[swyost]

I had an opportunity to play with an Asus Transformer Prime today and I must admit I was not at all impressed. For all the talk about quad core processors, etc, etc., when you pair that technology with an Android OS (yes, it had ICS), the performance was something less than stellar. At first everything lagged until I realized there were a bunch of apps in the background due to Android's lack of a simple means of closing apps. Even after manually killing apps through settings though, moving around in Google Places or Google Maps was (at best) jumpy and screen draws were no faster than any other Android tablet I have touched. Running Google Places side loaded in the Playbook OS 2 beta was actually smoother, with much more fluid screen redraws. Although the Playbook browser loads a bit more slowly, it actually feels like a real browser. There was virtually no difference in the time to open and run other equivalent apps. No, I don't play games so I have no comment on that front.

The point of this is when people want to complain about their Playbook, and salivate for the specs of some Android tablet, they might want to go play with an Android tablet. The biggest limitation to an Android tablet is Android....

[kennyliu]

Now, imagine Playbook OS on that beast or the upcoming TF700 with full HD. It would load web pages before you even think what page you want to load.

[Thunderbuck]

Specs are great, but if you need half of your processor capacity just to cover the overhead of your c_rappy OS, you only have so much left for doing actual, you know, work...

[kennyliu]

And I would love to see that killer whale animation on the Playbook. Just for fun. Love how the water level shows the battery charge too.

[missing_K-W]

As much as everyone who uses Android holds firm to their mantra that there is no lag, and it is truly lag free and fluid...........We here at CB are aware of your dirty little secret.....and that dirty little secret is very evident......there is lag...and lots of it.....dirty little secrets

[swyost]

Specs are great, but if you need half of your processor capacity just to cover the overhead of your c_rappy OS, you only have so much left for doing actual, you know, work...

That is definitely my point. I had someone recently come off with a silly, almost Apple disciple level of devotion, to their TF Prime so since I had access to one for a bit today I felt I should at least play with it. Afterwards my instinctive thought was to wonder what 15 year old kid put the OS together since I know some other 15 year old kids who could do a much better job. Any tablet OS that needs a kill switch should not be on a tablet.

[shn'g]

This is really interesting thanks for the post hey. I actually was wondering about the transformer prime with all the specs... Honestly blackberry just needs to get OS 2 out the door and get a half decent looking playbook, and for once get the specs to be above average and it would get some good reception. Maybe show off to people what the OS is actually capable of!

We all know that the specs aren't as important in some ways because the OS rocks but in order to get people talking you have to blow them away with the hardware and what's on the inside.

[ralfyguy]

Now you know why the Brick-and-Mortar stores avoid to keep a decent working PB on display. They don't want people to compare, as this would result in a debacle finding out that the "toys" are actually not all that great. And the sales associates are either totally ignorant, instructed to not to keep a working unit or got the chance to mess about with one and figured out that the grass IS greener on the other side and thus feeding customers BS and talk them into rather buying the "toys". And the companies getting paid by the "toy" makers to make sure it stays that way. And for everybody else who is not going to the stores, there's the Endgadets and CNET and whatever else they're called getting paid for doing their part, that people don't even consider to try the other side. It all makes perfectly sense.
So far I have not seen a single opinion suggesting the PB performance is subpar to ANY tablet out there. And I am not talking about the lack of fart apps. I am talking about PERFORMANCE.
George Orwell's 1984 is everywhere...

[Taxi2base]

I've heard on a few occasion; the PlayBook is the second best tablet. Ipad being number one.



Sent from my BlackBerry 9900 using Tapatalk

[kennyliu]

Now you know why the Brick-and-Mortar stores avoid to keep a decent working PB on display. They don't want people to compare, as this would result in a debacle finding out that the "toys" are actually not all that great. And the sales associates are either totally ignorant, instructed to not to keep a working unit or got the chance to mess about with one and figured out that the grass IS greener on the other side and thus feeding customers BS and talk them into rather buying the "toys". And the companies getting paid by the "toy" makers to make sure it stays that way. And for everybody else who is not going to the stores, there's the Endgadets and CNET and whatever else they're called getting paid for doing their part, that people don't even consider to try the other side. It all makes perfectly sense.
So far I have not seen a single opinion suggesting the PB performance is subpar to ANY tablet out there. And I am not talking about the lack of fart apps. I am talking about PERFORMANCE.
George Orwell's 1984 is everywhere...

Gotta love conspiracy theories

[kennyliu]

I've heard on a few occasion; the PlayBook is the second best tablet. Ipad being number one.



Sent from my BlackBerry 9900 using Tapatalk

For me, the Playbook is #1

[ralfyguy]

Gotta love conspiracy theories

Not sure it is JUST a theory.

[boblinds]

I had a Transformer Prime and returned it because, for the price, it didn't quite perform at the level I expected. Nonetheless, it's an excellent tablet, despite Asus having some QC problems.

After I returned the Prime, I ordered a 64GB PlayBook from BB to replace the 16GB PB I gave my wife for Christmas. As we all know, it's just one damned good tablet and the QNX OS and multitasking interface are incredibly smooth.

[swyost]

This is really interesting thanks for the post hey. I actually was wondering about the transformer prime with all the specs... Honestly blackberry just needs to get OS 2 out the door and get a half decent looking playbook, and for once get the specs to be above average and it would get some good reception. Maybe show off to people what the OS is actually capable of!

We all know that the specs aren't as important in some ways because the OS rocks but in order to get people talking you have to blow them away with the hardware and what's on the inside.

It really just did not impress me. It is not that it was terrible, but it was also not perceptibly more responsive to me than any other Android tablet I have touched. For all its supposed horsepower, the performance just didn't seem to back it up.

Admittedly though I also just can't stand Android, whether it is on a phone or a tablet. The frequency of crashes, the unfinished edges, and inconsistent experience from app to app is too mch for me. They really should spent more time finishing the OS and less time designing stuff moving water screen backgrounds. From my perspective, the idea of having to back out of an app in any OS since the late 80s in order to properly close te app is just stupid. I know some will say that you do not need to close apps but 1) the performance hit I have seen on all Android tablets I have used when apps are open in the background says otherwise, and 2) they wouldn't provide a kill switch if there was no need for it. Whenever I have been obliged to encounter it, it has reminded me of the sorts of stuff my friends programmed for fun on their Commodore 64's in the 80s. It wasn't finished because they knew how to do X, Y, and Z; therefore, it must be logical to everyone else too. How difficult can it be to program a little X into the application Windows?

[swyost]

I've heard on a few occasion; the PlayBook is the second best tablet. Ipad being number one.



Sent from my BlackBerry 9900 using Tapatalk

In terms of OS functionality, I really think it is the Playbook and the now defunct WebOS. To me, IOS on an iPad is like a large print church missal for the visually impaired. It might as well be an iPod or iPhone just blown up in size and if you like interfaces it is great. The only real competition in terms of OS quality that I know is coming is the tablet interface for Windows 8. It has real multitasking (no surprise) and also shares a variety of conceptual things with the Playbook on the UI front. If Apple made the Playbook, they would already be filing another frivolous copyright infringement suit.

[kennyliu]

In terms of OS functionality, I really think it is the Playbook and the now defunct WebOS. To me, IOS on an iPad is like a large print church missal for the visually impaired. It might as well be an iPod or iPhone just blown up in size and if you like interfaces it is great. The only real competition in terms of OS quality that I know is coming is the tablet interface for Windows 8. It has real multitasking (no surprise) and also shares a variety of conceptual things with the Playbook on the UI front. If Apple made the Playbook, they would already be filing another frivolous copyright infringement suit.

webOS is not really defunct. It went open-source.

But you can't compare it to PB anyway. It's so f&^%$ing slow, laggy, and buggy (especially the browser), although it has some nice cross-integration of apps.

[xKrNMBoYx]

At first everything lagged until I realized there were a bunch of apps in the background due to Android's lack of a simple means of closing apps.

If you knew anything about ICS you would know that you could close apps by a similar swiping gesture from the multitask bar/menu. Just because you had a bad experience doesn't mean everyone else will. There is no "one" definition of lag, or perfect. While there is no doubt QNX is more smooth then Android, a person's experience differ.

Already in one of you other post you admitted you hated Android because of a crashes. Unlike the playbook, android is used on different kind of hardware. Each manufacturer has to customize the OS and it may not always work right out of the box. It may take a lot of updates.

I'm just tired of these posts putting down other devices and software. The people of crackberry go into rage mode when we see misinformed articles, hate, or even when people express their dissatisfaction of the playbook. Why should we do the same with other devices then?

The Transformer Prime, and Playbook are two total different products. They may even be meant for different user groups.

[auditman]

Maybe those android hardware should license qnx to make thier hardware screeeeeem!

[Dapper37]

Now you know why the Brick-and-Mortar stores avoid to keep a decent working PB on display. They don't want people to compare, as this would result in a debacle finding out that the "toys" are actually not all that great. And the sales associates are either totally ignorant, instructed to not to keep a working unit or got the chance to mess about with one and figured out that the grass IS greener on the other side and thus feeding customers BS and talk them into rather buying the "toys". And the companies getting paid by the "toy" makers to make sure it stays that way. And for everybody else who is not going to the stores, there's the Endgadets and CNET and whatever else they're called getting paid for doing their part, that people don't even consider to try the other side. It all makes perfectly sense.
So far I have not seen a single opinion suggesting the PB performance is subpar to ANY tablet out there. And I am not talking about the lack of fart apps. I am talking about PERFORMANCE.
George Orwell's 1984 is everywhere...

You nailed it!

[greatwiseone]

webOS is not really defunct. It went open-source.

But you can't compare it to PB anyway. It's so f&^%$ing slow, laggy, and buggy (especially the browser), although it has some nice cross-integration of apps.

webOS is OK. The problem with the touchpad is that it lacked the side swipe that the PB has for switching between applications, and overall, webOS is just not as smooth as the PB. In addition, the "true-multitasking" of the Touchpad is a bit weird. For instance, if you are watching something on youtube and you switch to something else, the browser stops working after a while. This is in contrast to the PB where I have WAY more control over how the apps work.

[kennyliu]

webOS is OK. The problem with the touchpad is that it lacked the side swipe that the PB has for switching between applications, and overall, webOS is just not as smooth as the PB. In addition, the "true-multitasking" of the Touchpad is a bit weird. For instance, if you are watching something on youtube and you switch to something else, the browser stops working after a while. This is in contrast to the PB where I have WAY more control over how the apps work.

Plus opening a few tabs makes the first few blurry and unreadable. Overall, the browser is painfully slow and hangs all the time. Even with the CPU overclocked to 1.5Ghz and all performance increasing patches installed.

[rkennedy01]

I was seriously considering a TF Prime before getting my PlayBook. I even purchased a Tab 10.1 just to familiarize myself with Android 3.xx while I waited for the Prime to be released on the promised date of December 19th. But when ASUS delayed the product until 2012, I started looking at alternatives and one of the devices I decided to try was the PlayBook.

Long story short, after a week with the PlayBook the Tab 10.1 went back to Costco and I shelved any plans I had to buy the TF Prime. The PB OS was so much smoother and more responsive than Android on the Tab 10.1, and I found the form factor more convenient to use when on the go. This, plus the promise of the goodies coming in PB OS 2.0 - and the discounted price point (paid $249 for the 32GB model at Office Depot) - helped seal the deal. I even picked-up a second (16GB) unit for the wife and she loves it.

Now, to hear that Android 4.0 on the TF Prime is still laggy in places just confirms my original decision to go with the PB.

RCK

[anon(4216152)]

Good point about the superspecs. I had a similar experience. 1.5 Years ago I bought my wife an Android smartphone, creme-de-la-creme, 1 GHz snapdragron, a lot of RAM. Outperformed most, if not all, other phones on specs. Experience with the phone wasn't in line with the superspecs. 6 Months ago I bought the Bold 9780. Later model than the wife's droid, specs not impressive at all. However, it is stable, easy to use, and just as fast as the superspecced droid. The bold was my first smartphone and I learned that it's the OS that does the trick. Recently bought the PlayBook, same experience. Let my uncle use it for an hour, got it back and what did he say? This tablet is much more responsive (faster) than my iPad2. Even OS1 BlackBerries first attempt (why do journalist use that word, it's not an attempt, it's a real tablet, one of the best) can match the user experience of a second generation (it's actually fifth or so because Apple's building on the iPod experience) million seller tablet. Journalist's seem to forget that PlayBook's OS is a completely fresh start. They are comparing a 12 year old kid's calculus skills with that of a super intelligent 7 year old kid. One day the super intelligent kid will be better.

Sorry for going of topic, it's my first post.

[alnamvet68]

I had an opportunity to play with an Asus Transformer Prime today and I must admit I was not at all impressed. For all the talk about quad core processors, etc, etc., when you pair that technology with an Android OS (yes, it had ICS), the performance was something less than stellar. At first everything lagged until I realized there were a bunch of apps in the background due to Android's lack of a simple means of closing apps. Even after manually killing apps through settings though, moving around in Google Places or Google Maps was (at best) jumpy and screen draws were no faster than any other Android tablet I have touched. Running Google Places side loaded in the Playbook OS 2 beta was actually smoother, with much more fluid screen redraws. Although the Playbook browser loads a bit more slowly, it actually feels like a real browser. There was virtually no difference in the time to open and run other equivalent apps. No, I don't play games so I have no comment on that front.

The point of this is when people want to complain about their Playbook, and salivate for the specs of some Android tablet, they might want to go play with an Android tablet. The biggest limitation to an Android tablet is Android....

The point I'll make is that the overwhelming majority of whiney PB haters have never even "played" with a PlayBook.

[Michel Souris]

All I know is that I have a PB as well as an Acer Android tablet. There is NO lag on the Acer. It runs quickly and smoothly, on Honeycomb (so far). I can't see any difference in function between it and the PB. At the moment the Android is far more functional, but OS2 should change that. The Android bashers have obviously not spent much time with a variety of Android tablets. The Android Market, of course, is still the killer difference, with huge numbers of great apps, many free, and generally the paid ones are cheaper than their PB counterparts. And many paid apps on App World are free on the Android Market.
I think the PB has great potential, but don't kid yourselves, Android is a great system also.
And you do not need to "close" Android apps in the background. They do not interfere with the running of new apps, and do NOT take memory from those new running apps. It's the nature of Android - read about it.