[gladiatorofyale]

Haha. Here we go again.

- Icon is not equal to a native email client. Everybody who uses this argument most probably has never used a native email client.

- Video chat is useless unless you are chatting with someone who owns a PB or BB phone. No Skype = fail in the video chat department.

- Trust me. Having one hundred different car makes and models is better than having no choice although all of them have four wheels.

- Bridge is as free as any other mobile data plan.

- HDMI is present on other tablets (or most tablets with a simple adapter).

- Agree on the rest. Good cameras, good sound, decent build quality

well i know it aint native. but i get my email. not a 911 urgent need for native email.
not like pb aint good cause doesnt have it.
skype its a matter of time.
for the rest hail the pb . lol . peace out

[FF22]

I hate to post in here 1 more time but there must be 100 (exaggeration) threads on here exactly like this one. Same questions, same answers, same redundant back and forth between lovers of it and haters of it with many of the haters probably never even touching one.

I hope YOU know that I don't hate it (sniff) but there are times I can be very irritated at it. I wonder if it is Swedish! (don't ask)

[Bonnie Bonzai]

The question was is there a separate Calendar/Contact app aside from Bridge. That was the question and my answer was on point. And if they'd fix the email pinch/zoom, I would have to PEER LESS!

Lol - love that and you are so right!

[cfx_will]

I understand the point being made here, but I would offer this cautionary note. Don't invest more than you can afford to lose. Right now, there is no guarantee that OS 2 will come out on time or that it will deliver as promised.
Before anyone thinks I'm bashing the PB or RIM, I'm not. I own a 64 GB PB. I bought it because I am hoping that it lives up to its full potential. But in a worst case, I can afford the amount I've spent so far.

Yeah I completely agree. Again, investment has a degree of risk involved. If pb doesn't live up to its promises then it's not that worth it. But THEN AGAIN, 200 bucks for a tablet that does what it does at the moment is already pretty good. I just hope I can get more out of it thus, investment

[Nidhoggur]

No bashing here, OK? Now, you can do more then just basic things without a cell phone, just wi-fi it. When there's no wi-fi available, the Bridge app allows for no cost "tethering", unlike every other tablet in the universe in that there is only one option if there's no wi-fi, and that is to tether for a fee.

Since you remind me of me, where you appear to be a quick read and have readily determined through an in depth trial period of your PB, that it has too many shortcomings for you to mention anything good about it other then "solid hardware," perhaps an exchange for another device is in order. So, seeing as you bought it yesterday, I'm sure you can return it and buy a tablet that has all the native apps you need, and can tether, but at a cost, and you should be much happier.

Nice first post, btw, and welcome.

In addition to my PlayBook I also own a Samsung Galaxy Tab, an HP Touchpad, and an iPad2. I believe I'm more than qualified to compare and contrast the Playbook to its competitors.

And I'm sorry, but compared to its competitors, the Playbook simply isn't good enough. I want it to be, I really do. But posting 'return it if you don't like it' isn't going to magically make the PlayBook a better device.

Like I said in my first post, I like the PlayBook. My only gripe is the complete lack of apps. Everything else is fine. And when I say apps, I mean NATIVE apps.

I'm really surprised RIM let this thing out the door without at least 5 times more apps. Hopefully they have a plan for it.

Oh, and thanks for the welcome, glad to be here.

[NFLPLAYBOOK]

The Playbook doesn't have native email and contacts right now. Will it? Yes. How do I know that? There won't be a BB10 without it. It has the same OS and they won't release a phone without it. What kind of device are you looking for? A portable one that you can carry around with you or a device that sits beside your laptop and only gets used in the bathroom or bed. I for one don't need a device that badly mimics my laptop. Do you have or are you willing to switch to a Blackberry phone? This is important because the two devices work very well together. That will give you native email and contacts and save you on an extra tethering plan. The best reason is the QNX OS itself. It is the best mobile OS on the market by far. Yes I have used all of the other ones.

[JTATL]

Ok I am a blackberry user for a long time. I really didnt see the need for a tablet with desktop and laptop etc. However I was impressed by the fact that the playbook was atablet I could carry around like an address book. At first I was goig to buy a fire but I saw playbooks had been reduced to 199 online so I bought one from an amazon retailer at that price. However I realized it was 16 gb and when walmart.com offered the 32 gb version at 350.00 with charging stand case and rapid charger I was sold so I returned the 16gb version and bought the 32gb version. I have been nothing but impressed. Althought I wouldnt have bought a tablet at 600 a tablet at 300 is awesome.

I am amazed by what it does. Althought it doesnt really do apps in the vein of the ipad it is adequate in that area for the apps I like. Would I like a native net flix player yes but it isnt a deal breaker. What man watches netflix on a 7 inch tablet when they have a 60 inch lcd actually lol.

The hdmi out is awesome. The browser better than ipad. Amost better than i5 laptop at least comparable. needed apps are there and the bridge is flawless.

Tablets arent supposed to be media consumption devices like the fire. They are sopposed to be browser experiences and he browser on wifi is awesome the browser on 3g is good. But thats all u can expect from a bridge. the tablet does ebooks well u can even dim the screen to gray scale. Videos well with very little lag. Syncs with itunes. Those of u who whine need to get a life serious angry bird sucks compared to bubble birds, so stop whining. if u have a blackberry already this is the best tablet and the form factor is perfect.

[melb_me]

Love my Playbooks. Running OS2 Beta on mine. I think the browser is a bit quicker in OS2 and I like the format better. But here is the sweetest thing for me....it runs Medscape perfectly and smokin' fast... you do not even know it is an android app running under QNX. This thing is going to rock your world come February.

[jivegirl14]

The OP has posted 1 time since July 2009. There has been 98 post to convince him to use a PB? I have not read through this thread and I am pretty sure the OP hasn't. Has ANYONE been convinced to buy a PB from this thread? If not this thread is an act of futility and a waste of all our time. IMO.

This thread is troll bait and a waste of time. There are gazillions of threads about the Playbook on the forum, plenty of reasons to get one - or why not to get one (if you really don't want one or feel it doesn't suit your needs). "Convince me to buy a Playbook" looks like the same tired smokescreen and (intentionally or otherwise) just like clockwork brings out the bashers beside themselves with joy at taking yet another innocent-sounding thread into the gutter of negativity, under the guise of "helping" to point out the "flaws."

Anyone wanting to be "convinced" isn't really serious and their time might be better spent doing their own research and going and trying out the product themselves. After all, they can always return it and get something else.

[anindoc]

This thread is troll bait and a waste of time. There are gazillions of threads about the Playbook on the forum, plenty of reasons to get one - or why not to get one (if you really don't want one or feel it doesn't suit your needs). "Convince me to buy a Playbook" looks like the same tired smokescreen and (intentionally or otherwise) just like clockwork brings out the bashers beside themselves with joy at taking yet another innocent-sounding thread into the gutter of negativity, under the guise of "helping" to point out the "flaws."

Anyone wanting to be "convinced" isn't really serious and their time might be better spent doing their own research and going and trying out the product themselves. After all, they can always return it and get something else.

I couldn't agree more to what you say
Just to add that although this thread eventually lead to arguments, big time trolling, waste of time for many posters, not serving its intended purpose (as per the thread topic)- but eventually it did get to track down a few of the trolls (for good).... so in someway it did live up to serve a purpose- clean the forums from a few, if not all, trash talkers !!!

[johnny316]

video recorder, video chat. HDMI output to TV, camera. internet radio, very portable. For me a PB replaces many other devices.

[conix67]

Why yes there is! It's called Blackberry Bridge. Not only does it give you your BB's calendar, contacts, etc., you can stream flash video through it for free and it's free! It's probably the best single app ever devised. Did I mention that many apps are 3g supported over the bridge?

Are you kidding? Someone not familiar with this will think that you're getting BB Bridge if you get a PB.

Bridge is out of question for most people. People will not get a Blackberry just to get Blackberry bridge on a PB.

[anindoc]

Are you kidding? Someone not familiar with this will think that you're getting BB Bridge if you get a PB.

Bridge is out of question for most people. People will not get a Blackberry just to get Blackberry bridge on a PB.

True, what you say.... but dont you think these people should do a bit of research before buying a device.....

[conix67]

video recorder, video chat. HDMI output to TV, camera. internet radio, very portable. For me a PB replaces many other devices.

Video recorder is OK but not any better than cheapest HD video cameras such as Kodak Zi8 etc. I have never used video chat, what can you do with it (lost it upon upgrading to OS 2.0)?

Everyone has HDMI output to TV and honestly I don't see a big thing about tablets sending video out to large TVs.

I got my PB for what it is + Android compatibility. Main use is Ebook reader, internet browser, video player (while on the road), and Photo frame at home.

I knew what I was getting and for $199 it is well worth it. I see the price is now $499 at all retail stores. I don't know how they will sell this at the current price.

[elshaman]

I dont know why it still open, cuz he isnt in on blackberry, he doesnt know the device, he doesnt want it and dont care even…

plz go and buy an Ipad or a galaxy tab, is so lame...

[elshaman]

I dont know why it still open, cuz he isnt in on blackberry, he doesnt know the device, he doesnt want it and dont care even�

plz go and buy an Ipad or a galaxy tab, is so lame...

[superfathead]

so.... I have a Touchpad and a playbook. I'm not a fanboy for either and here's why... Neither of these products are satisfying without rooting them. After rooting them, neither of them are fully satisfying because of technical limitations.

I really like my Touchpad (with Cyanogenmod Android on it). I'm someone who understands that if I wanted a fully usable version of android running, I should have bought a tab that didn't need to be rooted to begin with. So I can forgive the constant reboots, app incompatibility and odd errors I get. The screen is bright and 10 inches can be nice. The processor rocks for sheer horse power (have mine overclocked to 1800mhz).

The down side to the touchpad, to be honest...is it feels like a cheap piece of junk(even though it's not).
The other downside is that if you insist on using WebOS, you have to apply so many tweaks to it to run smoothly and still the browser is horrible. HP should have either used far less plastic or rubberized the back of this thing. This being said, it's not something I had realized until I had my Playbook in hand.

The Playbook can't compete with the Touchpads processor. It just can't, but that doesn't matter because there's no practical reason to overclock past 1500mhz and the playbook actually seems snappier than the Touchpad running stock WebOS.

Like I had said, I didn't realize how cheap the Touchpad felt until I held the Playbook. The perceived quality difference is drastically apparent right away. My unbiased opinion is that before you even turn the thing on, the Touchpad feels like a 200 dollar tablet and the blackberry feels like a 350 dollar tablet (regardless of what you actually spent).

I've rooted both, and here's the big usability difference... The Playbook still has limited app availability even with access to Android Market because all the apps I want to use are still not functional(Netflix, Hulu, Others).

My Touchpad has full access to the Android Market and most apps run fine on it. It's still the very first days of Playbook rooting so compatibility is bound to increase especially after the 2.0 OS is released formally, but you might be waiting months.

Long story short... If screen size doesn't matter to you and a 7 inch tablet is ok, I'd consider the playbook if you can find it for 200 bucks or if compatibility gets better with the Android Market. I honestly think that if blackberry had full Android compatibility while using their OS as the main system they could have charged what they were originally asking for these things.

After using both for a number of months... If you're planning to use them stock, they are both very limiting products and both will cause disappointing results. Rooted, it becomes a preference game... But if both had full access to android, I'd take the Playbook.

[superfathead]

One last aside.... If you're not a business person who needs to sync calenders and other data. You don't really need the bb bridge. If data connection is needed just tether your phone like everyone else. I give it a couple months before the BB bridge is completely supplanted and available to use with android phones that are rooted with a rooted playbook. It's kinda gimmicky and mostly un needed. Although it's a bit of a headache, I have mine working reasonably well with my Iphone. Ok, that's the closest to trolling I feel comfortable doing. Ha.