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mgmueller · 06-16-2011, 10:13 AM

Initial reaction after unboxing: WOW! Phantastic.
Clearly one of the most compelling and fascinating gadgets for years.
They made all the details right:
- It feels, as if it's in a silicon cover: The edges and the back are perfectly protected by what feels as an additional silicon layer.
- It's very thin. Way thinner than Samsung Galaxy Tab (7"). Similar to iPad2.
- It's beautiful. I like it better than iPad2, don't like the curvy edges of iPad2, whereas BlackBerry PlayBook reminds of iPhone4.
- The OS has, what I've missed on Motorola Xoom: Germany (German) or Germany (English). As most of the apps are in English, I want to have an English OS/UI as well, to have a somewhat consistent look and feel. So, although I live in Germany (and am German), I don't necessarily want to go for German.
- The OS is extremely responsive and has tons of nice features. Most of you probably already read about it: The bezel is touch-responsive as well. By swiping up from the bezel, you enter the home screen. By swiping down from the bezel, you enter the app's menu.
- Real Multitasking. Very cleverly done. By swiping to the home screen, you see all active apps. By swiping left or right from the bezel, you directly can switch apps.
- Surprisingly good sound. Powerful and well balanced sounding speakers. I always found the single speaker on iPad a significant weakness.
- Phantastic display, extremely vivid colors. Extremely good codecs, it seems. I can play some movies, Samsung Galaxy Tab and Dell Streak had been struggling with.

But there's an obvious downside (bigger than I'd expected):
Almost no 3rd party apps.
No Kindle app. No Google Maps (Bing Maps instead, which is okay). No Zinio app. No Navigon app...
I've installed about 8 additional apps. In comparison, I've got 2.190 iOS apps in iTunes!

For now, it by far is my most favorite gadget [after 5 hours of usage

].
Question is: Will I miss all those apps as soon as the "new factor" is gone?
It certainly is limited in its capabilities by lacking lots of apps.

BTW: I can't make the BlackBerry Desktop software work. Neither on iMac, nor in my "Parallels Desktop" windows instance. May be a Mac issue.
For now, I go via DropBox syncing...
EDIT: Suddenly it's working. I still can't use the BlackBerry Desktop software, but now PlayBook is accessible as a USB drive. No idea why it's going now...

But even considering the obvious absence of apps, it is absolutely stunning.
Just based on the hardware, it beats them all: iPad2, Motorola Xoom, Dell Streak (5"), Samsung Galaxy Tab (7").

06-16-2011, 10:13 AM	#915
mgmueller Member Retired Posts: 3,308 Karma: 13024950 Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Augsburg (near Munich), Germany Device: 26 Readers, 44 Tablets	BlackBerry PlayBook Initial reaction after unboxing: WOW! Phantastic. Clearly one of the most compelling and fascinating gadgets for years. They made all the details right: - It feels, as if it's in a silicon cover: The edges and the back are perfectly protected by what feels as an additional silicon layer. - It's very thin. Way thinner than Samsung Galaxy Tab (7"). Similar to iPad2. - It's beautiful. I like it better than iPad2, don't like the curvy edges of iPad2, whereas BlackBerry PlayBook reminds of iPhone4. - The OS has, what I've missed on Motorola Xoom: Germany (German) or Germany (English). As most of the apps are in English, I want to have an English OS/UI as well, to have a somewhat consistent look and feel. So, although I live in Germany (and am German), I don't necessarily want to go for German. - The OS is extremely responsive and has tons of nice features. Most of you probably already read about it: The bezel is touch-responsive as well. By swiping up from the bezel, you enter the home screen. By swiping down from the bezel, you enter the app's menu. - Real Multitasking. Very cleverly done. By swiping to the home screen, you see all active apps. By swiping left or right from the bezel, you directly can switch apps. - Surprisingly good sound. Powerful and well balanced sounding speakers. I always found the single speaker on iPad a significant weakness. - Phantastic display, extremely vivid colors. Extremely good codecs, it seems. I can play some movies, Samsung Galaxy Tab and Dell Streak had been struggling with. But there's an obvious downside (bigger than I'd expected): Almost no 3rd party apps. No Kindle app. No Google Maps (Bing Maps instead, which is okay). No Zinio app. No Navigon app... I've installed about 8 additional apps. In comparison, I've got 2.190 iOS apps in iTunes! For now, it by far is my most favorite gadget [after 5 hours of usage ]. Question is: Will I miss all those apps as soon as the "new factor" is gone? It certainly is limited in its capabilities by lacking lots of apps. BTW: I can't make the BlackBerry Desktop software work. Neither on iMac, nor in my "Parallels Desktop" windows instance. May be a Mac issue. For now, I go via DropBox syncing... EDIT: Suddenly it's working. I still can't use the BlackBerry Desktop software, but now PlayBook is accessible as a USB drive. No idea why it's going now... But even considering the obvious absence of apps, it is absolutely stunning. Just based on the hardware, it beats them all: iPad2, Motorola Xoom, Dell Streak (5"), Samsung Galaxy Tab (7"). Last edited by mgmueller; 06-16-2011 at 10:01 PM.