Playbook Review

Last week I bought RIM’s new Playbook tablet to see how it runs and if it is something that I could find useful. For those interested, the answers are “excellent” and “no.”

I opted for the 16gb version, my thinking being that I’m usually not prone to wanting large amounts of data being carried around. As well, the need for holding many small files is waning with the growth of cloud computing and services such as Dropbox. The price for this device is $499 and I think it came to about $550 after HST.

I must admit that my expectations for this device were not great. A day before I was joking with friends that “you know you have a failed launch when you aren’t asking if they bought one, but instead you ask them if theirs works.” There are reports of people having problems with the Blackberry Bridge, which would be a bad thing for PB owners. You see, RIM hasn’t yet developed an email client for the PB. Instead, they are relying on PB owners to connect to their blackberry phones in order to receive emails, contacts and calendars. I’m not sure if the Bridge only works with BB devices.

When I got home I unboxed the PB and plugged it in to give it some charge. I had to go out for a while, so I’m not sure if the device came with a charge or not. A couple of hours later I returned and fired up the PB. The first thing it did was find a new OS update. 250mb and 5 minutes later I had the latest software, fast and easy - sweet. I had a quick look with the device and immediately went to set up the Blackberry Bridge. This is where my first and only problem popped up. My BB phone wasn’t compatible with Bridge. I wasn’t surprised about this and anticipated it because my 9700 was running a “leaked” version of OS6. However, much to my surprise, RIM had just released OS6 for my phone. Very cool. So the next little while spent upgrading my phone’s OS. Once that was done, I went back to the PB and got Bridge up and running. This went fairly smooth with a few little bumps. To be perfectly fair, the bluetooth pairing went just as well for Bridge as it has for every other time I’ve paired bluetooth devices that require passkeys.

Once the PB was setup I started test driving it. First of all, the UI is extremely intuitive and comfortable. Inevitably there will be comparisons to the iPad so here is my first one. The swipe gesture to bring up the home screen is far superior to the home button on the iPad. You just swipe your finger from the bottom bezel upwards and you get home. This happens no matter which orientation the PB is being held.

The browser was fast and responsive and I thought I would test drive Flash. The first website I went to was Club Penguin. I logged into my son’s account and amazingly the website worked. I was able to move the penguin around etc. I didn’t go much further with this, so I don’t know how the browser would handle more intensive flash games. iPad comparison #2: somehow RIM have gotten a flash browser up and running in one year on a new OS while Apple claims it can’t be done (or is it that they don’t want to? It’s one of the two).

The Blackberry Bridge also worked excellently. My emails, contact and calendar were all there for full access. I also tried the Bridge Browser, which a person would use if they are surfing the web using the 3G connection. I think the Bridge Browser is a stripped down version of the full browser, and it doesn’t have as much compliance for flash and maybe some other things. It seemed to work fine though.

As most people know, the app selection for the PB is extremely limiting and bordering on non-existent. My most heavily used apps on my bb phone are podcasts, twitter, globe and mail news, and radio access. Of these, the PB has podcasting and the G&M news. The radio apps are no longer required because radio streams can be played through the PB’s flash browser. I tried out the Kobo App and it worked fantastic. Within seconds I was reading my eBooks using a fantastic eReader interface. This app should not be dismissed lightly, as ereading is a vital part of Tablets imo (more on that in a bit).

I should also say something about the PB hardware. First of all, the screen is superb. When I was at BestBuy, I played with the PB for a bit and then checked out the iPad2. The iPad looked fuzzy in comparison, the PB is significantly sharper (albeit smaller). As well, I find the 7" size to much better than the 10" tablet size of the iPad. For portability and size while hand holding, the 7" is much better. I haven’t spent a lot of time with the iPad, but it’s pretty easy to tell that as the size gets larger, the tablet will be harder to hold, harder to hold and type and generally more awkward to carry around. Steve Jobs got it wrong when he claimed that no-one would want a 7" tablet. I have some bias against Apple, but overall I would say that the iPad seems a bit toyish in comparison to the PB. It is bulkier and its screen has less resolution, whereas the PB overall is a more efficient design.

So what are the big downfalls of the PB? It’s lack of a native email client, calendar and contact app is probably the most significant. A close second is the lack of apps that are currently available. I think the app issue is red herring though. For the life of me I can’t figure out what or why people have such a hunger for apps. Yesterday I looked over the most popular apps in iTunes and the lists are completely unispiring. Almost all of the apps are games, which I have almost no interest in. The other popular apps are from news sources, in which I get my favorites delivered to the PB via G&M and CBC. So exactly what are all these apps that are so desired? It’s like users are attracted to the shiny tablet and consequently they are searching for the apps that justify its existence. To me, this is the crux of the problem. What exactly is the tablet supposed to do? I’ve tried to use it at home for the past 5 days and I’ve struggled to find a true purpose. Sure, there are times that the small tablet is nice to have around for reading or something, but it isn’t often and it certainly isn’t important. If the PB, or any other tablet for that matter, cost $200 then I can justify a purchase more easily. But at $550, do I really need a device so I can read an ebook with the lights off? Or so I can sit on a couch and surf the web instead of sitting at my desk (which also affords me the luxury of typing on a full tactile qwerty keyboard)? I used to think that Tablets are primarily for media consumption and in this regard I understand their advantages while thinking that the price is too high. I suppose that if you enjoy portable gaming systems, the tablets start to make a lot more sense.

Ultimately I found the Playbook to be of very high quality with an outstanding screen and OS. The Blackberry Bridge works as advertised and I can wirelessly transfer files from my network to the PB without requiring iTunes and other such nonsense. For me though, until a true need shows itself I don’t think I will be a Tablet owner. I think I’ll be returning the 16gb PB in the next couple of days (I already have it repacked). I may revisit this next month when I have two new courses that I’ll be working on for my masters, where having a tablet may keep me away from the desk and computer, and offer some relief in that respect.