Size wise, the Blackberry playbook tablet has dimensions of (194 x 130 x 10 mm) 5.1″x 7.6″ x 0.4″ and weights (400gms) which equals 0.9 lbs. The playbook is slimmer and lighter than the iPad2 which dimensions are (241.2 x 185.7 x 8.8 mm) 9.5 by 7.31 by 0.34 inches and weighs 613gms 1.3lbs. In terms of aesthetics however; the iPad2 is better looking while the Blackberry has retained its signature sturdy design. The compact size has made the Blackberry playbook tablet easy to carry; but the compactness has come at the cost of a small display.

The Blackberry playbook tablet features a modest 7 inch LCD display with a 1024 x 600 resolution screen. Though it has the ability to handle 1080p videos, many users found its small display a bit "restricting". The small crammed screen has let down the powerful browsing feature of the Blackberry playbook. The iPad2 on the other hand comes with a 9.7 inch display with a 1024 x 768 pixel resolution screen. The large screen of the iPad2 makes it an ideal replacement of the laptop and notebooks while the small display of the Blackberry playbook could not eliminate the smart phones look and feeling.

The camera was another category in which these two devices were compared. The Blackberry undoubtedly leads the front with its dual HD cameras. The Blackberry playbook features a 3 megapixel camera in the front for videoconferencing and a 5 megapixel camera in the back which can capture amazing images and videos at 1080p. In comparison, the iPad2 fell short in this category although it did come with two cameras; the front facing VGA camera capable of capturing videos at 720p as well as still images with it’s just under a 1 megapixel rear camera could also record videos at 720p and allowed for a 5 times digital zoom for still pictures. Many people consider the processor to be the deciding factor when purchasing a device. On the processor front both devices are neck to neck with the Blackberry playbook tablet packed with a powerful 1 GHz dual core processor and backed by 1 GHz of RAM while the iPad2 has a A5 dual core 1 GHz processor and 512MB of RAM in its arsenal. The iPad2 runs on the advanced edition of iOS; the iOS 4.3. The A5 processor not only makes the iPad2 ultra fast, it also enhances the graphical performance by many folds. The Blackberry playbook is run on the QNX OS which has made multi tasking a breeze. The presence of Adobe Flash is also a plus point of the Blackberry Tablet. Both devices share the same internal memory as both offer the same choices of; 16GB, 32GB or 64GB of memory.

Battery life is one category where the iPad2 has beaten the Blackberry playbook fair and square. Battery life of the iPad 2 is 10 hours while the Blackberry only has a battery life of 6 hours.

Connectivity is another category where the iPad 2 has an edge. Apple has offered the iPad 2 with either Wi-Fi and or Wi-Fi + 3G connectivity. Another version of the iPad 2 was launched with Verizon Wireless 3G compatibility and Wi-Fi. The Blackberry playbook on the other hand falls way short by only offering their tablets with just Wi-Fi connectivity.

Conclusion

Comparison between the two giants of the year; iPad 2 and Blackberry playbook ensued with the launch of the latter. Various features of the two devices were compared and where the Blackberry Playbook was found to be better in terms of portability and web browsing, iPad2 emerged as a winner in terms of battery life and connectivity.

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