New info: BlackBerry PlayBook battery rated at 5300mAh and 64GB version to be available

We knew the BlackBerry PlayBook would be the first BlackBerry device from RIM to feature a non-removable battery, but since the PlayBook was unveiled at DevCon many of us have been wondering just how big of a battery would be inside the new tablet. Afterall, the PlayBook is fairly small in total size, but with dual core gigahertz processors and the ability to run flash, the PlayBook is going to want to suck back the juice.

Thanks to Jim Balsillie's speech at GITEX, we now know the answer to this one... 5300mAh. To put that into perspective, the BlackBerry Torch has a 1270mAh battery and the Bold 9700, known for it's uber long battery life, has a 1550mAh battery. So with 5300mAh, I'm guessing even with fairly heavy use the PlayBook should be able to make it through the work day and play time afterwards. I pinged Rene over at TiPb.com to see what size of battery the iPad sports, but apparently Apple doesn't give out those specs. One thing is for sure - RIM has always cared about the battery life of their products, and I don't think they'd make an exception on their first tablet.

On the memory front, while RIM didn't announce anything officially at DevCon they did have both 16GB and 32GB models on display. Also new on the GITEX PlayBook slides was the mention of a 64GB model. Good stuff - that's the one I'll be buying! :)