RIM: ‘BlackBerry PlayBook’ battery will last ‘a full day’

Apple Online Store“Speaking about its business plans on Thursday, Research In Motion briefly addressed its forthcoming PlayBook tablet and reported issues around the product’s battery life,” Ina Fried reports for AllThingsD.

“Senior Product Manager Ryan Bidan said that the tablet will have a 5,300-milliamp-hour battery that will offer plenty of battery life, but he wouldn’t quote a specific estimate,” Fried reports. “‘We’ll have good battery life,’ he said. ‘Don’t worry about the battery life.’

MacDailyNews Take: Yeah, okay, so what about the apps? And the lack of a software iPod and iTunes support? And the lack of AirPlay? And the third-party accessories?

Fired continues, “UPDATE: Asked whether RIM is still aiming for eight hours of battery life, as it claimed at CES, Bidan said, ‘That is the case–our goal is to get a full day.'”

MacDailyNews Take: The operative word, of course, is “goal.” It’s nice to have goals, but as we’ve clearly seen with RIM’s OS releases since iPhone stunned them senseless in January 2007, they have difficulty hitting them.

Full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: The thing, when it arrives, is supposed to have a 7-inch screen, 45% the size of iPad’s, and RIM is struggling to come close to iPad’s battery life. This is what you get when you’re stuck with off-the-shelf parts and trying to cobble together shrunken pretend iPads.

The ironic thing is that something named “playbook” is being built by a company that for years has been operating without one — beyond doing a lot of talking, teasing, and stalling while seemingly angling for a buyout, Palm-style.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Vatdoro” for the heads up.]

42 Comments

  1. Oh come on guys/gals. This is just like getting better battery life out of some of the Android POSs. You just have to turn off WiFi, turn brightness all the way down, turn off push email and cut processor power by 50%. Then you have an amazing 7 hours. ” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” />

    The funniest thing is 7 inch tablet = business tablet. That is the most ridiculous thing. I’d buy a 7 inch iPad…….. for my kids.

  2. @ ken1w

    Well they certainly don’t mean 24 hours. ” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”wink” style=”border:0;” />
    A work day on Jupiter about be a little over 3 hours, so I think they *might* be able to make that.

  3. Sorry for the bad math, I said I didn’t understand the conversion between mAh and kWhr. Why would they give capacity in mAh when it depends upon voltage? It’s nonsensical! Maybe the FUD was deliberate.

  4. Read the UPDATE: It clearly says they are aiming for 8 hours – a full day.

    In other news, why do you wonder about the name? You think we don’t use the word “playbook” up here in Canuckland?

  5. In some android devices you get the ‘full battery’ rated if you switch off animations, switch off flash, kill background apps (the mighty Droid multitasking fans rave about), dim the screen… and pray.

    Don’t believe me?

    From Android Forum:
    “‘m on my 3rd android phone, and this is the first thing i do on everyone.

    Menu-Settings-Display-Animation-NO ANIMATIONS”

    another:
    “Just yesterday I convinced my fiancée to get the Droid 2 and did it on hers (switch off animations). Easy way to make the phones snappier.”

  6. @twinkie
    Didn’t Canada get smart and go (mostly) metric some time ago?

    We here in the States use those idiotic Imperial units.
    I don’t think that even Britain is dumb enough to use them at this point.
    Miles? Yards? Feet? Inches? Fractions? Cups? Saucers? WTF?

  7. I = current (amps) = charge (Coulomb) or number of electrons per second
    V = voltage (electromotive force or emf, volts)
    P = power = current x voltage = I*V (Watts, W)
    Energy = work = power x time (typically expressed in units of Watt-hours, Wh, or kilowatt-hours, kWh)

    So mAh is current x time (total charge stored in the battery)
    and Wh = power x time (takes into account both the amount of charge and the voltage that shoves those electrons through a circuit), thus the work that the battery can theoretically perform.

    High voltages can bridge an air gap (spark). Static electricity in the winter may be thousands of volts (thus the blue spark when you touch a door knob).

    If I = current = flow of electrons (think flow of water through pipe) and
    V = voltage = electromotive force (think head pressure of water in vertical pipe)

  8. RIM Job I say.

    The name PlayBook?…. coming from a company who prides themselves in the enterprise space? We don’t PLAY @ work…. We WORK… with the iPad.

    BEAM ME UP SCOTTY!!!! BUT CAPTAIN!!!! IM GIVING IT ALL SHE’S GOT!!!! I NEED MORE POWER!!!! What a JOKE!
    Damit! Captain I told you…. I’m a DOCTOR a scientist.

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