[s219]

I used the PB exclusively yesterday while traveling, since I wanted to give the device a solid go on the road. Everything about the device was fine except for the web browser, and it became painful the farther I got into the day. It's noticeably lagging behind Android and iOS browsers, which is bad for a device that places so much emphasis on the browser (both due to the "full web" promise and the lack of apps). Compared to Android and iOS, here's where the PlayBook browser is woefully behind:

* Does not give an option to save and autofill passwords
* scrolling is laggy and jittery (completely opposite of the fast smooth experience on the iPad)
* Double-tap content sizing rarely works right on the first try, requiring a lot of little tweaks
* many intended taps do not register, and require a deliberate 2nd or 3rd tap
* many unintended taps do register (say while scrolling)
* way too much checkerboarding
* Aside from movies, Flash content is often unpredictable, inconsistent, unusable
* Frequent rendering glitches when switching orientation
* Can't organize bookmarks? You have got to be kidding me.

Take Flash out of the picture, and the iPad's Mobile Safari clobbers the PlayBook browser. Add Flash in and the PlayBook is only really better at one thing: watching movies that don't have an HTML 5 equivalent.

RIM may tout this as the full web, and imply that other tables are amateur in their advertising, but to me, they do not deliver a credible full web experience. In fact, they have a lot of work to do on the basic web experience before they worry about Flash and the full web. Please RIM, fix this amateur browser. Right now your ads are way too ironic.

For those that will disagree with me and care about this sort of thing, do yourself a favor and go try the web browser on an iPad 2. Notice the fast smooth scrolling that doesn't jitter. Notice how you can organize bookmarks into folders, have a bookmark bar, and edit/rearrange them however you want. Notice how a double tap always gets the content zoomed the way you want the first time. Notice how taps work, scrolls work, and the browser always interprets your inputs correctly. Etc, etc, etc. That is what RIM needs to work towards. Add a reliable Flash on top of that and then we'll have the full web.

[ericlc2]

I'd recommend copy and paste this in an email to RIM support, also don't forget about the bridge browser!

[Blacklac]

Adobe recently updated Flash to 10.3 with optimizations for the Playbook's CPU, so I sure hope RIM includes this update in our next update. It seems 10.3 treated the Xoom well, I'm hoping it will do the same for our Playbook. I'm not sure if tye checkerboarding while scrolling on websites with Flash is strictly Flash related or more the browser itself or both, but I hope it improves soon. I also want to play Plants vs Zombies on the browser without it becoming unplayable or even crashing after a couple levels. I really think this Flash update will greatly improve our browsing experience as far as Flash content goes. Keep in mind, our Playbook is actually quite a champ with Flash compared to some of the Android tablets, especially right out of the gate.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[vistate1]

ya...email rim...unfortunately i can't do anything about it here.

[murnende]

I honestly can't say that I've been overly disappointed with the browser, and use it for at least an hour a day, sometimes considerably more. That said, I can completely agree with some of your points, improvement would certainly be welcome.

* Does not give an option to save and autofill passwords

I don't use these features, even on a full browser, but I can see that they would be attractive to some.

* scrolling is laggy and jittery (completely opposite of the fast smooth experience on the iPad)

I haven't experienced this.

* Double-tap content sizing rarely works right on the first try, requiring a lot of little tweaks

I can't concur on this one, I've been extremely pleased with double tap resizing. I've found it works flawlessly.

* many intended taps do not register, and require a deliberate 2nd or 3rd tap

I've found this myself, and it seems exclusive to the browser. Even on the bookmarks screen, I find I'm routinely having to tap twice.

* many unintended taps do register (say while scrolling)

This one bothered me a lot early on, but I've found that double tap zooming on the text field eliminates the ads, thus solving this issue.

* way too much checkerboarding

This is, without question, my biggest pet peeve with the browser. Not only does it checkerboard too much, it sometimes takes far too long to clear.

* Aside from movies, Flash content is often unpredictable, inconsistent, unusable

Can you post some links to sites that don't work? I've yet to find a site I can't render or operate, even building quotes on car manufacturers websites with flash popups/forms.

* Can't organize bookmarks? You have got to be kidding me.

Ridiculous, I agree. I'm hoping they patch that in, asap.

[Cupillac]

I used the PB exclusively yesterday while traveling, since I wanted to give the device a solid go on the road. Everything about the device was fine except for the web browser, and it became painful the farther I got into the day. It's noticeably lagging behind Android and iOS browsers, which is bad for a device that places so much emphasis on the browser (both due to the "full web" promise and the lack of apps). Compared to Android and iOS, here's where the PlayBook browser is woefully behind:

* Does not give an option to save and autofill passwords
* scrolling is laggy and jittery (completely opposite of the fast smooth experience on the iPad)
* Double-tap content sizing rarely works right on the first try, requiring a lot of little tweaks
* many intended taps do not register, and require a deliberate 2nd or 3rd tap
* many unintended taps do register (say while scrolling)
* way too much checkerboarding
* Aside from movies, Flash content is often unpredictable, inconsistent, unusable
* Frequent rendering glitches when switching orientation
* Can't organize bookmarks? You have got to be kidding me.
.

I personally have found the web browsing to be good, but yes, the unintended taps when scrolling are absolutely brutal and scrolling up and down full pages is erratic. Sometimes a flick will scroll nice and smooth and other times in takes 20+ flicks just to get to the top or bottom of page.

[larrybda]

I have found the web browser better than the Ipad offerings. Perhaps a bit slower but much better renderings and display of the web pages. No problems with flash. Some checkerboarding, but not a big deal with me.

[Branta]

I used the PB exclusively yesterday while traveling, since I wanted to give the device a solid go on the road. Everything about the device was fine except for the web browser, and it became painful the farther I got into the day. It's noticeably lagging behind Android and iOS browsers, which is bad for a device that places so much emphasis on the robwser (both due to the "full web" promise and the lack of apps).

LMAO you already said all this several weeks ago.

I got my PB through the BB Alliance program for free, and feel lucky I did not have to pay for it. I gave it a shot for about 10 days.

Thread closed.