Thread: Browser is OK but not great

Just wanted to say that I bought a playbook a while ago because it was cheap. I own an iPad but even though I have been using Apple since 1980 more and more I find they have become "the man" with walled gardens and closed systems.

Overall I was really impressed with the Playbook and love how easy it is to use as a hard drive. Love many of the features and sideloading stuff.

The major negative is the crappy browser which is slow, has no "back" gesture, the "back" button is hard to use without hitting something else,and wont accept AdBlock (which is kind of a deal breaker for me). The other browsers that are available are crap too--amateur hour. I am really surprised how little anger about the lack of browser choice there is on sites like this. I ask that all Playbook fans email BB and say we want an adult browser. And send out a call to the open source community for somebody to port Firefox in a way that works.

You folks here know more about 10 for the PB than me ...I hope that it will contain a surprise of a better browser.

Hi playbook browser is about the best you can get on mobile device, with surface RT a close second, both have Flash player support and go to Desktop sites not mobile,
In my regular use of playbook. Since day one it is fast to load, network bandwidth depending, not having back gesture as Web OS has, BlackBerry did not include it,
But it has several gestures not on web OS, which makes it better, and back button is not a problem, the best mobile browser is in my personal
Use is Z10, better than playbook, deal breaker for me is no flash support, both playbook and Z10. And surface RT Have it,and I can go anywhere on the Web,
I use firefox desktop and mobile version on N9, and not impressed, I own and use every mobile OS since 2001 and playbook owners are fortunate that the stock browser works so well,
BlackBerry got that right, all we need now is update to BB10 then it will have the best browser bar none, no browser is perfect each has omissions but you adapt to it, never buy any device because it's cheap, buy it if it suits your needs, no point in E mailing BlackBerry about playbook browser as BB10 browser will soon arrive,

Merlin29, I couldn't agree more. I find it fast (depending on my wifi speeds at the time), intuitive and easy to navigate. It will default to mobile sites on some websites, so I use SimpleBrowser+ for those sites. Having the ability to play flash video is awesome!

Isnout, you are certainly not alone and I've read many, many threads on bad user experiences with the Playbook browser. I personally have had nothing but good experiences, except for a few crashes here and there (rarely). One tip: make sure that you clear your cache once in a while so it doesn't bog down your browsing experience. And yes, the BB10 browser should be awesome. The BB10 browser will be built in a new and exciting way and should be pretty cool. If it's anything like my Z10 browser....woohoo!!!

I agree with you on the AdBlock integration. AdBlock is critically needed especially on a tablet browser. I find the browser's buttons quite easy to use and have not accidentally pushed the wrong one; I admit that this depends heavily on the finger size. I would argue that the loading time depends on the internet connection more than on the browser's ability to render is fast (which, as far as I can see, is pretty quick). There is always room for improvement (eg. AdBlock-like badly needed) but the PlayBook browser is quite impressive overall, at least in my opinion.

The PlayBook's browser is amazing. I can go anywhere on the web without having to worry about incompatible videos.

Try fast browser on bb store. It's only 75p and I do prefer it to the stock browser. It also has ad blocking.