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[Q] Sears refurb/reconditioned GTab?

I'm considering buying a reconditioned/refurbished Viewsonic G Tablet from the Sears Outlet. I'm intending to install Vegan 5.2 beta, Titanium Backup, etc. as soon as I receive it. Before I pull the trigger, I have a couple of questions:
1. Do I need to be concerned about what version of the hardware I receive? I went to a local retailer (not Sears), and discovered that the hardware model # on their display model was UPC 300-2.2. I've seen messages in this forum about some GTabs in circulation being UPC 320-2.2. If I get a refurb, might it be an earlier, undesirable hardware model? Is this a concern?
2. For HDMI connection, is there a patch cord available that will connect directly from the GTab to my TV, or will I have to buy a dock to make the HDMI connection? Where can I get the patch cord or the dock?
3. Is anyone experiencing low screen touch sensitivity on their GTab? When I was fooling with a demo model in a local store yesterday, it seemed quite unresponsive, almost as if it were a bad resistive screen. Today when I went back to play with it some more, it was better.
4. How sensitive is the wifi reception on the GTab? I.e., compared to your other wifi devices in the same setting, do you get strong or weak reception on your GTab?
5. I'm aware that, when shut down, the GTab loses track of the time. So, I would probably just turn off the wifi and put the GTab to sleep when I'm done using it. How long does a full battery charge last with the tablet asleep and wifi off?
6. Is there any capability that the GTab loses with Vegan installed? Do widgets work okay under Vegan? How about under Vegan with ADW Launcher?
Thanks!

It doesn't lose time when shut down. Get Gojimi's screen recal app. As far as I am concerned you gain functionality when you root and add a ROM. I use Vegan tab 5.1 and am very happy. You need a dock for HDMI

There are several threads in the accessories section that tell you how to get a dock and as far as I know there isn't a patch cord hdmi cable that you can use instead of the dock.
The wifi seems pretty strong. I'm using vegan rom beta 5.1 and I love it.
I do feel the gTab's touch sensitivity isn't as sensitive even after gojimi's screen calibration app when compared to my iPad. Though I love my gTab and like my iPad if that tells you anything.

sjmoreno said:
There are several threads in the accessories section that tell you how to get a dock and as far as I know there isn't a patch cord hdmi cable that you can use instead of the dock.
The wifi seems pretty strong. I'm using vegan rom beta 5.1 and I love it.
I do feel the gTab's touch sensitivity isn't as sensitive even after gojimi's screen calibration app when compared to my iPad. Though I love my gTab and like my iPad if that tells you anything.
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I second this!
Sent from my VEGAn-TAB-v1.0.0B5.1 using Tapatalk

Galaxy Tab 7.0 plus running HOT - anyone else?

Love this tablet but this last few days it has started to get really warm on occasion.
On the left side, about an inch in from the SD card slot, the temperature really builds up quickly starting first on the back of the device and eventually getting so hot on the glass it becomes uncomfortable to hold and to swipe. I've seen 48 degrees!
I have noticed this happening when using Dolphin HD browser and particularly if Skype is running in the background.
I wiped the tab, didn't reinstall from market and just loaded Dolphin and it didn't make any difference.
I'm guessing faulty device since there are only a few isolated reports of this online.

FloridaPhil said:
Love this tablet but this last few days it has started to get really warm on occasion.
On the left side, about an inch in from the SD card slot, the temperature really builds up quickly starting first on the back of the device and eventually getting so hot on the glass it becomes uncomfortable to hold and to swipe. I've seen 48 degrees!
I have noticed this happening when using Dolphin HD browser and particularly if Skype is running in the background.
I wiped the tab, didn't reinstall from market and just loaded Dolphin and it didn't make any difference.
I'm guessing faulty device since there are only a few isolated reports of this online.
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Click to collapse
Really strange, Phil. Based on your recommendation in "other" forums I turned in my Nook Tab and got a GTab7Plus and I'm just lovin it. Does everything I'd hoped it would do and more I haven't even figured out. So far, (knock on wood) I haven't gotten the Screen of Death nor has the unit gotten hot for any reason and I'm using dolphin browser exclusively. So......you may have a defective unit. Good luck.

Yeah, I think it was faulty. I took it back to Best Buy and they had not had any other returns for this issue.
Unfortunately they are also out of stock so I don't currently have a tablet at all! Seeing what is coming down the pike in the way of tablets I might just wait and see what transpires in the next 3 months. If I get antsy then I'll just pick up another GT7+ (or back to a Nook Tablet if the CM9 project advances quickly).
Also, do you see a color cast on yours at all? I noticed that when there was a white background, for instance reading a book on Kindle or Nook apps, the right lower side of the page had a warm tinge - pink/peach colored. It was quite irritating.

Having issues with Nook app opening my Nook ebooks.
FloridaPhil said:
Yeah, I think it was faulty. I took it back to Best Buy and they had not had any other returns for this issue.
Unfortunately they are also out of stock so I don't currently have a tablet at all! Seeing what is coming down the pike in the way of tablets I might just wait and see what transpires in the next 3 months. If I get antsy then I'll just pick up another GT7+ (or back to a Nook Tablet if the CM9 project advances quickly).
Also, do you see a color cast on yours at all? I noticed that when there was a white background, for instance reading a book on Kindle or Nook apps, the right lower side of the page had a warm tinge - pink/peach colored. It was quite irritating.
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FloridaPhil:
I have received my 7+ and downloaded and installed the Nook and Kindle apps without a hitch. The Kindle books are fine but I seem to be having a problem opening my Nook books. Darn, I am in the midst of a great book and hate reading on my phone.
Any tips on how best to install and manage my Nook ebooks? And, I have a 32gb sd card which I haven't installed but plan to tonight. Will that make a difference? Should I "format" the card before installing on the 7+? How does that work?
Thanks a bunch!

I noticed on the nook software that I needed to open the software and then reopen it before the book would load. Second time is a charm I guess.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using xda premium

Mine as well, in the same location as you specified too. Gets damn hot in that location with I'm using it in the car for navigating with Google Maps and it's plugged into the charger. Also in the same scenario the charge level is still going down and not up

I' ve been using VTL Launcher and had some previous issues with my home wifi (couldn't reconnect so my tab was always trying to find it again and again). After resetting router and mainly uninstalling VTL Launcher my tab stopped to be hot and battery life increased rapidly. So I was almost decided tonreturn it due to this problems but since then everything is finally ok and start to enjoy this tab (previously had GT7 original and Note).
Regarding navigation with google maps- consider that there is also huge use of data amount so warmness is probable. I'm using Sygis Aura and has no problems with hottness and also not original car charger has enough power to charge on the roads.

So far haven't noticed the tab getting hot. Just trying to figure out how to use Kies. What a friggin nightmare! Why have they not simplified the Kies interface? It is so convoluted!

aeon101 said:
I' ve been using VTL Launcher and had some previous issues with my home wifi (couldn't reconnect so my tab was always trying to find it again and again). After resetting router and mainly uninstalling VTL Launcher my tab stopped to be hot and battery life increased rapidly. So I was almost decided tonreturn it due to this problems but since then everything is finally ok and start to enjoy this tab (previously had GT7 original and Note).
Regarding navigation with google maps- consider that there is also huge use of data amount so warmness is probable. I'm using Sygis Aura and has no problems with hottness and also not original car charger has enough power to charge on the roads.
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Interesting - but mine was totally stock. Yeah, I had added a ton of apps but it was running regular TouchWizz. My little Nook Color running CM7 has exactly the same apps and doesn't even get warm.

what are you using kies for? my computer (win 7) didn't recognize my tab until
i installed kies, it also installed drivers so i can now transfer files

To FloridaPhil: And how long is your battery life? Is wifi ok? Well I' ve noticed then, that our tab doesn't have still very apropriate task managing and this can be causeb exactly by this. Take a look in settings, applications and battery use...I couldn't believa my eyes but even I'm using good task manager with automatic shutndowns of slected apps, there are still huge amount of running apps that drain battery and may cause getting hot. Next thing as well was a fact, that even when wifi connection held perfectly, there was still word 'searching' each couple of seconds (take a look in wifinsettings...)- so next possible reason for getting warm...

aeon101 said:
Next thing as well was a fact, that even when wifi connection held perfectly, there was still word 'searching' each couple of seconds (take a look in wifinsettings...)- so next possible reason for getting warm...
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It's only searching because your at the wifi settings screen. If you are at the screen where different wifi networks can be selected, android (logically) thinks you might want to select a different network, so scans. If you STAY on that screen, it assumes you want to keep scanning (why else would you stay on that screen?)
This is something that all wifi enabled android devices do. It's NOT scanning every few seconds if you aren't on that specific settings screen...
Gary

Thanks Gary for reasonable explanation, yes this is logical. I was just confused from this, cause not Galaxy Note, nor previous Tab or Streak was behaving like this. But is true that this is my first honeycomb machine and I may not realise this before or it had been different in settings.

aeon101 said:
I was just confused from this, cause not Galaxy Note, nor previous Tab or Streak was behaving like this
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Click to collapse
My Galaxy SII (gingerbread, AT&T, SGH-I777) does this as well. Even my iPhone does it.

I'm using Kies Air to wirelessly transfer and synch my contacts, calendar, etc....... Experimented and have transferred photos and some other files. Also worked using the USB cable and my Windows 7 recognized and installed drivers. It recognized the SD card as my E drive.
Regarding the heating up issue, so far I have not experienced this. The battery use is under control when I turn off all wireless when I leave my home.
Getting used to the Touchwiz interface but I also installed Go Launcher EX and use that sometimes.
Video playback is awesome on this little tab; last night I was watching movie trailers and was surprised with the sound as well. The Nook's sound was always a bit weak.
I installed an anti-glare screen film and it is awesome for reading. Doesn't detract from the beautiful display and the fonts are crisp.
Regarding opening my Nook books I realized that it worked as soon as I installed my SD card and I downloaded my books so I wouldn't have to deal with having a wireless connection to read my books.
Playing around with the wallpapers and customizing the Samsung screens and installed a super cool "steam punk skull" live wallpaper and it is amazing! Found it free via the Amazon app store....it is fantastic! I also found other beautiful live wallpapers via the Amazon app store including snow scenes.
The tab connected flawlessly to my Samsung Galaxy 4G T-Mobile phone's access point and used that to stream Pandora and download some Kindle books. It was done in my office which doesn't have the best T-Mobile network access and it was surprisingly fast and smooth. No stuttering of the music and emails and Facebook worked great.
I ordered the 6' long usb cable for the tab via Amazon and it has shipped; hopefully it is well matched and charges up the tab just as well as the stock 3' shortie cable. I noted other comments regarding the slow charging of the tab and found that turning off the wifi or simply shutting it down speeds up the charging dramatically.
So that is my report so far and let me say I am enjoying the 7+ tab immensely.

It got to 40C (104F) today while I was playing GTA. The device it's naked (no covers or anything). I'm going to take it to service centre next week :-(

rendler said:
It got to 40C (104F) today while I was playing GTA. The device it's naked (no covers or anything). I'm going to take it to service centre next week :-(
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Well i guess thats pretty normal, mine goes up to 42C sometimes.. I guess it depends on your surrounding and climate.

You sure it's a normal thing (this temperature range)? I'm here in Thailand so the ambient temperature is hot to begin with, but the thing is; with prolonged used my hands get uncomfortable.

rendler said:
You sure it's a normal thing (this temperature range)? I'm here in Thailand so the ambient temperature is hot to begin with, but the thing is; with prolonged used my hands get uncomfortable.
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So far im still comfortable with it and its not much of a problem to me, im using a case together with it so i cant really feel the heat.. You could try taking it in to where you bought it and see what they have to say ;D

DevilBeyond said:
So far im still comfortable with it nd its not much of a problem to me, im using a case together with it so i cant really feel the heat.. You could try taking it in to where you bought it and see what they have to say ;D
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Just told my wife, she said her galaxy s2 gets hot as well, so I asked her to touch mine ;-)
She says it's about the same. So i really don't know what to think any more, but I'll take it in anyways just for peace of mind.

Reasons for me to not sell my TF700T?

It's as simple as that. I've been using my Nexus 4 smartphone ever since I received it on Feb. 1, and since then I have not turned on or even considered using my TF700T. Although this is just a minor annoyance, it's quite a hassle taking it out of my backpack on campus, waiting for it to boot up, and connect it to slow wifi, while I can just do whatever I want to do on my phone twice as fast and without any I/O lag. The only real thing I can do on the tablet that I can't on a phone is type up notes.
I really love this tablet and CleanROM has made my experience much better, but I always find myself going to the phone for everything I need. That being said, does anyone one here have any tablet-specific tasks I can perform on a tablet but not on a phone?

I have phases like this. New device love syndrome :cyclops: Bought a nexus 7 and didn't use the infinity for 2 weeks. Now I never use the nexus 7. Think I'll sell it. Screen estate is just a bit too small.
Bought a Microsoft surface rt. Only use it for work related tasks. It's a great idea but a terrible mobile device.
Phone screens are too small for sustained web browsing and productivity tasks IMO.
I always come back to the infinity. Great device. I'm sure you will fall in love with it again. Once the honeymoon is over.

rikkoko said:
It's as simple as that. I've been using my Nexus 4 smartphone ever since I received it on Feb. 1, and since then I have not turned on or even considered using my TF700T. Although this is just a minor annoyance, it's quite a hassle taking it out of my backpack on campus, waiting for it to boot up, and connect it to slow wifi, while I can just do whatever I want to do on my phone twice as fast and without any I/O lag. The only real thing I can do on the tablet that I can't on a phone is type up notes.
I really love this tablet and CleanROM has made my experience much better, but I always find myself going to the phone for everything I need. That being said, does anyone one here have any tablet-specific tasks I can perform on a tablet but not on a phone?
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Click to collapse
I'm having quite the reverse: my SGS2 never went more than 24h without needing a charge, now it sits there for 5 days. I text with wit, I tether its data connection by Bluetooth to the 700, I check my train schedule if I run into changed platforms and such. The rest: Infinity.
I might replace it with another fullHD tablet, non-ASUS, but I have to do a bit more research as to what my options are. I will not sell this one, however, as I have several optees within my family.

MartyHulskemper said:
I tether its data connection by Bluetooth to the 700
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Whenever I try that, my TF700 reboots immediately. Do you use any special trick, or is it just my old Motorola Defy that my TF700 doesn't like?

_that said:
Whenever I try that, my TF700 reboots immediately. Do you use any special trick, or is it just my old Motorola Defy that my TF700 doesn't like?
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Oh, it's definitely picky! Sometimes neither device will connect to the other (although both are set to being visible to any device), and sometimes even rebooting doesn't fix it. It stays a bit hit or miss, but you could give Open Garden a whirl (NB: it sets up an unencrypted VPN, so you do not want to send over anything sensitive, like banking data or the like, when you are, say, aboard a train or bus, but in the safety of my rather quite neighborhood, I used it several times when the normal Bluetooth tethering crapped out on me again ). Funny thing is, if anything, your Defy should reboot and not the 700. Which ROM are you on?
I pair both devices beforehand, then go to the Wireless hotspot option in the Settings, and CleanROM provides the option to do bluetooth internet sharing. I think I'm far too stupid to think of tricks on how to do this when that does not work.

MartyHulskemper said:
Funny thing is, if anything, your Defy should reboot and not the 700. Which ROM are you on?
I pair both devices beforehand, then go to the Wireless hotspot option in the Settings, and CleanROM provides the option to do bluetooth internet sharing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Defy: stock Android 2.1 (I don't want to mod my only phone)
TF700: CROMI 3.2
Devices are paired, "Internet tethering (via USB and BT)" is enabled on the phone.
When I connect the TF700 to the phone's "internet access" service, it says "connecting...", and after a few seconds I see the boot animation and Android restarts. Interestingly, not a kernel-level restart, I didn't see the bootloader logo. I remember reading about other reports of the same problem somewhere.
My workaround is to use WiFi tethering, which works fine. It just eats a lot of battery on the phone, but it's good enough for me.

_that said:
Defy: stock Android 2.1 (I don't want to mod my only phone)
TF700: CROMI 3.2
Devices are paired, "Internet tethering (via USB and BT)" is enabled on the phone.
When I connect the TF700 to the phone's "internet access" service, it says "connecting...", and after a few seconds I see the boot animation and Android restarts. Interestingly, not a kernel-level restart, I didn't see the bootloader logo. I remember reading about other reports of the same problem somewhere.
My workaround is to use WiFi tethering, which works fine. It just eats a lot of battery on the phone, but it's good enough for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mmmh... Never had that happen to me. WiFi tethering is my go-to as well when Bluetooth craps out.

sbdags said:
I have phases like this. New device love syndrome :cyclops: Bought a nexus 7 and didn't use the infinity for 2 weeks. Now I never use the nexus 7. Think I'll sell it. Screen estate is just a bit too small.
Bought a Microsoft surface rt. Only use it for work related tasks. It's a great idea but a terrible mobile device.
Phone screens are too small for sustained web browsing and productivity tasks IMO.
I always come back to the infinity. Great device. I'm sure you will fall in love with it again. Once the honeymoon is over.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hahaha I'm actually hoping that I'm going through a "honeymoon phase" too, I'm going to give it one more week to think it over! I do prefer the infinity for productivity, but what I mostly do is read over PDFs. I'm actually thinking of downgrading to a Nexus 7 for that :\
MartyHulskemper said:
I'm having quite the reverse: my SGS2 never went more than 24h without needing a charge, now it sits there for 5 days. I text with wit, I tether its data connection by Bluetooth to the 700, I check my train schedule if I run into changed platforms and such. The rest: Infinity.
I might replace it with another fullHD tablet, non-ASUS, but I have to do a bit more research as to what my options are. I will not sell this one, however, as I have several optees within my family.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ahh I see. I actually have the need to charge mine by the end of the day, but 'tis not a big deal because I'm home anyways. I do not yet have an unlimited data plan, but I plan to tether to a tablet once I do and hopefully that'll increase my tablet usage. Does tethering drain the phone's battery even more?

rikkoko said:
Ahh I see. I actually have the need to charge mine by the end of the day, but 'tis not a big deal because I'm home anyways. I do not yet have an unlimited data plan, but I plan to tether to a tablet once I do and hopefully that'll increase my tablet usage. Does tethering drain the phone's battery even more?
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Click to collapse
Tethering over Bluetooth for about 2 hours during my train commute to work drains the battery for an extra 3 to 12%, obviously depending on what you're doing with the data connection. I never download immensely large files over my data connection, butjudging from the battery consumption, I guess I could leave it tethered for about three days running time in total.

_that said:
Defy: stock Android 2.1 (I don't want to mod my only phone)
TF700: CROMI 3.2
Devices are paired, "Internet tethering (via USB and BT)" is enabled on the phone.
When I connect the TF700 to the phone's "internet access" service, it says "connecting...", and after a few seconds I see the boot animation and Android restarts. Interestingly, not a kernel-level restart, I didn't see the bootloader logo. I remember reading about other reports of the same problem somewhere.
My workaround is to use WiFi tethering, which works fine. It just eats a lot of battery on the phone, but it's good enough for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am using PDaNet on both my Droid 4 (rooted, stock rom) and the TF700, now on CROMI 3.3 and I can tether the tablet through Bluetooth no problem. VPN is encrypted
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk HD

Pulled my shield out of the drawer

This was honestly a fantastic piece of hardware when I bought it. A little about me is that I'm a pilot and I travel non-stop. I took a job that gave me an ipad so the shield went back into the closet. I've since switched jobs again and now I've pulled it out, dusted it off, and updated it with everything. It's so slow it's unusable. Literally can't use it.
There are basically only a few things I want the tablet for. There's no games. I just want to Netflix, watch downloaded shows for when I'm in foreign countries, and look at photos. I don't even use the internet much on it I just use my phone for that. Mostly just a movie/show thing. What should I do to get it back up to par?
Basically I have nothing that's important on it but don't want to throw it away. I still think it's a great device so long as it operates like it should. What can I do to make it functional again and able to play downloaded content, sling/youtubeTV and my spotify account? I'm not sure what's happened but right now even swiping from one screen to another is very laggy and slow. If I need to root or install something custom I'm willing to I just want to get this device up and running. It's the 2014 Tegra K1 variant.
Thank you guys!

Install the new 5.2 update, do a factory reset, and do not enable "Doze". Nvidia has disabled Doze by default on the latest update to eliminate the lag. It might slightly drain the battery though, but no more lag coming out of sleep.

Stay away from tha updates!!

Niii4 said:
Stay away from tha updates!!
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5.2 update made the tablet noticeably faster/smoother for me. Battery life is the same as before the update, and no issues with the update whatsoever.
Experience with an update(s) will vary from one user to another, due to all the differences in how we use our devices.

Living with the Little Gem

SO lets start out with something I originally wrote on FB back on the 3rd June
--
Ok so it's time to jot down some feedback on my first weekend with the Gemini but first lets run through what I've got here altogether.
First up there's my works laptop.
Then there's my own laptop which is permanently connected to the living room TV via HDMI.
I have an iPad that gets used as a general web browsing device around the house.
My phone is a dual SIM Motorola G4+ used for both by personal & work SIMs (supplied by work)
So where have I found the Gemini fitting in?
Well mostly I've been using it as a replacement for the iPad, particularly liking using split screens in the horizontal layout.
I've also installed all the MS apps so I can connect to my works mails etc (we're on Office 365) and that all seems to be working nicely as well.
What I haven't really been using it for is phone calls and TBH I'm not sure I will. I have my personal SIM in here (which is my least used one) primarily so I can use it online whilst away from WiFi. Not particularly interested in pairing with a smart watch as I can't stand wearing a watch full stop (yes I know I'm odd).
Overall I'm very impressed with the speed and responsiveness of the Gemini and haven't even particularly noticed any of the reported problems with the space bar (that could be because I'm very much a 2 finger typist lol). Yes there are one or two characters you have to think about which key combo to press but the keyboard is very well marked and I find it very intuitive to use.
Battery life seems reasonable given the amount of time the screen is on and a full charge has been seeing me right through the day up until bedtime. Be interesting to see how it is on the odd day I have to go into the office (I predominantly work from home)
Tried the adaptive brightness but it annoyed me as it was very visibly hunting and simply adjust manually to suit(now I've learnt to be patient with the FN combo).
Running an RDP session to a remote computer is so much easier with the aid of a BT mouse and I like that I can if I choose output to the telly.
Would I recommend the Gemini? You bet your sweet bippy I would, just not as a phone replacement
--
So has anything really chnaged since then?
No not really and I would still recommend the Little Gem even though there have been a few SNAFUs/Gotchas.
The biggest of these was probably the first OTA update causing a bootloop but that was easily rectified by reflashing using the files/info supplied at Planet Computers.
Annoyingly although the external Silver Button worked pretty consistently originally since the latest OTA upgrade I've had nothing but problems with it using the default Google Assistant. I've since switched it to link to Saiy and that seems far more reliable.
I've been suffering a few random reboots but I'm 99% certain thats down to InTune (Im using this for work as a BYOD and there are policies enforced on the MS apps) throwing a hissy fit on trying to enforce enryption which you can't do on the Gemini.
One slightly annoying thing is I noticed the cover was not fitting quite as snugly as I liked after inserting the sim &(200gb) SD card, that's been easily resolved with a couple of tiny dobs of white tack (blue is also available)
The only other minor irritation is that it doesn't appear any of the carriers in the UK are set up to provide service via eSim yet other than to Apple Smartwatch (& possibly Samsung Gear)