Product: Blackberry Playbook

Design: 4 / 5
Sound Quality: 4.5 / 5
Build Quality: 4 / 5
Operating System: 3.5 / 5
Available Software: 2 / 5
Battery: 5 / 5
MSRP: $499.99 - $699.99 (CAD)
Overall: 4 / 5

I've had the opportunity to play with the Blackberry Playbook for a few days and at first blush, it is indeed quite impressive.



We can go all day about all the different features and whatnot, so I'm going to try to sum quickly some of my likes and dislikes.

Likes:
I love how the Playbook is an extension of your Blackberry. There's an app called Blackberry Bridge, that once synchronised, your phone and your tablet work almost seamlessly. The Playbook's interface is great. It's clean, intuitive, and very functional. The images are clear and crisp, the webpages load quickly, and there is real multi-tasking capability. At 7", it's a great device to hold in one hand, leaving your other hand to navigate, type, and in my case, have a cup of coffee.


Dislikes:
While it's a beautiful device and I want it and crave it and find it completely droolworthy, it is simply not ready. There are too many OS updates, and scarcely any apps. I am fairly confident that all of this will be solved over time, but in the meantime, it isn't doing what I need for it to do. The Playbook is at the moment, is not stable enough, and with every OS update, you have to make accommodations for possible changes in how you've gotten used to using the device. And of course, there's the issue with the power button. I don't think it's a big deal, since the device will go to sleep on it's own, but turning The Playbook off requires you to sharpen your fingernails into a sharp pin.


Overall
I love it. But it's not ready. Even most of the apps that ARE available aren't ready. And the apps that I will require the most (Documents-To-Go） are nothing more that larger versions of the one that's currently on my Blackberry Torch. Given what's available to date, I drool at the potential of this device. The hardware is great. The software is VERY GOOD....but not exceptional....yet.