Quote:
Originally Posted by Blue2u
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! |
Re. display, I personally find BlackBerry PlayBook the best.
But this comes for a price: Battery duration.
I can make an entire day with it. But in standby the battery seems to drain faster than on most tablets.
Re. surfing the web: The browser on BlackBerry PlayBook is phantastic. Maybe the best I've seen on any of my tablets.
For some time, PlayBook had been my main reader. I've used the Kobo app intensively, plus the Zinio app. Zinio seems to have put some effort in this version. It's the online one I've found, that allows for bulk downloading. I've been able to download my hundreds of magazines within a few hours, which takes forever on other versions of Zinio.
I've even read Kindle and Nook books in their respective web versions.
In addition, I always found the OS of PlayBook spectacular.
But unfortunately, I'm using it less and less.
The lack of apps simply is frustrating. I'm a collector and enjoy the vast libraries in iOS and Android. You hardly can count the new apps, every single day. On PlayBook, days go by without a single new app. One could solve this by sideloading Android apps. This works flawlessly. But why sideload Android app? If I want to have Android, I can buy Nexus 7 for example.
Meaning: If you're fine with PlayBook "out of the box", I strongly can recommend it. But if you miss some apps, I wouldn't rely on getting them later.
From what you've mentioned so far, all of this shouldn't be a problem on PlayBook though.
P.S.: Re. transferring books from public libraries: I haven't checked intensively. But I don't think, you'll find a native app for that on PlayBook. But of course you can sideload any Android app, such as OverDrive for example.
And re. the sideloading of Android apps on PlayBook: Don't worry. It's extremely simple. You can download most Android apps on the PC. Then drag and drop with a simple PC program. You don't have to be an IT-specialist, to do so.