I am not going into how horrible the PlayBook is or what it's missing. I'm merely wondering why a device with a good multitasking system, full desktop-grade browser with Flash support, unobtrusive notification system, smooth interface, 1080p playback, and even HDMI out does not measure up to something from a year ago... from the perspective of the same reviewer?
Anand is pretty objective, I trust his reviews, he says to wait.
While I definitely don't carry my iPad everywhere, if it were more functional I could see carrying the PlayBook with me more often than any other tablet.
It's not very functional in it's current form
The PlayBook's styling is modest, even for BlackBerry standards.
It looks like a $99 LCD picture frame.
You basically need a pointy finger nail (which I typically don't have) to press it easily and as a result the power button was pretty much useless to me.
The volume up/down buttons work as expected, although the volume level itself doesn't seem to be very linear.
The volume level isn't linear, like an on off switch? That's not good.
The battery is of course not removable and there's no USB port or SD card reader.
I see that criticism about Apple products all the time.
There's no support for passcode locking and no physical unlock switch
No flipping passcode lock?
Swipe up from the lower left corner and you'll bring up the PlayBook's virtual keyboard, in any app. This is a particularly puzzling gesture because you can bring up the keyboard even in apps that can't use a keyboard. And no, the keyboard shortcuts from the BlackBerry OS don't work on the PlayBook.
There's no support for folders
It's all clearly very webOS inspired, although I will say that webOS still feels a bit better in this regard.
Also the only notification color supported today is red, which works well for "hey you're running out of battery life!" but not so well for "hey you just got 3 emails".
. Scroll down too quickly and you'll get an empty screen that takes a moment to catch up with your scrolling. It's not uncommon to see this on iOS, it happens less with the iPad 2 and it seems to happen more with the PlayBook.
Browser benched at 1/2 the speed of the iPad 2 in some page loads
Sites that depend entirely on Flash work on the PlayBook, although controlling pure Flash sites can be a problem. Case in point: Pandora. The web version of Pandora is fully functional on the PlayBook, albeit slow to load. The trouble comes in when you try to use Pandora's integrated scroll bar or actually switch stations. Pandora is optimized for a mouse driven experience, not a touch UI, resulting in a lot of frustrating tapping and really slow scrolling. It's workable, but definitely not desirable.
The problem with embedded Flash video is the same as the Pandora issue: control. You can't really hover to expose controls with a touchscreen so what you end up doing is a lot of quick tapping to try and bring up controls, change the setting you want and get back to playing the video. It's frustrating and doesn't work all of the time.
But Flash is awesome, and makes all the difference in the world in tablets...
RIM tells me that its intentions are to have industry leading browser performance and that there's a lot of room for optimization left on the PlayBook. I believe that there's a lot more that can be done here, the question is how quickly will RIM get around to doing it.
The browser isn't great yet.
While it's possible to type on the PlayBook, it's not quite as easy as on a larger tablet for obvious reasons. And thanks to the combination of overall size and gesture bezel, I found myself hitting the bottom bezel instead of space quite frequently.
RIM doesn't support any real time autocorrection.
No real time auto correction?
The bottom line is that today the PlayBook can't store contacts, it can't organize your day and you can't use it to check emails using anything other than your web browser. RIM's explanation? Most users who buy tablets don't buy it for push email, most are on WiFi, and if you're not getting push email then a web client is probably ok. I don't agree with this assessment, and clearly RIM doesn't completely agree with it either, so we'll eventually get all of these things for the PlayBook later this summer alongside the release of the WiMAX PlayBook.
BlackBerry Bridge apps are all choppier than regular PlayBook apps, something you notice even when you scroll over them in the task switcher.
But the Bridge is magic...
Unfortunately any reminders set in your calendar don't currently propagate to the PlayBook, they'll appear on your BlackBerry but not on the tablet. RIM clearly has work to do here.
Well, that's a problem, isn't it?
For starters it means that you can introduce a PlayBook into your workflow without incurring any additional data costs. I asked RIM whether carriers would be ok with this arrangement, however the best answer I could get is that they couldn't do anything to stop it - the packets all look the same. Granted we've seen carriers crack down on unauthorized tethering so we'll see how this one plays out, but RIM is adamant about free tethering to your BlackBerry (with BIS/BES enabled) being a selling feature of the PlayBook. And it works very well today.
The carriers are just going to jack up data plan prices on all BB's if this is the case. We all know how much $ the carriers make on data plans and how they cap/throttle already. I suspect Verizon will never agree to this.
If I had to carry a BlackBerry, the PlayBook might make for an interesting accessory that I could use for both work and personal use.
When it works, WiFi sharing is great. I only have two complaints: speed over WiFi is atrocious and I can't always get WiFi sharing to work, although the latest update seemed to reduce the number of issues I've had.
"If I had to carry a BlackBerry", ouch...
Pretty much no smartphone or tablet we've tested is particularly speedy over WiFi. Even the Motorola Xoom, at the top of our performance chart, manages a meager 36Mbps. Part of this has to do with the fact that all of these devices are power rather than performance optimized and part of it has to do with NAND performance limitations. The PlayBook is even more disappointing in this regard
Slow WiFi?
The PlayBook app experience, at least on day one, unfortunately isn't anywhere near that of what you get on Honeycomb. So if you felt that Honeycomb was under-supported by 3rd party apps at launch, the PlayBook will disappoint you.
Less apps than the XOOM? The standard BB apps won't work either.
Browsing for apps by category is a bit more complicated than I'd like. Each category seen in the screen below has a handful of subcategories
App World is one of the few first party apps that just isn't very smooth. Animations are choppy and the whole thing just begs to be optimized. I can't stress enough how having a mixture of 60 fps and sub-30 fps frame rates on the same tablet somehow stands out more than if the device were just consistently below 30 fps.
That doesn't sound good.
At this point I wouldn't assume that the PlayBook is just going to give you a great Android app experience as well as a great PlayBook experience. I think that's simply too far fetched.
Android apps are going to be a problem, so says Anand...
Where the PlayBook's resolution falls flat is when you've got a lot on the screen. Here's what happens when you have a keyboard open in landscape mode on a web page
In Google docs that leaves you with a single line of text above your keyboard. The same happens elsewhere, although it's less of a problem in Documents To Go. I've complained in the past about the input problem on tablets, and I do believe it's actually worse on the PlayBook thanks to its cramped screen size. If anything, the PlayBook is even more optimized for content consumption than production of any sort.
But, but, it's a professional tablet, made for productivity...
Although the PlayBook has GPS and WiFi support, the current build of the PlayBook software doesn't support location services. As a result the maps app is only useful for looking up directions, but not telling you how to get to your destination from your current location.
No navigation, even though it has GPS?
At 7.66 hours of battery life the PlayBook is noticeably worse than the competition, and that's without checking emails in the background as well. Over 7 hours is still enough to get you through the majority of the work day, but heavy users should plan on charging the PlayBook at least once a day.
But RIM promised the same battery life as the iPad...
I also threw in battery life when running a 1080p main profile clip, something the other tablets can't do. There is definitely a negative impact on battery life for more complex videos, so keep that in mind if you plan on taking advantage of the OMAP 4430's flexible video playback support.
I have to say that based on the aggressive update schedule and key missing features (dedicated calendar & email clients), unless you're an existing BlackBerry user you're better off waiting to buy a PlayBook until we see some bigger updates for the platform.
I'd say about the only type of user who should consider a PlayBook on day one is someone who already has a BlackBerry
There's a lot to like about the PlayBook, but unless you're an existing BlackBerry user you're better off waiting to see where RIM takes this thing.
I dunno what reviews everyone else is reading, but honestly 6/10 is pretty generous with the current state of the PlayBook.
I do think the PlayBook has massive potential, but with CEO's that flip out over minor criticism or questions, I have grave concerns about what they decide to prioritize.
If you could you'd see in the last two weeks it's lost 5%... Why pick the last two weeks? Because that would show any negative impact if the PB, and in reality so far only last FRIDAY would truly show that, and that would be even less. 
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