Are the cheap Android 4 tablets OK or junk?

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#737035 25-Dec-2012 00:22

bought the warehouse 7". either they forgot the wifi antenna or they just suck bad. sees 2 networks in the bedroom. my bedroom accesspoint and the flatmates one thru 1 wall. sgs2 and htc one x see around 20 including most of mine around the house at -80ish and some neighbour ones in the -70-90 range. If Iput the tablet on the antenna it will flatline at -45. the phones will go to -1 then get that bug where it cant go past 0 so there is signal there. Flatmates one is on -40 on the phones theu the wall. tablet is in the -70s.

So back it will be going.

Richard rich.ms

harald345

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#737174 25-Dec-2012 17:49

Ok, my daughter has her VIGO 7" and she loves it and so do I!!! After 2 bad ones, with the same faults (the second and third tested in store and the third one from (quote;) "A NEW SHIPMENT or BATCH just came in" line), It now works faultlessly. I believe they may be telling me the truth because they spent some time confirming that the 2nd was the last in store (New Lynn Branch) and I waited ages in store for confirmation 'till a new outer was opened in front of me to test. The 3rd had a firmer case back (am I dreaming?) and the temp(?) screen cover was missing the tab to remove, unlike the 2 before. It is 'filmed' on the touch screen better than the last 'batch' and I've left it there because it has no interferance or obstuction to touch commands or swipping. I looks like it is meant to be there, as in, designed to stay there and protect the screen, unlike the other 2, which were clearly for packaging protection with mini bubbles and a different feel. In fact the other 2 had to be removed to get a good feel for input (unless the others had indeed a faulty screen). The other thing I noticed was that the turn on time time was instant this time, with the usual (single core) delay to load into android. the others would take seconds to even acknowledge startup. I think there was an extra oval "passed QC" (quality control) sticker on the back also. (different OEM supplier from China perhaps).
Well for the juicy bits, love the google speech to search fuction, works real good if you speak in a not to low a tone, so my girls voice is near perfect on every search request. I had to change the default setting to 'strick' level filter, from normal. That's about the only kiddie change it needs. The inbuilt "browser" works well enough. No compelling reason to use chrome, also to many signup questions, yea right, not with my 9 year old. Not yet big brother.
Watched a 3D movie on it!. Used "Aiseesoft 3D Converter" to go from 'side by side' to Anaglyph (with cheap cardboard 3d glasses) then 'Xmedia Recode' for mp4 and downscaled resolution to match screen size. Nice. A Micro SD card inserts real flush with the case and there is no spring loading, ehh, had to use tweesers to remove, or you'd need to have long fingernails I suppose. It's gone now, to her Mums house with her, so didn't test HDMI out (no cable, It's Christmas shop closed). Battery life is as expected at 3 hours on wifi while constantly running everything, internet, movies, camera shot, I really put it to task, wanting to 'bust it'. It delivered, without ANY issue for all fuctions. Camera is crap. Fun for Kids though and skype. It is also slightly off center when viewing so It looks like you're looking to the side when recording or photo snapping, not a problem, just being thourough, turned my head slightly to correctly engage the viewer. The editing fuction has a 'sharpen' option which does good to the image after. Just use a dedicated camera with a micro SD card, and the tablet for store, edit and send. The weight is almost too much for itself. The biggest size to weight ratio of any electronic device I have ever used. Not bad though. Not for your top pocket however, unless in a heavy jacket. The recharge cable is real short. It will be realistic to use it plugged in for alot of its life, so buy an extention lead for power. Cheap Tablet - short battery life, facts of life. Real good polylithium batteries are hundreds of dollars for tiny sizes. 5v 2000ma power supply means draining more than charging from any standard cigarette lighter or adapter while in use. Yet to try DLNA, don't expect any issues with the right app though...she won't use that function at her age and her Mum aint running a media server, lol. I'll post back next week with a report on that anyhow, on next visit. Cool thing is I can confirm my logitech nano mouse and my ($250) logitech DeNovo full bluetooth Keyboard and my 2degree mobile 3g dongle all work within 10 seconds of pugin to setup automatically with a return device delay of nothing, instant satisfaction, nice. 3g can be limited to 2g to save battery life in options. Real nice. Settings are very logical and non confusing for an electronically aware average person I'm sure. Hope this helps someone.

richms

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#737427 26-Dec-2012 17:50

got the apad at pb today. much much better than the vigo. no charger in the box tho.

Richard rich.ms

neilinnz

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#737507 26-Dec-2012 21:52

Quick update from my findings. Previously I bought and returned a Paper Plus Zeus 7 inch tablet as it was too slow and the Wifi was terrible.

Today I picked up a $99 Amicroe tablet from HNs in their sale.
First impressions of using this tablet are that just about everything does work on this, Chrome, YouTube, etc. that didn't work on the Zeus. It's smaller and lighter and fits in the hand held portait much better than the Zeus did which was a little heavy and wide.
It's fairly responsive if you keep other apps closed and aren't doing any background downloading/app updating etc.. The Wifi is a big improvement on the Zeus, the Amicroe keeps it's signal in places the Zeus couldn't get a signal. The screen isn't as good as the Zeus and is has fewer pixels - this is both good and bad, good in that text in apps like Facebook and Path are readable, bad in that web pages and the like don't look too cracking. It has flash loaded on it too but don't expect to watch TVNZ or TV3 on demand, it seems to struggle a bit with both sites. YouTube has no issues playing video though, they look great.
The Amicroe comes with a charger, USB cable, earphones and a case too so for $99 it's a good buy if you can accept it's cheap and cheerful. To me it was less than half the price of the Zeus (now $249) and it doesn't feel any less for it, in fact of the two devices I have to say I prefer the Amicroe.

Dairyxox

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#737593 27-Dec-2012 10:14

Got a paper plus zeus octavo for dad, but it wasnt really good enough, so returned it.
(The same issue described above with wifi dropping out, poor signal etc).
Ended up getting Galaxy Tab 2 Seven for an extra $50, and the experience is much better.

Jaxson

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#737615 27-Dec-2012 11:07

Just wanted to say thanks to harald345 for the review. Others too of course, but harald345 is new and that was a great effort.

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mikenz86

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#738024 28-Dec-2012 12:40

Hmm, brother got a couple of the Amicroe tablets from HN, and dropped them to me to setup (?). I can't access the Play Store on them, just keep getting the error "unfortunately, Google Play Store has stopped" on both units. Have tried factory reset, but then play store was completely gone, so side loaded the apk and still the same problem. Found an apk for play store activation on an aussie website, but still no good. Take them back, or does anyone have any suggestions on how to get the play store to work ?

vexxxboy

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#738031 28-Dec-2012 13:20

mikenz86: Hmm, brother got a couple of the Amicroe tablets from HN, and dropped them to me to setup (?). I can't access the Play Store on them, just keep getting the error "unfortunately, Google Play Store has stopped" on both units. Have tried factory reset, but then play store was completely gone, so side loaded the apk and still the same problem. Found an apk for play store activation on an aussie website, but still no good. Take them back, or does anyone have any suggestions on how to get the play store to work ?

found how to get youtube to work on this site , most answers here

www.slatedroid.com

Common sense is not as common as you think.

neilinnz

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#738036 28-Dec-2012 13:57

mikenz86: Hmm, brother got a couple of the Amicroe tablets from HN, and dropped them to me to setup (?). I can't access the Play Store on them, just keep getting the error "unfortunately, Google Play Store has stopped" on both units. Have tried factory reset, but then play store was completely gone, so side loaded the apk and still the same problem. Found an apk for play store activation on an aussie website, but still no good. Take them back, or does anyone have any suggestions on how to get the play store to work ?

Hi I had the same issue.
I downloaded and applied the patch, then I rebooted it and went into Google Play and it did some kind of online update/migration and all is well from then on. Stick with it as it does work.

mikenz86

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#738075 28-Dec-2012 16:38

Got it all upand working. Seems you cannot use the same gmail account for multiple devices. I was trying to use the same account that I had used to setup a nice Ainol Fire tablet and the store was crashing/dumping me straight out. Reset to factory default, installed the patch and setup with a new account on each of the new tablets and all worked perfectly. So there is either some kind of verification required to use multiple devices, or it just does not want you to do it like that at all. Apart from that, they are working fine, and at $99 how can you go wrong. If you really end up hating them you can at least turn them into a photoframe..... :)
Now all I need to do it find a replacement screen for broken 10" superpad III tablet

SteveC

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#738162 28-Dec-2012 21:43

mikenz86:Now all I need to do it find a replacement screen for broken 10" superpad III tablet

Colleague wanted to do the same with his phone (Motorola something I think). He got a replacement screen with tools for the job from AliExpress. Something like this: http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/Replacement-touch-screen-for-Flytouch-3-10inch-superpad-Tablet-PC-DIY-REPAIR/312852_515280613.html
I can recommend AliExpress for ethics - everything ordered has turned up, seller only gets paid when buyer confirms goods are OK, generally good seller communication, refund if things don't work, etc. Unfortunately, after Chris replaced the broken screen on his phone, the screen worked fine, but there was a vertical strip where the touch didn't work. Not sure what happened after that.

With regard to Deb's Octavo - she (eventually) gave up.
We had all the problems that are warned about in this discussion topic, and we found it (like the Amicroe BTW) does not have a Contacts. Our research says that Contacts can only be put into the firmware - not installed from Play. All that along with frequent freezing and / or rebooting. It is going back to Paper Plus. The PP we got it from is a new franchise, and their service has been excellent (just the product that is not), so we agreed when they asked if we could bring it back when the manager is back next week. Interestingly, the young chaps there today said no one else has brought one back to their branch - leaves us wondering how many people have these devices, and are putting up with the crap (or the three Octavos discussed in this forum are all 'anomalies').

So off we went to Harvey Normans, and decided to get an Alcatel One Touch T10. That Out Of Box Experience has been excellent! No wireless issues, has Contacts, installed various apps OK. No hang or reboot yet.
One problem - Kobo reader does not have a Tools option for some reason. Working on that one.

Dell

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richms

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#738192 29-Dec-2012 02:17

what did the alcatel cost you?

Richard rich.ms

SteveC

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#738214 29-Dec-2012 09:25

richms: what did the alcatel cost you?

$148 http://www.harveynorman.co.nz/alcatel-onetouch-t10-7-tablet.html

:-)

ritzlal

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#738380 29-Dec-2012 18:27

SteveC:
richms: what did the alcatel cost you?

$148 http://www.harveynorman.co.nz/alcatel-onetouch-t10-7-tablet.html

:-)

Not available online so can't get this anymore ><. Seems like a decent buy at that price. Not going to compete with the likes of the Nexus 7 but at $148, it seems pretty decent. Harvey Norman Australia are selling them for $98 though :).

SteveC

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#738383 29-Dec-2012 18:38

ritzlal: Not available online so can't get this anymore ><. Seems like a decent buy at that price. Not going to compete with the likes of the Nexus 7 but at $148, it seems pretty decent. Harvey Norman Australia are selling them for $98 though :).

Humm: Special Price
OFFER AVAILABLE IN STORE ONLY. VALID UNTILL 29/12/2012.
(I wonder who can't spell until?) Bugger!
If I really wanted one, I'd bowl up tomorrow morning and haggle. :-)

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