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RIM execs are still being cagey about exactly when the BlackBerry PlayBook will arrive—or how much it will cost, for that matter—but at least they let me give their upcoming tablet a brief test drive here in Las Vegas, on the eve of CES.
Boasting dual cameras and a 1GHz dual-core Cortex A9 processor, and due to arrive in the first quarter of the year (for a "competitive" price, I'm told), the seven-inch PlayBook (which was first announced last September) felt relatively peppy and responsive, even given the somewhat rough-and-ready software build upon which it was running.
Physically speaking, the 0.9-pound PlayBook felt a bit heavy in my hands, as did the similarly sized, one-poundish Samsung Galaxy Tab. Then again, the PlayBook is still a half-pound ligher than the 9.7-inch iPad, and it's much easier to grip. Tapping out messages on the virtual QWERTY keypad was a bit tricky, especially given that error correction had yet to be installed in the early test unit that was on hand.
As with the Apple iPad or the recent Samsung Galaxy Tab, the PlayBook greets you with a familiar icon-driven main menu, with a small power button and play/pause and volume controls sitting along the top edge of the slate. To wake the PlayBook, just press the power button, make a two-inch swipe on the sleeping display.
OK, but where's the Home key? Well, there isn't one. Instead, you just flick upwards from the bottom of the 1024-by-600 display to reveal the PlayBook's app switcher, then flick from the left or right edge of the screen to switch from one app to another. Want to quit an app? Just flick up on the icon from within the switcher to make it disappear.
If this sounds familiar, perhaps you're thinking of the innovative card-based application handler in WebOS, which works in much the same way. (RIM reps denied that WebOS served as an inspiration for the PlayBook's new app switcher.)
Another cool UI feature is the ability to call up additional menu functions in an app by swiping down from the top of the screen, a handy replacement for the dedicated "menu" button on Android smartphones.
What's the trick behind all the screen swiping? Apparently, the PlayBook's touch-sensitive area extends a few millimeters beyond the display and into the front bezel. Nice—and again, very WebOS-like.
I also got a quick demo of the PlayBook's Flash capabilities, and yes, you can play YouTube videos on a Web relatively smoothly, even when the browser window is minimized in the tablet's app switcher. OK, but how about playback of, say, 1080p Flash video? Good question, said the RIM execs I spoke with, who promised to look into it. (Granted, there's not much point in viewing a 1080p video on a seven-inch display, but hey—no harm in asking.)
Another impressive display of the PlayBook's processing chops was a rough port of nothing less than Quake III, which someone had cobbled together for demo purposes. Indeed, Quake III on the PlayBook looked pretty much like the game I've often played on a PC—smooth and speedy, although fragging opponents with the virtual joysticks was a bit of a drag. Still ... nice.
And what of all the controversy surrounding the PlayBook's battery life—or alleged lack thereof? "Completely absurd," I'm told, with RIM reps noting that power management will be among the last of the features built into the PlayBook's software.
While early PlayBook builds are, indeed, getting only a few hours of juice out of their batteries, a full eight hours of "usable" battery life is the "absolutely attainable" goal. Whether RIM engineers actually hit their eight-hour target, however, remains to be seen.
Boasting dual cameras and a 1GHz dual-core Cortex A9 processor, and due to arrive in the first quarter of the year (for a "competitive" price, I'm told), the seven-inch PlayBook (which was first announced last September) felt relatively peppy and responsive, even given the somewhat rough-and-ready software build upon which it was running.
Physically speaking, the 0.9-pound PlayBook felt a bit heavy in my hands, as did the similarly sized, one-poundish Samsung Galaxy Tab. Then again, the PlayBook is still a half-pound ligher than the 9.7-inch iPad, and it's much easier to grip. Tapping out messages on the virtual QWERTY keypad was a bit tricky, especially given that error correction had yet to be installed in the early test unit that was on hand.
As with the Apple iPad or the recent Samsung Galaxy Tab, the PlayBook greets you with a familiar icon-driven main menu, with a small power button and play/pause and volume controls sitting along the top edge of the slate. To wake the PlayBook, just press the power button, make a two-inch swipe on the sleeping display.
OK, but where's the Home key? Well, there isn't one. Instead, you just flick upwards from the bottom of the 1024-by-600 display to reveal the PlayBook's app switcher, then flick from the left or right edge of the screen to switch from one app to another. Want to quit an app? Just flick up on the icon from within the switcher to make it disappear.
If this sounds familiar, perhaps you're thinking of the innovative card-based application handler in WebOS, which works in much the same way. (RIM reps denied that WebOS served as an inspiration for the PlayBook's new app switcher.)
Another cool UI feature is the ability to call up additional menu functions in an app by swiping down from the top of the screen, a handy replacement for the dedicated "menu" button on Android smartphones.
What's the trick behind all the screen swiping? Apparently, the PlayBook's touch-sensitive area extends a few millimeters beyond the display and into the front bezel. Nice—and again, very WebOS-like.
I also got a quick demo of the PlayBook's Flash capabilities, and yes, you can play YouTube videos on a Web relatively smoothly, even when the browser window is minimized in the tablet's app switcher. OK, but how about playback of, say, 1080p Flash video? Good question, said the RIM execs I spoke with, who promised to look into it. (Granted, there's not much point in viewing a 1080p video on a seven-inch display, but hey—no harm in asking.)
Another impressive display of the PlayBook's processing chops was a rough port of nothing less than Quake III, which someone had cobbled together for demo purposes. Indeed, Quake III on the PlayBook looked pretty much like the game I've often played on a PC—smooth and speedy, although fragging opponents with the virtual joysticks was a bit of a drag. Still ... nice.
And what of all the controversy surrounding the PlayBook's battery life—or alleged lack thereof? "Completely absurd," I'm told, with RIM reps noting that power management will be among the last of the features built into the PlayBook's software.
While early PlayBook builds are, indeed, getting only a few hours of juice out of their batteries, a full eight hours of "usable" battery life is the "absolutely attainable" goal. Whether RIM engineers actually hit their eight-hour target, however, remains to be seen.
