On September 27, at the 2010 DevCon developer conference in San Francisco, Research In Motion (RIM – creators of BlackBerry) more than dipped its toe into the tablet market – it jumped in with both feet! The BlackBerry PlayBook is a high-powered, full-featured, mid-sized tablet that is looking to bring performance to portability.

According to RIM, despite the implications of the name, the PlayBook is a professional tablet rather than one aimed at a more casual audience. But words only get companies so far. What does the PlayBook have under the proverbial hood?

The BlackBerry PlayBook features a 1GHz Dual-Core Cortex A9 processor and 1GB of RAM for the most potent processing power to date on a tablet. That means the PlayBook will actually be able to run resource-heavy applications as well as multitask efficiently. Of course, symmetrical dual-core processors running off a Li-ion battery may not be able to work hard for very long. In fact, no battery specifications have yet been given, leading us to believe that battery life will be an issue.

Other bells and whistles include an industry-standard USB 2.0 slot for easy transferring of information between the tablet and PCs as well as a conventional micro-HDMI port, allowing you to output 1080p HD video directly to a monitor or television – perfect for presentations and media viewing. Adding to the HD experience, the PlayBook also features two cameras. One 3 megapixel camera is located display-side (video conferencing, self-portraits, etc.), while the second, 5 megapixel camera, located on the back of the device, can record HD video and snap still images.

In terms of size, the BlackBerry PlayBook features a vibrant, 7-inch (17.78 cm) multi-touch screen boasts 1024 x 600 resolution, identical to the recently announced Samsung Galaxy Tab. Overall dimensions measure 5.1 inches (13 cm) tall x 7.6 inches (19.3 cm) wide x 0.4 inches (9.7 mm) thick. The tablet weighs in at just less than 1 pound, 0.90 (0.408 kg) to be exact. This all combines to make the tablet ultra-portable without sacrificing too much in terms of ease of viewing and typing via the virtual keyboard.

The BlackBerry PlayBook is running its own proprietary operating system designed specifically for the tablet. From the sneak video we were shown at the official site, the firmware seems attractive, well organized, and user-friendly. According to CNET’s Donald Bell, “the BlackBerry tablet OS also supports Adobe Flash 10.1, WebKit, Java, Open GL, and Adobe Air. Supported video formats include H.264, MPEG4, and WMV, up to 1080p HD resolution (scaled down to the screen's lower native resolution).” As such, expect the web browsing experience to be second to none, without compromising any significant feature set. Furthermore, the PlayBook will be compatible with BlackBerry Enterprise Server software out of the box as well as take advantage of BlackBerry App World.

Naturally, the PlayBook has a phone pairing function, done via Bluetooth 2.1, which will keep current BlackBerry users’ information synced between the two devices. The tablet also features an integrated 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi connection to take advantage of Internet hotspots. Though not officially confirmed by RIM, 16 and 32GB models were on display at the DevCon 2010 event. It is assumed that a memory expansion port will be available, but this has not been substantiated either. The PlayBook is predicted to retail anywhere from $500 to $1000, though hooking up with a 3G / 4G service provider will likely reduce that cost significantly. With which carriers the BlackBerry PlayBook will reside is still unknown, as is the release date of the device.

Below you’ll find video coverage of the announcement from the September 27th DevCon 2010 event, courtesy of CNET.
 

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