Hi tablet users, as a relatively new Android user, (ARIA Rooted and updated to 2.2 thanks to ATTN1) I have been extremely interested in this tablet. I was hoping to get some real answers from honest users of this device. I just don't trust the reviews that you can read from the various e-stores as they could be made up to entice people to buy.
Any feedback would be stellar!
Does it work with the regular Android market?
Don't be afraid to buy, as long as you don't mind tinkering just a little...
It's extremely easy to install one of these custom ROMs and have this little machine humming right along...I went from TnTlite v2.4 to 3.0 in about 5 minutes...
I haven't installed ClockworkMod. Adding Flash is easy enough, and I think is included in TnTlite 3.0...Getting the market to work correctly (99% anyway) is very easy.
I'm looking forward to 3.1 and future updates...it will only get better.
Thanks XDA!
You can add Market to the stock GTablet; there are instructions in other threads on the forum.
You will get the most bang for your bucks by flashing one of the custom ROMs available here. I used Zpad for a while but was won over by the soft buttons and lack of TnT in the VEGAn build.
I use my tablet every day for all my web, email, and chatting needs. I only use my laptop... hmm, when DO I use my laptop? Oh yeah, for torrents and word processing, since there aren't any tablet-aware office suites... yet.
-=Sent from my VS GTablet (VEGAn b4) using Tapatalk=-
Hello,
First want to thank everyone on this forum for the wealth of information and work you guys do. This is an outstanding site.
First saw the Gtab at staples around Thanksgiving and I was excited from the beginning. I've been wanting a tablet for a while but I did not want an iPad and 7 inch tablets didn't interest me. I knew my wife would most likely get one for me so I've been lurking around the site for almost a month now.
I'd like to point out that I have never used an Android powered device, not even looked at a smart phone in the store, so this OS is completely new and foreign to me. I still don't know what "side-loading" is, but I have learned a lot from the sight so far.
Out of the box nothing wanted to run. First thing I did was run the update and that made all the difference in the world. I'm really pleased with this device. It's responsive and easy to use.
The screen sensitivity seemed fine but I ran the calibration.ini/reboot routine anyway. I also managed to load Adobe flash which was far easier than I expected. It surprised me because I had no idea where I was supposed to copy the file or what I was to do with it when I got it on the tablet.
Anyway, again thanks to everyone for all the information. Hopefully soon I'll be able to figure out how to install new apps and even get an alternate system running. I really like this tablet, easy to use, fast and very responsive and that's running the stock system.
Side note: My wife has been messing with her bosses iPad and just last week she was trying to convince me to reconsider getting one. Now she's completely changed her mind. She thinks the Gtab is faster, smoother and more responsive than his iPad.
Neudle
I'm going to be buying an android tablet next week and am just so lost as to which to get.
I've narrowed it down to these three because I'm not looking to spend $400 when in a year the tech on android tablets will be in full swing and we will all be upgrading.
I just have no idea which to get because sellers don't list actual specs that those of us who aren't soccer moms care about. They just list all the great software it comes with (as if that matters since the greatness of android is what software you can install not pre-loaded) and other useless bits of info.
So I was hoping some fellow techies could give me their takes on them.
The use I'm looking for is mostly reading comic books and watching some videos. So the important factors to me are:
-access to a decent market or the ability to install apks, most comics open horribly in default software so getting a comic reader specific app is important. This is the most important aspect to me because really as long as we can install our own apps most shortcomings can be overcome.
-decent speed. The first wave of tablets could barely swipe homepages without freezing up. I've heard the pandigital is like this but am not sure.
-possible hackability. If it comes pretty stock android I don't mind not being able to hack it but this would be a bonus.
The main thing I'm looking for is something that isn't so locked down by proprietary crap that I can only install a reader app and one of 4 games in the manufacturers app store.
I like the capacative touch screen on the cruz because that's always better than resistive in my book, but i've read they used some funky processor that basically makes the vast majority of apps, as well as upgrading to 2.1 impossible. the kyros on the other hand sounds like it's more open and less locked down by proprietary crap but I honestly don't really know. The pandigital i just threw in there because there seems to be some threads about hacking it so i didn't know if people have found a way to make it an open machine yet.
thanks for any advice.
It's both funny and sad that you got no replies yet skullkandy.
After giving up on upgrading my WM2003 iPAQ, I decided I'd look into the very subject you're asking advice about.
Yeah, I ain't spending all that much $$$ either. **** is moving so fast right now in this market segment that it really makes no sense to get the "latest and greatest" only to see it become obsolete in 6-12 months.
And what about Velocity Micro's Cruz Reader w/ Android 2.0? I believe it can be rooted and upgraded to at least 2.3 and converted into a tablet that reads about every format and service and gets Android Marketplace... And they're around (new in the box) for about $120.
Have you made a choice yet? What happened?
I think I'm torn between the Cruz Reader or the Kyros... Any opinions would be helpful.
Hi everyone. I have a 4 year old who keeps taking my phone and my kids (his older brother and sister) ipod touches. He uses them to play games and go on youtube. I've been looking online for a cheap tablet for him to have and on craigslist there are a few for sale in my area for anywhere from $75-$100. I want to know if anyone has any experience with these cheaper android tabs. There's one by Sylvania and some others that just say ePad.
Does anyone have any experience with these and if so, do you think it will be ok for a 4 year old? Keep in mind, it doesn't have to be anything special. Just something that can play youtube and games like angry birds.
Any information is appreciated.
Sent from my MB860
Well you'd probably be best googling the models and seeing if they are real. I had a friend who got a fake off ebay. They work alright. Not great for myself. But if they are a proper tablet I don't see you having any problem as long as its not a scam haha
Sent from my Galaxy S running Galnet's MIUI v2.2 @ 1.3ghz!
Hmm just had a quick Google of the sylviana branded tablet you mentioned and from what I read it seems to function alright. Some are having problems but seems to be functional haha. Sorry if its what you already know
Sent from my Galaxy S running Galnet's MIUI v2.2 @ 1.3ghz!
A scam on craigslist? Never.
Being serious though, I did do some searching on google and with the information I got it figured it would be better to come ask the experts. I really dont care about the software that's installed on these tabs as long as they can be rooted and/or have access to the android market. Its just more important to me that they run decently. They are not very expensive but it's still money and I would like to know what I'm getting into.
Sent from my MB860
Hey,
I was recently setting up a home network for a co-worker and she "paid" me by giving me a White 7" Pandigital Novel "eReader". Its android based and from what I can tell it can be rooted and used as a low cost alternative to an Android tablet. They sell for as low as $100. I haven't decided what I'm going to do with my own since I just got a HTC Inspire 4G...
Guess I can try and hack it. I can let you know how well it takes being rooted.
Please do let me know. I would really appreciate it.
Sent from my MB860
Hey,
Sorry for the delay but I got a little busy with school. I was able to sit down for a bit with the White Pan digital Novel and I must say I was impressed. Due to the extremely low cost and decent spec of this machine it has gotten a lot of love from developers. Its extremely easy to flash ROM's for root access (just place .ZIP on SDCARD, remove internal SD, boot to recovery, and flash it). The guys over at Slatedroid even put Cyanogenmod 6.x on it.
I tested a number of ROM's but most had weird issues. The Slatedriod Cyanogenmod 6.x ROM actually only ran crisp (for now) in landscape mode. Its a bit too weak to play games from Android Market and that's assuming the the ROM you choose has a working Market (most don't by default). They used a mod called the non-ugly hack to fix this I think. Another issue with a lot of these ROM's involved the wifi going into a infinite loop, repeatedly turning itself on and off. Despite the fact that I love Cyanogenmon on my Optimus V, I had to find another full time ROM.
That's when I stumbled across an Eclair-based ROM ported from teh popular Cruz Reader. It was awesome. Smooth in all view modes and even video ran great on the thing. I haven't attempted to OC the device yet, but I would assume it would only make it better. This ROM is rooted of course, and had a working Android Market (and Cruz Market) installed from the start. With this ROM the device becomes a comparable tablet, far exceeding the value placed on its tag. Just use regular apps to manage the power usage and overclock it with Set CPU or something and you'll have quite a machine for $50 something .
A big downside is that for an "eReader" the battery life was horrid, a little better than an android phone (and that's even with the stock ROM). You are going to have to hack this thing to get any decent performance out of it as the stock ROM is laggy. The rooting worked for fixing a lot of these issues.
Em still a bit unfamiliar with the rules on posting links to other forums here, so I wont. Let me know if you have any questions on need the links and we'll set up some sort of arrangement.
Thanks for that info. Gives me a lot to consider. I may end up getting one of those units.
Sent from my MB860
Makes me want to check one out too
Sent from my PG86100-EVO3D-using Tapatalk
just to let everyone know up front I am not considering any apple tablets, so please do not suggest them
I've been looking at the HTC Flyer, the Samsung Galaxy tab, but am not sure if there are any other decent tablets out there between 7'' - 12''
budgets is about 200-400 quid
I'm just having a hard time making a decision, I'm not bothered about 1080p playback 720p is fine with me, must have a decent processor/gpu as I like to play alot of games as well, must be android only
at least 5mp camera, preferable with the option of being able to root and ICS
do i get a 3g sim or non 3g? what the heck do i do?
hdmi out is a selling point, dual core is a selling point
I won't be making calls on it but I might want to use 3g+ on it if im out and about
rooting and customisation very important
any one got any decent suggestions,
EDIT:
GOT THE XOOM IN THE END, WHAT A TABLET!! its freaking amazing
I hear the Tab is quite good.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA
mox123 said:
just to let everyone know up front I am not considering any apple tablets, so please do not suggest them
I've been looking at the HTC Flyer, the Samsung Galaxy tab, but am not sure if there are any other decent tablets out there between 7'' - 12''
budgets is about 200-400 quid
I'm just having a hard time making a decision, I'm not bothered about 1080p playback 720p is fine with me, must have a decent processor/gpu as I like to play alot of games as well, must be android only
at least 5mp camera, preferable with the option of being able to root and ICS
do i get a 3g sim or non 3g? what the heck do i do?
hdmi out is a selling point, dual core is a selling point
I won't be making calls on it but I might want to use 3g+ on it if im out and about
rooting and customisation very important
any one got any decent suggestions,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This should help you choose lol
droidfather.com/VideoCategory/Android-Tablets
The Asus transformer series are really nice, I'm looking around to get a Samsung Galaxy Tab myself soon, it looks quiet promising.
I would recommend the Motorola Xoom. The development for the device has been stellar, the devs are awesome and has an unlockable bootloader. Cm9 and other wonderful custom roms like Team EOS nightly builds are solid, fast and will make others envious. The Xoom feels solid and is well built. The screen is not as nice as the ones found on the Asus transformer or Samsung Tab but it isn't bad either. Those other screens also have their cons due to the nature of their technology. There have also been a decent amount of complaints about Asus build quality and Samsung lack of timely updates. The Xoom was the first to get ICS, the first to get a cornerstone build, the first to be officially supported tab for Cm9 and continues to have the latest android enhancements via Team EOS roms. Also the proprietary charger charges the xoom pretty fast and the accessories are cheap now due to it being out for a while. Because it was the first to market, it doesn't mean the it is obsolete. I got a bit of a bad rep in the beginning due to screw ups on Motorola part but all is well now.
I have a 4g Xoom and use it every day. I run the Team EOS nightlys, with the device overlooked to 1.4 (i can get 1.6, but not needed) and undervolted to save juice. Feel free to check out the development thread to verify my claims. Cheers!
what about the xoom 2?
i actually like the look of the xoom 1 but the xoom 2 doesnt look great, whats your thoughts
mox123 said:
what about the xoom 2?
i actually like the look of the xoom 1 but the xoom 2 doesnt look great, whats your thoughts
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't get the xoom 2. The bootloader is locked, there isn't nearly as much dev support, no custom roms, no micro sd card slot (deal breaker), more expensive and not all the much of an improvement. It also isn't a Google experience device.
Yea, this I will admit the the screen is better and the writing tech is nice. But you will kick yourself for not going with a better supported device. Before I purchase anything, I checked to see how the community support of the device is and recommend that others do the same. I don't want to solely rely on manufacturers for support.
To be honest I would wait for the Windows 8 tablets if you truly cannot buy an Apple device, as all of the Android tablets still suck(to put it mildly). The iPad is just in a whole another league right now, and ICS didn't make the situation any better. They all lag like crazy, even the 7.7 inch Exynos-equipped Tablet from Samsung. The tablet experience just isn't there yet for android.
What ever you do never get an LG V900 or V909, cant be rooted, or just shortly until you reboot.
Unless you like stock and no root.
Have a look to the Acer Iconia 501.
Toss3 said:
To be honest I would wait for the Windows 8 tablets if you truly cannot buy an Apple device, as all of the Android tablets still suck(to put it mildly). The iPad is just in a whole another league right now, and ICS didn't make the situation any better. They all lag like crazy, even the 7.7 inch Exynos-equipped Tablet from Samsung. The tablet experience just isn't there yet for android.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow really? What tablets running ICS have you owned? My Xoom running Team EOS ICS 4.0.3 is smooth an rarely lags.
The ipad hardware is in another league but the software is still Crap. What good is having all of that power and design but only being able to do 1/4 of what an android tablet can do? Also you are limited to whatever apps Apple deems fit in their one appstore. The other other alternative is to jailbreak and uses cydia. Don't even get me started on having to rely on a pc or mac to back up apps and settings usin itunes. On android I just use titanium backup and clockwork recovery to make a full back up to my micro sd card. I have been through that Crap an will never go back. Have you?
I also like how people are assuming windows 8 is going to be the answer for everyone. It can't run your normal desktop apps, I will be more expensive, it will be locked down, possibly more vulnerable due to it being based of windows and missing so awesome features due to limited api access or something similar. Keep in mind the Android was never intended to take on desktop OSs and the ios doesn't come any closer to accomplishing that. ios is worst. I don't care if here are 200,000+ apps, how many fart emulators and angry birds clones do you need? I how many apps do people on average even bother downloading from the appstore? I can tell you it is not 200,000 or even 50.
I will admit that the stock rom may have its issues, the custom roms usually fixes and enhances the user experience. I have only used the Motorola Xoom and Asus Transformer. Both have Cm9 and Team EOS ICS 4.0.3 nightlys available for them that run like butter. I never use stock rom.
ICS is there in tablet experience and will be getting better with release of 4.0.5 and 4.0.4. I wish people wih limited hands on experience would stop making blanket general statements. Not having the opportunity to tinker wih various hardware and software is one thing, but being unsatisfied wih the out of he box experience is another. This is XDA, experiment, create and discover.
ASUS Transformer Series are good and popular
@runhopskipjump: Way to go turning this into an Apple vs Android thread. Read any reputable review site that actually have an objective viewpoint on the matter and you'll come to realize exactly what everyone else has(except for some die-hard android fans): the android experience does not translate well onto tablets yet.
I love android, and have been waiting on an android tablet that would match the iPad, like the SGS did with the iPhone, but alas no tablet has done so yet and with the new iPad, apple leapfrogged the android manufacturers by a year, again.
The only tablet I would even remotely consider is the updated Transformer Prime TF700, but that won't be out until June.
Windows 8 is going to bridge the gap between the PC and Tablet space, allowing tablets to run desktop apps and vice versa. I hate having to have two devices, when one should be enough. The battery life of the current crop of Windows 7 tablets just isn't quite there yet and is the only obstacle keeping me from buying one, and I am hoping that the arm version of Windows 8 is going to remedy that.
thats the problem alot of the hardware does suck, however with the tegra 3 having only 1 gpu core compared to a5x's 4 gpus,
i think apple did the right thing here but I can't support a company like apple
the transformer prime sucks and they have made a new model of the same prime tablet due to issues with the back aluminum and some slight enhancements,
so in a way there is a flaw with those tablets right there and to overcome those you need to purchase the even new model of the prime,
I don't want to be running around, I just want something that will work hardware wise, and the software I can work around with custom roms,
tab
i would chose the samsung galaxy tab
I really recommend you TAB from Samsung Galaxy family
.
Thread moved to Q&A due to it being a question. Would advise you to read forum rules and post in correct section.
Failure to comply with forum rules will result in an infraction and/or ban depending on severity of rule break.
I'm very satisfied with my galaxy tab 10.1
Covers all my needs, has great ROMs - I've only tried overcome, but there are others - and is overclockable.
Now that I've found the switchme app - me, my wife and child all have our separate accounts on it.
Whatever you get, make sure you have enough internal space for such an app.
It's very convenient for more than one user to be able to have their own google account on a tablet, since they often are shared my more than one user.
Sent from my GT-P7500 using xda premium
its such a hard choice as they are all good but only one is going to be bought,
I wish I could make up my damn mind
mox123 said:
its such a hard choice as they are all good but only one is going to be bought,
I wish I could make up my damn mind
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If money is no object, you have two choices. Either you want a tablet can double down as a netbook and you go for the upcoming ASUS Transformer tablet (skip the Prime, I've heard from several people that it has connectivity issues), or you're more into consuming media, in which case Samsung Galaxy Tab is really good.
At this point it slowly starts to become a matter of taste. The top competitors are pretty close to each other. I'm curious about the upcoming Google-branded tablet too - I kicked the HTC Sense to the curb after a mere 2 weeks and replaced it with AOSP, so I don't put great trust in third party shells.