BlackBerry PlayBook BBM Review

Dear All, (Review brought to you by BlackLion )

Today has been an exciting day, along with global news of Osama Bin Laden’s death, BlackBerry lovers also had the official announcement of the Bold Touch 9900. However, for me and many others the updates for the BlackBerry Messenger and BlackBerry Bridge are the most important developments of the day. Yes its finally here;the most anticipated update since the release of the BlackBerry Playbook: BlackBerry Messenger on the Playbook through BlackBerry Bridge.

Many speculated that there would not be a standalone BBM app for the Playbook and instead we would be able to bridge our BB devices to the tablet and use our BBM through there. They are proven right. Today those who did a battery pull on their OS 6 devices were given the chance to update both their BBM’s and BlackBerry Bridge apps.

I downloaded both updates and after a restart on both devices (not mandatory but recommended) started using BBM on my Playbook.

Being able to use it on my Playbook really excited me and proved the BlackBerry experience complete. With all its bonuses, some serious flaws came into view which I would like to list below.

1. The Looks

First and foremost the BBM app looks very simple on the Playbook. Just your contacts on the left hand side, simple buttons for adding new contacts, deleting already present ones and sending attachements. When you touch your own name you can see your details such as Location, PIN etcetera. But you also have your barcode visible without doing anything else. Overall the interface is simple and productive. You can use BBM in portrait mode meaning you can do thumbing on your Playbook which is a lot of fun!

 

Notifications are the same as in incoming messages on your Bridge Message List. You get a blinking red notification on the screen on the top left corner and you see a BBM icon. When you touch it, it takes you to the new BBM message you just received on your BB.

As far as looks go I am very satisfied.

 


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2. Speed

BBM on Playbook has better speed then I imagined. Messages (outgoing and ingoing) appear immediately and you hardly have any issues. When you want to attach pictures (through which you can send either the pictures on your PB or you BB) its a simple and fast procedure. Adding people is also easy and fast. As far as speed goes I have no issues and I am very satisfied.

 

3. Content

This is where RIM seriously screwed up. As of now BBM on Playbook does not have BlackBerry groups on it meaning you can’t reach or communicate with your BB Groups on your Playbook. You have to go directly to the BB itself to communicate. This is an unacceptable flaw and I urge RIM to immediately fix this and allow users to communicate with their BB groups. Other than that you can send music, pictures, videos with ease.

 

Overall Rating

I would give the BBM on Playbook over BB Bridge a 7 out of 10. The three points it has lost are due to the absence of BB Groups.

Hope you enjoyed the review!