BB Playbook still ok to buy?

MrMav11

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The daughter wants a BB phone for Xmas, and I was tempted to buy her a cheaper style tablet as well. I have an iPad 2 at moment.

So I've heard the horror stories on the HP tablet, and also heard rumours on the BB Playbook going defunct as well.

Is it "safe" to buy a BB playbook then? will it still be supports with apps, updates etc? Its available now for 16Gb at £250. I don't want to buy if its going to be defunct in a month though. Are BB going to push forward on it?

Also I don't know much about it, is it any good? any different to iPad? what is good/bad about it? Is the touch screen good? reason I probably wont buy a cheaper tablet, is the experience/screen touch are normally rubbish

cheers
 
thanks for link! Its a good deal, but only can use it in store, not online.I was going to get it on a mobile phone deal, £26/month for 24 months with a 9300 BB, but this might be better if any in stock.

it looks a nice unit, looking on the web. Are there many apps currently available for it? So Android is ring to be integrated for using Android apps on the Playbook? that would be cool. Is that officially though?
 
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cool so it will be much netter with all them Android apps. Had a quick look online and the hardware seems fine, but the software apps are lacking. No Skype , Facebook apps!?!

What is out there at the moment for it then? obviously I don't want to give it and say, oh don't worry the apps are coming!!

The £50 off is tempting if I can get to Currys, so £200 for the 16Gb. Is this the best tablet in this price range then?

**edit managed to look at app world on PC and there is a Facebook app, and seems quite a few others to.

cheers
 
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I bought a Playbook a month ago a I love it, combined with my Bold 9900 its really handy and its an exceptional bit of kit for the price.
The apps are lacking a little but the native ones are getting better, the Facebook App is one of the best I've used.

You can use Android Apps on it right now using the OS 2.0 Development Beta which runs really well and it is nice to be able to use Android apps!
 
I bought a Playbook a month ago a I love it, combined with my Bold 9900 its really handy and its an exceptional bit of kit for the price.
The apps are lacking a little but the native ones are getting better, the Facebook App is one of the best I've used.

You can use Android Apps on it right now using the OS 2.0 Development Beta which runs really well and it is nice to be able to use Android apps!
Nice to get a real world user comments thanks. So if the beta developer thing is out then it must be coming officially soon I expect. I'm worried that it will be for a newer device e.g. Playbook 2 thought rather than the playback now. Does it run fine all the Android apps on yours?

Can I ask how much you paid for it? its available for £200 with above voucher for the 16Gb at currys, so tempted at that price.

I noticed that theres no SD slot, I thin 16Gb will be ok, but maybe restrictive, what did you chose?

What accessories did you get? I'm thinking of at least the flip case, the one that allows it to stand up for movies?

Can you pair it with Apple Bluetooth keyboard for typing? Is there an office app for it? for editing Word, Excel etc?

Anything that is a must to have for it, be it apps, games, settings, accessories etc?

cheers
 
Nice to get a real world user comments thanks. So if the beta developer thing is out then it must be coming officially soon I expect. I'm worried that it will be for a newer device e.g. Playbook 2 thought rather than the playback now. Does it run fine all the Android apps on yours?

Can I ask how much you paid for it? its available for £200 with above voucher for the 16Gb at currys, so tempted at that price.

I noticed that theres no SD slot, I thin 16Gb will be ok, but maybe restrictive, what did you chose?

What accessories did you get? I'm thinking of at least the flip case, the one that allows it to stand up for movies?

Can you pair it with Apple Bluetooth keyboard for typing? Is there an office app for it? for editing Word, Excel etc?

Anything that is a must to have for it, be it apps, games, settings, accessories etc?

cheers

The Developers Beta is pretty stable really, I'm using it for day to day use now, I'd miss the Android Apps!
It won't run all Android Apps there are some restrictions mainly around games but I've got a load of what I'd term "tools" that work really well on it and that includes Office Suites which are better than the standard "Docs to Go" thats on the PB.

I wouldn't worry too much about a Playbook 2 at the moment, theres some rumours about a 3G/4G Enabled version sometime in Q2 next year but thats all really, at the present price its a steal.

I paid £350 but I bought the 64GB version mainly as I travel a lot and my work laptop is a pain for transferring movies over!

I've bought an Otterbox case but frankly its a bit bulky for everyday usage so I've reverted to just using a Gel Skin on it for the moment but I'm going to order the Leather Journal case for it, the convertible one is meant to be very good!

An Apple (or any other BT keyboard) will connect and work fine, as will a bluetooth mouse, as mentioned earlier there is Docs to Go on the PB which allows you to view and Edit Word and Excel Docs and View Powerpoint but its not a substitute for a full desktop suite but its fine for quick editing, some of the Android suites are better.

The 2 must have apps for me are 1. Files and Folders 99p, gives you a full proper windows style access to the file system which is great for moving files, deleting, zipping, etc. and 2. Book Reader which I've found to be excellent for Ebooks!

Also you mentioned your daughter has/wants a BB phone also, the Blackberry Bridge functionality which allows you to link your phone and tablet is excellent, its great to see my email on a larger screen and BBM is really cool on the tablet too.

As it is having tried an iPad 1 and a Motorola Xoom I personally think my Playbook is better, the OS seems much better than Android and while the App support isn't there yet its a really cracking device and most of the basics are covered, the smaller size is also invaluable I take my Playbook everywhere wheras the Xoom I found far too big to take all the time without feeling a bit stupid! The Playbook's 7" size is just like taking a book with you!

Any other questions feel free to ask!
 
thanks for the reply chrism, where did you purchase it for that price, thats a good price!

I forgot to mention, the wife wants to get the daughter a Kindle (which she has), but me being a "techy" said that the PB is a ebook reader and some ;) Whats it like as a Ebook reader? easy on the eyes? the Kindle is a delight to read, the screen is nice. Is it comfortable to read the PB ebooks on a night time? not too heavy?

I know the battery life won't be as good, (how is it please for all usage, e.g. for reading book, for movie watching, web browsing , music etc?) as a Kindle, but its so much more.

I agree with the size, (my iPad doesn't go out at all really), that its portable, and want her to take it out and about. She's a bit none techy, and just relies on me! so am hoping she gets into it and uses it.

What about apps not made specifically for PB? how do they scale up on the PB? e.g. on an iPad if it the app is made for iPhone then theres a little "2x" button that you press to make it fill the screen, not as good resolution but better than a tiny windows on the screen. Are there many specific PB apps on the app world?

Is movie playing nice and smooth? Is the touch screen responsive? I've used some of these cheap Android tablets , and they look great on paper, but to touch and use them is horrid...
 
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thanks for the reply chrism, where did you purchase it for that price, thats a good price!

I forgot to mention, the wife wants to get the daughter a Kindle (which she has), but me being a "techy" said that the PB is a ebook reader and some ;) Whats it like as a Ebook reader? easy on the eyes? the Kindle is a delight to read, the screen is nice. Is it comfortable to read the PB ebooks on a night time? not too heavy?

I know the battery life won't be as good, (how is it please for all usage, e.g. for reading book, for movie watching, web browsing , music etc?) as a Kindle, but its so much more.

I agree with the size, (my iPad doesn't go out at all really), that its portable, and want her to take it out and about. She's a bit none techy, and just relies on me! so am hoping she gets into it and uses it.

What about apps not made specifically for PB? how do they scale up on the PB? e.g. on an iPad if it the app is made for iPhone then theres a little "2x" button that you press to make it fill the screen, not as good resolution but better than a tiny windows on the screen. Are there many specific PB apps on the app world?

Is movie playing nice and smooth? Is the touch screen responsive? I've used some of these cheap Android tablets , and they look great on paper, but to touch and use them is horrid...

I was planning on buying a Kindle but the PB purchase has at least delayed that its really good for reading books and much better for reading my daily paper and also magazines in PDF format, that said I will likely buy a Kindle eventually as well!
Its also worth noting that the Kindle App for Android works perfectly on the PB with the OS 2.0 beta.

Battery life depends mainly on what your doing and screen brightness but as a rough guide I've used mine for 8 hours today for a mix of browsing, emailing, reading, watching movies and outputting 1080p HD movies to my TV via HDMI and I still have 35% of the battery left.

Movie playing is outstanding, the Xoom couldn't seem to cope with HD video this breezes through both 720P and 1080P HD and can output via the Micro HDMI port into your HD telly with ease.

In terms of Apps theres nothing really that I've found with any sort of scaling issue, the Playbook Apps themselves are designed for it and most of the Android Apps are designed for either large screened Smartphones or Tablets so theres few if any issues with scaling.

All of the Apps in the App World on the Playbook are specific to the Playbook so theres a lot, I've got about 50 installed on my PB right now and I'd say I regularly use about 20 of those, I've been able to find an app for everything, only 2 things I'd like to see now are an Official Twitter App although the 3rd party Blaq App is good and I've got it on my Bold anyway! I'd also like to see Zinio for magazines which is meant to be coming shortly!
 
well bought it with the above code (thanks!), so £200. had a quick play with on win store, and was impressed by responsiveness and quality of the screen. Lovely little size as well. it looks tiny compared to the Xoom etc in store.

Wont be able to play with it as yet though, maybe be allowed to open it charge it, add some apps I suppose. i believe there is some free apps to get from Blackberry because of the down time t they had earlier?

cheers
 
Take its not then!? Oh well I played with one in store and was impressed, had a voucher for £50 off a tablet so got it for £200.
 
Glad you got one, good price for the 16GB model that! No free Playbook Apps, they are only for the Blackberry Phones sadly!
 
so anything I need to order before Xmas please, accessories, cables, cases etc?

I think I'm going to get the convertible case as its £15, and looks good. Also think may get a micro HDMI to HDMi for outputting to TV?

Any good apps please etc? anything you can help with, settings, tricks, tis etc, please reveal!!

Later this week, I'll probably get it out of the box, charge it, register with Blackberry, and setup roughly (WiFi etc), I believe you also get free apps till end of Dec so will need to get them to.

Once you buy the app, is it stored in the cloud, registered with BB? i.e. I'm thinking of backup in car gets wiped etc?

cheers
 
so anything I need to order before Xmas please, accessories, cables, cases etc?

I think I'm going to get the convertible case as its £15, and looks good. Also think may get a micro HDMI to HDMi for outputting to TV?

Any good apps please etc? anything you can help with, settings, tricks, tis etc, please reveal!!

Later this week, I'll probably get it out of the box, charge it, register with Blackberry, and setup roughly (WiFi etc), I believe you also get free apps till end of Dec so will need to get them to.

Once you buy the app, is it stored in the cloud, registered with BB? i.e. I'm thinking of backup in car gets wiped etc?

cheers
 
Well you can't go wrong with a case, the Converible one is good, personally I'm picking up the "Journal" Case myself, I bought a cheapish (£8-£10) micro HDMI to HDMI cable from Amazon and its been fine, really good watching HD video on my TV via the Playbook!!

First of all make sure the PB is updated to the latest version, once its connected to wifi you should be triggered to upgrade to OS 1.0.8.4985 which is the most up-to-date official version.

Theres a fair few apps installed including A music store (7 Digital), You Tube, Kobo Books and Bing Maps (almost as good as Google!), also some games come installed (Tetris and Need for Speed)

As for extra apps they are indeed stored in the cloud so you can install and uninstall as you wish, I like that it keeps a list of even the free apps you've previously installed something that Android didn't seem to do which was a pain!

As for must have apps it really depends on what you want, for me I've got Book Reader which basically just turns it into a Kindle to read any type of ebook, Files & Folders which is a really good file management app, WebReader which is a really good RSS/News Reader and PressReader which with a subscription lets me read most of my papers electronically each day!!

Take a look at the Crackberry website, really good for Apps recommendations and reviews, let me know if you've got any more questions!
 
Well ordered the convertible case, hdmi cable, also ordered the BB 9300 phone to today for her. Can't think anything else I'll need?

I think I'll get it out on Thurs when she at school and charge it up, register it, download free apps,get some decent apps etc. Do you get documents to go pro edition pre installed on playbook?

Can I register on BB for one account for her playbook and BB phone, do you get an email address etc when registering?
 
Well ordered the convertible case, hdmi cable, also ordered the BB 9300 phone to today for her. Can't think anything else I'll need?

I think I'll get it out on Thurs when she at school and charge it up, register it, download free apps,get some decent apps etc. Do you get documents to go pro edition pre installed on playbook?

Can I register on BB for one account for her playbook and BB phone, do you get an email address etc when registering?

Sounds like you've got everything needed, I'm not sure if its Docs to Go Pro, I think its a specific Playbook version theres no need to buy anything for Docs to Go.
 
Taken from my other thread...

My daughter got a BB today and we've tried for hours to register for a BB ID, but it says already used all the time and you have to type in password and code every time it fails, do annoying.

Any way to list unused IDs or are we doing something wrong ?
 
If you are trying to register a new BB ID, it sounds like you're choosing a username that has already been used/is being used with a blackberry.co.uk account.

And yes, you have one BB ID that needs to be the same on both the phone and PB so the apps can be synched. The BB ID can be any existing email address if you already have one on your phone. When you first start the App World, it will ask you to create a new BB ID if you don't have one and give you the option to link this to your existing hotmail, gmail, yahoo etc email account so that your BB ID is [email protected] for example.

Re: the PB in general, I bought a couple of these for 200 quid each (from duty free) and think they're great. For the price, you can't really go wrong, the quality is superb and there's loads of good free apps available on the App World.

As for choice, the PlayBook does pretty much everything I want out of the box so I really couldn't care less if there were not a gazillion apps available, half of which are just .1 variations of another. And with the Android update coming next year, that will open up a whole lot more apps if you really need them.

Best of all, I think the form factor is just right, not as big as the iPad but not so small that browsing is a chore. In short, these are a steal for 200 quid!
 
Thanks.

I've never registered for BB but it does say username used.

Tried to register with the daughters email but she got no email.

Is there any way to check if someone has used the email or ask BB to tell us the ID that is used with our email?
 

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