Review: BlackBerry PlayBook

BlackBerry PlayBook: Business Toy

The PlayBook is a powerful BlackBerry tablet with an highly intuitive and innovative user interface. The operating system is based on software that is used for many years so you always can count on your PlayBook. This system requires relatively little of the hardware, so the fast dual core processor can fully focus on whatever you ask of it. Not only watching full-HD movies or playing games is amazing beautiful to watch, also editing documents or spreadsheets is a delight to do. Link your PlayBook easily to your BlackBerry phone via Bluetooth, they will syncs seamlessly without compromising security. Additionally, the tablet is also fully compatible with the BlackBerry Enterprise Server which is easy to implement for many companies with existing business environments.

A Bridge between your phone and tablet

If you also own a BlackBerry phone, it  is even possible to use the extra features of the tablet. The PlayBook syncs via Bluetooth with your phone, that means you have direct access to the calendar, mail and the famous BlackBerry Messaging (BBM), so you can ping as well.  It is good have all this information at your disposal, but if you do not want it, you can discontinue it all with one push of a button. All the sensitive data on your phone will immediately become inaccessible and therefore  you feel confident to show the PlayBook to your friends.  Besides, the connection also ensures that you can use your phone's Internet connection to surf on your tablet. Naturally, the PlayBook supports Wi-Fi.

QNX: Fast, Innovative and Reliable OS

BlackBerry has a reputation to keep up on various fronts, and thanks to the innovative operating system, they manage to proof it quite well. The QNX system is already 30 years in constant reliability and speed development for areas where mistakes cost lives. BlackBerry has perfected the QNX system for use on tablets. The multi-tasking puts the PlayBook to another level as it is even possible to live switching between different tasks. Your Full-HD movie remains to be seen, as you navigate to a game or an Excel document. The browser is very complete with full Flash and HTML 5 support, like you are surfing on your PC. The dual camera set-up is also a piece of cake for video conferencing with your friends or business associates.

Web Browser

The QNX-based browser of the PlayBook is one of the best currently on the market. The browser is full of features and an intuitive interface. The rendering is pretty fast and the gesture functionality from the edges work amazingly good. It also supports lots of pages, including pages that use flash and html5. The Flash performance of the PlayBook is incredible. The Flash implementation is the best on a tablet or smartphone so far encountered. The PlayBook is using a webkit which is hardly distinguished from the iPad. Online videos, games and advertising are working effortlessly.

Dreamweaver Extensions

We have tested the following extensions and observed an extended usability!:

• DMXzone Google Maps
  
• Google Maps Directions Add-on
  
• Ajax AutoComplete
  
• CSS Image Gallery
  
• Folder View 2
  
• HTML5 Slideshow
  
• HTML5 MP3 Player
  
• HTML5 Video Player
  
• Sliding Menu
  
• DMXzone Nivo Slider
  
• Sliding Panels
  
• Advanced CSS Animator
  

The Google Maps Directions Add-on demo works amazingly good. You can allow it to use your location (above) or insert it by hand (below) with Ajax AutoComplete. enabling quick search and selection.

And the quick result is amazing visually detailed.

http://www.dmxzone.com/demo/dmxGoogleMapsDemos/directionsAddOn/attractions.html

Here you can see the CSS Image Gallery in action!

http://www.dmxzone.com/demo/php/cssimggal/css_gallery_architecture/index.php

In this demo we used the HTML MP3 Player to accompany the sliding images in the HTML5 Slideshow, which change with random effects.

http://www.dmxzone.com/demo/html5slideshow/mp3PlayerSlideshow/index.htm

Here you can see how well DMXzone Nivo Slider runs on the PlayBook.

http://www.dmxzone.com/demo/dmxzoneNivoSlider/rDemo/index.html

Conclusions

The construction of the PlayBook is excellent, gesture controlling on the edges is a handy invention. The tablet is having an ideal size, is not too heavy, and has a beautiful screen and interface. QNX is a big hit and seems to have an enormous potential. It feels fast and multitasking works very well. To conclude, it is a great tablet for business use, with the fun factor of an iPad and the possibilities of an Android Device.

What's in the Box

• BlackBerry Playbook
• Neoprene Sleeve
  
• Poloshing Cloth
  
• Charger
• MicroUSB- datacable

Size and Weight

• Height: 130mm
• Width: 194mm
• Depth: 10mm
• Weight: 425 grams

Display

• TFT 16M Colors
• 600x1024px, 7"
• Capacitive touchschreen
• Multi-touch input method
• Accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate
  

Camera & Video

• Primary: 5 MP, 2592x1944px, autofocus
  
• Secondary: 3MP
• Video recording: 1080p

Features

• Micro HDMI port
• Battery: Li-Po 5300 mAh
• Document viewer
  
• Media player MP3/WMA/AAC+
  
• Video player DivX/WMV/XviD/3gp
  
• Organizer
  
• Adobe Flash 10.1 support
  
• Predictive text input