The price is right?
You can play games on the PlayBook as well and RIM was keen to stress last week that Angry Birds will be available soon. As for pricing, figures are still unannounced here in Blighty. In the US, it mimics the price of the iPad 2 at $499 for the 16GB version, on that basis, there's a likelihood it will be sell for £399 in the UK.
Bridge workarounds aside, BBM integration is promised and no doubt many will wait until then
RIM has created a blank canvas and equipped it with features needed for work and play, but the BlackBerry PlayBook isn’t perfect, though. Its main fault, the lack of native e-mail and BBM clients, will be rectified soon and it would get a higher score if this situation didn't have a feeling of work in progress. And some will want to wait until there’s the version with 3G. But the hardware is exceptional: fast, well-equipped and pleasant in the hand.
Verdict
The operating system is deeply attractive and easy to use – arguably better than Android though in need of more apps, of course. RIM’s main customers are business users and some may find it too frivolous to be worthwhile. But if you want a tablet that offers strong leisure features like games, browsing and video playback plus uncompromising security, the PlayBook suggests that the future of tablet computing may not be limited to a two-horse race after all. ®
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RIM BlackBerry PlayBook 7in tablet
COMMENTS
It's half finished, but might be good one day. But gets a good score?!
How can a tablet possibly justify a 75% rating, when it doesn't offer much in the way of apps and there's no native email even?
Are you going to start reviewing all products based on what they might do one day? Give buggy, unplayable games top ratings because the developers say there will be a patch in a few months?
Also, RIM's excuse for the lack of email: It's a small device and you might lose it on the train, which is a security risk. Okay, so the solution to that is to keep your email on a smaller, and even more easily lost phone. But it'll be available on the tablet soon, somehow magically fixing the problem that made it impossible at launch. This is pure bullshit if ever I heard it, it's not security related, it just wasn't finished in time.
Sure, but its good to have the option
You can use the desktop management software to handle full syncing if you like.
But the easy and fast drag-and-drop is perfect for getting a photo you've just taken off, or loading in a video before you go catch a train etc. Having the flexibility to do either is very handy
@Jemma, do TRY to do your homework
""RIM has no native email" - um excuse me, what 'native email' does iOS for TechMuppets have - Gmail - thats not a native application. iOS proper has no native email either, just varying clients."
Completely wrong. iOS has one email client that knows how to connect to different types of email servers (GMail, MS Exchange, Mobile Me, IMAP and POP3) just like, say, outlook on your desktop. The playbook doesn't know how to connect to any of these. The ONLY thing a Playbook can do is tether to a BB.
Call me when...
...they release a COMPLETE version with integrated email, contacts and security to a BES server.
Until then, it would be as unused as my ex-wifes phone number.
Re: Well, I'm sure...
"...that'll succeed as awesomely as the Palm Foleo did"
Guffaw, eh? Except that the Foleo was never released, and then the netbook surge happened despite idiot pundits claiming that nobody wanted anything less than a full-fat 10kg "runs Office on Windows" mega-laptop.
The only lesson is this: listen to common sense, not to pundits. Oh, and when learning from history, make sure you actually get the history and not someone's "did you hear...?" fiction.
