Research In Motion (RIM)’s highly-anticipated tablet, the BlackBerry Playbook, has seen its price slashed prior to its UK launch on 16 June.
According to a report on ITProPortal, the 16GB model of RIM’s BlackBerry Playbook tablet is now available for £357 at DigiGood, an Amazon retailer. The discounted price is £43 cheaper than its suggested retail price of £399.
On Tuesday, Dixons Retail, owner of Currys and PC World, Carphone Warehouse, Insight UK and Phones4u announced it will be selling the Playbook as soon as it arrives in the country on 16 June, with price tags ranging from £399 to £479 and £559 for the 16GB, 32GB and 64GB version respectively.
Along with RIM’s recall of nearly 1,000 faulty tablets, the Playbook’s notorious battery problem, which limits the usage to only four hours, has also dampened the manufacturer’s hope of attracting business users with the device’s enterprise-centric features.
Aside from its battery, however, the BlackBerry Playbook is expected to impress professionals with “out-of-the-box compatibility with BlackBerry Enterprise server”, corporate data access, and “seamless pairing for a secure window into your BlackBerry smartphone,” according to RIM.
The flagship slate also sports a 7-inch multi-touch capacitive screen display, a 3-megapixel HD front-facing camera and a 5-megapixel HD rear model.
Apart from a 1GHz dual-core processor, the Playbook also offers a 1GB RAM, and micro USB as well as micro HDMI ports.
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It's sad, honestly, that the biggest problem the PlayBook has is the sheer amount of slanted reporting and misinformation we've seen over the last several months.
'The PlayBook's notorious battery problems' are a myth that started with a single "analyst" months prior to release. If you talk to PlayBook owners, you'll find that most will consistently report 8 - 10 hours of battery life, yet here a 4 hour battery life is reported as established fact, sans even a link to a source.
It's sad that any piece of underpowered junk that Apple chooses to dump on the public is deemed gold by "analysts" (see 'Antennagate' or backlight bleedthrough problems with the iPad 2), while any competing product is almost universally panned. Does Apple own the media, or is the media just so disinterested in actually thinking for themselves that they're happy to regurgitate poorly researched "facts" rather than do any research?
Pichayada Promchertchoo, a retraction is in order. There is no battery problem with the Playbook. The previous comment is correct, the Playbook provides between 8-10 hours of continuous playtime.
I can't understand all this negative and missinformation for this device. I can't ever recall another product receiving the same treatment.
I suggest you should try the device yourself instead of spewing your lies, propaganda and your ignorance. We readers expect better, shame on you.
Battery "issue" is a myth. My experience is the same as the previous two comments. This is an excellent device.
Web-browsing is superb. I also take issue with the comment that it is "enterprise-centric". I can access email accounts through the internet, wi-fi, and pair with a blackberry. Concerning the latter, I don't need another data plan, which is a huge bonus. How many of your readers want two data plans? Your reviewer needs to re-calibrate.
I agree with the previous two comments, Battery life is excellent on playbook, it is enough for playbook that it is more fun and innovative than iPad
This article shows how little effort is made by online reporters. It looks like anyone can become an online "journalist" with minimal amounts of research, just to meet a deadline on an article.
I don't know much about eweek. I just stumbled on this article while looking up tablet news on google. But I doubt I'll ever find any useful info here, since it seems to be regurgitated, outdated, and misinformed information.
What a joke.
Thanks for your comments. We are following developments as they happen and were interested today to see that the Playbook is shrugging off earlier problems and selling well.
Stay with us, and you'll see we try to keep a balanced view.
Peter Judge
UK Editor, eWEEK Europe