Observations of a fire sale buyer

I got my Playbook last month when The Source CC (Canada) started their fire sale bundle sales. I ordered the bundle with the 32 GB PB with the Gnarlyfish folio case and the screen protector. It took 4 days to get a ship notice. Shortly after I saw the $118 Walmart special and checked out the posts on Redflagdeals.ca and called them for a price match, which they honored. They PM'd the PB at $118 with no mention of the bundle items....sweet.

I printed the 2.0 user manual out and brushed up on the features, gestures, etc. even before the PB arrived. Received a sealed unit with no dead or stuck pixels but it did have a slight bulge on the back, but for me not an issue. Build date June 26/2012. OS 2.0 pre-installed and after a small region update and wifi setup good to go. I have an iPad 1, a Viewsonic gTablet, and I found this smooth and slick, the GUI is very good once you know the bezel gestures. Wifi was flakey with my D-Link DIR 615 rev B2...no surprise there....lol. Changed to WPA2, AES only, no auto channel, narrow band 20 Hz, better but still got the dreaded cut out.

2.1 update....Better browser...thanks RIM. I don't mind the lack of bookmark management....save to home screen and put in folders. Still wifi drops, gone down to B/G with saved wifi only and no more issues with the dreaded D link dropout. Battery seemed to drain fairly quickly so all email accounts changed to NO push and 24 hr sync.....WAY better battery life.

Now that the frustration of the wifi is fixed I have got to say I am loving this thing, light, portable, great sound, HDMI out. I had a Pro Mini BT keyboard and it works perfect with PB, touchpad and scroll buttons work and with my $10 HDMI cable it rocks on the TV. Now BB needs to put some "New to DVD" movies on their sh*t bag movie store like they claim and I would be all smiles.

I have an android phone, but since I got this I have been checking sites for a cheap CDMA BB (Bell)....can't wait for BB 10!

Congrats on your purchase and Welcome to Crackberry.
The Playbook is a great little tablet.

thanks for the observations

I don't think the wifi problems are worthy of mention in a thread about observations of a playbook. The playbook is not known to have connection problems on stable wifi networks.

i agree the movie store needs more fresh titles. It feels like netflix with a yellow background instead of red.

Thanks for sharing your story. I agree the PB is awesome, I've tried the others but just never felt the love.

You'll be even more impressed if you pick up a BB phone and bridge your two new toys.

As awesome as the PlayBook is now, I'm betting it will be spectacular with BB10.

Originally Posted by Bold_until_Hybrid_Comes

thanks for the observations

I don't think the wifi problems are worthy of mention in a thread about observations of a playbook. The playbook is not known to have connection problems on stable wifi networks.

i agree the movie store needs more fresh titles. It feels like netflix with a yellow background instead of red.

D-link routers are the most common brand at the big box stores in Canada and there are many posts here on CB so I thought it might be worthy of mention....my phone, laptops,eeepc, ipod, ipad, don't drop wifi cutiepie :)

I just used this thing all day today, from 9 to 5. By 5pm, battery was down to 16%. Do you keep brightness maxed out? That doesn't help.

The PlayBook supports Wifi N, so maybe get a new router? Hehe. Extreme, I know!

And welcome to the forums. Enjoy the PlayBook!

Originally Posted by diegonei

I just used this thing all day today, from 9 to 5. By 5pm, battery was down to 16%. Do you keep brightness maxed out? That doesn't help.

The PlayBook supports Wifi N, so maybe get a new router? Hehe. Extreme, I know!

And welcome to the forums. Enjoy the PlayBook!

No, my battery issues are solved now with the push email disabled, it made a big difference. Screen bright...lol....on the lowest level since I got it, auto dim OFF. I like the auto bright feature when you go outside in bright light. I read a post today about a guy who was pissed about the greyed out slider and bright screen on the subway...electrical tape...lol

yes but you shouldnt have to go to a 24 sync of email to get acceptable battery. There might be something wrong with your tablet if you cant get more than 5 hours or whatever with constant use.

Originally Posted by howarmat

yes but you shouldnt have to go to a 24 sync of email to get acceptable battery. There might be something wrong with your tablet if you cant get more than 5 hours or whatever with constant use.

Unless he's gaming nonstop! Hehe. My PlayBook will last no more than four hours when I enter gaming mode.

Just a note on the Bell phone, you probably don't need a CDMA phone unless you are in an area where they do not have the newer network.

Originally Posted by howarmat

yes but you shouldnt have to go to a 24 sync of email to get acceptable battery. There might be something wrong with your tablet if you cant get more than 5 hours or whatever with constant use.

No that's not what I'm saying, the battery drain under use is about the same as before the update but I noticed that on standby it seemed to be 10-15% more after I updated...there was some discussion in the threads ie 0.5 mV etc. I find that with push disabled it is much better than on 2.0, but then again I had push enabled for hotmail on 2.0. I get 6-7 hrs under heavy use now. 2 hrs gaming only...lol

Originally Posted by Madmackie

No that's not what I'm saying, the battery drain under use is about the same as before the update but I noticed that on standby it seemed to be 10-15% more after I updated...there was some discussion in the threads ie 0.5 mV etc. I find that with push disabled it is much better than on 2.0, but then again I had push enabled for hotmail on 2.0. I get 6-7 hrs under heavy use now. 2 hrs gaming only...lol

Heh, sounds about right!

I find that my hotmail always takes a dogs age to load on all my devices compared to my POP accounts. Maybe that's why it seems to be sucking power on push? It's more a hotmail issue than a BB one :)

Essentially i'm a firesale buyer as well and after 5 mins play I boxed up my android tab & took back to the shop for a full refund. Whilst i've not had any complaints about battery life, wifi, etc (you should try using certain android tabs - don't get more than 2 hours use, crap wifi - as in i'm in the room next to the router & it wouldn't connect!) i'm happy that others - particularly who own an android phone like me are seeing the magic of the PB. I keep reading some of the complaints & moans on CB & really get confused with it all. What we have here is an excellent tab with fab features, stability, performance, high def & it just seems like the little things get people really uptight.

I've lurked around other forums when I owned an ipad, and was active when an android user / dev - and to be honest the PB just has more across the board in terms of performance, flexibility and stability. Anyway, glad to hear your positive experience - and by the way if you're staying with android then i'd suggest just getting hold of wifi transfer pro (for file transfer / remote folders); es file explorer; and FoxFi for data tethering. Ok it's not quite the bridge but i'm really happy with the combination, and I only have a 'low performance' Galaxy Ace!