First impressions with the Playbook

[xaueious]

Dropped by my local Canadian Staples to see the Playbook.

The Playbook is actually quite nice, and is primarily designed to be a tablet companion for Blackberry users right now.

Really liking the gesture bezel. Left and right allow you to switch between active applications, down brings up the application tray, and up is similar to an expanded menu button in Android. The front is buttonless, so you have to get used to the gestures to perform tasks.

The browser works like its supposed to, including Adobe Flash.

Text input is standard fare

The interface generally feels snappy, but you could get animations to be a little choppy if you try. It is quite well optimized and visually engaging.

The default homescreen is a stack of open applications, which you have to close manually as you switch from task to task. Not sure if there is an upper limit, but as long as you kill the tasks you are not in, it will work just fine. As for right now, there are not enough apps for the thing to allow you to make the device lag significantly.

Compared to Honeycomb, it feels more intuitive to use and much less cluttery. But the cards multitask interface will take some getting used to because it is quite unique.

 

[Cynn]

Good post. I own the 32gb PlayBook and I have been enjoying it a great deal.

 

[cal67]

For Canadians interested in one, Staples is dropping the price by $300 starting Nov. 18th (to Dec. 1), so a 16GB version will be selling for $199.00. 32 GB for $299, and 64GB for $399.

 

[Daphne]

BlackBerryPlayBook - RIM US has them for $189 till Saturday.

 

[yann2]

The default homescreen is a stack of open applications, which you have to close manually as you switch from task to task. Not sure if there is an upper limit, but as long as you kill the tasks you are not in, it will work just fine. As for right now, there are not enough apps for the thing to allow you to make the device lag significantly.

Compared to Honeycomb, it feels more intuitive to use and much less cluttery. But the cards multitask interface will take some getting used to because it is quite unique.

That sounds like what my son told me, that Playbook used elements of the webOS.

Have webOS in my Palm Pre2 phone, and it's a nice and polished user interface; definitely better than Android 2.2 which I have running on my Le Pan tablet.

Makes me feel I should search for a decently priced Touchpad tablet - it's got good specs, has webOS natively, and can run CM7 or CM9 as dual boot.

Looked at the Playbook, was considering it at Christmas, plenty of stock available everywhere on Boxing Day sales, finally (sold out quickly in November sales). But I found the screen so small, compared to the 10 inch models, that I passed.

Good to see an area for the Playbook here in the forums, it's a great tablet, hope people can bypass the RIM locked security and root the device.

Good luck!