Playbook Review
Wayne Rash is complaining that the new Blackberry Playbook is being unfairly compared to Apple’s iPad, a device which is in a radically different class than the Playbook. He has a point: spend even a few minutes with a Playbook and you can tell at once that he’s right: this is like comparing unrelated fruit. (Apples and lemons, perhaps.)
I here attempt to present a fair and proper review of the device.
Blackberry should be proud of what they’ve done in engineering the Playbook. The device is a slick, smooth, and sleek combination of matte and gloss surfaces. Weighing in at 0.9 pounds and only ten millimeters thin, it’s surprisingly portable, and at 7.6 by 5.1 inches, it is a broad and flat device nearly half the size of a piece of standard letter-size paper. This unusual, ultra-flat design means the Playbook can sit flush on a table, and its plastic and glass exterior won’t scratch delicate wood surfaces. The flat design, without rubbery feet or other such adornments, means the Playbook can even prevent corners curling.
There are, however, a few problems. The Playbook is so thin it can easily become lost in a pile of papers, never to be seen again. Also, the Playbook we tested occasionally would make odd noises or appear to light up, which can prove distracting. (By the second day of testing, happily, these incidents seemed to stop, and did not resume.)
Then there’s the price. Blackberry’s Playbook starts at $499—very expensive for a non-collectible—and also has $599 and $699 versions, though in our testing we could not distinguish any meaningful difference between the low-end model and the more expensive ones.
Finally, we feel we’d be remiss if we didn’t note that, unlike other Blackberry paperweights, the Playbook can not receive email.
note: I would actually be remiss if I didn’t say I have never seen a Playbook in person. This review is entirely fictional. If the Playbook doesn’t hold its own as a paperweight, please don’t complain to me.
