[nimrodity]

i got my playbook today and after a few hours i have found some things that are really annoying.
I knew there were some flaws and quirks but i didnt expect some things to be like they are.
I wont mention the obvoius flaws,just the ones i didnt read about but wanna know what you think about it.

Lets start
1.what i noticed the first what suprised me was the huge amount of checkerboarding while surfing.it really is a lot and often.
2.after you hit the yellow stars to see your bookmarks the first touch after that isnt gonna be recognized at all,you have to touch a 2nd time
3.the playbook is by far slower at browsing than i expected.
What i mean ,i also have a archos 70 and a htc desire.
At i hoped the playbook to be at least a lil bit faster than the desire.
But testing some sites loading the desire was almost everytime the first to go.
the archos of course is slower but not a much as i thought,i dont mean the smoothness just the time it takes to load and render a site.
4.the 4th thing is something i quite dont get.
the screen sometimes has problems keeping track of my thumb while scrolling,it almost seams i have to rouch the screen harder or with another speed.For example,if i make a 5cm swipe sometimes the screens scrolls half the page and the sometimes just a few lines,but at same speeds
5.sometimes one page is smooth and fine 5 minutes later the sites seems to work very heavy like walking through a swamp.

OK enough with the critic,i know this all sounds very negative but like mention before it is just annying,sure the pb has its pros but the cons are more obvious and annoying then on other os tablets.
I will do some extended testing and see if i change my mind about some things mentioned above

[adrenaline_x]

The checked boarding is there... You can turn of flash and it will make it a alot faster and compare from there... But this is all about flash.

It seems like the pages are fast to load at first but the status bar stalls with about a cm to go.. You don't notice it after awhile...

The underlying argument for me, is even though there are some annoyences with the playbook, i still haven't picked up my ipad in two month to use it.. .. So i may be annoyed at it.. but not as annoyed browsing mobile site on my ipad, or having to get an app to view the site.. lol

[123berryaddicted]

I have found that the latest updat 1.0.6.xxxx has a slower browser (with more glitches) than the latest 1.0.5.xxxx.... Any found similar results?

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[axe50]

Actually, its the opposite here..latest version has smoothed things out a bit.

As for your original comment,

1. Less with 1.06 than the first releases. I'm assuming this will get better in time.
2. Not happening with me, but it sounds the same as my suggestion for you on #4...
3. Haven't seen too many sites taking a very long time to load, and I keep flash enabled all the time.
4. it also depends on how fast or slow you are swiping...I know it seems obvious, but a lot of time its overlooked. if you swipe fast, it will scroll fast, but keep in mind that it gets to a point if you scroll too fast that it might not recognize the input (that's all touchscreens, not just PB). This may be why the home button wasn't being picked up. The only time it's happened to me where it wasn't scroll related was on heavy flash content...

[jvictor77]

@nimrodity: Don't know if you have problems with your connection or it's your particular unit, but I experience little - if any - checkerboarding, and none of the other issues you mention. Although understandable, don't think all PB's are like that - though you post as if you do!

[nimrodity]

to 2.
the problem only occurs if you hide the url bar with the button on the right side,with the url bar the problems gone,hmm
to 4.
i dont think its because of my swiping speed.
i used the archos and the desire for quite a while now and picking up the pb the first time and using the touchscreen immediatly felt kind of strange,hard to explain.
its not that it isnt responsive but somehow it doesnt feel quite that precise when browsing.
Using the small 3,7" screen on my desire it feels most of the time like it reads my mind when clicking on a small link but it always keeps getting the right ones,with the pb i have trouble with a lot of missclicks when browsing
i cant say if its because of 1.06 because my pb directly updated to it when booting up the first time,maybe i should test on of the previous versions

[nimrodity]

to 2.
the problem only occurs if you hide the url bar with the button on the right side,with the url bar the problems gone,hmm
to 4.
i dont think its because of my swiping speed.
i used the archos and the desire for quite a while now and picking up the pb the first time and using the touchscreen immediatly felt kind of strange,hard to explain.
its not that it isnt responsive but somehow it doesnt feel quite that precise when browsing.
Using the small 3,7" screen on my desire it feels most of the time like it reads my mind when clicking on a small link but it always keeps getting the right ones,with the pb i have trouble with a lot of missclicks when browsing.
Turning off flash on a device which biggest upside is smooth flash seems kinda off.
i cant say if its because of 1.06 because my pb directly updated to it when booting up the first time,maybe i should test on of the previous versions

sorry for double post,dont know how that happened

[shootsscores]

Lets start
1.what i noticed the first what suprised me was the huge amount of checkerboarding while surfing.it really is a lot and often.
2.after you hit the yellow stars to see your bookmarks the first touch after that isnt gonna be recognized at all,you have to touch a 2nd time
3.the playbook is by far slower at browsing than i expected.
What i mean ,i also have a archos 70 and a htc desire.
At i hoped the playbook to be at least a lil bit faster than the desire.
But testing some sites loading the desire was almost everytime the first to go.
the archos of course is slower but not a much as i thought,i dont mean the smoothness just the time it takes to load and render a site.
4.the 4th thing is something i quite dont get.
the screen sometimes has problems keeping track of my thumb while scrolling,it almost seams i have to rouch the screen harder or with another speed.For example,if i make a 5cm swipe sometimes the screens scrolls half the page and the sometimes just a few lines,but at same speeds
5.sometimes one page is smooth and fine 5 minutes later the sites seems to work very heavy like walking through a swamp.

OK enough with the critic,i know this all sounds very negative but like mention before it is just annying,sure the pb has its pros but the cons are more obvious and annoying then on other os tablets.
I will do some extended testing and see if i change my mind about some things mentioned above

1. The amount of checkerboarding depends upon the amount of flash content and whether it is fully loaded.

2. Two touches are needed for bookmarks and history to allow for scrolling. Rather clever feature, IMO.

3. Flash content related. Turning off flash increases speed. Sometimes I can jump start the scrolling by touching the screen to access content while flash loads.

4. Scroll speed is all in the follow through. It's really quite intuitive and once learned you wonder why all touch based UIs aren't as good as the PB.

5. Probably related to other processes consuming resources and flash.

[vistate1]

The checked boarding is there... You can turn of flash and it will make it a alot faster and compare from there... But this is all about flash.

I'm sorry I have to disagree after testing.

Javascript is what slows down the browser. Please try surfing with javascript off and flash on. You'll notice a wicked difference to both being on.

[vistate1]

1. The amount of checkerboarding depends upon the amount of flash content and whether it is fully loaded.

2. Two touches are needed for bookmarks and history to allow for scrolling. Rather clever feature, IMO.

3. Flash content related. Turning off flash increases speed. Sometimes I can jump start the scrolling by touching the screen to access content while flash loads.

4. Scroll speed is all in the follow through. It's really quite intuitive and once learned you wonder why all touch based UIs aren't as good as the PB.

5. Probably related to other processes consuming resources and flash.

...it has nothing to do with flash. It has to do with the javascript rendering engine....turn javascript off and keep flash on. notice the difference. test out the different combinations. You'll notice by turning flash off, everything runs smoother. however you lose some features on websites.

[s219]

Well, in my experience the PlayBook browser is simply slow, and it's not just related to Flash. In another thread here on CB, I made videos of the PlayBook and iPad 2 loading the engadget website. Flash was turned off to make it an even comparison. What I saw was that the iPad loaded the site in 5-7 seconds while the PlayBook took 12-13 seconds (those ranges are over numerous tries just to get some idea of scatter). Later on we discovered that further turning off javascript on both devices dropped the iPad into the 3-4 second range and the PlayBook into the 6-7 second range.

In all cases, there is still a lot of checkerboarding on the PlayBook compared to the iPad 2, despite the fact that the iPad is painting 30% more pixels . So some natural conclusions are that: 1) RIM needs to improve the rendering engine, 2) RIM really needs to optimize javascript execution, and 3) other optimizations are required to overcome the performance limit where the PlayBooks is roughly performing 2X slower than the iPad 2, or 2.6X slower when taking pixel numbers into account.

The post with the videos and benchmarks is here:

http://forums.crackberry.com/f222/ca...3/#post6427095

More details discussed further down in the thread. Anyways, you're not crazy -- the browser is slow. I have thought that since day one, and this basic testing confirms it.

[vistate1]

very well said dfg912

however, when i removed java script. I did not get checkerboarding.

I usually only get checkerboarding if i start scrolling before a page fully loads...

[nimrodity]

yeah but thats exactly the point,i dont wanna wait till the sites completly loading before scrolling.
turning off javascript and/or flash makes it a lil better but pb without flash whats the point then in buying it.
I bought the pb because it would deliever the best browsing experience on a 7" tablet,but i am not so sure now.
flash is the best on 7" for sure and maybe it has the most desktop like experience but a lil bit more speed would make the browsing so much more fun,that was the main intention when switching from the archos 70,it was a lot less smooth but loading times are pretty equal,as mentioned slower than the desire.
i really hope this will be improved over time,never saw checkers on any of my devices before,never knew how unpleasened it would be.

[darkonex]

When I had my PB I noticed the same, but also my Ipad is like this too, if I scroll fast I see the checkerboarding, and on my Transformer instead of checkerboards it's just blank space. I think all the tabs do this.

[nimrodity]

turning javascript off really helps a lot on some sited,while having flash on,but what exaclty am i lacking without javascript.
btw,didnt think the keyboard actually to be that good,even in landscape although a thumb keyboard like thumb keyboard on android would be even better and i would like to switch the back button with the right shift,i often confuse the two

[billybobsa]

another problem with the browser is the apparent inability to load a page in the background. I like to load a page and browse a different tab that has been "pre loaded" so i don't have to wait around unproductively but the browser doesn't seem to allow this. Whenever I go to a tab, i get a white screen and watch the blue status indicator shuffling across the screen under the title.

I cannot remember going to a tab that I have had loading in the background to find it loaded.

I have even run speed tests against my Torch 9800, the Torch has loaded every single page quicker than the PlayBook has been able to. Both devices using wi-fi, both browsers on the PlayBook are slower. With and without java and flash.

But like posters before me, I waited for the PlayBook specifically for flash support.

I'm still a believer but I would like the tabbed browsing to work.

[vistate1]

i think that will be fixed when they do the tab multi-tasking

[ComfyJammies]

...it has nothing to do with flash. It has to do with the javascript rendering engine....turn javascript off and keep flash on. notice the difference. test out the different combinations. You'll notice by turning flash off, everything runs smoother. however you lose some features on websites.

I absolutely agree and just posted this in another thread a few days ago. What they need is to work on optimizing the javascript processing (that's what Apple does to speed up their browser). You can see the issue in really heavy javascript sites. The web is functional without Flash, but turning off javascript makes many ites not that usable. Javascript is MUCH more prevalent than Flash! It's everywhere! I hope RIM really works on this, it will make a huge difference.

[shootsscores]

another problem with the browser is the apparent inability to load a page in the background. I like to load a page and browse a different tab that has been "pre loaded" so i don't have to wait around unproductively but the browser doesn't seem to allow this. Whenever I go to a tab, i get a white screen and watch the blue status indicator shuffling across the screen under the title.

I cannot remember going to a tab that I have had loading in the background to find it loaded.

I have even run speed tests against my Torch 9800, the Torch has loaded every single page quicker than the PlayBook has been able to. Both devices using wi-fi, both browsers on the PlayBook are slower. With and without java and flash.

But like posters before me, I waited for the PlayBook specifically for flash support.

I'm still a believer but I would like the tabbed browsing to work.

I sometimes use the bridge browser when I'm preloading a site on the main browser (showcase mode enabled).

[Donnee]

turning off java gives a real noticable difference for me, not so much with the flash

then again waiting 10 seconds for a page load is nothing compared to the browser on my curve 9300 (os6) so in my blissful ignorance of all things cupertino, im quite happy

[esqlaw]

i got my playbook today and after a few hours i have found some things that are really annoying.
I knew there were some flaws and quirks but i didnt expect some things to be like they are.
I wont mention the obvoius flaws,just the ones i didnt read about but wanna know what you think about it.

Lets start
1.what i noticed the first what suprised me was the huge amount of checkerboarding while surfing.it really is a lot and often.
2.after you hit the yellow stars to see your bookmarks the first touch after that isnt gonna be recognized at all,you have to touch a 2nd time
3.the playbook is by far slower at browsing than i expected.
What i mean ,i also have a archos 70 and a htc desire.
At i hoped the playbook to be at least a lil bit faster than the desire.
But testing some sites loading the desire was almost everytime the first to go.
the archos of course is slower but not a much as i thought,i dont mean the smoothness just the time it takes to load and render a site.
4.the 4th thing is something i quite dont get.
the screen sometimes has problems keeping track of my thumb while scrolling,it almost seams i have to rouch the screen harder or with another speed.For example,if i make a 5cm swipe sometimes the screens scrolls half the page and the sometimes just a few lines,but at same speeds
5.sometimes one page is smooth and fine 5 minutes later the sites seems to work very heavy like walking through a swamp.

OK enough with the critic,i know this all sounds very negative but like mention before it is just annying,sure the pb has its pros but the cons are more obvious and annoying then on other os tablets.
I will do some extended testing and see if i change my mind about some things mentioned above

1.
Yeah, checkerboarding can be annoying but once the page is loaded I don't it happens often if at all.

2.
Not really following you here. Haven't had any issue or complains about the bookmark button. Actually works quite well for me.

3.
Pages load quick for me. I can't easily compare it with my newer 6.0os phone cause I just got it and before I was stuck around 4.5os. I browser a bunch of sites but its just a browser and not that important for me.

4.
Same speed, really?

[nimrodity]

2.like i said if you hide the url bar,you swipe down to see the yellow bookmark button,once you hit it you see your bookmarks,the first touch than nothing happens,at the second its like it should be,its like locked and you need to push once so you can click on your bookmark.
if the bars not hidden,everyrhings fine at start.
4.its seems to be the angle of my thumb when i try to scroll,on the playbook somehow i think i am holding it otherwise than the archos,because of the different size,therefore i touch the screen with a bit more of my nail ,thats why it isnt recognized properly,so it seems to be myfault not the pbs.i tried using the forefinger it looked more responsive.i think i just have to adjust a bit,but i think the screen could be a lil bit more precise nefertheless

[shootsscores]

2. The first touch allows you to scroll the bookmarks. If the bookmarks activated on the first touch, you wouldn't be able to scroll.

4. A frequent comment around here is that UI is so natural once you learn it that people are trying to use the gestures on their islabs, BBs, lap tops, TVs, toddlers, etc.

[nimrodity]

2.what?
and again,if the url bar is hidden and i pull up the bookmarks,i touch and move and move,without any effect,once i release the finger,i can use it like i want to,but what purpose does that fake touch have,it isnt necessary when the url bar isnt hidden,can you explain that to me.
4.i never said something concerning the UI ,i think the UI itself is really great,but the screen no so much,in terms of reaction and precision

[s219]

When I had my PB I noticed the same, but also my Ipad is like this too, if I scroll fast I see the checkerboarding, and on my Transformer instead of checkerboards it's just blank space. I think all the tabs do this.

Look at the videos -- on the same exact site, the iPad 2 shows no checker boarding at all, whereas it's prevalent on the PlayBook after doing some zooming. It's like some aspect of the page and or render buffer just gets thrown out after you do zooming, and has to be recreated from scratch on the fly. And all of this is on a page that has fully loaded and should be in memory. It just doesn't seem right.

I think it comes down to reliance on software rendering. My understanding is that iOS renders to a layer once (if the page fits) and then animates the layer using OpenGL with hardware acceleration. So you only see additional rendering/checkering for content that didn't fit in the initial render. The PlayBook seems to be recomputing the rendering all the time, and the slow/choppy zooms would support that theory.