On Sunday, BlackBerry revealed their new tablet, the PlayBook, at their Annual Developers Conference. While it looks like beast in terms of specifications, lets take a look at how it will measure up against the competition. Note that by the time PlayBook is available in the market, iPad 2 would probably be out, so we might have revisit this comparison again.
| BlackBerry PlayBook | Apple iPad | Samsung Galaxy Tab | |
| Screen Size | 7 inch LCD | 9.7 inch LED IPS | 7 inch TFT LCD |
| Screen Resolution | 1200 by 600 | 1024 by 768 | 1024 by 600 |
| Processor | 1 GHz dual-core processor | 1 GHz Apple A4 | 1GHz Cortex A8 |
| Weight | 400g | Wifi model 680g and 730g Wifi + 3G model | 380g |
| Dimension | Not announced | 9.56 by 7.47 by 0.5 inches | 7.48 by 4.74 by 0.47 inches |
| OS | QNX technology | Currently iOS 3.2, iOS 4.2 coming later this year | Android 2.2, upgradable to Android 3.0 but no date mentioned |
| RAM | 1 GB | 256MB | 512MB |
| Internal Storage | Not announced (Likely to be 16GB and 32GB) | 16GB, 32GB and 64GB | 16GB and 32GB |
| Expandable Storage | Not announced | None | Up to 32GB |
| Multi touch | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Multi tasking | not announced | No (will come with iOS 4.2) | Yes |
| Camera | 3 MP HD front- facing camera and 5 MP HD rear camera | None | 3.2-MP rear camera and 1.3-MP front-facing camera |
| Phone | No | No | Yes, with speaker or Bluetooth |
| TV out | Not announced | Yes | Yes |
| Bluetooth | 2.1 + EDR | 2.1 + EDR | 3 |
| Battery life | Not announced | Up to 10 hours with video playback | Up to 7 hours with video playback |
| GPS | Not announced | In 3G model | Yes |
| I/O | Not announced | 30 pin-only | 30-pin only |
| Flash support | Yes | No | Yes |
| Apps | Not announced | Apple App Store | Android Market + Samsung Apps |
| E-books | Not announced | iBooks | Readers Hub |
| Price | Not announced | From $ 499 | Not announced |
Lets start by comparing screens. The iPad comes with a huge 9.7 inch screen unlike the Galaxy Tab and PlayBook which both have 7 inch screens but the PlayBook has the highest resolution at 1200 x 600 compared to the iPad’s 1024x 768 and the Galaxy Tab’s 1024 x 600. PlayBook and Tab use LCD technology while iPad has an LED display with IPS technology. Of course, they all have multitouch displays.
In terms of weight, the Galaxy Tab comes in at 380g shortly followed by the PlayBook at 400g and then way behind is the heavyweight of Tablets, the iPad, which is 680g for the WiFi only model and 730g for the WiFi and 3G model.
When it comes down to internal technology, the 1 GB RAM of the PlayBook blows the Galaxy Tab’s 512MB RAM out of the water and obliterates the measly 256MB RAM in the iPad. The storage for the PlayBook is expected to be 16GB and 32GB which is the same as the iPad;s and the Galaxy Tab;s but the iPad does offer a 64GB Model as well. In terms of battery life, the heavier iPad clocks in at 10 hours of video playback unlike the 7 hours of video playback for the Galaxy Tab. Unfortunately, details on the battery for the Play Book still haven’t been announced.
Let have a look at the cameras: the Galaxy Tab has a 3.2 MP rear camera and a 1.3 MP front-facing camera but that is nothing compared to the PlayBooks 3 MP HD front-facing camera and the 5MP HD rear camera. iPad lags way behind as it doesn’t even have a single camera. Sure, iPad 2 might have one, but for now, it doesn’t.
Flash Playback anyone? Tab and Playbook will support Flash 10.1 playback as well as Adobe Air apps. Don’t count on the iPad getting Flash anytime soon although we would love it to have support for the most popular runtime on the web. Let’s face it, you can disable it if you don’t want it, but if you don’t have it in the first place, that’s just one less feature.
Unfortunately this is where the comparison ends because the complete specs for Playbook haven’t been announced yet. We’ll keep you updated, stay tuned!
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