[EFats]

We got a tablet for work purposes, a Thinkpad Tablet 2 running Windows 8. So just for kicks, here's my opinions on how it stacks up vs. the "old" Playbook. Sorry, just a random stream of thoughts...

My baseline tablet experience is the original iPad. The Playbook quickly became my main tablet when I acquired one.

I terms of build, no complaints about the Thinkpad Tablet 2. On the same level as Playbook, feels nice. It is not as portable, obviously, due to the bigger size. But the aspect ratio makes it a tad better than the iPad. It's got enough ports to keep me happy, including SD & a full sized USB port. Does better than the Playbook in this regard.
The screen is bigger, but also has slightly higher resolution. It's pretty close quality, perhaps slight edge to the Thinkpad. Where it does win is in sheer screen size, which does make for a better experience when viewing video and reading full page articles. On the other hand, the whole point of the tablet is to be portable, and the Playbook does a much better job here and I'll take the tradeoff that the PB took. My wish for the PB is to up the screen resolution, but keep the size, it's near perfect.

Have not measured battery life, but so far it seems ok in very light usage situation. At least it can sit idle for many days yet still have enough charge to keep working when I pick it up without worrying about charging it. My early gut feel is it may be very comparable to the PB, perhaps even better?

Of course, the real comparison is between Windows 8 and the Playbook OS. Playbook wins hands down. I had the Thinkpad at my desk for quite a while with a steady stream of visitors to play with it. It was universally hated (and this is from some very technically minded people who have used a vast array of different computing platforms). Mind you, we also universally hated the ribbon from the new MS Office that was foisted on us.

It terms of usability, intuitiveness, everything you can think of, Win 8 is the dumps (and by extension, most of this applies to Win RT as well). I don't think I needed a manual to use iOS or Playbook. I actually had to fire up my laptop a few times and resort to Google to deal with Windows 8. The biggest problem on the Thinkpad is Windows can't decide if it's a desktop or a tablet. The main Metro UI might be fine, but virtually anything else you want to do with the OS or applications pops you back into the "classic" Windows desktop mode, which is horrible for a touch based tablet. I forgive it if I am using legacy applications, but not for basic parts of the OS. (I assume this is not a problem for Windows RT)
Only the very latest stuff you download from the "Store" is touch optimized, but that's a fairly empty store, maybe worse than when Playbook first started. I imagine the Windows RT store is even more barren.

On an additional note, after a couple of months, the Thinkpad failed to turn on at all. A quick trip to Google seemed to indicate this was not an uncommon problem. I gave Lenovo a call, no jumping through hoops or putting up with inane questions, they immediately sent a pre-paid shipping box, I plunked in the tablet, it was fixed and returned in about a week. Blackberry should take note of this type of service if they want to seriously service the business crowd better.

Compared to a more recent tablet, the Playbook certain fares well against a Windows 8 machine. I noticed that browsing was slightly snappier on the Thinkpad, but in all sorts of other operation, navigating around the tablet and such, the Thinkpad always exhibited a slight lag in responsiveness when compared to the Playbook. Right now, with equal pricing and having to choose between these two, I would not say you're crazy for picking the Playbook.

The only reason for picking any Windows 8 tablet, in my opinion, is that you absolutely need to have a portable tablet to run full "office productivity" applications. That's not a small niche I think, because, sorry, Documents-to-Go just doesn't cut it, not even close. On a Win8 platform, you'd have your pick from Microsoft, to Corel to various free options all of which are leagues better than Doc to Go. If you're commuting on the train, a full laptop is just too awkward to use sometimes. For everything else that involves work, I'd pick the Playbook.

[mkelley65]

I use both devices as well. I wouldn't think of comparing the two. Two different tools for two different purposes. I have 25 PlayBooks deployed but sadly the next refresh cycle will see them replaced with ThinkPads. We sell BES services and are also a Lenovo Reseller. I wish BlackBerry had not abandoned the PlayBook but they have. Everyone here has a PlayBook and a BB10 phone.I don't see us changing our phone platform unless something drastic happens to BlackBerry, but the PlayBooks will come offline.

I don't find Windows 8 to be complicated at all. I find it rather simplistic - Live Tiles or Desktop mode. My TP2 has a digitizer/stylus so I probably don't have the touch issues you are experiencing on the desktop. The digitizer is excellent at handwriting recognition. With minor tweaks you can get the nearly the same Win 7 desktop experience (yes even adding a Start Menu). If you don't like the new look and feel of MS Office 13 you can always install an older version. I have installed Office 2000, 2003, 2007, and 2010 in testing as some customers have never upgraded. All work with no problems so far on Windows 8. The only semi-major issue with Windows 8 is the mail client does not connect to any Exchange Server prior to Exchange 2007. That's kind of a plus for me as it's an incentive for customers to finally upgrade those old exchange servers.

I think your assessment of both units was fair. It all boils down to what tool works best for you.