Under $100 ICS Tab
As promised here's the unboxing of my latest acquisition - an under $100 Android tablet running on ICS.
While this is no Nexus 7, this is by far the best performing tab for this price range. The touchscreen is more responsive (capacitative while the others have a resistive screen) and there is almost no latency when I launch apps.
The screen isn't pressure sensitive (tested it with my fav sketching app Markers) but didn't see a huge difference in apps that don't support pressure sensitivity.
I haven't tried hangouts yet because it's installed an older version of Google+ even though the Play Store shows the latest version. Will figure that out and post an update here.
#budgettabs
As promised here's the unboxing of my latest acquisition - an under $100 Android tablet running on ICS.
While this is no Nexus 7, this is by far the best performing tab for this price range. The touchscreen is more responsive (capacitative while the others have a resistive screen) and there is almost no latency when I launch apps.
The screen isn't pressure sensitive (tested it with my fav sketching app Markers) but didn't see a huge difference in apps that don't support pressure sensitivity.
I haven't tried hangouts yet because it's installed an older version of Google+ even though the Play Store shows the latest version. Will figure that out and post an update here.
#budgettabs
I filmed this $55 AllWinner Boxchip A13 Tablet Factory Tour
ReplyDeleteThose are being sold at $60 even below all over China. The cheapest are sold sub-$40 in bulk. ICS runs super smoothly impressively hardware accelerated for example using the Mali-400 GPU of the AllWinner A10/A13. Now also dual-core RK3066 are available just for $10-15 extra.
ReplyDelete$63 7" capacitive Boxchip A10 Tablet is one of the ones I got.
ReplyDeleteVery cool! It looks very similar to the w8650.
ReplyDeleteDo you have the G+ app installed on it? I'm trying to figure out why it's not going beyond version 1 for me.
ReplyDeleteJérémy Naegel Nathanael Abbotts how long do you think it'll be before a compatible JB rom is available? :-D
ReplyDeleteThe G+ app somehow doesn't seem to recognize this as an ICS device. The only version I can get it to install is version 1 *sniff* Odd, considering the w8650 with Froyo has the latest version installed from the Play Store.
ReplyDeleteAnd it doesn't recognize any other G+ apk except the one that's currently installed. So hangouts are out of the question.
Logging off for the day now. Will test this more tomorrow - let me know if you have any suggestions. Wave Plus you later!
ReplyDeleteThis is exciting, Pooja, and good timing. I am wondering if these might be appropriate for my mission trip to Ghana for use in their school. Battery life? Looking forward to details. Sounds like a very good value.
ReplyDeleteJohn Blossom it worked for at least 4 hours out of the box. Charged it last night so I'll know what the actual battery life is today. The main plus for this tab is the out of the box experience. With the other sub $100 tabs, I spent a couple of hours each tweaking the existing rom. This one, very similar to my experience with higher end tabs - add a Google Account and you are on your way to syncing up the apps.
ReplyDeleteAll other apps, except G+, were able to recognize ICS and install the right version. That's the only thing I want to fix. If I get this for my grandfather, I'd want him to be able to join hangouts and that's not available in the version that's installed.
Nathanael Abbotts I'll try that out. My other tab is rooted but surprisingly this one's not! I can't find the Super User app on it. Somehow feels a lot safer though :-D
The kids really don't care about the G+ app... it's just me trying to figure out what's happening here.
John Blossom send you a private note with the link to the ebay store I purchased this from. It took a little over 3 weeks to reach here from Singapore (priority mail but Customs was hoarding the tab) but it might be faster for you.
ReplyDeletePooja Srinivas did you post info about the processor? Is it AllWinner Boxchip A10? A13? Rockchip RK2918? RK2906? Then one can try to find out online what are the latest firmwares and bugs based on the tablet platform. Sometimes the same firmware works on many different tablet designs using the same processor. Some times in the past to fix Google Marketplace bugs on non-certified tablets, there was a trick to go in Apps, select Google Play, and I forgot the order, but it's something like clear cache, clear data, force stop or in another order. And then maybe restart and the Google Marketplace would behave better after that. For example showing more apps that it was before hiding from the device somehow.
ReplyDeleteNicolas Charbonnier this seems to be All Winner A13 ( 1.0GHz, Cortex-A8; GPU: Mali-400) but I don't think that's the issue. There are some ICS only apps which got installed and are working fine (Chrome for example). The weird thing is when I go to the web version of the Play Store, the only version available for this tab is version 1, the other two (one of which is a Gingerbread device) has the latest version installed.
ReplyDeleteNicolas Charbonnier were you able to install the G+ app on your device? I'm interested in knowing if it lets you create and join hangouts.
ReplyDeleteIt says "Varies with device" and when I select this specific device, the only version available is version 1. The 2.2 tab has the latest version installed (but hangouts don't work there).
ReplyDeleteTried that. Still installs version 1!!!!!
ReplyDeleteMadhan Mani bought it on eBay.
ReplyDeleteSent you the link. Unfortunately couldn't attend day 2 of #gindia :-/
ReplyDeleteDoes it supports usb 3g modem router ?
ReplyDeleteI haven't tried it with a 3G dongle but it does have an app that lets you log in with a username/password. I prefer to use the WiFi instead (tethering with my Android phone if I'm not near a hotspot).
ReplyDeletePooja Srinivas That's the way to do it. No need for multiple opportunities for the carriers to soak us.
ReplyDeleteI know! Beats carrying around multiple devices just to get online. Android rocks!!!
ReplyDelete