The first time I began looking for a tablet was before the iPad was released. All that was available were cheap Android tablets from china running Android 1.5-2.0 - featuring pixelated resistive touchscreens that required a fingernail or stylus - and a max of 4GB of storage.
Not long after the introduction of the iPad was the release of Android 3.0 Honeycomb. Out of the first wave of these Android tablets there was one obvious winner: the Asus Eee Pad Transformer. At first Android 3.0 was considered to be 'unfinished'. In fact, it took almost the entire 8 months I owned the Transformer for me to find a custom ROM that was perfectly smooth and featured incredible battery life. With the release of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich this was all ruined and my tablet was once again laggy.
I had recently played with a Blackberry Playbook and was impressed with how fast and fluid the OS was. It was at this point that I sold my Android tablet and bought a PlayBook - and I couldn't be happier. Here are my reasons on why you should choose a Balckberry PlayBook over an Android tablet, and even over the iPad:
The OS
- Android has always been known to be laggy. Moving from screen to screen there is always noticeable jitter in the transition. Sometimes you can fix this - by installing a custom Laucher or ROM - but it shouldn't be necessary, even for people who love to tweak like many Android users including myself. When you compare the PlayBook OS to Apple's iOS even iDevices have their fair share of lag. Moving to the spotlight search often causes the keyboard to momentarily freeze and it has even been said that iOS apps crash more often than Android's counterparts. The PlayBook has an awesome method of receiving notifications and makes great use of gestures for multitasking.
- My previous tablet was usual tablet size - 10". It was the same screen size as the iPad, and many other tablets despite it's widescreen aspect ratio. I've used the iPad and tried out dozens of Android tablet and in my opinion 10" is just too big. I've personally decided that a 7" tablet is the size for me, and if that's true it could be the same for many others. The PlayBook's size makes complicated games like first-person shooters and role-playing games easier to control than ever.
- What, the PlayBook has apps?! Yes. It does. The PlayBook comes with many great apps already installed - and even an email app (contrary to public opinion). Obviously the Blackberry App World doesn't have as many apps as the iOS app store or even the Google Play store - but it has all of the essentials I need. I got a great Reddit app, Grooveshark, and many more. I also found some great games: Modern Combat, Eternal Legacy, Plants vs. Zombies, and on. What about some other essentials like Skype and Steam? The PlayBook makes it easy to side load converted android BAR files. Just download the DDPB Installer and use it to install any app from the massive list at playbookbars.com.
What else? The PlayBook has a beautiful screen, an amazing solid build, nice loud speakers, and best of all your are supporting a Canadian business in continuing to make great products like this (Unless for some reason you hate Canadians, but you wouldn't be like that would you?). I wouldn't hesitate recommending anyone the $199 Blackberry PlayBook.
