Beleaguered smartphone manufacturer
Research In Motion has had a rough time lately, but they're still persevering
with the BlackBerry PlayBook, a 7" tablet that was released last year.
Much like the Dell Streak, it's wildly out of date now - but unlike the Dell
Streak, it's also come down in price, with its rather unlikely $815+ RRP
mellowing to a much more affordable $210 as the hardware has aged (a quirk of
the market also means that the 64GB model is available cheaper from PC world than
worse models are available at other retailers.)
BlackBerry PlayBook
Don't mistake any of this for an
endorsement, though. The PlayBook's specs are just as inadequate for modern
purposes as the Streak' s are, with a 1GHz OMAP 4430, 1GB of RAM and a woeful
1024 x 600 resolution screen. Even at the reduced price, we can't help looking
back at the Nexus 7 and seeing what sort of technical improvements can be
garnered for only a few quid more. The only hardware worth mentioning is a
better than average 3MP front facing camera, but even that's not unique to the
device.
Worse still, unlike its similarly aging
competitors, the BlackBerry PlayBook isn't even an Android device. It runs on
the proprietary BlackBerry Tablet OS. Support has been added for Android 2.3
(Gingerbread) apps, but that's the smartphone equivalent of owning a Blu-ray
Player that can play VHS tapes. A fun novelty, but ultimately of little
practical value.
Notably, the BlackBerry PlayBook's OS will
get an update to the long-awaited BlackBerry 10 when it arrives in January
2013, so it does at least have one selling point: it's the cheapest way to get
your hands on a BB10-capable system. The problem is, if you're the kind of
person excited by that, you probably already own one.
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Details
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Screen Size: 7"
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Internet: Wi-Fi + 3G
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Price: 16 GB ($448)
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OS: Android 3.2 (Honeycomb)
·
UK Release Date: April 2011
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Screen Size: 7"
·
Internet: Wi-Fi Only
·
Price: 16 GB ($254)/ 32 GB ($279) / 64 GB
($210)
·
OS: BlackBerry Tablet OS 2.1
·
UK Release Date: July 2011
Verdict
·
Quality: 6
·
Value: 7
·
Overall: 6
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