BlackBerry maker RIM (NASDAQ: RIMM) has rejected claims from an analyst report that its PlayBook battery suffers from a weak battery. Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu asserted in a report that the PlayBook's current battery life lasts only a few hours, in contrast to the Samsung Galaxy Tab's six hours and iPad's 10 hours.

In a statement, RIM countered that: "Any testing or observation of battery life to date by anyone outside of RIM would have been performed using pre-beta units that were built without power management implemented." Yet it is certainly true that the QNX operating system used by the PlayBook was originally engineered for high reliability in mind, not power consumption. Citing information from his sources, Wu wrote that the best battery performance that the PlayBook can delivery would be six hours of power, albeit with "significant re-engineering."

Then again, RIM has a long and proven track record of producing smartphones with superior power management and battery life. Perhaps the company has a few tricks up its sleeve to achieve superior battery performance.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at Forbes Blogs
- check out this article at PC Mag
- check out this article at CNET News

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