While the touchscreen interface on most tablets extends only to the edge of the screen, the BlackBerry Playbook’s touch features extend right across the bezel in all directions to the edge of the device.
The Playbook packs two cameras – a 3MP front-facing camera and a 5MP rear-facing one. Both produced surprisingly decent images. The screen itself is super sharp. It’s sharp and crisp, and HD video looks fabulous.
Talking of video, the Blackberry Playbook can play Full HD 1080p videos without breaking a sweat. In the video menu you’ll be able to see both clips’ thumbnails playing side-by-side. There’s no lag, there’s no brief pause.
The "Blackberry PlayBook" also distinguishes itself from other tablets with its size, featuring a 7-inch screen (1,024x600) that falls right between the iPad's 9.7-inch screen and the 5-inch screen of the Dell Streak. In all, the PlayBook's dimensions measure 5.1 inches tall, 7.6 inches wide, and 0.4 inch thick, weighing just under a pound.
On the software end, the PlayBook runs an OS designed from the ground up by BlackBerry, which is compatible with a number of BlackBerry services and apps. The BlackBerry tablet OS also supports Adobe Flash 10.1, WebKit, Java, Open GL, and Adobe Air. Existing BlackBerry users can pair with the PlayBook over Bluetooth to provide them with a secure gateway to connect with their BlackBerry e-mail, contacts, calendar, and tasks. Other features, such as multitasking, HD video playback, HDMI output, and HD video recording, are also well known battery-life killers.
Overall, after having used the BlackBerry PlayBook I'm wayyy more excited for it than I was prior. I now think going 7" was a smart starting point for RIM though - the PlayBook is portable.
Processors / Performance - The BlackBerry PlayBook is seriously snappy, thanks to its dual core processor, and seems to be very stable, thanks to its QNX OS. I have a lot of faith RIM will be able to deliver a super polished user experience with the PlayBook and new OS. Touchscreen Display - The 1024 x 600 display looks really great. Super smooth, super fast. Would a bigger display/device be better? Can you use the BlackBerry in portrait mode? Keyboard - There's no physical keyboard on the PlayBook (I wonder if RIM will ever make a tablet with a sliding form factor and physical keyboard?! :)) but the few seconds I spent typing on the software keyboard went pretty smooth.