Christmas last month was amazing, to say the least. Since everyone knows that Santa only brings presents to good boys and girls, it goes without saying that I received some truly awesome gifts.

Honestly.

Seriously.

Ok, stop laughing now.

One present that I was extremely eager to get was the Blackberry Playbook. For those of you that don’t know, the Playbook is Research In Motion’s first foray into the tablet PC market.

The initial reviews for it were… horrible. This thing was blasted by tech sites like the proverbial black-sheep of the family. The main points of angst against it were the lack of native apps, no native email, and its diminutive size of seven inches.

Knowing what I was getting, these “cons” proved to be over-hyped. From the first time I turned it on, this tablet showed very high quality. It also discounted a lot of the negative reviews, such as the lack of apps.

The Playbook runs QNX, which is a totally new OS in the tablet field, but has a very long track record in the real world. For example, if you ever used a navigation system in your car then chances are it was QNX. This OS is used in major systems from nuclear reactors, jet fighters, to the space shuttle. It is rock-solid and very robust. One thing that is very cool about the Playbook is its use of gestures to move around the UI. The black bezels on the tablet are touch capacitive. Swipe up from the bottom to access your apps. Swiping down from the top gives you your options. A swipe from the bottom left bezel towards the middle of the screen shows and hides the keyboard. Simple. Elegant. Very easy to learn.

Since QNX is new to tablets, it is perfectly reasonable to assume that the choice in apps would be limited. The Playbook was released in April, 2011 and therefor would take time to rival the app selection of iOS and Android — two systems that had been around for a couple of years already and thus, had more choices.

Take a look at some screenshots from the Playbook itself.

The above is from the Hi Def video demo on the Playbook, videos on this device are incredible and the stereo speakers, placed on either side in the front instead of beneath or on the back, provide some of the best sounds you’ll ever hear on a tablet. Period.

This is the Blackberry app store — ANGRY BIRDS! While there are some apps that are downright horrid, there are others that are very high quality. Files & Folders, for example, is a must have app. It allows you to use bridge to access files on your phone and supports Google Docs and Dropbox.

This is a shot of Bridge Files using Blackberry Bridge. It allows you to basically ‘mirror’ the display on your Blackberry phone — sorry iPhone and Droid users — to check email, access files on your phones memory card and use Blackberry Messenger, or BBM, over a bluetooth connection. While not as fast obviously as a wifi connection, bridge helps you stay connected when you’re not around a hotspot.

The Playbook is due for an OS upgrade to version 2.0 on February 17. The update brings native email, calendar, and contacts to the device as well as a movie store (for US market only) and Blackberry remote which allows you to use your BB phone to control your Playbook.

Seriously, the tablet market doesn’t belong to Apple and Android anymore. The Playbook is a big time contender as it is now, OS 2.0 will only make it even better.

Check one out for yourself! You’re welcome.

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