The RIM PlayBook. Photo: AFP
Devices running Microsoft's Windows haven't found much interest. Nor, surprisingly, have gadgets running Google's Android software, even though that operating system now leads the smartphone market.
Now BlackBerry maker Research In Motion is throwing its hat in the ring in the form of an 18cm tablet called the PlayBook.
The PlayBook represents a major departure for RIM. The device is one of the first produced by the company that's not a handset. What's more, the PlayBook's user interface and operating system are completely different from those running on its BlackBerrys.
These changes are largely positive ones. The BlackBerry operating system feels like yesteryear's technology compared with Android and Apple's iOS. It was designed for devices with keyboards running text-centric applications such as email and messaging, not for touch-screen devices running video or the multimedia apps that many consumers use on smartphones these days.
In contrast, the PlayBook operating system feels much sleeker. It's made for a touch-screen device, allowing users to easily scroll web pages, launch apps and switch between applications with the swipe of a finger.
The PlayBook's flat, rectangular shape and plastic back won't win any design awards. But the design is utilitarian, slender and largely functional, making the device much more compelling than most recent BlackBerrys. However, its power button is so tiny it's hard to depress with normal-size fingers.
The PlayBook has a beautiful, high-resolution screen that contains almost as many pixels as the iPad's, even though it's more than 5cm shorter on the diagonal. Videos look great on it.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs has argued that a 17cm screen is ill suited for tablets. After using the iPad and contrasting it with 17cm devices such as Samsung's Galaxy Tab, I tended to agree with him.
But the PlayBook has made me reconsider. It's easier to carry around than the iPad. And thanks to its wide-screen format, the Playbook's display has more than enough room when held in landscape mode to display two pages of an e-book or to display the list of messages from your inbox and an individual message at the same time.
Web surfing though, isn't as pleasurable. I frequently had to zoom in on the text of the pages for words to be legible, something I haven't had to do on the larger iPad screen.
One thing I loved about the PlayBook was how it switches between applications. If you swipe up from the area below its screen, your current application will shrink to something like a thumbnail and will appear beside thumbnails of other open applications. To change apps, you simply swipe left or right to the one you want and tap on it. To close apps, you can flick them off screen or tap a small x.
But for all its strengths, the PlayBook has some significant drawbacks and feels like a product that was rushed to market.
Most notably, the device doesn't have built-in email, calendar or address book applications. To access such features, users either have to go through a web browser or beam the applications over to the PlayBook from a BlackBerry device using software called BlackBerry Bridge.
The BlackBerry Bridge software allows users to access email and check their calendars as if those applications were running on the PlayBook itself. But because the Bridge software requires the PlayBook and BlackBerry to connect over Bluetooth, it can drain the battery life of both devices. And if you don't have a BlackBerry, you're out of luck.
The PlayBook has other shortcomings. There are few apps available for it, including many of the most popular ones.
The only version of the PlayBook now available is one running wi-fi. You can't yet get one with a built-in 3G or 4G antenna. So if you want to access the internet outside of a hotspot, you have to tether it to a BlackBerry using the Bridge software.
Also, there's no "universal search" feature on the device, so finding a particular app or file can involve a lot of scrolling through lists of them.
RIM has said it plans to address many of these issues. PlayBooks with 3G and 4G antennas are in the works and the company plans to add native calendar and email apps in an upcoming - but as yet unscheduled - software update. Meanwhile, the company plans on supporting a wide range of software, from apps developed for Android to those developed for older BlackBerry devices, in an effort to boost the number of apps the PlayBook can run.
Those fixes will help make the PlayBook a more worthy challenger to the iPad. But without them, it's not in the same ring.
PLAYBOOK TABLET FACTS:
LIKES: Beautiful high-resolution screen, sleek user interface, compact size.
DISLIKES: Pricey for its size; lacks native email, calendar and address book applications; Bridge software providing such apps only works on BlackBerrys; overall few available apps; tiny power button.
SPECS: 1GHz dual-core processor; 7-inch (17cm), 1024 x 600 pixel screen; 3-megapixel front facing and 5-megapixel rear-facing cameras.
PRICE: $579 for 16-gigabyte model, $689 for 32-gigabyte model and $799 for 64-gigabyte model. Available now.
MCT
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/executive-style/gadgets/playbook-has-shortcomings-20110728-1i1io.html#ixzz1TNGpMjSW
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