It’s ironic to think that the company from Waterloo finds itself at its own version of the Battle of Waterloo as it seeks to transition to not only a new shiny, modern OS but also to branch out from being a business stalwart. For RIM the Playbook is a glimpse into the future of its phones and represents a milestone of the breakneck speed it has integrated the QNX OS it purchased in just April this last year. With the mobile space evolving at such incredible speed it appears RIM has finally recognized the window of opportunity is fading to grab mindshare and shore up positions and has raced to create a compelling and complete product with both QNX and the Playbook. Do they succeed? Let’s take it through its paces and find out.
Hardware
The Playbook In All It's Glory
First things first. This a a well built machine. Easily equalling the iPad 2 in terms of build quality. There’s no hint of flex it feels as it was hewn from a single piece of steel. The rubberized back is much appreciated and makes it easy to grip. The lack of shine and flash give it a simple statement of business which definitely isn’t a bad thing. The weight is lighter than the iPad 2 which at 7″ should be expected. It has nice heft to it which gives it a feeling of substance, something other tablets like the Samsung Tab seem to lack which leaves them feeling like the dummy phones you find at cell stores. With a focus on gestures the buttons are understandably sparse you only find: power volume and pause/play along the top edge, with a 3.5mm headphone jack located on the top right hand corner. The top of the device is also the sole source of the Playbook’s one and only hardware flaw: the joke of a power button. It’s microscopic and recessed making it nigh impossible to turn on or off. Seriously it’s horrible. I am shocked that at no point during the last several months no one said “this sucks fix it” or that if they did the complaints went ignored. It’s really the only negative we could find in all the hardware. The speakers are superb and they are perfectly positioned on the front of the device and in stereo which are all big wins.
On The Bright Side You'll Never Turn It On By Accident....
The screen is crisp and has great viewing angles it’s on par with the iPad as is the touch sensitivity. Cameras are there and while they seem to be of higher quality than the cameras we have seen in Blackberry phones Nokia won’t be sweating anytime soon about losing the crown of best optics in mobile devices. Other hardware included in the box with the Playbook includes a weirdish AC adapter and neoprene sleeve (which is appreciated). We say weirdish on the AC adapter as it feels as though it would have been more natural for the cable to detach for use as a USB/Charge cable rather than built into the charger, that and in an age with shrinking adapters it’s on the large end of what’s acceptable. The Playbook sports a micro-HDMI, micro-USB, and a proprietary three-prong charging connector for use with a docking cradle or with the optional external adapter both of which will net you charging at twice the rate of micro-USB.
The Power Cable **Should** Be Detachable
Internals
Dual-core is all the rage in the newest of new mobile tech and the Playbook does not disappoint as it uses a dual-core, 1GHz TI OMAP processor that appears to be a great match to the new Blackberry TabletOS (aka QNX). Add in 1GB of RAM and 16, 32, or 64GB of storage and you have a specwise match to anything and everything any other vendor offers.
PowerVR chip backs the graphics up (much like the iPad 2) handles all the graphical and video decoding heavy lifting and has enough gumption to decode and display 1080p video over HDMI while being buttery smooth. All of this hardware makes for a great experience and we didn’t experience any lag or hiccups as we transitioned between apps even while playing video in the background, loading web pages and opening productivity apps.
Be Careful the Micro-HDMI and Micro-USB They Look VERY Similar!
Battery Life
Battery life was wholly acceptable which is a complete 180 from earlier reports that battery life was abysmal. Does it best the iPad? No. But we are seeing better battery life than Samsung’s Galaxy Tab meaning it’s in a totally acceptable range.
Operating System
Fluid transitions? Check. Great multi-tasking interface? Check. Copying good bits of WebOS? Check…. not that that’s a bad thing at all! We really, really like WebOS. Although there is a lack of apps the OS itself is fantastic at multi tasking and RIM definitely took notes and applied the best bits here.
Gestures are the main focus using an “active” bezel which is a wholly different approach from what the iPad utilizes definitely makes for a different experience. To switch between apps you can swipe inward from the left or right bezel, this shrinks the current app out of full-screen and lets you move left or right to the next or previous app that you currently have open. A quick tap on the app you want to use then maximizes it and your back to business.
A swipe up from the bottom gives you an even higher-level view of your running apps much like hitting the “Home” button on a WebOS device. which you can again zing your way through. Grabbing one and throwing it upward sends it to the garbage collector, or you can tap the tiny X that appears next to its name.
Swiping from the top of the app brings down a context menu, extra controls that let you save files in Word to Go or jump from one album to another in the media player. Swipe in from either top corner of the screen and you get a contextual system menu that displays media controls (if any video or music is playing) the date and time, battery and connectivity indicators, and a gear icon which takes you to the system settings.
Bottom line? It all feels very fluid, very well thought out and we hope this is a harbinger of the future for Blackberry phones as well.
Software
RIM bundled some apps and 2 games (Tertis and NFS) to give you a taste of native apps. Some of the important bundled apps include:
- Browser
- Music Player
- Pictures
- Slacker player
- Video Player
- Youtube Player
- Adobe Reader
- Documents To Go Suite
Browser
This is definitely and thankfully a strong point for the Playbook. I dare say it rivals and or passes the iPad in browsing prowess both in terms of speed and quality of renders. The main goodness is all there: Webkit, Flash 10.1, and even a Private Browsing mode to help with viewing some **ahem** flash sites…..All in all great experience and we were even able to load up LogMeIn on it (although we are hoping for a proper app soon **wink, wink nudge nudge **)
Blackberry Bridge
There has been tons of outcry about the fact that the Playbook has no native email, calendar or address book. Yep, it sucks. Although they have stated they will updating it soon to add them, for now the only way to access any of the above items is to also own a Blackberry phone and use the free Blackberry Bridge software which lets you use the Playbook as a big interface for your phone essentially. The one nice feature is that will also allow you to tether (for free!) your Playbook and gain Internet access when you are away from a traditional WiFi access point (at least until the 3G/4G models launch later this year. So besides the obvious negative of requiring you to use a Blackberry as your phone if you don’t currently use one, we found it to be buggy. Most common issue we ran into was Bridge suddenly not working which required us to restart the phone before it would work again. Not a very convenient way to get access to your data. All in all it’s decent idea that looks like it needs some more work and we really do look forward to native email, calendar, and address book.
Final Thoughts
We are still early in the tablet game so we still see everyone make a rush to grab a piece of the action. With Apple currently controlling nearly the entire tablet market second place is up for grabs and this is a very solid initial play by RIM. With some of the promised updates to add native email, calendar, address book and even Android compatibility there is a strong set of updates coming. RIM will definitely have a leg up on many Android manufacturers as they are like Apple integrated from both a hardware and software standpoint. It will be interesting to see how HP’s WebOS tablet(s) will compare as they will sport a similar interface. At the end of the day developer support will be the kingmaker and we are anxious to see more of what shows up in App World. Bottomline is we really like the Playbook and think it’s a great first entry for RIM.