[kjm2010]

Okay, so i've owned and heavily used a PlayBook as a laptop replacement for work since the day it was released, and continue to use it today.

However, one of the items I struggled with on business trips, was when I needed to do some heavy edits of Powerpoint or when my Excel files had pull down filters or macros. My only means of editing/using these files was to remote desktop to my home PC or use Citrix hoping the local hotel wifi was up to the task. While at times this was painstakingly slow, the benefits of carrying only the playbook during air travel was well worth it.

Well I recently purchased a Windows8.1 Toshiba Encore 8" tablet running the new Bay Trail processor for under $400 (far less than a Surface Pro) and I have to say having the real deal full Windows capability in a tablet has been awesome. It includes a micro HDMI out, Miricast, SD card, and a fully functional micro USB and MS Office Home Edition.

The Playbook user interface is still substantially better than Windows 8.1 or IOS and will continue to be my primary tablet when not on business travel. However the corporate world may have a significant competitor to consider against the IPAD now.

Full disclosure: our 3 person household has 3 playbooks, a z10, z30, BB Bold and an IPAD2, so this isn't a negative biased post, just a perspective that for me and likely many business users, having a practcal choice for a full Windows tablet (and all your existing software being compatible ) could be a big deal.

[Gooseberry Falls]

How are the speakers on it? I gotta believe the Office is great for business. Was that free or trial version? Next on my gadget list...

[kjm2010]

How are the speakers on it? I gotta believe the Office is great for business. Was that free or trial version? Next on my gadget list...

Speakers are pretty good, one thing I don't like is they are set up on left and right in portrait mode.. But Toshiba worked with Microsoft on getting it fully certified for Skype. Dell and HP both have Windows 8.1 tablets too which depending on features you want could be good choices as well.
MS Office is a full licensed version (not a trial) of Student Home 2013 so you get Powerpoint, Excel, Word, and One Note. ($139 value if you bought it separately). Full Outlook is not included, but a Outlook type web mail client is included with the OS. You could buy Outlook separately, which would give you the equivalent of Office Home Business. There are some good reviews on Amazon for the 32GByte version. I bought the 64GByte version from Toshiba.

[rmpb]

Win 8.1 tablet is awesome if you use Excel etc much. I loved my PB, but having a fully functional Office suite kills any and all Office type apps that are available (sideload or native) on the PB. Like KJM2010 I still use my PB at home for non-work stuff (screen and sound can't be beat), but full W8.1 functionality and ability to just load regular programs rather than having to try and find an app to do the same thing (and depending on type of program trying to port info back and forth) can't be beat. Truly instant on capability, long battery life and size/weight (including ability to use one handed) means it beats laptop or netbook when out of the office.

[qwerty4ever]

The lack of full Microsoft Office compatibility even with Microsoft Office 365 Cloud Services is not good for BlackBerry PlayBook users especially in the workplace. Microsoft could easily provide a full Microsoft Office experience in the web browser if they wanted to do so.

Posted via CB10

[kjm2010]

The lack of full Microsoft Office compatibility even with Microsoft Office 365 Cloud Services is not good for BlackBerry PlayBook users especially in the workplace. Microsoft could easily provide a full Microsoft Office experience in the web browser if they wanted to do so.

Posted via CB10

Very true, but full MS Office functionality via. Internet is currently available with Citrix in many corporate environs or through RDP/Splashtop type connections even for the Playbook and personal systems. However, (for me) being tied to the Internet is a big negative...and running Macros in Excel would still be problematic. MS is talking about next gen full touch MS Office that will also run on IOS, but that's not likely in the near term, nor likely set in stone.