BlackBerry PlayBook - Tablet - 16 GB - 7" TFT ( 1024 x 600 ) - rear camera + front camera - Wi-Fi, Bluetooth

Blackberry have just announced they will not be updating the Playbook to the latest version of their operating system, that would probably have put me off buying, but having used it for a while I'm mostly happy with it as it is. Though I paid less than £100 for mine 2nd hand.Hardware wise it feels well-made, though it's a bit thicker than more recent tablets. Only quibble on the hardware is that power button is annoyingly small and difficult to push. I was a bit unsure about a 7" tablet but in fact find it a very convenient size and weight for carrying around. 2 front facing speakers deliver a decent sound.Connection wise you get Micro USB, microHDMI, WiFi and Bluetooth. What more could you need? I do find that the Wifi can be a little slow to pick up connection but is fine and stable once it has.The buttonless OS takes a little getting used to but I really like aspects of it, the multitasking is the best I have seen since WebOS on my Palm Pre.The main downside is apps, not just the lack of them but also the lack of polish in the provided apps. Something BB10 would have addressed. The Blackberry World store is a bit of a wasteland and for a little while after buying I was regretting my purchase (no DropBox or Kindle!). However, I then found you can run (some) Android Apps (search `apk to bar converter'). It is a bit of lottery but I now have enough working apps to make it useful. Though I do miss OneNote.There are also issues with charging, you are not suppose to charge with anything other than the supplied charger. Now I have charged with standard USB chargers and while slow it has worked, but there are dire warnings of 'damaging your device'. I have no idea if they are realistic. Secondly I find my device behaves oddly when being charged, to the point of being unusable. Apps open and close on their own, the touch interface becomes erratic. Advice would be to charge ech night with the supplied charger I suppose, though battery life is good and I only need to charge every other day with moderate use.It's slightly hard not to damn with faint praise, but overall at the right price I think this is a decent buy. Better than the bottom end android tablets I have seen.

The convergence of mobile phone and computer means that the Netbook is about as small as an effective laptop can be, and the best display a mobile phone will get is a Tablet. The phone is simply too small for a decent display and iPhone and Samsung Galaxy are overpriced as telephones and underspecified as computers. the Playbook is a neat device even as a WiFi only unit. It has a great display, is fast and slick and very portable and just the right size. I don't want iPad it is too big and too expensive - I already have Macbook and laptops and iPhone and I simply don't need another computer when I have Netbooks.......but I do want a better telephone display and that is the Tablet. I don't think iPhone is good enough for the money and consider Blackberry a better telephone and Playbook a better display.It will not replace PC, laptop or Netbook - but it will stop me squinting at a tiny mobile phone display or wasting money on a Galaxy to get a marginally bigger phone display.I think cases for the Playbook are overpriced. I think the Playbook here on Amazon is super-priced and a real bargain. Just as the 8520 Blackberry is cleaning up for RIm in the Uk so could this Tablet at this price.

Had the tablet for a few days now.There are some pros and cons (as with everything I guess in life). Here are my observations in short;Pros:- Good quality, solid, beautiful tablet- Very good screen, good resolution, pleasing to the eye- Responsive touch interface (could have been a bit more responsive/faster though)- Good battery life (for an average user)- Some good games (if you are into this kind of thing)- Good quick processing power- Easy use of multiple apps (multitasking)Cons:- A bit messy (easy actually but should have been much easier through the app world) to install android apps as RIM does not offer them to begin with- Annoying that apps like kindle and skype either non-existent (latter) or you have to sideload them (in my view they should have been available as standard)- Difficult to make it work with my smartphone; although it connects I still cannot use my phone as a wi-fi hotspot (I can with my netbook...easily, like a breeze; my netbook is 3 years old and better on this than the tablet)(by the way I do not have a blackberry mobile to see what the connectivity would be like)Overall:A good tablet with some very annoying hiccups, which they may seem small, but essentially ruin the whole experience. In a highly competitive market this little hiccups should have been working perfectly like a breeze. I find it unacceptable these things to be a problem. I am seriously thinking of selling the tablet.This is my first blackberry device and I am beginning to see why RIM has not been doing well recently. Little annoying hiccups make it difficult for people to trust and keep buying a product.