Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 vs Blackberry PlayBook
Samsung is to launch a new tablet named Galaxy Tab 7.7 at the IFA in Berlin on 1st September. Unlike the Galaxy Tab 10.1, which has a patent issue with Apple iPad 2, Tab 7.7 is a 7 inch tablet and is reported to feature an improved super AMOLED HD display. It will run Android 3.1 Honeycomb. And we can hope for a dual core processor too
Blackberry PlayBook
Blackberry PlayBook is a tablet by Research in Motion; the famous Blackberry company. The device was released to the consumer market during the first quarter of 2011. In contrary to the flood of Android tablets in the market, Blackberry PlayBook offers a different flavor. The operating system in PlayBook is QNX. QNX is an embedded system based operating system used even in fighter jets. Blackberry PlayBook is a 7 inch tablet, which is reportedly lighter than iPad 2. With a 3 mega pixel front facing camera and a 5 mega pixel rear facing camera Blackberry PlayBook is satisfactory for taking photographs, as well as video conferencing. The camera application allows switching between video mode and picture mode. The Blackberry PlayBook has a multi touch screen with 1024 x 600 resolution.
Blackberry PlayBook has a dual core 1 GHz processor with 1 GB memory and internal storage is available in 16 GB, 32 GB and 64 GB. Research In Motion has introduced an array of accessories for the tablet as well. A number of cases are available for RIM to protect Blackberry PlayBook in style. A convertible case is also available, which can be doubled as a stand as well. BlackBerry rapid charging Pod, Blackberry rapid Travel charger, and Blackberry Premium charger are the other set of accessories available, and sold separately for BlackBerry PlayBook.
Switching between applications is quite easy in BlackBerry PlayBook. This is done by simply swiping inwards from left or right side of the screen. A tap maximizes the application and throwing it up will cause the application to shut down. The responsiveness of the operating system is also much commended. Blackberry QNX facilitates a multi-touch screen which recognizes many interesting gestures any tablet user will love. The operating system supports gestures such as swipe, pinch, drag and many variants of them. If a user swipe from the bottom of the screen to the middle it will be possible to see the home screen. If a user swipe left or right while viewing an application it’s possible to switch between applications. A virtual keyboard is available for text input, however finding special characters and punctuation needs some efforts. Precision is also another factor where the keyboard can improve.
BlackBerry PlayBook comes with many necessary applications pre-installed. A customized Adobe PDF reader is available, which reportedly has quality performance. Therefore, it is no surprise that PlayBook comes with a complete suite capable of handling documents, spreadsheets and slide presentations. Using Word to Go and Sheet To Go applications users can create word documents and spread sheets. However, slide presentation will not be possible to create while excellent view functionality is provided.
“Blackberry Bridge” allows the Tablet to be connected with blackberry phone with Blackberry OS 5 or above. However, the performance of this application is below expectations. The calendar application will unlock only if it’s used with a Blackberry smart phone.
Users can download more applications from “App World”, where applications for BlackBerry PlayBook are available. However, comparing with its competitors, App World needs to come up with more applications for the platform.
The email client available with BlackBerry PlayBook is called “Messages”, which is quite misleading to SMS messaging. Basic functionality such as searching email, selecting multiple messages and message tagging is available in the installed client.
The browser of BlackBerry PlayBook is much raved for its performance. The pages reportedly load fast and users are able to navigate even before the entire page is loaded which is really a neat functionality. The browser boasts Flash Player 10.1 support, and heavy flash sites are loaded with smoothness. Zooming is also reportedly very smooth.
The native music application available with BlackBerry PlayBook categorizes music by song, artist, album and genre. It is a generic music application which allows minimizing if the user needs to access another application. The video application allows users to access all their downloaded and recorded videos in one place. An option to upload videos from the device is not available. Quality of recorded video is acceptable.
In Conclusion, BlackBerry PlayBook will be a good tablet device for the enterprise market. Though, names with the “Play” moniker, BlackBerry PlayBook is perhaps more suitable for more business minded users.