Engadget BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet Preview

[zerocool84]

If you can't tell, we're very impressed. Overall the device is blazingly fast, comfortable to hold, and intuitive to use. Our largest concern is the apps: RIM has a bead on easily ported Adobe Air apps, but as Android has so ably demonstrated, the native SDK is very important for gaming, and we don't know much about RIM's skills there just yet -- though we were assured that QNX is a very easy platform to develop for, one of the reasons RIM itself has been able to turn around this project in such a short time, with the promise of rapid updates in the future as well. If RIM can find an aggressive price, a nice market lull to launch in (before the Xoom and perhaps an iPad 2 launch and grab all the limelight), and smattering of fairy dust, we could be looking at a pretty successful product here.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/06/blackberry-playbook-preview/

 

[DivideBYZero]

Great video from that preview showing Quake 3, 1080p video, the music player and a photo slideshow all working at the same time. Very impressive.

http://www.viddler.com/simple/3a820f38/

 

[drbrock]

I am BB fan, and I hope this thing actually works out. It sounds like they got the palm os to work well in tablet form. I hope they can bring this onto a phone device and also get long battery life. This would save me from going to android next year.

I think it needs to last 8-10 hours as opposed to the 3-4 as reports are suggesting.

 

[TheStu]

The crazy things they can do are both crazy and impressive. I am wary of the following though;
1: One screenshot shows 93% battery with just under 5 hours remaining, not good.
2: You need to tether your BB phone to get email or calendars. There is no app to get IMAP or Push gmail?
3: Still haven't seen any word on price.
4 (maybe): I didn't notice a release date, but maybe I missed it as well.

 

[MrX8503]

I'm gonna wait until Anand reviews it and does some battery test runs on it. From past battery life claims from manufacturers, you'd most likely get half of what they claim.

If the playbook gets decent battery life and isn't too expensive, I think it could be an excellent tablet.

 

[Deeko]

I registered as an App World last night...the promotion they're running is awesome. Get something approved for the PlayBook market before its released, and you get a free PlayBook.

I still can't bring myself to buy one of these, but the PlayBook does seem to be my front runner so far, and if its free...

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

Is not having email or a calendar on the device a big deal for you guys?

 

[drbrock]

I think it is a big deal since the ipad has it. BB is typically for business users that would need email more than most. For me to buy the playbook without email it would have to cost 299.

How hard is it to make an app for the playbook? I will put some work into it to get one for free.

 

[Deeko]

I think it is a big deal since the ipad has it. BB is typically for business users that would need email more than most. For me to buy the playbook without email it would have to cost 299.

How hard is it to make an app for the playbook? I will put some work into it to get one for free.

I feel like they'll have that for release...we'll see.

App development for PlayBook is done with Adobe Air. I've never used it, but supposedly, its pretty straightforward.

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

i still see unresponsive touch screen, streaks/vertical bands on the screen, choppy animation during transitions.
but of course, much better than any of their OS5/6 devices, it's still a pre-prod model.

the browser looks to be improved a great deal, and pinch to zoom is surprisingly smooth.

 

[DivideBYZero]

i still see unresponsive touch screen, streaks/vertical bands on the screen, choppy animation during transitions.
but of course, much better than any of their OS5/6 devices, it's still a pre-prod model.

the browser looks to be improved a great deal, and pinch to zoom is surprisingly smooth.

OMG lol are you kidding me? :biggrin: Some people yearn to hate...

Maybe the choppy animation was during running an OpenGL game, 1080p video and two other apps at the same time... I'd like to see ANY current or future tablet do that, and the PB is doing it right now. :whiste:

As for the streaks and bands I think you're just making that isht up.

 

[DivideBYZero]

I think it is a big deal since the ipad has it. BB is typically for business users that would need email more than most. For me to buy the playbook without email it would have to cost 299.

How hard is it to make an app for the playbook? I will put some work into it to get one for free.

If you know Action Script then you're Golden.

 

[DivideBYZero]

I think it is a big deal since the ipad has it. BB is typically for business users that would need email more than most. For me to buy the playbook without email it would have to cost 299.

How hard is it to make an app for the playbook? I will put some work into it to get one for free.

It has Mail apps, and they are targetted directly at the corporate BlackBerry owner as when Sync'd you get an amplified version of your Blackberry on the PlayBook, Mail, BBM, Calendar etc.

As for the home user the desktop fidelity browser means that all cloud mail services are available. For example, I don't use a mail client on my Netbook right now, I just use gmail. I would do the same on ANY tablet, not just the playbook. In fact even my coporate email is acessable from the web, I don't even need to use outlook for that, so IMHO the strategy is ideal.

 

[DivideBYZero]

Great video of the PlayBook hooking up to a BlackBerry AND using HDMI out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRjBAyPN2tA&feature=channel

 

[TheStu]

It has Mail apps, and they are targetted directly at the corporate BlackBerry owner as when Sync'd you get an amplified version of your Blackberry on the PlayBook, Mail, BBM, Calendar etc.

As for the home user the desktop fidelity browser means that all cloud mail services are available. For example, I don't use a mail client on my Netbook right now, I just use gmail. I would do the same on ANY tablet, not just the playbook. In fact even my coporate email is acessable from the web, I don't even need to use outlook for that, so IMHO the strategy is ideal.

If I were to use a PlayBook, and setup Gmail as an icon on the 'home screen' (or whatever they are using), would that support notifications and Push? Or would I have to open up gmail in the browser every time I wanted to check my email?

Would I have to open up google calendar every time I want to see when my next thing is?

The fact that you can leave things open in the backgound is great, but will gmail in the browser tell me, when I am watching a video or doing whatever, that I have a new email, or that I have a dentist's appointment in an hour?

 

[DivideBYZero]

If I were to use a PlayBook, and setup Gmail as an icon on the 'home screen' (or whatever they are using), would that support notifications and Push? Or would I have to open up gmail in the browser every time I wanted to check my email?

Would I have to open up google calendar every time I want to see when my next thing is?

The fact that you can leave things open in the backgound is great, but will gmail in the browser tell me, when I am watching a video or doing whatever, that I have a new email, or that I have a dentist's appointment in an hour?

Meh, get the google apps for that.

 

[TheStu]

Meh, get the google apps for that.

Fair enough, and I would imagine that someone will have an app pretty early on for those sorts of things.

Now, BB just needs to get this stuff onto their phones.

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

OMG lol are you kidding me? :biggrin: Some people yearn to hate...

Maybe the choppy animation was during running an OpenGL game, 1080p video and two other apps at the same time... I'd like to see ANY current or future tablet do that, and the PB is doing it right now. :whiste:

As for the streaks and bands I think you're just making that isht up.

1:56 in the video.

 

[zerocool84]

Geez, I just woulda thought everyone would be saying this is a great step in the right direction for RIM.

 

[Deeko]

Geez, I just woulda thought everyone would be saying this is a great step in the right direction for RIM.

Various people have some sort of a vendetta against BB for some odd reason.

 

[tokie]

Great video of the PlayBook hooking up to a BlackBerry AND using HDMI out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRjBAyPN2tA&feature=channel

Interesting. Looks very good actually.

I'm going back and forth between whether the PlayBook or Honeycomb looks better. The Honeycomb UI is decent, but I'm worried about the physical hardware itself since it isn't a single product. The PlayBook on the other hand would be fully optimized for one piece of hardware, and it would likely deliver a tighter experience because of that optimization.

The other curve ball coming in is the WebOS tablet which will be announced next month.

 

[MrX8503]

Geez, I just woulda thought everyone would be saying this is a great step in the right direction for RIM.

I'm not a fan of RIM phones, but if I were to buy a tablet today, so far it would be a Playbook. I say that only because so far its the only tablet to display a very good web browsing experience.

 

[gsaldivar]

if I were to buy a tablet today, so far it would be a Playbook

You didn't quite think this through...

 

[MrX8503]

You didn't quite think this through...

I'm saying based on what has been shown thus far and so far only the Playbook has displayed near desktop like browsing. I haven't seen this in Honeycomb.

 

[sciwizam]

Just heard on Leo Laporte's radio show, a RIM person mentioned that the dual core processor is a TI OMAP.