It hasn’t been too long since we got some hands-on time with the BlackBerry PlayBook at CES 2011 but the QNX software continues to improve and this is the first time we’ve actually seen the device in portrait mode.
As you can see from the video below, the BlackBerry PlayBook quickly rotates between portrait and landscape mode, as it should. Whether you’re in a browser, home screen or in an app, it will quickly re-orient it to how you’re holding it. This is nothing new to Apple iPad owners but this is the first time we’ve seen it on the RIM tablet and it’s a relief to know that it gets the little things right.
More importantly, we got a chance to look at the BlackBerry PlayBook browser. The company’s smartphones have browsers that are widely considered behind the competition even though the Torch has the best browser we’ve seen on a BlackBerry. The company is saying that the tablet browser will be ahead of anything else on the market with full Adobe Flash support and strong JavaScript and web standards support.
I briefly played with the BlackBerry PlayBook browser and it worked as you expected: the scrolling was smooth, pages loaded well and it chewed up JavaScript like a champ. The lovely IntoMobile.com came up well, as did other complex sites.
Still no exact word on when we can expect this to hit the streets or at what price, as RIM is still targeting the March timeframe. It’s clear to me that the BlackBerry PlayBook will be a compelling device: the software and hardware are definitely on point. It’s likely going to come down to pricing, marketing and what the competition has in store.
And the competition is coming out in force. The Apple iPad 2 will be here before you know it and Google just showed off the goodies in Android 3.0 Honeycomb. Check out the video below and let us know what you think.
