Smartphone maker Research in Motion overnight became the latest brand to launch a tablet device into what will shortly become a very crowded market.
Called the PlayBook, the new “enterprise-ready” tablet features a 7-inch LCD panel with 1024×600-pixel resolution, an as-yet-unspecified 1GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM and a brand-new Blackberry Tablet OS, that supports multi-tasking.
The new OS has Adobe Flash 10.1 built-in as well as support for HTML 5.
The device weighs in a 400grams, or about the same as Samsung’s Galaxy Tab.
What makes RIM think this is “enterprise-ready” is what it calls its class-leading media capabilities – and looking at the specs, its pretty impressive. The PlayBook features two cameras – a front-facing 3MP unit and a rear facing 5MP sensor. That already puts it ahead of most of the VGA-grade front-firing cameras available so far. From a data viewpoint, PlayBook is out-of-the-box ready to work with Blackberry Enterprise Server and will seamlessly pair with an existing Blackberry phone.
The device also has the capability of playing 1080p video with support for H.264, MPEG4 and WMV video. And with a MicroHDMI output, connecting this up to a data projector or flat-panel TV shouldn’t be too hard.
It’s also Wi-Fi enabled with support for 802.11b/g/n.
At this stage, RIM says it won’t be available in the US until early next year. No prices have been announced.