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RIM demonstrates PlayBook with faster Web browsing than Apple's iPad

Research in Motion has offered a hands-on glimpse at its forthcoming 7-inch touchscreen tablet, the PlayBook, in a new video that shows the device offers Adobe Flash and has superior Web browsing speed to Apple's iPad.

The video posted this week by RIM is entitled "BlackBerry PlayBook and iPad Comparison: Web Fidelity." The video shows the PlayBook loading a number of websites much faster than Apple's iPad.

RIM also touted that their device can run Adobe Flash, demonstrating the interactive front page of adidas.com with the PlayBook. Loading the same site on the iPad shows a message that says Flash is not available on the device.

The video also shows an Acid3 test to demonstrate HTML5 performance of the PlayBook and iPad. Both Apple's and RIM's tablets earn a perfect score of 100 out of 100, though the iPad has a rendering artifact in the top right corner.

Of course, the iPad has already been on the market since April, while RIM's PlayBook will not go on sale until early 2011. Apple is expected to announce its next-generation iPad about the same time.

RIM also hopes to take on the iPad with a competitive starting price of under $500. But the device will also come with a smaller 7-inch screen than Apple's 9.7-inch iPad display.

Screen sizes of tablet devices has been a hot topic since Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs criticized iPad competitors, like the PlayBook, for their smaller 7-inch screens. Jobs said that Apple's own internal testing has found that a 7-inch display is too small to be functional for most users.