BlackBerry PlayBook UK price cut to £169

BlackBerry PlayBook UK price cut to £169
PlayBook - going for a song

Since RIM slashed the US price of the BlackBerry PlayBook earlier this week, it's no great surprise that the UK price has followed suit with some retailers now selling the 16GB model for £169.

If 16GB isn't enough for you, 32GB will only set you back £199 and 64GB is a very reasonable (compared to the rest of the market) £329.

Carphone Warehouse and PC World are both offering the reduced prices, although RIM hasn't instigated its one-price-fits-all policy that the US is enjoying – across the Atlantic, you can get all three models for $299.99 each.

Tablets all round

It has been just seven months since the BlackBerry PlayBook launched in the UK with the much heftier price tag of £399 for the 16GB model.

Perhaps RIM is hoping to achieve the same stock-shifting success that the HP TouchPad enjoyed when HP slashed the price to £89 ($99) after it decided to discontinue the hardware.

It's a nice price for a tablet, but bear in mind that the PlayBook doesn't have the greatest selection of apps known to slate-kind. You can find out what we really made of it in our full BlackBerry PlayBook review.

It's happy days for tablet buyers though, with the Sony Tablet S and BlackBerry PlayBook both hopping down the pricing ladder, while the Amazon Kindle Fire started life with the lower rate and Google is rumoured to be taking the same strategy with its upcoming Android tablet.

We're unlikely to see a similar pricing nosedive from Apple, though – sorry iPad lovers.

Via Tom's Hardware

News Editor (UK)

Former UK News Editor for TechRadar, it was a perpetual challenge among the TechRadar staff to send Kate (Twitter, Google+) a link to something interesting on the internet that she hasn't already seen. As TechRadar's News Editor (UK), she was constantly on the hunt for top news and intriguing stories to feed your gadget lust. Kate now enjoys life as a renowned music critic – her words can be found in the i Paper, Guardian, GQ, Metro, Evening Standard and Time Out, and she's also the author of 'Amy Winehouse', a biography of the soul star.