BLACKBERRY 4G LTE PLAYBOOK REVIEW
After
a long wait, Research In Motion has unveiled its 4G LTE BlackBerry PlayBook
launched in August 2012. In the world of modern technology, smartphones &
tablets are always evolving. RIM is always striving to bring forth a
groundbreaking product that puts it ahead of other competitors. Today, we will
take a brief look at their most recent tablet offering, the 4G LTE BlackBerry
PlayBook. As you may have already postulated, the new 4G BlackBerry PlayBook
looks almost exactly like the original.
It’s black. It has the same
oh-so-smooth matte-textured backing. As
far as design goes, it’s essentially the same tablet: elegant, bold, and
stylish. According to RIM, To my surprise, despite being slightly thicker, it
actually weighs less on my scale! About
4.7% less to be exact. I measured a
weight of 426 ± 1 grams on the original PlayBook, and this 4G PlayBook weighs
in at only 406 ± 1 grams. I’m guessing
that’s all the extra battery that was taken out. The display, on paper, is the
same 7” 1024×600 (WSVGA) capacitive touchscreen as on the original
PlayBook. But there are
differences. Compared side-by-side with
the original PlayBook, the 4G PlayBook’s screen is noticeably yellow-er. Of course, this is very hard to notice on its
own. I’m not sure if this is a problem with this particular 4G PlayBook, or the
all of the 4G units. I would say this is
a slight step back from the high quality screen we’ve seen from the original
PlayBook. It’s gone from great to merely
average. In the image below, the 4G
PlayBook is the one on top. The screen isn’t resistant to fingerprints and
smudges so don’t expect a flawlessly shiny display without using lint-free gloves
while handling it. The PlayBook comes
with a cool BlackBerry-branded screen cleaning cloth, and you will probably
make good use of it. The new 4G PlayBook is packed with features, much like the
original. It has a 6-axis gyroscope,
accelerometer, light sensor, magnetometer, and a GPS. Not much new here. They all work sufficiently well…except the
GPS. While trying to use the (barely
functional) Bing Maps bundled with all PlayBooks it could either a) not find a
GPS signal or b) it thought I was in Guelph (500 km away). Close, but no cigar. I’ve even tried the
Android Navigation app. Apparently I’m
still in Guelph. That rules out the
chance that it is an app-specific error.
Nevertheless, the GPS works great on the Wi-Fi PlayBook and I see no
reason why the GPS in the 4G PlayBook would malfunction. This is very strange behavior indeed. With
both LTE and HSPA+ radios, the 4G PlayBook allows you to have ultra-fast data
speeds in major cities, and still reasonably fast speeds everywhere else. We at N4BB were particularly excited for the
LTE capability. Thanks to Telus, we have
access to a theoretical peak download speeds of a blistering 75 mbps over
LTE. There’s also HSPA+, but that’s
slower and not as cool. Let’s start with
the LTE results using the “Speedtest” App in App World, here’s what we found. By
struggling to barely get two bars of LTE signal in my area, the 4G PlayBook
managed a home-internet-shaming feat of 46.371 Mbps with an average of 22.182
Mbps. The upload speeds consistently
hover around the 1 Mbps level. With such
speeds, the PlayBook is one quick tablet on Telus’ LTE network. Fortunately, if
you happen to wander outside the present LTE coverage, good ol’ HSPA+ is there
to keep you connected. So let’s test out
the PlayBook’s HSPA+ speed next. The 4G PlayBook finishes the test with a very
typical result of 7.679 Mbps max and 6.117 Mbps average download speeds. The upload speeds settle in at around 0.681
Mbps max and 0.536 Mbps average. I did have a full 5 bars of HSPA+ signal to
work with so I doubt the speeds get anywhere better closer to
civilization. Not to complain though, as
it simply matched my Wi-Fi connection speed.
The fact that HSPA+ pales so much in comparison to LTE makes the HSPA+
result as lackluster. Also, refusing to label HSPA+ as 3G , 3G+ or 3.5G speeds
(even though it is), it is simply called “4G”.
LTE connectivity is simply labeled 4G LTE to differentiate itself from
HSPA+. For audio recording, dual microphones are located on the top of the
PlayBook and provide stereo sound.
Similar to the original, this is still quite a rare find in a tablet and
very welcoming to see. Front-facing and rear-facing cameras with resolutions at
3MP and 5MP respectively provide very respectable image resolutions when taking
pictures. Much like the original
PlayBook, the sensor isn’t amazing, so you won’t be taking great pictures in
low light, or up-close (due to the lack of autofocus). Here is a sample I took of a cup of coffee
in medium lighting conditions. The stereo speakers are once again, identical to
the original PlayBook and awesome. You
obviously won’t get studio quality sound out of any tablet, but the Playbook
can dish out some serious volume without losing much in terms of quality or in
the low-end . That in itself is quite an accomplishment. Standard charging and
data transferring is done through the Micro USB port. The Micro HDMI port is still there and so is
the magnetic rapid charging port for rapid charging. The Wi-Fi antenna is still
a welcoming 802.11 a/b/g/n. The
Bluetooth radio is 3.1 +EDR (updated) with support of the following Bluetooth
profiles: Dial-Up Networking (DUN) Serial Port Profile (SPP), Secure Simple
Pairing (SSP), Human Interface Device (HID).
That’s a great step forward from the 2.1 + EDR Bluetooth the original
PlayBook had at launch. Hopefully this
will be updated to version 4.0 in the future. As advertised, the 4G radio sets
it apart from the PlayBook of old. LTE
(700, 1700 MHz), HSPA+ (2100, 1900, 1700, 800, 900 MHz). Covering “faux” G (HSPA+) and the real 4G LTE
bands, the 4G PlayBook is a truly portable tablet solution. If you looked up
the word “beast” in the dictionary, you’d see a picture of the 4G
PlayBook. You asked for more power, and
you’ve got it. Let me introduce you to
the 1.5 Ghz Dual-Core TI OMAP 4460 (conceivably it could even be the 4470). Right
out of the gate, the CPU speed test just goes to show that the new chipset can
flex its mighty OMAP 4460 CPU. The new
4G PlayBook clearly beats the original PlayBook by a factor of about 2. As far
as boot up times go, rebooting the 4G PlayBook takes exactly 3 minutes and 5
seconds, while booting from the off state takes a quicker 1 minutes and 28
seconds. Why the big difference? Well, the shutdown time on the PlayBook is
significant and does take quite a while.
As we compare this to the Wi-Fi PlayBook, we will stick to OS 2.0.1.668
to keep it a fair test. The Wi-Fi PlayBook reboots in 3 minutes and boots from
the off state in exactly 2 minutes. With
a 50% increase in clock speed, it makes sense that the 4G PlayBook boots up
nearly 50% faster from the off-state. Battery life is always a complicated
question to answer. With the new faster
chipset in the 4G PlayBook, you might expect that the battery life would be
less than the original’s. But this
depends on what you’re doing: watching video, keeping it on standby, or web
browsing. However, the plot
thickens…Riddle me this, Batman: How does the 4G PlayBook end up with a smaller
4800 mAh battery. With the Wi-Fi PlayBook having a battery life of about 7
hours. The 4G PlayBook would barely make
it past 4 hours. Turning off the 4G
radio, the 4G PlayBook settled into it a groove, matching the Wi-Fi PlayBook to
the percent. Moral of the story: 4G and
battery life don’t mesh well. This is
without LTE. My guess is that it would
be abysmal with LTE on. But we like to
live dangerously. Summary, you’re looking at about 7 hours of battery life on
medium usage with Wi-Fi, and around 4 hours on HSPA+ or LTE. The 4G
LTE-equipped PlayBook comes with the same 7-inch display as its predecessor,
and includes both front- and rear-facing HD video cameras. HDMI out and stereo
speakers are also included. On the software side, users can expect the same
operating system experience they're getting now from the PlayBook, including
support for RIM's unified inbox and built-in calendar and contacts apps.
