BLACKBERRY PlayBook Tablet PC - 16 GB - £169/€219 Currys/PCworld

slinky2000

Prices just dropped on these this morning. The Northern price is looking tempting and because I'm in Portadown today I I might just pop over to Lisburn and get one!

PCWorld:

Ireland €219:
http://www.pcworld.ie/Product/BLACKBERRY-PlayBook-Tablet-PC-16-GB/306439/2.9?utm_source=Homepage%2BNoms&utm_medium=Homepage&utm_campaign=TopOffer6

UK £169:
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/blackberry-playbook-tablet-pc-16-gb-10647929-pdt.html

Currys:

Ireland €219:
http://www.currys.ie/Product/BLACKBERRY-PlayBook-Tablet-PC-16-GB/309020/7.18

UK £169:
http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/blackberry-playbook-tablet-pc-16-gb-10647929-pdt.html?intcmpid=display~RR~Computing~10647929


Works out about €202 if you get it from the North.

godtabh

Why would you get one? Don't you need a blackberry phone to work it?

bazual

Its €199.90 in Carphone Warehouse.

galait

bazual wrote: »

Its €199.90 in Carphone Warehouse.

It may as well be €9.99 as it's out of stock :rolleyes:

slinky2000

godtabh wrote: »

Why would you get one? Don't you need a blackberry phone to work it?

Nope. There is some added functionality but you don't need one.

savemejebus

slinky2000 wrote: »

Nope. There is some added functionality but you don't need one.

I thought the added functionality was the email client and calendar functions. Things that would be kinda handy in a tablet.

nevaeh-2die-4

had a look at this today as im in looking to pick up a tablet myself,

its very heavy, screen seemed quiet dull,

also it doesnt support android market place, you can get apps to work on it but not straight forward

biebiebie

nevaeh-2die-4 wrote: »

had a look at this today as im in looking to pick up a tablet myself,

its very heavy, screen seemed quiet dull,

also it doesnt support android market place, you can get apps to work on it but not straight forward

Hmm, not quite so. You can already DingleBerry the PlayBook (root it) and this will allow you to install full android market. A quick search on YouTube shows you how This also opens up the possibility of eventually installing CyanongenMod - I'm thinking Ice Cream Sunday.

I'm seriously considering this tablet, the specs are great, dual core, good cameras (HD on rear), HDMI out so great for playing movies on the TV, loud stereo speakers, full adobe flash, 1GB RAM, Bluetooth...very good specs for the money.

godtabh

nevaeh-2die-4 wrote: »

had a look at this today as im in looking to pick up a tablet myself,

its very heavy, screen seemed quiet dull,

also it doesnt support android market place, you can get apps to work on it but not straight forward

It's not an android tablet

paddydriver

godtabh wrote: »

It's not an android tablet

BBX/QNX OS is being designed/enhanced to work with Android apps natively. This is the bit they are trying to get working for the BB 10 phones... if they ever arrive.

Rumours are that they are not gonna bother much more with Playbook and this functionality will never officially arrive for them.

slinky2000

Well I got one and I'm over the moon. For £169 I couldn't ask for more. Build quality is excellent and the frame and the backing is top notch. Camera are excellent and apps are all good

It's not heavy, lighter than the iPad anyway. It's just heavy enough to not feel cheap.

I won't be using many apps anyway. Mostly to load movies onto for traveling at the weekends, the direct hdmi support is excellent too.

For a price cheaper than most of the other plastic andriods it's excellent.

biebiebie

slinky2000 wrote: »

Well I got one and I'm over the moon. For £169 I couldn't ask for more. Build quality is excellent and the frame and the backing is top notch. Camera are excellent and apps are all good

It's not heavy, lighter than the iPad anyway. It's just heavy enough to not feel cheap.

I won't be using many apps anyway. Mostly to load movies onto for traveling at the weekends, the direct hdmi support is excellent too.

For a price cheaper than most of the other plastic andriods it's excellent.

Have you tested out many movie formats yet? Read somewhere that not all codecs are supported, not sure to what extent though.

Tried it out in store earlier today. Lovely little tablet for the money. Pity it isn't pure Android though (for me anyhow)

slinky2000

biebiebie wrote: »

slinky2000 wrote: »

Well I got one and I'm over the moon. For £169 I couldn't ask for more. Build quality is excellent and the frame and the backing is top notch. Camera are excellent and apps are all good

It's not heavy, lighter than the iPad anyway. It's just heavy enough to not feel cheap.

I won't be using many apps anyway. Mostly to load movies onto for traveling at the weekends, the direct hdmi support is excellent too.

For a price cheaper than most of the other plastic andriods it's excellent.

Have you tested out many movie formats yet? Read somewhere that not all codecs are supported, not sure to what extent though.

Tried it out in store earlier today. Lovely little tablet for the money. Pity it isn't pure Android though (for me anyhow)

I just put a h264 mp4 on it and it played fine.

I work with movies very day so some conversion is no problem for me.

Still plays more than an iPad for Half the money

LH2011

slinky2000 wrote: »

I just put a h264 mp4 on it and it played fine.

I work with movies very day so some conversion is no problem for me.

Still plays more than an iPad for Half the money

and supports flash, ie the skynews.com site displays perfectly on the playbook, unlike ipad2, tried the skynews.com site on that today and was a mess.

gunnerfitzy

slinky2000 wrote: »

Prices just dropped on these this morning. The Northern price is looking tempting and because I'm in Portadown today I I might just pop over to Lisburn and get one!

PCWorld:

Ireland €219:
http://www.pcworld.ie/Product/BLACKBERRY-PlayBook-Tablet-PC-16-GB/306439/2.9?utm_source=Homepage%2BNoms&utm_medium=Homepage&utm_campaign=TopOffer6

UK £169:
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/blackberry-playbook-tablet-pc-16-gb-10647929-pdt.html

Currys:

Ireland €219:
http://www.currys.ie/Product/BLACKBERRY-PlayBook-Tablet-PC-16-GB/309020/7.18

UK £169:
http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/blackberry-playbook-tablet-pc-16-gb-10647929-pdt.html?intcmpid=display~RR~Computing~10647929


Works out about €202 if you get it from the North.

Has the Paddy tax recently been added on because the price from both stores via the above links is €239 now while the UK price remains the same.

slinky2000

gunnerfitzy wrote: »

Has the Paddy tax recently been added on because the price from both stores via the above links is €239 now while the UK price remains the same.

seems like you're right!

bazual

bazual wrote: »

Its €199.90 in Carphone Warehouse.

galait wrote: »

It may as well be €9.99 as it's out of stock :rolleyes:

BTW, its back in stock in the Carphone Warehouse, they usually do this before Xmas and say they have no stock but most stores now will have them. It may be worth updating the thread title for this one.

paddydriver

bazual wrote: »

BTW, its back in stock in the Carphone Warehouse, they usually do this before Xmas and say they have no stock but most stores now will have them. It may be worth updating the thread title for this one.

Thanks Bazual...

Ordered or €199, I am not letting it slip by. Considering same price as a Fire this cannot be missed. Now I hope BB do some updates over the next year and allow me to get full mail integration etc.

I had a play with one at a customers office and I did really like it but was not prepared to pay anywhere near asking for it but worth a punt at this price.

Have the Asus Transformer from few months back, Playbook on way... roll on iPad 3:D

Jayzus... wife will shoot me when CC bill arrives!

cruhoortwunk

Just got one, free postage is nice.
About a week ago, I wouldn't have even considered one.
The fact it can be rooted is a huge plus, and I believe you can use it for remote access to your corporate network via the BES server too. (RDM+ and a few others)

sarah88

Has the Paddy tax recently been added on because the price from both stores via the above links is €239 now while the UK price remains the same.

That price of 219e was a special price for stephans day only, they've now jumped up a bit for the rest of the sale.

gunnerfitzy

CPW in Mahon Point have a few in stock at 199.90. I'm off...

slinky2000

how do you update the title on a thread? I tried but didn't update the main one.

Allyall

sarah88 wrote: »

That price of 219e was a special price for stephans day only, they've now jumped up a bit for the rest of the sale.

Stayed the same in the Uk..

gunnerfitzy

So £169 vs €239? Pull the other one lads. Fair play to CPW. Genuine bargain at €200.

Pixmania were trying to milk it as well. The UK website price reflected the general reduction in price by RIM while the Irish pixmania website was showing no reduction at all with the cost well over €300.

Anyway I have my one now. Happy days. Ta very much CPW

paddydriver

I ordered one online and then couldnt wait so went to Carrickmines store to see if any in stock - web site shows "Available" but lads in there said very few got to stores.

Hoping now they can honour the web order!

biebiebie

It's a great bargain lads. But (for me) its a pity it doesn't run all the Android apps. Also support for the tablet by third parties is shameful - even Skype has shunned the tablet; such a shame considering it has so much potential. Finally RIM's need to keep the tablet locked down due to security reasons isn't helping its popularity either.

I'd love to buy this tablet tomorrow, and am jealous of everyone who's bought one. But I know I'd eventually regret it due to the lack of Android support.

An an especially fantastic buy of you're a Blackberry mobile user though.

slinky2000

biebiebie wrote: »

It's a great bargain lads. But (for me) its a pity it doesn't run all the Android apps. Also support for the tablet by third parties is shameful - even Skype has shunned the tablet; such a shame considering it has so much potential. Finally RIM's need to keep the tablet locked down due to security reasons isn't helping its popularity either.

I'd love to buy this tablet tomorrow, and am jealous of everyone who's bought one. But I know I'd eventually regret it due to the lack of Android support.

An an especially fantastic buy of you're a Blackberry mobile user though.

I hear ya wit the lack of support for apps at the moment. I was very disappointed to see skype wasn't int he store.

But I hear the software update in Feburary will have the andriod app support, so I'll look forward to that.

Mad_Mike

Allyall wrote: »

Stayed the same in the Uk..

As gunnerfitzy says, they've added the Paddytax! :mad:

Snow Crash

Damn, out of stock at carphonewarehouse. That was a tempting price especially compared to the Currys and PC World mark-up.

paddydriver

biebiebie wrote: »

It's a great bargain lads. But (for me) its a pity it doesn't run all the Android apps. Also support for the tablet by third parties is shameful - even Skype has shunned the tablet; such a shame considering it has so much potential. Finally RIM's need to keep the tablet locked down due to security reasons isn't helping its popularity either.

I'd love to buy this tablet tomorrow, and am jealous of everyone who's bought one. But I know I'd eventually regret it due to the lack of Android support.

An an especially fantastic buy of you're a Blackberry mobile user though.

One of the big things was the tethering with the BB handsets as I always have mine to hand... just ask the wife! I think the app support has a lot to do with the lock down of the O/S as its same on handsets too as BB seem to be very protective of the core O/S.

Hope they are still working hard on the update proposed in Feb!

gunnerfitzy

paddydriver wrote: »

One of the big things was the tethering with the BB handsets as I always have mine to hand... just ask the wife! I think the app support has a lot to do with the lock down of the O/S as its same on handsets too as BB seem to be very protective of the core O/S.

Hope they are still working hard on the update proposed in Feb!

Ditto!

I updated my shiny new PlayBook to OS 2.0 beta and installed some of the already converted Android apps. I have native Twitter, Kindle and Google maps apps now. Very happy with the device so far. The iPad was just a big too big for my liking and the OS/interface was too polished also. I wanted something that can be worked on and tinkered with; not completely closed off like the iPad.

slinky2000

gunnerfitzy wrote: »

paddydriver wrote: »

One of the big things was the tethering with the BB handsets as I always have mine to hand... just ask the wife! I think the app support has a lot to do with the lock down of the O/S as its same on handsets too as BB seem to be very protective of the core O/S.

Hope they are still working hard on the update proposed in Feb!

Ditto!

I updated my shiny new PlayBook to OS 2.0 beta and installed some of the already converted Android apps. I have native Twitter, Kindle and Google maps apps now. Very happy with the device so far. The iPad was just a big too big for my liking and the OS/interface was too polished also. I wanted something that can be worked on and tinkered with; not completely closed off like the iPad.

Think I'll be doin this in the coming week or so. Have you a link to a tutorial?

cruhoortwunk

https://bdsc.webapps.blackberry.com/android/beta/bbtablet20/register/

brimal

Does the Playbook have native email yet?

gunnerfitzy

brimal wrote: »

Does the Playbook have native email yet?

Not yet. I bridge mine with my BB so that works for me. It's possible that individual android apps such as gmail have been converted for use with os 2.0. I'm not sure. Native email is to be released with official release of os 2.0 in February.

gunnerfitzy

slinky2000 wrote: »

Think I'll be doin this in the coming week or so. Have you a link to a tutorial?

the link given above will allow you to update to 2.0 beta. once submitted you just go to check updates on your playbook and its there.

it advisable to do a security wipe after installing 2.0. apparently you may have problems installing converted android apps if you dont.

guide for installing converted android apps here... http://crackberry.com/how-sideload-android-apps-playbook-os-v20-use-android-app-player

slinky2000

gunnerfitzy wrote: »

slinky2000 wrote: »

Think I'll be doin this in the coming week or so. Have you a link to a tutorial?

the link given above will allow you to update to 2.0 beta. once submitted you just go to check updates on your playbook and its there.

it advisable to do a security wipe after installing 2.0. apparently you may have problems installing converted android apps if you dont.

guide for installing converted android apps here... http://crackberry.com/how-sideload-android-apps-playbook-os-v20-use-android-app-player

Thanks man. That was easy, got it all up and running with andriod apps now!

Deisler

Canw move this link as discussion off topic.

gunnerfitzy

Deisler wrote: »

Canw move this link as discussion off topic.

Chill man.... it's Christmas... :rolleyes:

lc180

My Playbook arrived in the post today.

I'm in love!

megapixel

Got this for my boyfriend who has a blackberry 8800 for work so i thought this would be great. :mad:
The blackberry bridge won't download onto the 8800.
Also Ireland isn't listed on blackberry.com to get the 90days support.

gunnerfitzy

megapixel wrote: »

Got this for my boyfriend who has a blackberry 8800 for work so i thought this would be great. :mad:
The blackberry bridge won't download onto the 8800.
Also Ireland isn't listed on blackberry.com to get the 90days support.

From what I can make out the 8800 uses version 4 of Blackberry OS while Blackberry Bridge requires at least version 5. Unless there is some work-around it would appear that 8800 can not be used for bridging with the PlayBook.