BlackBerry Playbook launches April 19 for $499, pre-order it now

The Wi-Fi version of the BlackBerry Playbook will be available at Best Buy and other retailers starting April 19, Research in Motion said today.

Best Buy is now accepting pre-orders for the device in stores and online. It's available in 16GB for $499, 32GB for $599, and 64GB for $699.

Best Buy and Future Shops in Canada will also have the Playbook on April 19 and are accepting pre-orders.

In the U.S., the Playbook will also be available at AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon stores, as well as CBeyond, Cellular South, Cincinnati Bell, Office Depot, RadioShack, ShopBlackBerry.com, Staples, and BlackBerry from Wireless Giant.

Last month, RIM said it would launch high-speed LTE and HSPA+ versions of the BlackBerry Playbook, in addition to Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi + WiMax versions.

RIM first announced the Playbook in September, which to us is a ridiculously long time to wait between announcement and launch of a product. The 7-inch tablet has a 1024-by-600 multitouch capacitive display, designed around a dual-core, 1-GHz Cortex A9 microprocessor backed by a full gigabyte of RAM. The Playbook will run QNX's mobile operating system, not one by Android or another provider. RIM bought QNX in April to tie the BlackBerry to cars and other applications.

The Playbook will have some competition in the market. Apple just released its highly anticipated iPad 2, while the Motorola Xoom hit shelves last month.

This article, written by Chloe Albanesius, originally appeared on PCMag.com and is republished on Gear Live with the permission of Ziff Davis, Inc.