Blackberry playbook when does it come out

Arguably the first tablet aimed towards the business user, the PlayBook will be available at a plethora of locations the Carphone Warehouse, Best Buy, Phones4u, Currys and PC World rather than going down the exclusivity route. However, as ever, the UK had to wait to get the tablet for longer than its friends the other side of the Atlantic.

It has faced issues already though, with RIM having to recall 1, of the devices from Staples that had been shipped with a faulty operating system. Explore why the most efficient way forward is data-driven. Critical vulnerabilities in Philips EMR system could risk patient data.

You can also read Richi's full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations. Here are the latest Insider stories. More Insider Sign Out. Sign In Register. Sign Out Sign In Register. Latest Insider. Check out the latest Insider stories here. Everything works about this design… except for the power button, which is not only tiny, but nearly impossible to casually press. In all, however, the PlayBook look and feel more than holds it own against competitors like the iPad 2 or Xoom.

While not nearly as thin as the former, and not as big and robust as the latter, the combination of materials, shape, and general layout make the slate a highly desirable object for geeks and non-geeks alike. It might come as a minor shock to some that RIM has actually outfitted the PlayBook with a relatively hardcore set of specs.

Given recent additions to its family like the woefully underpowered Torch, this was a pleasant surprise. As you would expect you get a typical compliment of radios, including WiFi The display of the device is a gorgeous x capacitive touchscreen which sports brilliant, bright colors and deep, dark black ranges.

Users with bad vision might have some difficulty with some of the more diminutive text on the display, but I prefer a daintier font. Touch sensitivity was excellent in most cases, though the rhythm of the new QNX-based OS seems to be tuned to a more casual experience, making things feel a little more sluggish than I suspect they actually are more on this in the software section.

External audio on the PlayBook was something of a revelation. Since RIM provides not one but two speakers, you get full stereo when using the device in landscape mode the preferred orientation for this OS. I was stunned by how good the device sounded when playing back music or watching video. I was also pleased to discover that the device not only sports stereo playback, but has two microphones, allowing for some interesting audio recording options. When it comes to sound quality, the PlayBook blows away the near competition of the iPad 2 and Xoom — it sounds far better.

Apps open quickly, and switching between the truly active programs is instantaneous. The cameras have little lag when snapping photos, and p video playback worked without incident. Overall, RIM has done a fantastic job on the hardware front. The device feels snappy and well put together, the screen looks terrific, and the sound is best-in-class. The battery life on the PlayBook is outstanding. In my testing, which ran a video on loop with the display set to 65 percent brightness, WiFi on, the battery lasted nearly 11 hours — an outstanding run for a device of this type.

In general use, I found the PlayBook to be comparable in battery performance to its closest competitors the iPad 2 and Xoom ; it actually bests the iPad in video playback, and that number would only climb higher if you were to tweak the brightness further and kill WiFi. The PlayBook sports two shooters — a front-facing 3 megapixel camera, and a rear cam that has a 5 megapixel sensor. Both cameras are fixed focus, which was an immediate disappointment for me.

This is the first tablet besides perhaps the Galaxy Tab which feels like you might be able to get away with using it as a camera or video camera — but the lack of focus makes taking really great shots nearly impossible. On the back camera, the general clarity and color reproduction was excellent, and snapping photos in bright rooms or daylight was a cinch. When it came to lower-light settings, however, I felt like there was a substantial amount of visual noise — enough to make me want to avoid those situations.

Overall, expect the quality of a decent smartphone shooter; not amazing, but not terrible and far superior to something like the iPad 2 , though hampered by the lack of auto-focus and flash. RIM says it will offer a video call app post-launch as part of an OTA software update, and the company has expectations that third-parties will deliver some options as well. That is to say, much here feels unfinished.

While the PlayBook is meaningful from a hardware perspective, what really matters here is the brand new OS Research In Motion is introducing. Not only is the underlying architecture new, but the user interface has been rebuilt as well, and now features at least a few flourishes from the recently acquired TAT. Along the top of the screen is a status bar with the time and date, orientation lock, Bluetooth control, WiFi indicator, battery indicator, and settings icon.

Below this is a space for your applications when running — applications exist in a "card" view which can be navigated left to right, like Cover Flow.