Quote:
Originally Posted by mgmueller
Personal experience with all 3 of them:
BlackBerry PlayBook in my opinion presents itself as a different class of tablet. It wasn't supposed to be a bargain buy. Prices juts dropped by more than 50%, to make up for the missing "cool factor" and such. But if you compare to other $ 200 units, it simply seems more "valuable" and of higher build quality.
The display is great, the speakers are fine.
Re. apps: Lack of apps unfortunately killed it. But you've got the Kobo app out of the boox. And you easily can sideload Android apps, using the official Android emulator on PlayBook. More than adequate for Nook and Kindle for example. And of course there's the phantastic browser. You can use the web versions of Kindle, Nook and Kobo.
Google/Asus Nexus 7, to me is a mixed package. I like it. And it's a steal of course.
But: Mine is highly unstable. Kindle app, due to its 700 Kindle books (officially bought from Amazon, no side loading), frequently crashes and always is painfully slow. Same for lots of others apps with lots of files. Lots of other users report the same. General recommendation: Hard reset. I haven't tried this yet, I want to avoid downloading 1.500 ebooks and 10GB of magazines in Zinio. And I didn't have to do something like that on my other tablets. I always asked myself, whether the low price comes for a price...
For Samsung units, it very much seems to be a matter of taste (more so than for most other manufacturers). Personally, I don't like them very much. On most units, their colors are way over-saturated. Some users like it, I find it simply un-natural looking. And I'm not a fan of the design. All their units feels a bit flimsy and "plasticky" to me. But they're highly successful, so obviously they have their fan base. And btw: Personally, I'm not a fan of Asus either, this may explain my reluctance to Nexus 7.
You might consider Kindle Fire HD in that price range as well. Personally, I like it way better than Nexus 7. Out of the box it's a bit "crippled" due to limitations for Amazon content. But you easily can root it and make it a "normal" Android tablet. I didn't do so myself. Kindle for reading is enough, but of course it depends on your main source of books.
I'll get my Nook HD in ca. 10 days from the US. It should be similar to Kindle Fire HD, so should the Kobo Arc.
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First off, thank you SO much for your wonderfully detailed reply!
I certainly appreciate it, especially considering you've had experience with all of them!
Do you find one better for readability [ie easier on the eyes], and also, what about battery life or are they all pretty similar?
The price on the Playbook and the basic simplicity of what I will use it for is what's motivating me to move in that direction, but if it won't do what I want it do it's not a bargain thus I'm considering $100+ on the Samsung Tab2 or Asus Nexus. I'm not really much of a tech or app person per se. As I said, I just want to be able to read on it [hopefully epub library transfer will be ok as well as basic mp3 or video], and surf internet occasionaly. Would still use my PC for all my library purchase/maintenance etc.
As for Kindle Fire, or any of the ereader/HD, I'm sort of hesitant, not really liking be so tied to that one brand per se.
Decisions, decisions!