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Bluetooth connectivity. Now comes the interface, which according to us is one of the most fluid interface that we have seen on a tab. The bezel around the screen is touch sensitive and you just need to swipe up and down to navigate through the homescreen and menu. The Bluetooth, WiFi and settings menu is given on the top right of the landscape screen. It comes with true multitasking capability. In the minimized mode, the running apps are displayed as small tabs that can be accessed with one touch and will start from where you left it. The 1 GHz dual core processor of the tablet makes it’s performance pretty fast and snappy and we didn’t see any lags despite running multiple apps together. The Playbook OS is powered by the QNX and while the first attempt seems to be quite promising. However, it still has a long way before it can become
fully functional. For instance there is no built in application for configuring Email. It comes with links to Yahoo! Mail, Gmail and HotMail but they all open in the browser. A Facebook application comes pre loaded on the phone for social networking. The Playbook comes with the App World that has a number of games and apps that one can download and use. It has gyroscope and accelerometer that can also be used to play games. The Playbook also comes with Documents to Go that lets you create Word, Excel and Powerpoint files. It has HDMI support for sharing content. You can do Internet tethering of the Playbook with any GPRS enables device using Bluetooth and there is also an option of WiFi file sharing. The Adobe Reader lets you open PDF files. The browser of the phone comes with built in Adobe Flash 10.1 support along with HTML5 capability. There is multitouch support for easier navigation. For input the device has both portrait and landscape QWERTY keyboard. The front facing 3.0megapixel camera comes in handy for video chats with people having BlackBerry Ids. You cannot call on any phone numbers through it though. For PC connectivity, you just need to download the desktop manager and once you connect the Playbook to the PC, it automatically syncs and backs up content and then you can easily transfer music, videos,
tech specs Size | 194 x 130 x 10mm Weight | 425 grams Memory | 16 GB, No Battery | Li-Po 5300 mAh Screen | 16 million colours Talktime/Standby | NA GPRS/3G | NA Bluetooth/ WiFi | Yes/Yes Phonebook Capacity | Shared
pictures, etc.
Play On! The Playbook comes with a 5.0-megapixel camera but no flash. You can use stablisation autofocus mode and sports scene mode for taking pictures. The camera quality is average especially in low light conditions as the tab doesn’t have any flash. The camera is capable of taking 1080p videos and the quality is acceptable. You can use the secondary camera for taking stills and 1080p videos too. There is no dedicated video player in the Playbook but it easily played all the videos we threw at it. It also comes with DivX and XviD support. The music player of the tab sorts music on the basis of artists, albums and genres. The interface of the music player is pretty cool. Push up from the bottom bezel reveals the music player controls and pulling it further up reveals a horizontally scrollable playlist. Pulling down from the top reveals the sorting features for the playlist. There are no equalizer presets but the sound quality of the Playbook is great. The playbook is available in three versions 16 GB internal memory, 32 GB and 64 GB and you cannot expand it further. The HDMI cable is bundled with the sales pack. One full charge lasted for a day with extensive usage for music, BlackBerry Bridge, videos and browsing.
Alternatively The BlackBerry Playbook 16 GB, 32 GB, 64 GB costs Rs 26,500, Rs 32,500 and Rs 37,500 respectively. Other options include Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0-inch priced at Rs 25,200. The WiFi-only iPad2 comes at a price of Rs 29,500, Rs 34,500, Rs 69,500 for 16 GB, 32 GB and 64 GB respectively. The 3G+WiFi model costs Rs 36,900 for 16GB, Rs 41,900 for 32GB, and Rs 46,900 for 64 GB. Motorola Xoom is available in two versions. 32 GB Xoom WiFi costs Rs 32,990 and 3G + WiFi costs Rs 39,990. n team@mymobile.co.in
verdict Looks
8
Features
8 9
ease of use Camera | 5.0 megapixel Frequency | NA Others | Facebook, Internet tethering
Price: Rs 26,500
perfoRmance
8
value for money
8
overall
82%
jul 15 to aug 14 2011 MYMOBILE 71