by Al Sacco

Why I Use My BlackBerry PlayBook More Than Any Other Tablet (Seriously)

Opinion
Jun 03, 20132 mins
Computers and PeripheralsMobileOperating Systems

The BlackBerry PlayBook has a bit of a bad rap these days, but CIO.com's Al Sacco, an unabashed gadget junkie, uses his PlayBook more than any other tablet computer. Here's why.

BlackBerry and its CEO Thorsten Heins may seemingly be giving up on tablets for the time being, but ironically, I use my BlackBerry PlayBook tablet as much or more than any other tablet…at least for half of the year. And I have quite a collection of tablets.

BlackBerry PlayBook tablet MLB.tv

That said, the title of this post is admittedly a bit misleading because I use my PlayBook for one reason and one reason only: Its micro HDMI-out port lets me watch baseball in full HD on my big ol’ television using my MLB.tv subscription. No other tablet that I’ve used lets me do so, at least not as simply and without buying various cords and adaptors. I have an Internet-ready television, but it doesn’t support MLB.tv. And though I have a few phones with HDMI-out ports, and I can use their MLB At Bat apps to watch games on my TV, none offer the same HD resolution as the PlayBook.

I’m a huge baseball fan, and I watch at least one baseball game on MLB.tv, or parts of many, every day. While I’m reading or writing at night, or lazing cleaning up on the weekend, I always have a baseball game playing. That’s hours of PlayBook use. (Note: MLB.tv baseball games won’t play in the default PlayBook browser, but it’s easy enough to download a compatible third-party browser and adjust the necessary browser settings.)

I also use my BlackBerry smartphone and the BlackBerry Bridge app as a remote control.

Obviously, if you’re not a baseball fanatic, or as much of a fan as I am, you probably don’t much care. But anyone without an Internet-connected TV, or people like me who own Web-connected TVs but want to use online services that aren’t supported, will find a friend in the PlayBook.  (The 16GB version is available on Amazon.com for just $140, and the 64GB PlayBook can be yours for $200.)

My Nexus 7 is probably my favorite tablet overall. It’s the tablet I use for reading and Web surfing, and it’s the one tablet I always travel with. But as far as overall time spent on a tablet goes, my PlayBook takes the cake.

AS