We may be wrong, but we have our own opinion. RIM Blackberry PlayBook is better than Apple iPad2. Our assessment  is blunt and simple, if you remove the iPad2 label and compare the two, PlayBook comes on top. Do not be sentimental about Apple followership, just evaluate the technology, you will see that RIM has a game changing functionality.

Oh yes, iPad2 came before Playbook and we know, at least, it won the technology battle. However, it does not matter to us, at least now, since both are in the market. No one disputes that Apple is an innovator.

Playbook is built for the professional business guy. Yet, we know that Apple is all about consumer market and cannot claim to be in that market. However, Apple cannot hold that claim as many corporate clients are adopting the iPad, so, it is safe to say that we can benchmark both. Head to head, without any knowledge of who made what, RIM came on top, for us. We will go with it over the iPad2. Here are points to consider:

Size

Playbook has  7 inches to iPad2’s  9.7 inches. Both win depending on what you want to do and how big you want the device to be. We will go for the bigger one which is iPad2 for home use, but when on travel, Playbook may be the game. It will be easier to move around. Playbook is very portable and is of pocket size.

Resolution

Here, they are just about the same. Not much difference.  The screen resolution is no MORE a differentiator, technology is converging.

Weight

Blackberry because it is smaller in size. It has 0.9 pounds while iPad2 gives you 1.3 pounds worry.

Thickness

This is where Apple surprises us. It is thinner than any 10 inch tablet in the world. And very thinner than Playbook. This is not unrelated to their very efficient A4  processors which Apple makes in-house. The iPad2 has a thin thickness but that is hidden in the large size and screen when compared to Playbook. When both are looked at the same time, you will go with Playbook for portability.

Camera

Blackberry wins the camera spec. It is better. Both have two cameras with one of Apple muted. Playbook has 6MP camera at the back and 3MP camera in the front – both can take video.

Apps

Apple wins here with more than 300,000 apps.  But if the BB is optimized to run Android, as many claim, it will come on top.  The whole notion that one can run Android apps in BB is a very good selling point.

We think Playbook is a professional grade tablet that is made for the business guys. It has great features and truly better in the engineering side. What it loses is that it does not have apple written on it. It Apple had made Playbook, it would have sold better as it is doing.

Chances are, if you remove the labels and make them neutral and try these tables, you will go with Playbook. We vote for Playbook in tekedia.