I got the new BlackBerry PlayBook to review a week and a half ago but I delayed the posting of my review until after Father’s day, coz this was the perfect Father’s day gift for my hubby who loves to play games at his smartphone.
As expected, he loves his new toy! The whole family actually loves it, especially the kids.
Here, let me give you a rundown on what we like, and don’t like about the new BlackBerry PlayBook:
Pros:
It’s light, portable and convenient. Weighing less than a pound and at less than half an inch thick, it’s designed to go anywhere and everywhere.
- Height 5.1″ / 130mm
- Width 7.6″ / 194mm
- Depth 0.4″ / 10mm
- Weight 0.9 lbs / 425g
It’s fast and powerful! The BlackBerry PlayBook is packed with a blazingly fast 1 GHz dual core processor, a high resolution 7” multi-touch display and up to 10 hours of battery life.
Impressive multimedia. This tablet has rich stereo sound and a crystal clear, high resolution display optimized for HD content. You can take your own HD videos, or enjoy movies, music, home videos and even the web in high definition on your HDTV with standard HDMI connections.
- 1080P HD
- 3 MP high-definition forward-facing camera
- 5 MP high-definition rear-facing camera
- Crystal clear video; H.264, MPEG4, WMV HDMI video output
Surf the web and actually enjoy it! Streaming video, games and social networking that you enjoy from your desktop computer is packed into this ultra portable tablet. Futhermore, support for Adobe Flash 10.2 and HTML5 means you get all the Internet has to offer.
Dual video cameras for face to face video chat. With built-in video chat, you can call another BlackBerry PlayBook with a simple tap. View your caller on the high resolution 7″ display, or output to an HDTV with HDMI to share the conversation with a group. You can even use other apps while you’re on a call.
Multitasking capability. Apps on the BlackBerry PlayBook run simultaneously and in real time. You can browse the web while you video chat, or fire off a BBM (BlackBerry Messenger) while you watch a movie.
More apps to choose from and more to come — powerful apps, built and optimized for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. Plus, many of your favorite apps for BlackBerry smartphones and Android will soon be available.
Cons:
Skype is not currently available. As much as I love Video Chat, it is limited to BlackBerry PlayBook users. Having skype would give us the ability to connect to more friends and associates. I heard though that BlackBerry App World is working on the current issues and hopefully we’ll see this app available in the near future!
Can only connect to Wi-fi at the moment. It is currently unable to connect to a 3G or 4G network but this functionality is coming soon!
To sum it up, the Pros far outweighs the Cons (which by the way will be resolved in the near future anyway) so we are definitely recommending BlackBerry PlayBook to our friends and followers!
Full Disclosure: Research in Motion (RIM) seeded me with a free 16 GB Blackberry Playbook tablet to test-drive and review, asking that I give my honest and unbiased opinion on the product.
