CNET Tech Review: BlackBerry PlayBook means business

[timeisdone689]

I don't understand why people make a big deal out of power button. Seriously it isn't rocket science, you simply press it. The power button is not tedious... -__-

[naryanr]

Also, what do you mean Flash content "may have adversely affected its performance"?

OF COURSE it did.

It's the heaviest thing a computer could be asked to do on the internet (as Apple themselves have been saying for years), and yes it's worth 4 seconds extra wait.

[naryanr]

"Document editing", yeah because business users do that on a touchscreen...

I can't believe people still believe them when they say they're targeting any touchscreen device at a professional userbase.

[slantblant1]

I think the whole QNX idea will be fully developed when Blackberry 10 is released. It will be a well equipped Eco system. Blackberry needs to get those core apps developed as well, i.e. Skype, Netflix, Hulu, etc. I can upgrade in December of this year, i have a bold 9650 now. I cant wait until the OS and new hardware is released

[Jake93r17]

I hate apply mobile devices. Devices like the playbook and say android product are way more professional looking lol

[jose1477]

get your teeth fixed please :)

[slmtutorials]

molly you give me wood.

[ALTONTOWERSTVTALK]

I CAME HERE FOR THE BLACKBERRY REVIEW NOT TO LISTEN TO A RECORD TALK ABOUT SHIT FOR 25 MINS!!!

[jean6826]

If you set the 7" tab on landscape, it would look only half of the 10" on portrait mode.

[ciller1985]

thumbs up if you see the manhattan bridge XD

[pcemaker8732]

10"/2 = 7"?

[ForgetMad]

you can just simply swipe from the bottom bar to the top bar to wake the playbook up

[TheVtieg6]

Its gone down to £170

[alexkkowalski]

that guy complains about the power button size, although when he presses it, it works every time. when you review technology look at the technology not the fucking buttons.

[KingDJD17]

He's being a bitch over the power button look how he's pressing it Bitch its small so it dosen't accidentally turn on.

Plus its not like you won't get use to it.

Guys be realistic stop overobserving every single thing and putting it down like it sucks because its awesome....God I promise you stuck up guys are just like IGN

[AznNumba15]

@KingDJD17 So true bro.

[GetPatriotized]

@KingDJD17 iPad is bigger but it doesn't accidentally gets pressed.

[Reddylion]

@KingDJD17 yup

[normanconnor]

@KingDJD17 Looks great want one and now that they are down to £169.00 am getting it. As for the button well its a button live with it

[TraxxasBrothers]

Sweet its on sale again. I like it because its small enough to put in my jacket when snowboarding, then Bridge it to my Blackberry and use the GPS when back country :D

[BigAndyCarroll]

Wait... so if i have a blackberry with 3g then i can get 3g on this?

[loopm]

Its a 7" tablet but you wish it were bigger? but then it wouldn't be a 7" tablet...;)

[crazypills77]

that host chick is incredibly obnoxious. find a new host.

[TheMoosheepy]

i have just bb 9780 , i want that too.

[selimsaim]

you can swipe for left to right to wake the device, and bypass that lock button...

[JantarDentelle]

Can you watch netflix on here and is there a lot of free game apps?

[luisjro2007]

if you want 4G connectivity for your BlackBerry PlayBook, I have the soultion for you. Like this and I'll email you the details I work for a 4G company in the USA

[shawnisover18]

just ordered my playbook 32gb from office depot because they had em for $199 for the 16gb as a pre black friday thing, and each level up was another $100. Also it looks great and for the price I was sold on getting one.

[bostonceltics555]

@shawnisover18 Best Buy had 64GB Playbooks for $229.99

[MooseheadDrinker]

Does wi-fi work without a data plan?

[kennethgabriel]

@MooseheadDrinker Yes it definitely does. On any tablet or mobile phone wifi works without a data plan.

[MooseheadDrinker]

@kennethgabriel well wi-fi doesn't work on blackberries without data plans...

[Datastorm22]

@MooseheadDrinker yes it does

[sab0nes]

I don't care how good the iPad2 is, i'm not gonna buy any tablet that cant run flash.

[hazezone]

You can wake from sleep mode by SLIDING A FINGER FROM THE BOTTOM OF THE SCREEN TO THE TOP OR A LITTLE OVER HALF THE SCREEN...

[13Keepers]

Playbook Fire Sale - is looming

[ThumbSkill]

This is $299.99 in canada atm great value!

[ImsoUhoez]

Are you able to get a blackberry email for free if you don't have bb service?

[rockinsteve1226]

YOu can actually swipe the screen vertically to wake up sleep mode.

[liquidspeed13]

For the playbook, you can just swipe the screen to wake it up and the play/pause button is there to control music or podcasts in the background.

[j14pinto]

tabletfriendly,c0m if you want to check it out! it has links to a bunch of HTML5 based web applications!!

[Killzon3commander]

4g connectivity is useless atm.

we arent gonna be seeing 4g connectivity for like 5 years and you obviously arent gonna be keeping a playbook that long are you?

[dharryfraga]

i will get that Playbook!! just waiting for price drop 64Gb is so worth it

[angusandleigh]

@dharryfraga bought a 32GB one back on launch, you won't be disappointed at all.. people bitch on it's size, all I say is that with my Bluetooth keyboard, mouse and HDMI cable, it has a 52" screen :) but seriously though my laptop has got some 4 months of dust on it...

[dharryfraga]

@angusandleigh thanks I will take you word for it, im really excited to get it:) by the way do you think a 3G version will come out for playbook, i am aware of a 4G version but 4G is not really pushing so much here in the philippines...

[angusandleigh]

@dharryfraga I never really looked into the 4G version, as I always have my BB on hand, I would think that a 4G would be backwards compatible, like my Storm is '3G' but it will change according to where it is getting signal...so I would imagine the 4G PB would do the same.

[dharryfraga]

actually you can swipe the screen upward to wake the playbook

[angusandleigh]

@mahadragon first of all there is a GPS,and compass... and the App world has been steadily growing, and most people who buy this have a BB anyways...besides i think the iPad had some similar beefs when it was first launched, and IMHO, if it wasn't for the size of the App Store (a few years old remember) , the iPad 2 would completely wiped out. Aside from screen size (which can be argued a personal preference) the PB is better in about every aspect...

[hawk0033]

You dont need to use the power button to wake up the playbook from sleep. There is a touch gesture you can use for that.

[tigernac]

Your so shit at giving reviews that you have to pick on the buttons, this compony or wgatever SUCKS!

[ianalyward33]

you dont have to press the power button to wake it up u can swipe your finger across lol...

[zovc101]

@dodow1234

I didn't know I'm an apple fanboy....

I do know I have an android tablet (Acer iconia a500) and that the HTML YouTube is a much bit faster and I never use flash in my browser, I actually turn it off so I don't see ads and choose which ones to use. This has nothing to do with apple, stop trying to make it about apple

[ianalyward33]

@zovc101 a much bit faster lol ??

[brooklyn0978]

I love the Blackberry Playbook. I want one.

[LlamaKing123456789]

omg your a fucking tool, your making seem so much worst then it is

[LlamaKing123456789]

you bitch about a small power button? so you want a big one youll allways end up pushing?

[ReviewBrosNC]

If you want to see some video game reviews visit my channel reviewbrosNC. I have many game reviews and I hope you enjoy!

[zovc101]

I like how the only defense of playbook lovers is flash

I don't have anything against the playbook, but flash is disgusting on the internet

Flash=Adds. It's a fact of life

When I browse on android tablets, flash is never on....

Apple aint missing much

[Luq24]

@zovc101 riiight, so when im able to watch flash based videos online im sure you enjoy getting reject by Adobe. and yes size, battery life, and flash are the 3 main reasons why i bought the playbook and also the fact that I already own a Torch so im a happy Playbook owner, no regrets here.

[dodow1234]

@zovc101 just because apple hate flash now you hate flash as well? Before that there is barely no one complain about flash, but then apple create ipad and stated that they hate flash so much because its laggy (seems like its pretty smooth on the playbook here, whose fault it is then?), and then all the apple blinded fanboy/girl suddenly hate flash too? So if apple told you to go eat shit because its good for your health and brain, you gonna eat shit too?

[swiv2d]

it supports flash. They should be selling like hotcakes.

[helal94]

but can it play Nazi zombies!

[Jainkshitiz]

The blackberry app store is in no competition to ipad,

[pattycarljackson]

@Jainkshitiz its not but think about it playbook you dont need apps for everything you have flash and a great browser so you xcan do it on there ipad doesnt have flash so apps are more necessary like youtube and for games plus pb is getting android apps and they are making new apps for pb so new ones will be out for it. ipad is not that great people buy it cause it has a apple on it its crap

[mst3k24]

molly wood is one ugly chick

[raney150]

Why does it cost $100 more to double the storage? That's just like Apple, and they had so many advantages to the iPad. Although I would still say it looks way better than an iPad (coming from an iPhone user)

[imade72]

bigger is better



[knight2k72]

@imade72 That's what she said...

sorry, too easy, couldn't help myself

[pattycarljackson]

@imade72 no pb is better for portability for some documents its better to have a bigger screen but smalller is a lot of the time better

[imade72]

@pattycarljackson bigger is better for browsing especially if you gonna typeing an website

[ukmaxi]

I've seen a speed test before... And the playbook kept winning... Hmmm This test is invalid in my point of view

[temporalrant]

@ukmaxi Question is... you gives a flying fuck??

[ukmaxi]

@temporalrant It's a comment relating to the video in question, weather I 'care' or not doesn't matter.

[TheSjheywood]

Are you lot retarded? Most blackberry handsets have the pause play buttons. I hate cnet!

[thatoneflamingguy]

cant wait to get my playbook. apple is a customization nazi. no outside expansion whatsoever. i hat apple.

[MMOTotal]

@thatoneflamingguy nice job - going to buy a piece of hardware from a dying company no thanks

[thatoneflamingguy]

@MMOTotal no, its a company with a dying smartphone. there's a difference.

[joshxkilla]

@thatoneflamingguy my good sir that is why we jailbreak

[thatoneflamingguy]

@joshxkilla too bad you can't jailbreak an sd card into it huh?

[wh0m33]

all these "review" people are in the bed with apple.

[thexoor]

> OS Built by RIM from the ground up.

Nope, thats wrong. This was made by QNX. It's a port of the Neutrino RTOS for the ARM Variant 7... QNX has been developing their operating system for around 30 years now as well, so the Playbook OS was not built from the ground up.

Although QNX was acquired by RIM, QNX is still QNX and have mostly separate development teams, working out of different offices in different cities. (RIM-waterloo, QNX-Kanata).

[Jeremiahk2012]

looks nice, but how come i never heard of it?

[DJNuWave]

1080p video recording, stereo speakers on the FRONT, full flash supported web-browser, awesome battery life, email/calendar integration update coming OTA soon, more portable, actual tablet OS made for a tablet, unlike iOS, completely customizable, android app support coming to, there really is no comparison. iPad and its fanboys can blow mine, by the way I have a Macbook/Playbook/Atrix, no bias here.

[Datastorm22]

@DJNuWave Yeah and now it only costs $199. ;)

[eastcoaster54]

I love the Blackberry because of the size. Held one in my hands, perfect for thumb typing on touch screen. Its good if u wanna be able to break it out in the car, or in your jacket, with out bulk. And the OS is smoooooth , you can always zoom in and out for viewing multi page documents and sep apps. Though if you are doing to do a 3 week audit u may wanna larger station.

THE MOST COMPORTABLE COMPUTER EVER

[112AbRaHaM112]

If anyone cares to know, BlackBerry PlayBook, carbon copied the WebOS systems that has been in use since 2009 in all Pam/HP Phones, and in the upcomming HP ThouchPad Tablet. I think they should be sued!!

[bushidojohn]

power button is are little asian people

[carlylespicks]

The playbook is not as pretty? In what way? Doubt the average person could tell them apart without the apple logo.

[NovemVmbrae666]

@heondokim I agree dude. good call

[heondokim]

complaining about the power button makes you a little bitch

[pacomacman]

Which idiot thought streaming music from the web was a good idea, the mobile phone companies? More bandwidth, more money!

[BIoodThirsty]

It they stuck an apple logo on the back it would sells millions. They should really just make a plank of wood white and come up with some fancy name

[NJNC12]

The buttons are not that bad to me. I can push them fine and he was pushing hard for no reason.

[epics7]

Very bias review. Eve bias in the Amazon review. Smh. 

[shehanster]

sharon speaks like olivia munn 

[tripleS9000]

who gives a flying shit about the power button?? every review bitches about the button..u can swipe the screen open from the bezzle..they didnt play with this thing enough before they reviewed it..and the size is made so that its portable..to accompany your bb phone..ipad 2 is too big to just take with u unless you have some kind of pouch or case

[Gforce7860]

the IPAD 2 is a piece of shit, i mean blaybook beats it in all categories

[jsyang7777]

IT BIG ME LIKE

[carson2568]

the power button isnt that bad it looks like he's really pushing it i like the playbook i also have a ipad 1 and there booth have goods and bads i got a playbook for the flash and the size to carry around

[kebbun1]

is anyone here an owner of this playbook and can say its worth the money?

I really like the compact size

[NOCARRIER416]

@FwiizzHD it's more data to load, hence slower webpage times. cnet didn't mention if the sites have been visited previously on the iPad as it caches recently visited sites since it doesn't do proper tabbed-browsing.

[TrukenX]

i use tversity for my streaming little difficult to set up but streams movies and music beautifully

[MindOfAnAtheist]

Good job RIM...way to copy Web OS. No one expected you guys to do something original anyway

[DTDCRapture]

The playbook supports flash, has longer battery-life, is customizable, can be synced to your phone, has a much better web browser, and is more portable. But it loads cbs.com two seconds slower... so it must be worse than the iPad.

[lloppunny]

@DTDCRapture its very more portable

[Wargoat6]

@DTDCRapture I NEED THOSE TWO SECONDS TO STAY COMPETITIVE! AND I NEED EVERYthiNG ON THE DAMN PAGe loaded! AVE JOBS!

[temporalrant]

@DTDCRapture

LOL... yeah, WHATEVER. Who the fuck is stupid enough to buy a tablet from A COMPANY THAT IS PRACTICALLY *DEAD*??!!

Good luck with your render times et al!! They're just not going to SAVE RIMS ASS now, are they?? LOL!!

[dw9001]

@DTDCRapture Great call, people also forget that the Playbook is also loading the flash, so a direct browser comparison is pointless because all the wepages that he loaded had some sort of flash content. So you see all your pages the way they are meant to be seen. It may load slower, but atleast you see it properly. Also, not all video's on YouTube are viewable on the iPad....

but unfortunately, most people are retards, they would get a mac or iPad because it has an apple on it.

[pattycarljackson]

@DTDCRapture thank god you pointed that out i hate that people say ipad is better but playbook does everything better then it flash makes it slower by a few seconds maybe not even that

[Hoosh001]

@DTDCRapture it all depends on what you are using it for...

[Killzon3commander]

@DTDCRapture how is the browser better when it loads sites slowly? and you just listed the nice things about the playbook and only the negative things about iphone.

your just as biased as it gets, ipad 2 is amazing and is undoubtably the best Tablet in the market at the moment.

that said, the playbook is good and is more like an entryway for blackberry to the tablet world.

the playbook has alot of potential and can dethrone ipad as king if RIM is dedicated but atm Ipad is a million times better

[ItsGettingStarted]

@DTDCRapture lol i love yo for that!

[Michael1Jackson11]

when is the release and price of the 4G 64gb verision

[vishvender]

A 10 inch version would have probably fared better.

[megatron82]

@vishvender

coming later this year



[ociel1988]

People seriously don't get a 7 inch tablet specially not this playbook it sucks I had it for 2 weeks.... Even with android apps or native email you don't need a 7 inch tablet don't wasted your money here buy a xoom or ipad2... Think about it when you go mobile you wanna take your phone right duhhhhh of course when your home you need a bigger screen an 7 inches is not enough. And for phones I recomend n iPhone or android they know wtf is good unlike rim and windows

[pattycarljackson]

@ociel1988 the xoom sucks ass ipad sucks ass as well playbook is way better does so much more and its made for buisness users and for blackberry users not for people like you

[ociel1988]

@pattycarljackson I HAVE BOLD 9700 FUCK FACE AN SERIOUSLY I HATE THE PLAYBOOK I HAD IT FOR 5 HOURS AN DOES COMPLETELY NOTHING ABSOLUTELY NOTHING JUST LIKE YOU JUST A PIECE OF GARBAGE LIKE YOU

[pattycarljackson]

@ociel1988 lmfao its an electronic calm down. not that serious.

[megatron82]

@ociel1988

when u go home you use a laptop/pc or mac....whats the point of a tablet sat at home when you have these?

[FunnyPlace1]

i am 99% sure CNET is getting paid by apple to give good reviews to apple products and bad reviews for products that are non - apple

[jwharton07]

Why didn't he mention the Bridge app? That's pretty innovative

[crackshotandmoe34]

Can you say "BIASED"

[Enj01]

Never buy into hype.... i guarantee you will get something like this, i think the asus eee pad will be the new non apple tablet benchmark product

[fredro833]

ill trade in 2-3 seconds of loading time for Flash anyday

[robsteven190]

also about the power button.... im not sure if anyone realized that RIM has stated the demo versions power button is different from final release in that it is not raised as high... so the final product will not have this issue... but unfortunately people dont like to update their own reviews

[PeterPalfrei]

The "How to" lady moves her hands a lot; it is distracting.

What's the issue with the Playbook's power button? Just use a finger nail!

[DaCheezerz]

Funny how they dont know shit about real tech and programing.

[ltmv3392]

are they fucking retarded??? no shit if theres flash to load

[HapJap17]

honestly, i like the ipad 2 way better and seriously it doesn't matter if it has flash or not.

[westcoast37]

whats this cnet'com u speak of

[dave1927p]

Music streaming on the cloud: NO THANKS! Not yet anyways...

[Logand21]

hate how they only test the speed of the browser. how about having three apps open then see how fast you could load a page, switch toa music player and start playing a song then switch to video and start watching a movie. as for dedicated play/pause button, thought i wouldn't use it but it comes in real handy when listening to music and while browsing decide to watch a video. can hit pause and the music stops and i can hear the video sound.

[djforg]

jajajaaj without flash logic fast.. ignorant.

[dimwitpinkbigbiblob]

partial much ?

[Michael1Jackson11]

im getting the blackberry playbook 4g 64gb

[dave1927p]

@Michael1Jackson11 when's that out?

[SteelyD]

I bought this unit for many things, functioning GPS being one of the bigger reasons. An interview on the web from Blackberry assured me it had GPS. 3 hours of trying to get it to work and finally calling Blackberry to find out the GPS is not functional yet, but will be some day, doesn't sit well with me. The unit gets returned and I'll buy one when I see proof the GPS works, and works well.

[aabbccxxyyandzz]

cnet use to be good. now its trash.

[dave1927p]

@aabbccxxyyandzz i can't say how it use to be, from you're right that it is crap now. He the hell is this annoying host (exec editor) ....they need to replace her for starters.

[RickGainsmith]

Look at how much apple is reaping... Good on them, competition would be good! Imagine if Microsoft demanded a 30 % cut for every piece of software that runs on Windows. Gives you an idea of how Apple works!

[fruitflyproductions]

bahhh garbage. why can't anyway just step up to the plate and fucking destroy apple with some ludicrous product that'll be undoubtedly better than the ipad, and doesn't need all this critique and comparison to pick out miniscule little features that "make it better" when really it's not

[ThothMaat1]

RIM had a lot of time to sit back and rip off Apple's IOS and make improvements based on iOS's critics. And because of imitation, RIM did a great job with the 1st playbook. Now let's see how they do with the apps because they are none. Ok, none to rave about. :-)

[joshuagoboom]

that chick still listens to backstreet boys???? aren't you a little too old for that?

[RickGainsmith]

@iricibar I know what your saying but why not go to a flash only site... Show the benefits? A bias non subjective test which didnt show the benefits of the flash browser nor power of this device.

[cx4shot]

The reviewer's name is Donald Duck?

The Playbook is for adults and serious business users, iPad is for kiddies and snobs that want to think they are elite because they use a useless product in the business world that brandishes the Apple logo. Apple have great computers but everything else is overpriced garbage.

[ZzZ0h5n4p]

stop being so cynical you stupid blonde b!tch! =.=;;

[RickGainsmith]

Turn flash off, then compare.  Crappy video!

[iricibar]

@RickGainsmith at the end both presenters mention that Flash is enabled and the lady actually says she PREFERS a Flash enabled browser.

[shoutandscream14]

The iPad is faster because it doesn't support Flash...

[NJNC12]

@shoutandscream14 Your 100% right.

[lloppunny]

@shoutandscream14 probably true



[vardaan111]

really? 'HALF he size of the Ipad?' The Ipad is 9.7 inches. It's half is 4.85. The Playbook is 7 inches. Use a calculator if your math is that bad or at least chose your words more carefully and say ' ALMOST' or something similar..

CNET hates everything that's not apple. If you want to see an unbiased review/comparison for the Playbook, you're in the wrong place!

[Miaosen]

@vardaan111 You should pull out a calculator to get the area value. You will be surprised :)

[sccerstr09]

Donald Bell doesn't know what he's doing lol

"you have to press the tiny power button to unlock the device" - no you just swipe up, down, left, or right

"I'm not sure why they have a play/pause button" - to play or pause music without having to unlock it

Techzilla FTW

[zeeshan66]

AS WE ENTER!! DAMIAN MARLEY

[Kiarnii]

lol they make it look so hard to turn on xD it seriously cant be that hard

[marcusmcmlxxxix]

15 people who dislike this bought the ipad 2 last month