Well, everyone's jumping on the tablet bandwagon now aren't they - some being more successful than others. The latest company to take a leap into the pond of convergence is RIM - quite a surprise as it's never been big on innovation, preferring instead to stick to its tried and tested devices. So how has it fared with the PlayBook?

At first we weren't quite sure about RIM's branding stance, but eventually we came to the conclusion that it was rather clever. While a PlayBook might sound like a gadget you'd buy for a four-year-old, Rim has tried hard to try to position itself away from its usual business-device setup. Not that the business user has been forgotten - onboard you'll find Documents To Go, as well as Adobe Reade and Word. However, it does mean that there's more on offer from the PlayBook than PowerPoint presentations and spreadsheets.

First impressions

It' still early days for the tablet market, and makers are still trying to decide what is the best size. In fact, we'd go as far as to say the buyers are still deciding what size is best too. Samsung, for instance, has released both 10.1in and 8.9in tablets in the shape of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and 8.9, but RIM has decided to opt for a far more modest seven-inch screen. This does actually have a very thick border (more on that later) but it still makes it a very portable tablet. Okay, you'd be hard pressed to slip it in a pocket, but it will easily fit into a smallish bag, without weighing it down. It's also pretty svelte - just 10mm thick - not quite as skinny as the iPad 2, but more so than a lot of its rivals.

If you hold the device in landscape mode, with the BlackBerry logo sitting under the display, you'll find the power button at the top of the tablet. If you want to lock the display give it a quick press; to turn off or restart, you'll need a longer press. There are also three media keys for volume and pause/play plus a 3.5mm audio jack on the far right. We weren't quite sure about where RIM had placed this port to start with - the last thing you want is your headphones lead trailing over the screen when you're watching a video. But, because the screen reorientates itself, whichever way you hold the device, you can have the headset port at the bottom of the tablet when viewing movies. On the other side sits an HDMI port, a microUSB port and a docking port - we assume this means we're likely to be treated to some accessories in the near future.

At the start of this review, we suggested that RIM was not very good at being innovative - well that's not the case with the PlayBook. That thick border we mentioned is actually used to navigate your way around the device. Swipe from different areas on the border and you can carry out different tasks. A swipe from the top down, for instance, makes a list of connectivity options appear. Swipe up from the bottom and you'll see the whole menu. To bring up the virtual keyboard swipe from the bottom left. It has no illumination or icons to help you, but once you've got the hang of it it's a smooth way to operate.

On screen

The screen is incredibly vibrant, with up to 16 million colours and an impressive resolution of 600x1024. It's also incredibly tactile and we found it was easy to swipe through windows and menus. The QWERTY keyboard is particularly good in landscape mode, when your thumbs are able to sit on the middle keys without the need to move the hands or stretch in any way. Rather than the normal haptic response, press a key and you'll be rewarded with a tinny sound so you know the key press has been acknowledged. One thing that took us a while to get to grips with was that the number keys all sit on the left of the keyboard, rather than in their more usual position along the top. It's no big issue, but it's just another thing you have to get used to.

Multitasking

There are plenty of Android tablets on the market, but BlackBerry, like Apple, has chosen to use its own operating system - dubbed QNX. Multitasking is a key part of the PlayBook's operation and it is really speedy. We have been told that you can run as many as 50 apps with no effect on the device's speed, but we have to say we stopped when we got to 15 - at that stage we were still able to power through pages at an amazing rate. There are two ways to switch between programs - first you can slide them from the bottom border onto the screen to minimise and then flip them left or right (this also opens up the menu if you want to open more prgrams). Second, you can slide from the left or right hand border, which keeps the programs open. You can also choose for your programs to run continually in the background once you've minimised them, or for them to pause when you do this.

Much of the criticism the Playbook has received is over what it lacks, rather than what it can do. A case in point is the omission of a native email client - this means you have no direct access to Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail, Gmail or AOL Mail, and no facility for contacts and calendar. But, wait, pull down the connectivity page and choose BlackBerry Bridge. Using Bluetooth you can pair your BlackBerry Smartphone with your playbook and gain access to all your data such as calendar, contacts and email. It was easy to set up and worked really well. Any alterations you make on the Playbook are then saved on the smartphone. From a security point of view, the fact that the data is not viewable on the PlayBook once the Bluetooth connection is severed could be a good thing. Of course, this only works if you're the owner of a BlackBerry mobile - but Apple is guilty of similar tactics and in some ways we admire RIM for recognising an opportunity to sell more phones. In actual fact a RIM spokesman informed us that they are expecting Playbooks and BlackBerry smartphones to be offered in packaged deals together.

Another standout feature of the PlayBook is its HDMI offerings. It can be connected to any HDMI TV (you'll have to supply your own cable though) and you can view images, media content or indeed surf the net on the big screen. Okay, that's nothing new, but what is nifty is that you can have a program open on the TV while accessing other programs on the PlayBook itself. So, for business users, it is possible to screen a presentation while still being able to access your own auto-cues and notes. Or even Tweet while you're watching a streamed game of footie (note the PlayBook can play Flash video unlike a certain tablet we could mention).

Apps shortage?

The PlayBook benefits from both front facing and back snappers. The back camera, with its five megapixels, is particularly impressive. There's no flash and it's a bit of pain that you have to delve into the gallery to check the image you've just snapped, but we're pretty sure most of us would choose to use a smartphone to take snaps rather than a tablet device. What we were interested in was the three-megapixel front-facing snapper, which lets you video call other people with PlayBooks. Of course, it is pretty key that your contacts have a PlayBook for this to take off - especially as there is currently no Skype app on offer at BlackBerry App World.

Which nicely leads us to our biggest problem with the PlayBook. BlackBerry tells us there will be 3,000 apps for buyers to choose from when the PlayBook is launched. Well that day is nearly upon us and it's certainly not there yet. Even when it gets to 3,000, it's going to have a hard job to keep up with the number of apps on offer from Apple and Android. Major omissions so far include BBC iPlayer, our favourite Angry Birds and, as mentioned, Skype. Mind you, if as RIM claims, Android apps will soon be available for the PlayBook, maybe it won't be an issue for too long.

The verdict

We must say we were pretty sceptical about whether RIM could actually manage a foray into the tablet market. While we've praised its Curve, Pearl and Bold ranges of phones, we didn't think it had really got a grasp on either the touch-screen or a consumer friendly operation system. But we think the BlackBerry PlayBook looks good and offers a really friendly, intuitive user interface. It may be smaller than some of the tablets on offer, but that's not necessarily a black mark, and of course the Wi-Fi operation may be an issue for some. But, if RIM is right about the number of apps soon to be available, the PlayBook is certainly a deserving rival to the Android and iPad tablets and could be worth a go.