RIM previews BlackBerry PlayBook tablet

At a press event in New York City today, RIM previewed [corrected] its 7-inch tablet, the BlackBerry PlayBook. RIM didn't announce pricing, but the company said the PlayBook would be available in March or April.

In some respects, the PlayBook is similar to other 7-inch tablets, such as the Dell Streak 7 and Samsung Galaxy Tab: It has a front-facing camera, a weight of slightly less than a pound, a capacitive touch screen display, and slots for a memory card and USB cable (more photos after the jump). The display was [corrected] 7 inches, measured diagonally. There will be three versions of the PlayBook, with 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB of storage, respectively.

But the PlayBook is also a different kind of creature, with its own proprietary operating system, BlackBerry Tablet OS, while most other 7-inch tablets run the Android operating system. It also uses a proprietary Web browser.

The BlackBerry PlayBook features a capacitive touch-screen display.
Photo: Consumer Reports

At least initially, the PlayBook's 3G access is available only by tethering it to a BlackBerry smartphone, while the Streak and Galaxy Tab have 3G built-in. There is no Kindle app yet, but RIM told me that Amazon is working on one.

We'll have more on the PlayBook when get one into our labs and can test it; stay tuned.

—Jeff Fox

The PlayBook a different kind of creature, running a proprietary OS and browser.
Photo: Consumer Reports

—Jeffrey Fox