BlackBerry PlayBook Browser and Games
The browser is very good, including full Flash support which RIM has marketed heavily since the iPad can't do that. The HTML5 support is also incredible and with those two put together, the PlayBook's browser ranks the highest on most benchmarks of mobile browsers. I actually wouldn't be surprised if it loaded the average page faster than Chrome on my desktop. Some complain that 600 pixels high resolution doesn’t work for web viewing and I can see their point. Some sites that are designed without tablets in mind will be a bit crowded. You can zoom in and pan around, but I can see the nuisance of that extra effort compared to larger tablets, laptops or desktops.
BlackBerry PlayBook Social Networking
The Video Chat app was mediocre in the initial release of the PlayBook. In 2.0, it has gotten some significant upgrades that means I really will use this on a semi-regular basis. The biggest change is once again tied to the Contacts management: the app automatically searches for people in my address book that have a PlayBook (by checking the email in my contacts against the BBID PlayBook listings) and adds them to my Video Chat list. I learned of a few acquaintances who have PlayBooks this way, but even for my closer friends, I don’t have to figure out things like which email address they signed up with because the app has done the work for me. The video quality in itself is very good, streaming the full 1080p HD which you can see in full by way of the HDMI output. The biggest downside is that so far you can only connect with other PlayBooks. At the very least, this app will also be on BlackBerry 10 phones, but I also am hoping that they create a PC/Mac application that works with it in the same way that Apple’s FaceTime has a corresponding Mac application.
BlackBerry PlayBook Media Apps
The media apps are good but they are pretty standard for tablets and smartphones. The Camera app includes both the still and video apps in one. This is a nice change from the two separate apps in the phone BBOS because now you can switch back and forth between the two – something that is a common advantage.
Viewing your photos are about what you would expect. You can see photos sorted by albums (folders on your hard drive, plus an All Pictures, the default Wallpapers, Camera Pictures, and any more that are created by apps such as Scrapbook) and can play slideshows within each album. You can quickly jump around between them by the swipe-down menu while one photo is being viewed. Within each album, you can delete individual pictures.
BlackBerry PlayBook Productivity
The Personal Information Management apps have always been strengths of the BlackBerry platform. With PlayBook 2.0, they have done it again. It seems a little weird to speak of an address book app as a reason to buy the platform, but honestly, if you want to use your devices primarily for communication, this may be your most important app. PlayBook 2.0 handles this by having you sign in through the Options menu to various accounts: email(s), Twitter, Facebook, and even LinkedIn. Then the Research in Motion servers do all the work, tying all of your contacts together. If you have somebody on more than one network, it will merge them into one contact card – not perfectly, but it got probably 98% of my 700 or so contacts put together that should have been, and didn’t put anybody together that shouldn’t have been. Not only does it combine all of their descriptions together into the proper categories, it also has a social updates button so you can see their recent tweets and status updates. The one complaint, although I haven’t heard it from anybody else, is that sometimes it gives me a wrong first name and uses their Twitter handle instead. This is only on about 5 of my contacts but even when I manually edit the card, it changes back after closing and reopening the app.
BlackBerry PlayBook Operating System Review
This is where the PlayBook really is much better than any of its competitors. This thing is rock solid. For things related to the OS level, I have not been able to crash it. So far it’s been 10 months with not a single crash. That includes the previously mentioned stress test of the memory. It shuts down the app used least recently in that situation, but never crashes. That can be annoying (most apps do have an auto-save on closing so it isn’t the end of the world), but it definitely wins over just freezing up or shutting off everything. It is an interesting and very positive change from BBOS when you need to restart the device every few days just to clear out the memory. This insane stability I should have expected knowing that QNX made it after Research in Motion bought them out. For those who don't know, QNX makes a variety of embedded systems, mostly for cars but also some other critical systems that cannot afford to crash.
The same build quality evident in the hardware holds on the higher level as well. The various gestures are smart and make great use of the small screen space. When you first turn on your PlayBook and set it up, you get a tutorial that shows you the gestures. Without that, I have handed mine off to others and watched them confused as to how to close an app, change settings or get back to the menu, but those can quickly be taught if somebody who missed the tutorials needs to know. Once they’re known, it is a very comfortable and easy system that doesn’t waste space with unnecessary buttons.
BlackBerry PlayBook Hardware Review
The first thing that needs to be discussed is the size. With the iPad, as with a lot of Android tablets, you get 10" of screen space. With the PlayBook, you get 7". Is bigger better? Depends what you want. I personally have always seen a 10" tablet as completely useless. There are 10" netbooks that cost half as much, have a keyboard, a fully featured operating system (Windows 7 Starter) and no monthly bill, so why would I want an iPad? I wouldn't take it with me anywhere because I can’t fit it in my pocket and if I’m carrying a bag anyway I'd rather use the netbook. I wouldn't use it at home because I'd use my desktop. On the flip side, I’ve heard others say that 7” is too small to do anything, and I definitely agree it does make some things like web browsing a little crowded. Many use tablets primarily for browsing on their couches, or for their kids to play games or consume media in the back seat of the van. In those situations, a 10” tablet is great – particularly the iPad is great because media content is its specialty. Ultimately it is a trade between portability and screen real estate and this may be the one factor most likely to decide whether you like it or not.
e-Reader Suggestions
I'm getting more and more onto the eReading bandwagon, specifically with the Kobo platform. Overall I love e-reading. The cost is almost always better. You don't have to worry about pages ripping or getting stained or just plain getting weathered with age. Everything is synchronized across multiple devices that have the app on it, even bookmarks so I can go from one device to the next on the same page. In my case my Kobo across a desktop, a MacBook, a netbook, two BlackBerry PlayBook tablets, and 4 different BlackBerry smartphones – and Kobo is available on a fair bit more than that. Probably the best thing to me, though, is being able to carry my entire library with me all on my 1lb 7" PlayBook, which I can and do carry with me for other purposes. Up to a couple hundred thousand books in my pocket: that’s a great idea.
