RIM's 7-inch BlackBerry PlayBook tablet impresses with two HD cameras and Flash 10.1 support
High powered professional take on the sector
Long rumoured, RIM's announcement of its BlackBerry PlayBook professional tablet was nevertheless impressive, not least in terms of its promised technical specifications.
It will be smaller than the Apple iPad with a 7-inch touchscreen, although the resolution of 1024 x 600 pixels is only slightly thinner height wise than iPad's 1024 x 728.
Crucially, it will come with two HD cameras - 3 MP front facing, 5 MP rear facing - and support for 1080p HD video recording and video conferencing. There will be HDMI video output, and support for wi-fi (802.11 a/b/g/n) and Bluetooth (2.1 + EDR).
Connection to cellular networks will be enabled via tethering to your BlackBerry smartphone, and there are plans for 3G and 4G versions in future.
Prepared for heavy liftingPlayBook uses an ARM Cortex A9-based 1 GHz dual core processor with 1 GB of RAM and uses a custom operating system, which RIM calls the BlackBerry Tablet OS. This will support features such as Flash 10.1 browsing, multitasking, business utilities and typically hardcore RIM security.
Indeed, the OS based on the QNX Neutrino microkernel architecture, which is typically used for embedded systems in the automotive, train, plane and medical industries.
RIM says that the OS will enable developers to easily port games and apps written in C or Java. It will further help them with the new BlackBerry WebWorks platform, which will enable cross platform development with the BlackBerry 6 OS, as well as support for Adobe Mobile AIR.
Palm of your handFinally, PlayBook is small and light - 130mm x 193mm x 10mm, and 400g versus iPad's 190mm x 243mm x 13mm, and 680-730g (depending on 3G spec).
Pricing hasn't been confirmed, although RIM says it will be at the lower end of comparable tablets so we're assuming around $500-600.
The US launch will be in early 2011 with international markets following between April - June.
Developers and certain corporate customers will get their hands on early devices in October to start the testing process.
You can find out more information from the official website, or check out the following video.
