14 DAY TRIAL // Back in late February, we told you a BlackBerry official claimed the company is considering building a successor to the original PlayBook tablet, launched back in 2011.
Three years ago, when the first BlackBerry tablet arrived on the market, the device was considered to be a pretty solid device, but the lack of native BlackBerry support and dedicated apps prevented the slate from becoming a real hit with consumers.
Granted, most of BlackBerry’s efforts have been focused on pushing smartphones to business users and its only tablet wasn't even considered for a software upgrade when the time came.
At one point, it was suggested BlackBerry might be considering abandoning the tablet race altogether, alongside with other companies that have been visibly struggled in this department like HTC and Motorola, but now we know this is no longer the case.
Anyway, going back to what the company’s official said, BlackBerry might be considering a new tablet, but it’s certainly not ready to release it into the wild, yet.
And while we wait to see something concrete come out of the device maker, a bunch of concept images of the PlayBook 2 have showed up on forums, giving the curious a sneak peek into what we could be in for.
Looking at the images, we can’t help but getting an Apple iPad vibe given off by the polished edges. The designers of the concept, also throw in some specs, albeit it’s really anyone’s guess what BlackBerry might want to slip under the hood when the time comes.
However, if we’re to judge by the concept render, the PlayBook 2 could be quite a high-end model. The tablet will have a 10-inch Super AMOLED display with a nice resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels.
Power will be provided by a quad-core Snapdragon 800 clocked at 2.3GHz with quad-core GPU Adreno 330 with 450 MHz combined with 4GB of RAM and either 32GB / 64GB of internal storage.
Furthermore, there’s going to be dual cameras (8MP on the back ad 4MP in front) and an astronomical 10,000 mAh battery to ensure the PlayBook 2 lives on forever and ever (the concept says just 10 hours).
Rumors about BlackBerry releasing a new tablet have been going around for quite some time. One of the most intriguing dates back to November 2013, when a mysterious BlackBerry tablet showed up on the Ciol website, being listed as one of the “top 10 tablets for Christmas 2013”. It was also accompanied by a puzzling description.
“The BlackBerry Play 2 uses BB10 software that took the company over a year to create. It’s much improved on its predecessor and at just £160 / $256 /€192, it’s hard to grumble.”
Christmas 2013 has passed and we haven’t seen BlackBerry launch anything, but if we listen to its VP of Global Product Management, we’re in for quite a wait.