technology, a PlayBook can be paired with a BlackBerry via Blootooth for access to push technologies such as those found with email and calendars. Additionally, pairing will allow access to BBM, tasks, documents and more. The PlayBook's widescreen can also act as an external screen to a BlackBerry Phone.

Users will find that RIM is pushing for a full computing experience in a tablet device with the PlayBook. Powered by a 1 GHz dual-core CPU that features symmetrical dual-core processing and the installed 1 GB of RAM both provide ample power for multitasking application performance. Web users will also be happy to know that support for Flash 10 and HTML 5 is already built-in to provide everything the "real Internet" offers.

Sources/Resources:

BlackBerry.com: The BlackBerry PlayBook