RIM Confirms BBX Phones Will Look Like PlayBook – Similar Resolution

by Ronen Halevy on November 10th, 2011 · Leave a Comment

Posted in News PlayBook

We told you last month that the first wave of upcoming BBX phones would have the same pixel density as the BlackBerry PlayBook. Now we have more confirmation of that fact from PC Mag which interviewed Alec Saunders of RIM this week. Alec confirmed that the first BBX phones would have the same screen resolution and pixel density as the PlayBook. Namely 16:9 ratio and 1024×768 resolution which is an unusual resolution for a phone. On the other hand this will make it much easier for apps to immediately work on the BBX phones.

On the other hand Alec also mentioned that BBX also has the ability to upload multiple dimension graphics which hopefully means it can support different resolutions and aspect ratios. Alec also confirmed that the BBX phones would have all the features of the PlayBook at launch including the addition of BES support and native email.

We also got a chance to sit down with Alec this week so we will have more for you later!

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BBX Smartphones to Have Same Pixel Density as BlackBerry PlayBook?

 

I was going through my notes from DevCon last week and I remembered something that Alec Saunders, RIM’s new head of Developer Relations, said in a response to a question I asked. I asked the panel at this press only session how easy it would be to run current BlackBerry PlayBook Flash, Native, or Android apps on future BBX phones. He responded that RIM is doing everything they can to ensure that the BBX platform phones have the same Pixel Density as the BlackBerry PlayBook. I tried pushing further but all he would say was that they should run just fine or would take a few simple tweaks.

Keep in mind pixel density does not mean the same thing as having the same 1024px x 600px resolution as the PlayBook from what I understand. Trying to simplify it (Thanks Wikipedia), pixel density is a measurement related by the size of the display in inches and the total number of pixels in the horizontal and vertical directions. From my calculations the pixel density of the PlayBook is about 170 which is not bad compared to the iPad which has about a 130px density due to the larger screen.

Still it would be a huge boon for BBX phones if apps and games designed for the PlayBook could just as easily run on BBX phones without any changes. What do you think?

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