[void11]

Yesterday I went over to Future Shop to play around with the Motorola Xoom. I have a Playbook but my wife wants a bigger tablet. Maybe it's me but I found the Android Honeycomb UI not very intuitive. The widgets are cool but I found myself looking all over the place for settings and options in various apps. I found myself constantly mixing up the Back, Recent and Home buttons. Since I was new to Honeycomb, I had no idea whether the recent apps showing were open or closed. I kept looking for ways to close apps.

I did some reading and now I have a better understanding of how the OS operates. I'm sure I would get used to it but at the store it made me really appreciate the use of swiping from the bezel on the Playbook. I actually found myself swiping on the bezel of the Xoom.

Anyway, just thought I share my recent experience and my appreciation of the PB OS.

[Erandhawa]

I feel like thats more because we've become accustomed to using the bezel swipes. I know my wife was using my playbook before she got her ipad and once she got her ipad she would always try using the bezel features, which eventually she stopped doing but its more from out day to day use. Xoom is a pretty decent tablet (no playbook tho haha). It takes a bit to get used to the os for newcommers but once you get used to honeycomb it gets fairly easy, I was helping my cousin root his captivate a couple weeks ago and after several failed attempts I finally learned how to do it properly and how to navigate all the menus easily, just comes down to what we are used to. I guess in this aspect apple wins, they made a phone for the non-tech saavy person and made it easy for them to use (made a smartphone for "dumb people", don't take it offensively). Wife hates it when I put it that way but it is what it is and not mocking apple, they are a great company with a great product, just not for everyone.

[NickA]

I think a lot of people but tablets because of brand, or OS loyalty. Same way with cars. I think you should try and buy any product based on what you actually need it for or want to do with it.

And by all means, never rely on a sales person, especially at Staples, to give you advice!

[bradu1]

"Made a smartphone for dumb people" Laughs! That is so accurate! Love it and will use this often! A phone that will do everything a non-tech-savvy person would ever need. That's exactly what Apple did.

[f1mx]

that is the very same thing I feel when using any other tablet. And also I feel very cool when people ask me how to lock/unlock the PB. (wake up/stand by)

[PB-Otaku]

I guess this topic would be subjective. I have an iPad, Xoom (4G) and Playbook. I find all three easy to use. I acutally prefer the Xoom over the playbook and iPad for every day use, but really enjoy the playbook when on the go because of it's portability. My 3 year old Granddaughter gets much more use out of my iPad than I do.

[shootsscores]

A friend who is an android head got to check out my PB the other night. He was fascinated by the OS and the UI ease of operation. The guy is very tech savy and was very impressed.

[sk8er_tor]

The PlayBook is awesome! Only people who have not used it talk sh!t about it.

[ferganer]

Yesterday I went over to Future Shop to play around with the Motorola Xoom. I have a Playbook but my wife wants a bigger tablet. Maybe it's me but I found the Android Honeycomb UI not very intuitive. The widgets are cool but I found myself looking all over the place for settings and options in various apps. I found myself constantly mixing up the Back, Recent and Home buttons. Since I was new to Honeycomb, I had no idea whether the recent apps showing were open or closed. I kept looking for ways to close apps.

I did some reading and now I have a better understanding of how the OS operates. I'm sure I would get used to it but at the store it made me really appreciate the use of swiping from the bezel on the Playbook. I actually found myself swiping on the bezel of the Xoom.

Anyway, just thought I share my recent experience and my appreciation of the PB OS.

I am with you. I had the Xoom for about 2 weeks but returned it because there is no multitasking in Honeycomb. At least in the form we have on the Playbook. This was the primary reason I returned the Xoom. The second reason is the lack of Honeycomb/tablet optimized apps. Everybody seems to be bashing the Playbook for its lack of apps, but trust me there is much fewer Honeycomb apps than PB apps.

Other than that, I liked how polished and solid the OS was compared to webOS and even QNX.