3.24.2011

BlackBerry PlayBook Price & Release Date: Messaging Strength

Many Tablet PCs are being released and the BlackBerry PlayBook is one of them, RIM has now stamped a price and release date to it. How well will it do against the likes of the HTC Flyer, iPad 2 or even the Motorola Xoom?

The BlackBerry PlayBook will release April 19 starting from $499 for the 16GB Wi-Fi model, the 32GB version will be $599 and the 64GB Wi-Fi version will cost you $699. We must remind you that the LTE and HSPA+ versions will be coming soon as well but no price or release dates for these versions have been announced as of yet.

So why should we buy the BlackBerry PlayBook? You do not have to but here are a few specs to see if it is the tablet for you, it features a 7-inch WSVGA capacitive touchscreen with 1024×600 pixels resolution, 1GB of RAM, 1GHz dual-core processor, 64GB of internal memory, six-axis motion sensor, GPS accelerometer, digital compass, plus a 5-megapixel camera on the back and a front-facing 3-megapixel camera, 1080p high-definition video capture and HDMI out port.

The BlackBerry PlayBook is all about messaging and has been designed to give you secure access when linking your BlackBerry smartphone to it, contacts and communications can be handled by PlayBook users smartphones. In a nutshell all personal data can stay on BlackBerry handsets and will not be under threat when synchronised to the Playbook.

Other BlackBerry PlayBook Features: Bluetooth 2.1+ EDR, BlackBerry browser, apps, 130x194mm, Windows Media Audio, MP3, H.264, Mpeg4, AAC and WMV video, multi-tasking, stereo speakers and so much more.

There is no news on UK price and release dates as of yet but we will keep you informed, main competitors will be the iPad 2, Motorola Xoom and HTC Flyer, more competition will come as the year goes on. We will not go into things such as iPad 2 versus BlackBerry PlayBook and all that at the moment as that can get a little too boring even though we will probably bring you comparisons sooner or later, we have to it is what we do.

As a reminder Sprint now has the BlackBerry PlayBook on its website, read more about that via our previous article, you can pre-order the PlayBook via Best Buy now.

Source – PC World