[zensen]

Having just read through this thread, I can totally understand the side taken by the OP and the others who defended Kevs article and thought the review was justified. This is a very passionate Blackberry community who don't need magic

Kev, Nice work on explaining your review (even if you didn't have to) and your reasons behind the choices you made. Btw good luck on that "mission"

I liked the review and though it may have waffled on a tad on certain parts I thought you were more subjective on things that weren't that significant. I can't hold that against you since it adds a bit of character even though it felt like you were going that extra depth to find that fault (lol). I like that you wanted to explain your reasons and you don't get that very often and when you do find that, its ****-weak and thats what sets your reviews a part from everyone else.

With your bb mindset I just felt it needed more of that insight into the blackberry advantage on the playbook and its unique abilities found no where else, I felt some other reviewers handled this better but generally most of them weren't that great, bloody ipad - haha. I've said my peace in the comment sections of your previous articles but I do think your reviews are good and spot on - good and bad.

Looking forward to your 10 day article and hopefully those Playbook features that weren't fully operational at the time of the review are better integrated and working like a dream

[tumer]

kevin what os build where you using for your review and what os build will mondays review be ???

[simsim]

I do care what I read here, cause if our Crackberry leader cannot trust in RIM, nobody will...

You know it may be a little selfish, but I NEVER want the product I buy or use to be the biggest selling, mass market, new "in" product. Along with the long lines to get my hands on it and the boredom of everyone in the coffeeshop or on the plane pulling out exactly the same thing as me at the same time (and, God-forbid, the same ringtone ).

So I'm not in the least concerned how positive or negative the reviews are AS LONG AS THEY ARE HONEST! And this one is, and ticks all the right boxes for me. I thought I was going to get it, and Kevin has not found any shock faults to change my mind. So as long as they sell enough to keep going and developing the product I'm really a happy camper.

Again, slightly selfish, but hey! I'm not here for the sake of what I can do for a corporation, I'm here for what a corporation, or some other, can do for me!

But for all those inferiority-complexed attention-whores who need everyone to love the products they use and feel almost raped and violated if someone says anything negative about their choice of electronic gizmo.... GROW A PAIR!

[djrupey]

I am a dedicated Blackberry fan despite only ever having had one device, the Storm 1 since November '08. You would not believe my ups and downs in the interim, culminating in having to spend nearly �50 on a new screen because the old one gradually stopped working (hint -always use screen protectors, which I didn't).

So although I have been wildly excited about the Playbook and the way it would complement my phone, my enthusiasm has been tempered by the fear that it would be half-baked, full of glitches, and generally prove a let-down. The reviews when they first came out, including Kevin's, confirmed that fear.

But that fear has gone completely now. Why? Because of Blackberry Bridge, the realisation of what it can do, the videos showing the PB doing awesome multitasking things like showing a film on a big TV screen while simultaneously doing something else, the bluetooth mouse and keyboard video, and finally, and most importantly, the fact that RIM is updating the Playbook directly, and frequently. With my Storm, I had to wait months for OS updates. In two and a half years I have had just three, maybe four official updates (I forget exactly). But with the PB, it seems that updates are coming every six hours, not every six months. So if the hardware is good quality, which it seems it is, then I am no longer worried about my PB working as it should, because I know that RIM will be improving it remotely as frequently as any bugs and shortcomings are found and rectified.

That gives me huge confidence. I want a Playbook, and I want it NOW. Sadly, being in the UK, it looks like I will need to wait a little longer.

[Machzy]

That was BRILLIANT!

You baseball analogy fanboy!

[NexUsandThem]

But for all those inferiority-complexed attention-whores who need everyone to love the products they use and feel almost raped and violated if someone says anything negative about their choice of electronic gizmo.... GROW A PAIR!

+ 1

Hilarious.

My brother think I am a complete ***** for getting a playbook over an Ipad2 . Who is the ***** waiting at 4am for the Apple store to open in downtown Manhattan to come into work late empty handed anyways? Oh did I mention he is paying a $130 premium to buy from ebay now? Who is the *****?

[CrackBerry Kevin]

FYI.... I'm going to wait a few days more and do a 14 Days Later, A Quick Re-Review of the BlackBerry PlayBook post.... yet another OS update on this PlayBook (seems to be an internal build), and it's messed up my Bridge stuff a bit. Just going to be a new fresh PlayBook tomorrow so that when I Re-Review it's not a pre-release hardware unit.

Thx for the patience!

K

[shikhar10882]

Following this thread, I read somewhere that the bug related to estimating the battery time remaining once it reaches below 10% was fixed...
I am on os built 1.0.8 ...
are you sure..
as my notifier still refuses to say anything beyond "Estimated time remaining until".
...
Or am i missing some patch here???

[theegoldenone]

Holly dead thread revival, Batman!

[greatwiseone]

I think Kevin needs to do a re-review of the PB with PB OS2.0!

[jvictor77]

He always was going to do that....just like all of us, what he didn't know was that it was going to be a 10 month wait!

[soren203]

damnit kevin why?!

[shikhar10882]

Kevin.. where art thou??? No responses???

[Angus_CB]

So did the BlackBerry PlayBook hit the ball straight out of the park? Not quite. To me it's looking more like a line drive and an easy run in to second base

C'mon Kevin, you fell into the same game every Blackberry hater reviewer fell, pointing out the negatives instead of the BIG positives BB playbook has...
...

A line drive, is hardly what I would call negative.
Ignoring the negatives doesn't make them go away.

[kb5zht]

Well in all fairness to Kevin, many of those original "positives" the OP wanted Kevin to highlight werent real, that is, were not true of the playbook.

First and foremost was native email. Didnt happen... on any model, right out of the gate. It didnt happen 60 days later as we were told either. Didnt even come out by fall. Or any date in 2011. And 10 months later it still does not have native email.

I wont attack each and every point listed because that isnt my goal; I am pointing out that Kevin's description was, 10 months later in retrospect, fairly accurate. A line drive easy take of second base. We are about to receive a big update that will take the runner to third for sure; home plate? that is debateable as bbm and a few other features blackberry owners desperately want arent in the picture yet.

Its coming along, not by leaps and bounds but it is making progress....

[rexrim]

painfully waiting make it fast rim..

[rickgainsmith]

No one expect we'd still be waiting. I wonder if we'll ever know what really happened.

60 days, Summer, October, now Feb...

[Apelles123]

It's difficult- In store devices are often out of power and limited to demo modes. Often most reviews are written on initial release and then abandoned, so that after several software updates the information and criticism are irellevent. I always read between the lines, and take the review with a grain of salt seeing if it has any information that applies to MY SPECIFIC NEEDS , Kevin's included. Forums are often the best. For me opinions are irrelevant . Facts, specs, concrete information and ongoing user experience gleaned from forums are what is significant.

[szparaj]

No one expect we'd still be waiting. I wonder if we'll ever know what really happened.

60 days, Summer, October, now Feb...

My guess is the project managers gave unrealistic dates for the product. I have actually seen worst with a go live date was pushed back a month after month for over a year. Of course there were some casualities as with Rim

[JeepBB]

My guess is the project managers gave unrealistic dates for the product. I have actually seen worst with a go live date was pushed back a month after month for over a year. Of course there were some casualities as with Rim

I don't believe it was the PMs being optimistic with dates. My guess is that they couldn't integrate native email on the PB with the existing BES/BIS solution... and couldn't admit that to themselves (or communicate that up the chain) until they had to face harsh reality. Remember the "leap frogging the opposition" statement shortly before the no-show show back in November? I doubt the CEOs knew that their engineers had hit a wall, or they wouldn't have made such bullish statements that simply made them look foolish.

Actually, I'm not sure that they've fixed it now either - notable that native email on the PB will be ActiveSync based while BBM remains "delayed".

I guess one day the truth will emerge.

[Blacklatino]

lmao, he saw all the bad reviews? where? not one site had a review up before 9 pm that night. they were told not to by rim. I am sure kevin put well over 20 actual man hours in for that review not included times he was just using the device and not thinking about the review. He didnt base his review off anyone else. He gave a completely honest and unbiased review.

Face it. the current product is what it is. Every single site mentioned its downfalls. The device needs work to be "professional grade." Give this another month and many of the opinions would probably change, but RIM gave the reviewers what they had. I applaud kevin for perhaps the longest most in depth review i have seen him do. if RIM wants glowing reviews then they have work to do, plain and simple. The product has potential and i didnt see any legit review that didnt really come to that conclusion.

I agree, the PlayBook has a lot of potential.

@OP.
JMO. There is not a bigger BlackBerry fanboy/enthuiast than Kevin. After all, this is his site. Having said that, Kevin has always been very vocal regarding his opinion as related to decisions made by RIM. I like that. Encourage to improve and provide criticism where needed- whether said criticism is considered constructive, negative, or as unwarranted by others.