After staying digadang so long, PlayBook finally released. RIM's flagship tablet officially on the market of North America on April 19, 2011. Unfortunately for Indonesia market, not yet clear when the Playbook will be present.

 

But at the end of April last, the Asia Pacific Rim has invited a number of journalists including InfoKomputer to test the ability of the Playbook. Accompanied by Oliver Pilgerstorfer (RIM PR Manager for Southeast Asia), we had tested the ability of the tablet has a 7-inch screen.
 

Talk to the screen, first thing that attracts attention is the screen quality is excellent. Screen with a resolution of 1024x600 pixels is capable of displaying the picture is very sharp, detailed, and rich colors. The advantages are very obvious when Playbook play a movie featuring the blue sea and clouds with a very riveting.

 

What also needs to be underlined, Playbook supports 1080p HD video in the classroom with a variety of formats such as AVI, MP4, FLV, including the converted video to High Profile 1080p format. Imagine enjoying the delicious high-definition movies in a traffic jam or a plenary session with a cool display them. By the way, Playbook also provides an HDMI jack, so we can play video from the Playbook to the television.

We also liked its compact and lightweight. In dimensions, the size 13X 19.4 cm and 1 cm thick may be too large to fit into pants or jacket pocket. But with the weight only 425 grams, the Playbook is unlikely to be part of a hassle when entered into the briefcase. The back Playbook itself is made of rubber material so that more solid grip without the easy feel slippery. So when compared to the iPad, Playbook superior in terms of portability.

 

Another advantage is the ability to try highlighted Playbook mulitasking, and Oliver show it with great pride. He demonstrated how the Playbook can run many applications simultaneously, ranging from the browser, video, music, and other applications. We try to run up to 10 applications simultaneously and the Playbook can run it without problems.

 

Interestingly, the applications running in the background we can see the process when opening a window multitasking. Examples like this. We're running a video and then it occurred to open the browser. When the browser is active, the video is still running. Then we opened the window of multitasking, which shows a small window containing the alias thumbnail browser and a video that had us play.

Well, in windows multitasking, we could see the video continue to run much like we pressed Alt-Tab in Windows 7. It can not be done on Android and the IOS, so the demonstration showed how effective Playbook run multitasking.

 

The uniqueness of the Playbook is an area on the outskirts of the bezel alias screen has its own role. For example if you want to open a window mulitasking, we just move your finger from the bottom to the top bezel. If you want to close the application, we just slide the application window to the top of the bezel. While the left and right bezel serves to switch to another application without having to open a window multitasking.  

Even activate the keyboard can be done by moving your finger from the left corner of the bezel to the center of the screen. In our opinion this approach is very effective and practically negates the need physical buttons.

Playbook itself has its own application store, and unlike World App for BlackBerry phones. Asked about the willingness of the application for the Playbook, Oliver admitted it has not been much, but the future will be very bright. Because the application Playbook can be made with a variety of programming languages, like C / C + +, Adobe Air, HTML5, and JavaScript. "Even the Playbook can run Android applications" said Oliver. RIM will provide some sort of virtualization applications that will run Android applications on top of the operating system Playbook.

 

Ironically, of all the demonstrations that Oliver did, none of the concerned emails which have been the power of BlackBerry. Apparently, this is where the "weakness" Playbook: the absence of email applications, contacts, and calendar. The only access the data is to do a pairing with BlackBerry phones (which RIM BlackBerry call the Bridge). If you are connected, all emails can be on the phone a BlackBerry can be found in the Playbook. But when the pairing is interrupted, the data is missing from Playbook. Playbook also do not have a 3G connection, so the connection to the Internet must rely on WiFi or pairing via BlackBerry Bridge.

 

Conclusion

Although only tried it briefly, our assessments of PlayBook soar. With the screen quality, portability, and ease of use are topnotch, Playbook tablet can be ideal for many people. Unfortunately, Playbook yet provide a real email special applications become a mainstay of BlackBerry over the years.

 

In addition to the exact date, Oliver did not dare to mention the official price of Indonesia's Playbook. But as an illustration, in the United States market, Playbook sold for U.S. $ 499 (16GB), U.S. $ 599 (32GB), and U.S. $ 699 (64GB). Let's wait Playbook gait in Indonesia.

 

Important specifications of the BlackBerry Playbook

Screen	7-inch, 1024x600 pixels
Facilities	WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, Mini HDMI, accelerometer, Gyrpscope, Magnetometers
Operating Systems	Playbook OS (QNX-based)
Camera	1080 5MP HD Video (rear), 3 MP 1080 HD Video (front)
Capacity	16GB, 32GB, 64GB
Dimensions / Weight	130x19, 4x1 cm/425 grams
Prices (for the U.S. market)	U.S. $ 499 (16GB), U.S. $ 599 (32GB), and U.S. $ 699 (64GB)