I've seen a few less than favorable reviews of the Playbook. But from what I've heard they are releasing software updates rather rapidly, so perhaps it is rapidly improving.
Depends which reviews you read. I've read several reviews by tech journalists that seem to consistently ommit important information. The device *is* getting updated quickly. Don't just read the press....read user accounts, and actually look at the devices.
If you put aside the issues with e-mail and calendar not being ready yet, then the main issues I have with the device is that I still find a 7" tablet to be somewhat small. I tend to prefer the 10" ones. But that's largely a personal preference thing. The other issue I have is that the power button is small. The complaints about that are valid....sort of. The problem is they're mixed in with a history of knowledge of Blackberries......does stuff crash, and if it does, how do you fix it.....battery pulls and all that. Well, with the Playbook, you obviously can't do a battery pull. But it's not the same device as a giant blackberry. It's a different OS.....QNX.....a very stable OS used for nuclear reactors, hydro grids, etc. It can shut down individual kernels without affecting the rest of the OS. Once you figure out how to bring up the menus from any program (put your finger on the Blackberry logo and swipe up) it becomes easy to close anything you need. But then, in the hours I've spent playing with it, I didn't experience a single crash. So, how often will you need to use the power button to reboot to fix a crash? I doubt very often.
Releasing it before the email etc. was set up may hurt RiM in the long run. I'm not sure. Depends on whether people will base their buying decision on whether they're willing to wait a few more months to get the e-mail service or not.
Everyone'll have their own preferences.....I'm just saying, take a look at the device before making an opinion. I was on the fence, but after seeing it...yeah....it's much better than you'd think, based on some of the reviews that are available. It's a lot nicer than I expected. Bright screen, works fast, etc. Particularly as a business user, I find it's much more polished than the iPad (in terms of interface, not hardware).
The first time I looked at the Playbook, I got a horrible impression. The salesguy wasn't around, and I couldn't figure out how to get off the screen it was already on when I picked it up. I was touching everything and couldn't figure it out. Another customer even came by, saw me struggling, said "doesn't seem very usable", and walked away. I came back later that evening, found a sales guy, and he showed me the logo swipe, and that's when my impressions changed. Once I started using it, I was impressed.
One thing I've noticed in the stores around my city....the iPad enjoys excellent marketing within the stores. Sits on the ends of aisles with good signage. The competing devices, however, are located down side aisles, without proper signage etc. Sometimes it's even hard to find the price tag. And in the 5 stores I visited, in 3 of them, the only device that was even configured correctly was the iPad 2. In several instances, they either didn't have some of the other tablets even plugged in so you couldn't test them, or they hadn't updated/patched the devices (in 2 of them, they hadn't bothered to install Flash on the Xoom), and several of the devices hadn't even been granted access to the store WiFi. Customers who came to look at the devices were literally saying "this doesn't even work" and then walking over to the iPad 2. But the issue wasn't the device, so much as that the store's staff hadn't even bothered to configure them so customers could compare. I mean, were those 3 stores exceptions? Or is that trend continued in other cities? The stores I visited were 2 Future Shops, 2 Best Buys, and a Staples.
Just seemed like an odd way to try and sell a technical product.
Banshee
