[bitek]

any tablet has its own advantages and disadvanteges. I would not say pb app store is bad. I sideload a lot of apps. android has many apps that eo not work well. say tumblr app. it sucks on android (read reviews on google play) yet I use simple browser + with android avent on and tumblr runs well on it. no neex for app. anyways, pb is good but not for everyone. sell it and let someone enjoy it. by the way there are many quality apps only on playbook. file & folders, tablet tv, secure browser, simple browser etc. etc. etc. etc.

Sent from Blackberry Playbook using TapaTalk 2

[just_luc]

Agree completely. I love my Playbook, but it is an "unfinished product" and has been since day one. BB10 had better be way more polished when it's released to the Playbook RIM can afford no more missteps.

How is it unfinished? what's missing? and don't say BBM or apps.. BBM isn't on any other tablet, so saying it's not on the playbook as an issue is a non-starter, and while it would be nice to see some more apps, that's up to developers to make them.. it has nothing to do with the playbook itself.. so those two non-starter 'complaints' aside.. i'm very curious.. what does the playbook need to be "a finished product" in your opinion?

[kozmo68]

I guess at the end of the day we can all agree to disagree!

What doesn't work for you and others, does work for many people here. And my offer remains open, I'll take your "brick" of your hands for $50.

[ibpluto]

I don't like my playbook either......I LOVE it

[MilnerR]

It depends what you need a tablet for, I have an iPad and a PB, the PB suits my way of working very nicely, it does everything I need it to do very well and the button-free UI is a joy to use. I also find the file management more in keeping with my pre-historic MS-DOS upbringing) The iPad is a lovely piece of kit and it gets used a lot on the sofa for playing with and watching netflix. However, when I go out and about the PB comes with me and the iPad goes back on the book shelf.

Tablets in general are compromised devices, they don't have the specs or the OS to fulfill the computer role (although MS Surface is trying to fill that gap) and don't have the portability to fill the role of a good smartphone, therefore you have to pick a tablet that is compromised in ways that don't impact you too badly. If the PB doesn't suit your way of working then get it on ebay; I'd wait until BB10 has been released as the new OS might give the PB the features that suit you. Either way I hope the money you get from selling the PB goes towards getting you the right tablet for your needs. You can pick up android tablets for peanuts.

[Angus_CB]

For a minute there I thought I had slipped back to summer 2011.

The Playbook has come a long way since then.
You think your gift sucks now? You should have had one a year and a half ago.

For $150.00, or in your case $0.00, this is a great device. Find a purpose for it and use it to it's full extent.
I use mine for web browsing, reading documents, watching videos and remote connecting to my home PCs.
I use the following apps, Simple Browser, Smart Office, SporadicSoftware's PDF Reader, KalemSoft Media Player, Splashtop and Files & Folders to retrieve files. There are 30,000+ apps, I use 6 and am happy with my $150.00 purchase. Probably closer to $250 with apps, cases and chargers.
I do have a BB phone so also I do have the ability to use the Playbook almost anywhere.

If you want to use it hang around the forum and ask questions. If not, give it to someone you hate and buy yourself something more suitable for you.

[anon3969612]

Be glad you got it as a gift... wait until OS 10 becomes available for it later or sell it now.

As for myself, every gadget I've owned has disappointed me in some fashion or another, however I concentrate on what a device can do, not what it can't.

Cheers,

[LiamMontana]

Disappointed with the Playbook and what it does have, no. Disappointed with what it could have and doesn't, yes.

[Spencerdl]

No, I'm not disappointed at all. I use my PlayBook everyday for numerous things. I'm more disappointed that people come here to CrackBerry (a blackberry site) and complain when they clearly have a choice to purchase a tablet that best suits their needs. The BlackBerry PlayBook was released April 2011 and has been well documented ......everywhere what and what it does not have. I've had the PlayBook since May 2011 and it works for ME and what I need a tablet for, if not I would just move on......next time try RESEARCH.....it works wonders in finding a product that works for YOU

[Cynycl]

yes my playbook disappointed me so I got another and the wife claimed it and now she's diappointed, so I got a third. Then I had to share the disappointment, so I got two for my parents, one for an uncle, three more for my best friends and two for my daughters. I bitched constantly at work about it and five coworkers got themselves disappointed too.

Misery loves company

[magutwit]

For $150.00, or in your case $0.00, this is a great device. Find a purpose for it and use it to it's full extent.

Oh, you just reminded me that I paid over 700$ for it (my approximative conversion from euro to dollars)

[droggy66]

no. love it.like they said, should've done your research

[pchapple13]

Go get an iPad and don't bother anyone

[Chaddface]

I'm approaching 500 charge cycles. Guess I can't claim disappointment.

[taz323]

no, had the tablet from the beggining, and have seen it improve from update to update and still has more to come. have two of them a 16 and a 64g. and they are on all the time. bridge to my 9930 and don't even need wifi. I know people with ipads that haven't picked them up in months.

since day one, I've never had a regret.

[Innerchild]

More than once I have had to call the hotel front desk and ask them to reboot their router because I finally figured out they just weren't online. Desk personnel rarely check things like that since they are probably not linked to the guest router.

Edited to add: Forgot to answer the OP's question. I bought a 64GB on launch day. I have used it most every day except when I'm using the other one I bought when they were discounted as a backup in case the first one ever quit on me. Both have been stellar, and I got a couple more for two of my sisters who are seriously non-technical and they love them too.

Every now and then I come down with iPad fever when I'm around my friends who have them. I have an iPod Touch so I have some (not much) investment in the iOS platform. Just tonight I stopped in Best Buy thinking maybe this is the day to pick up an iPad or Mini. But then I see the iPad sitting there... it is a beautiful piece of hardware but it looks so big and heavy; and what I really dislike about it is that one button to get back to another app or exit out of a screen, and then the fever goes away and I walk out empty handed feeling good about my Playbook waiting at home. The Mini is just a larger version of my iPod so don't see spending the money for that.

I guess I cut RIM some slack because I worked in aviation technology and no system came out of the gate 100%. It took a year or so of real-world use to optimize, so my expectations were tempered by that. But, for my personal needs it has more than met them. If I opt to get a larger tablet, it will be a large-screen Playbook one day. Can't wait till BB10 launches for phones and PB!

[Revampd]

How is it unfinished? what's missing? and don't say BBM or apps.. BBM isn't on any other tablet, so saying it's not on the playbook as an issue is a non-starter, and while it would be nice to see some more apps, that's up to developers to make them.. it has nothing to do with the playbook itself.. so those two non-starter 'complaints' aside.. i'm very curious.. what does the playbook need to be "a finished product" in your opinion?

No, I didn't mean apps or anything like that. Maybe "unpolished" would have been a better term to use. As far as hardware goes, I can't imagine better. But it's easy to see that this is a new OS. One of the things that comes to mind is bookmark management in the browser. As many times as it's been mentioned, and through every update, it's never been addressed.

There is a nasty "camera in use" bug that has slipped in during one of the updates and has never been addressed. There are dozens of instances like that.

One particularly annoying thing is that apparently there isn't just one keyboard. Sometimes the "i" will autocapitalize and sometimes it won't. Apostrophes automatically added or not. Little things are different depending on the application.

I've said many times. I love my Playbook just the way it is. I just want the bugs and inconsistencies fixed.

[FF22]

Well, to be honest, unless the Poster asked for this gift, they may not have had any opportunity to do research and discover its weak and good points. This thread can help change that view with opinions on what good it may be.

[randall2580]

How is it unfinished? what's missing? and don't say BBM or apps.. BBM isn't on any other tablet, so saying it's not on the playbook as an issue is a non-starter, and while it would be nice to see some more apps, that's up to developers to make them.. it has nothing to do with the playbook itself.. so those two non-starter 'complaints' aside.. i'm very curious.. what does the playbook need to be "a finished product" in your opinion?

1. A video player like VLC on my computer or MX Player on my Nexus that plays every video I throw at it
2. Any kind of native messaging program as every other platform has, including the BlackBerry phones. Just one, any one would do. Prefer Facebook messenger if possible.
3. A native browser that will actually let me watch a baseball game or hockey match (I know of the simple browser work around - I would just prefer that the native browser work - checkerboards and all)
4. A cross platform video chat, anyone would do.

That's my list - and I think all will be solved with BB10 when it finally gets here and maybe just maybe my $550 tablet will work like a $550 tablet.

I am happy to hear any suggestions you have for me regarding my list I have tried to stay current and am on these forums all the time especially when I see the media questions and suggestions but so far I have yet to see there is just a great video player for PB that equals the two I love on the other 2 platforms I use, if you have one that works please let me know. Also I had not tried to side load facebook messenger - if you have and it works I will run to get it myself, though I have my gripes about the Android based messaging programs the keyboard becomes wonky and no spell check (and believe me I need it).


That at least is my list, most of which will disappear (at least I hope so) on the day that BB10 is available on the PlayBook. Silly me paid full price early on being a total RIM fanboy and believing that RIM understood it was important to get

[Hawnz]

I bought my PlayBook blind, over a year ago. Don't have a BB phone to bridge with. Been very surprised and happy with it. I only use my laptop to transfer files off my PlayBook, as I download most things onto the PlayBook directly from the Web. I can't stream Netflix or Skype, but I can stream other video sources (ABC, NBC etc) and I can video chat using other means. The one thing I would like to do, is make free phone calls using the PlayBook. Any suggestions?

[JasW]

Yes, the browser is obscenely bad. Yes, the app support is painfully poor. And no, I wouldn't expect any objective answers to your queries in an echo chamber.

[joshua_sx1]

As other mentioned, you'll be more disappointed if you pay for it... or in my case, you paid premium price and waiting for more than a year now to come out with something better... I have the latest iDevice (not the mini) and the top of the line Android devices (GN10.1 & Nexus)... and honestly, even these new devices have "shortfalls" - if you will look at it... but they do have strong advantages on each own field... same with PB... if you will look at its strong points, you will appreciate it (if not totally fall in love with it)...

I'm no longer disappointed with a device that is more than a year and still using it... if RIM will fulfill their promises and roll out BB10 on the PlayBook free, that would be an awesome "bonus"...

[eddy_berry]

Am I disappointed with my PlayBook? No. Use it everyday.

Am I disappointed with RIMs horrendous early launch that killed the PlayBook? Yup. It caused developers to turn away and in turn everyone else too.

Am I disappointed with the lack of support from developers? Yeah. But I can't blame them. It's business.

PlayBook has always been a work in progress. Not to develop the PlayBook but to develop QNX and BB10. I'm not going to say PB blows everything else out of the water. It doesn't. But, knowing what I know now if it was launched tomorrow, I would still buy it in a heartbeat.

[RubberChicken76]

Am I disappointed with RIMs horrendous early launch that killed the PlayBook? Yup. It caused developers to turn away and in turn everyone else too.

I too was disappointed with the launch, but this is a gross exaggeration. In reality, the PlayBook got a second lease on life with the price cuts and OS 2.0. In addition, the App Count increased 12 fold from launch, including a number of big name games.

[91300zx]

One answer, **** NO. I've had it over a year and still love using it. Playbook might be lacking in apps but from what I noticed on Android and iPhone they have a lot of apps but there are lots of crap apps. And I'm not talking about the hundreds of fart apps. BB 10 is almost here and can only hope lots of apps to come with it. It's gonna be a game changer