Savage reviews for BlackBerry PlayBook

RIM’s BlackBerry’s PlayBook tablet, due for April 20 release, has had a savage reception in the US tech press – some whom have been using preview units for weeks.

The PlayBook, which has a 7-inch screen to the Apple iPad’s 9.7-inches does garner some good notices.

The notices weren’t all bad.

Critics note the new tablet enjoys several advantages over the iPad, including its ability to display Adobe Flash graphics (conspicuously absent from the iPad) and its “beautiful” full HD screen.

They also like its web browser, multitasking support, speedy processor, and solidly-engineered case and rubber trim.

But that’s where the good news ended.

Co-dependent
In a review headlined A case of co-dependency, the Wall Street Journal’s Walter Mossberg complained:

This first edition of the PlayBook has no built-in cellular data connection and lacks such basic built-in apps as an email program, a contacts program, a calendar, a memo pad and even RIM's popular BlackBerry Messenger chat system.

To access the internet by 3G, or access email and the other apps name-checked above, a PlayBook must be tethered to a BlackBerry phone.

Where are the apps?
In a piece called "A BlackBerry Tablet, but Where Are the Apps?" The New York Times’ David Pogue grouses that while the PlayBook has back and front cameras there is no video chatting app. There’s also no turn-by-turn navigation app. In fact, compared to iTunes, there a major lack of apps overall.

More apps are apparently in the works for the official launch, just days away but for now “Reviewers were shown only a skeletal store with a few dozen lame apps in it.”

No physical buttons
It was all a little too touchscreen. "There are no buttons on the front at all, and the top edge has only On, Play/Pause and volume keys. Instead, you navigate by swiping your finger from the black border, which seems unduly wide, into the screen itself."

Mr Pogue likes the “BlackBerry Bridge” Bluetooth wireless connectivity feature, which lets you access content on your BlackBerry phone from the tablet, and saves the cost of a second sim card and second data connection.

But he doesn’t like that tethering to BlackBerry phone is the only way to access email and other apps. It was a theme that reviewer after reviewer returned to. Even Gigaom, which offered one of the most positive write-ups, found the PlayBook untenable for its inability to act as a standalone tablet.

The Times reviewer liked the 7-inch display, which made the PlayBook small enough to hold in one hand. 

But it was still half an inch too wide to fit in his suit pocket.

Not worried
"I'm not worried about poor reviews here and there. The core engine of playbook, the speed and elements that underwrite the whole product are enormously powerful," RIM co-chief executive Jim Balsillie told a crowd at the US launch event today.

Android to the rescue?
RIM recently decided to add PlayBook support for Google Android apps.

It’s a move that, once implemented, will greatly increase the number of apps available for the tablet.

Yet the initiative will presumably involve some kind of emulation given the PlayBook runs on the proprietary QNX operating system – and emulation always slows performance.

The PlayBook will cost from $US500. Australian journalists were brief on the device this week, indicating a launch is near across the Tasman. Neither Vodafone, Telecom or RIM had any word on New Zealand release, although RIM has said that it hopes to see the tablet here by the end of June.