[Richdog-]

Hi guys, Happy New Year to you all!

Well, to cut a short story shorter, I ventured into the world of Playbook (32GB) this week due to some great deals in the UK while I was visiting there and playing aorund with one in the store and finding the browser etc was excellent. A day later I returned the first playbook I bought as it had a spongey volume up key, and swapped it for one where all the buttons were clickably perfect, and turned the screen on to check it was uniform and that there were no dead pixels.

HOWEVER the one thing I obviously couldn't check in-store at the time was the damn speakers... and now I find that on my new PB, when I put the volume of the speakers above 70% or so, the vibration/buzz in the left-side speaker is terrible... very noticeable in any sound with any remote bit of bass that you play. Gripping the side around the bezel seems to fix the issue and restore clarity, so I can only presume something is a little loose inside.

This is a real pain in the , as I live in Switzerland, and now can't get back to the UK store I bought it from to swap it. One of the thing I loved about the first Playbook when I bought it was that the speakers were so fricken awesome, so i'm a little crushed that I now have this fault after taking it back to swap for a ne wone.

Is there anythnig I can do, or is it going to involve sending it away to RIM somewhere and possibly getting a refurb in return or something equally sucky?

[Altarocks]

That sucks. Since you can't exchange it at the retailer sounds like your only option is to call RIM for an RMA. The good part is you already know how good the speakers are, so you shouldn't settle for less. Good luck.

[Richdog-]

That sucks. Since you can't exchange it at the retailer sounds like your only option is to call RIM for an RMA. The good part is you already know how good the speakers are, so you shouldn't settle for less. Good luck.

Ack, so thats my only option, an RMA? Sigh.

Do RIM send back new units as standard, or is there a chance ill get a refurbed unit?

[Richdog-]

Well, somewhat bizzarely, my speaker issue has abated to a large extend. I've heard of speaker "bedding in" a little and improving in audio quality (though ive never experienced/noticed it myself) but as this was what I thought was a loose speaker I can't imagine it would have applied here. Either way I still notice a little buzzing at full volume, but it has decreased massively to the point where it's not really too noticeable. Of course, as a fussy guy im still noticing it a little, but i'll keep playing music loud monitor it over the next week and if it dssappears then i'll be one happy guy. Anyone got any other ideas why the problems seems to be reducing?

The speaker quality on this tablet is simply exceptional vs any other tablet i've heard... play This Love by Craig Armstrong on a good set of speakers (I have an awesome sound system at home so am very picky), and then play it on the Playbook, and you will be surprised how well it copes. The PB speakers are good and loud enough for me to use it as a portable stereo system, easily audible in the shower too. For movies when travelling I think they would also be great without needing to hook up an external set.

Now i've had a tablet for a couple of weeks I can't understand why anyone says they are an unecessary luxury... it is one of the most versatile piece of electronics i've ever bought, and a great and very portable companion to my phone which when internet tethering are combined means I carry it everywhere now when on my travels.