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Pls enlighten this Android newbie

Hi all,
Am a newbie to Android tablets/devices both in terms of hardware and software. So if my post is posted in the wrong thread or reposted pls pardon me. I just want to understand a few basics.
As you all may know, now the market is being flooded by those Chinese made Android tablets. And many of them looks good (at least on paper) and at a very good price. But the problem is most of the time when come to chinese goods, they don't usually do what they claims (if you know what i mean). and the best part most of the salesperson don't know anything about the products they are selling especially when comes to tech gadgets like the Android tablets.
So here i am seeking help from you gurus and hoping i can start my Android journey on the right step. Below are a few questions. Hope I can get answers (links to somewhere where i can read up or anything).
1. What are the conditions (CPU make, firmware, etc) to fulfill if i wan to upgrade/root/hack the original Android OS? Cos most of the chinese made tablets are running on Android 1.5. Hoping to be able to upgrade the OS whenever a newer one comes out. Like the latest 2.1 And be able to download new apps from the apps market.
2. Which CPU chip is better and what are the common CPU chips in the market now? I know there are the Rockchips, VIA, Telechips.
3. Can we tell what are the hardware (CPU make etc) and software (OS/firmware version, etc) that are being used in the device from the system setting or something?
4. I read somewhere that not all CPU chips can be upgraded to the latest OS. i.e. that any upgrade is determined by the CPU chip. Is it true?
5. As for custom ROM, is it also device dependable? Like is there a generic ROM for all devices?
For now these are the questions which are bugging me. Hope the gurus here can enlighten this Android newbie.
Sorry for the long winded post and thanks for any help.

Hmmm. Just check that it is upgradable to froyo and it has more than 500mhz cpu
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App

if you are looking for a tablet just get an ipad. the android tablets i see floating around are just 1.5 or 1.6. even if you get a tablet that can do 2.2 (froyo)... i dont see how that can be any better than an ipad.
i just feel that 2.2 isnt meant to be in tablet form. if you can wait... wait for 3.0 before you decide. the main deterrent here is the maximum resolution for android (854 x 480 or something), and that the apps were made with phones in mind.
im very happy with my nexus one... i just cant imagine having a tablet running android as of the moment unless its very very cheap ($200 or so).
i for one will get an ipad next month. my nexus one with wifi tether + the basic wifi ipad will be gadget heaven. looking to get an ipad primarily for reading magazines (zinio) and comic books. android does not have zinio yet. the android comic viewer (ACV) i use on my nexus is ok... but not great. then theres the games. games on android are still so so with less variety and choices.
as a phone the android is great! better than the iphone (yes im an apple user through and through) even. but as a tablet... not quite yet.

Hp is going to release a tablet so is samsung with 2.2
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App

Hopefully start seeing some of these 2.2 tablets in the 3rd Quarter...

[Q] Can you all point me to a Reliable Fast and Supported Tablet?

So after the past week or so i have done some casual research. Looking thru various sites getting some not so reliable feedback i figured i would just ask at the top.... And i dont know why i didnt in the first place..
I am looking to get a Android Tablet when taxes come. Something not to expensive but not a cheap piece of junk either.
I am looking for something reliable, fast good graphics, a decent camera if possible certianly gps, wifi, bluetooth. I would like to dock it in my car for its Gps potential, and for movies and certianly its music capabilities (like power amp) and pandora last fm ect. I figured i would tether it to my Droid 2, and no i wont be watching movies on it thats more for my wife, friends ect.
I would defenatly want it to have the android market on it, wether i have to put it on there myself or if it was stock. I want to be able to play games like angry bird or whatever. Not just simple low end games but the potentintal to play anything i might want to..
And lastley i would like something that defenatly has some community backbone to it. Something that has been rooted, that people know and i can get reliable support on. I dont want to be running 1.6 on it it has to be like 2.0 or 2.2 and i can upgrade it. Something that runs really smoothly and has at least one decent rom.
I see some of these people who bought cheap tablets off ebay from Hong Kong or whatever and there having to scour the net just to find out what excatly it is called.. I dont really wana do that lol.
If i can find it locally great! If i got to order it off the net then so be it. I just want something that is open, reliale, smooth, fast and has some support behind it...
Sorry if this is the wrong section i looked for a overall tablet form but couldnt find one on XDA and i didnt want to post in every forum. If you have anylinks or even one u are thinking about buying like a link let me know id love to check it out!
Thanks Everyone!

Dude, get a NookColor! $249, supported in ROM Manager, and I'm sure soon to have full ROMs released..
It doesn't have a camera (but your Droid 2 does...) so that might be a deal breaker. It's not a tablet, it's an e-reader, but it's a neat little thing. I can't wait to see the development take off.
Other than that, the Motorola Xoom looks promising, but it's currently unreleased.
-pd

I would recommend the nook Color as well except for the fact that it is lacking a GPS. Therefore it does not fit into the car model. I have one for my son and it is a nice device.

The gps is kind of a nessisity for me, i could give up the camera but im stuck with the gps. But the nook or nook color is out for me. I see it as lacking later on because of its processor and it wasent built to be a tablet. I want something that will ride out for a few years if possible. It needs a 1 ghz prosessor and sufficent ram. And i got to have 2.2+ on it. And 7 inch minumum. Thank you for the suggestion thus far though

Consider the Archos 101 or 70.
Pretty sure it has everything.
There is a forum for it here too.

as far as I know no tablet meets your demands ( 1ghz/2.2/lotso ram/etc) probably best shot at the moment is a flytouch II from lightinthebox ...
10", decent rom support coming together, inbuilt gps, 2 cardslots for storage, android 2.1 with kernel 2.6.32.9 once you upgrade/update it to v1568 firmware.
another OEM provider promised 2.2 was going to be out last weekend but havent seen anything filtering out as of yet

chachi said:
as far as I know no tablet meets your demands ( 1ghz/2.2/lotso ram/etc) probably best shot at the moment is a flytouch II from lightinthebox ...
10", decent rom support coming together, inbuilt gps, 2 cardslots for storage, android 2.1 with kernel 2.6.32.9 once you upgrade/update it to v1568 firmware.
another OEM provider promised 2.2 was going to be out last weekend but havent seen anything filtering out as of yet
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, Archos already has 2.2 with 1ghz
http://www.archos.com/products/ta/archos_101it/specs.html?country=ca&lang=en
The RAM is not listed on that page but it would be easy to find out.
I'm just stepping out.
And there seems to be a GPS solution here http://forum.archosfans.com/viewtopic.php?f=63&t=37910

Sry... what I meant was I want to run the most uptodate firmware I can so im kosher with 2.1 what im hoping to avoid is where I have seen a lot of them running 1.6. I've been thinking about archos but I just haven't heardb from anyone who ones a archos or a flytouch.. I would defenatly like to hear experiences... thanks again everyone
Sent from my DROID2 using Tapatalk

Also and i forgot to mention it.. It has to have a Capacitive and Multitouch screen like my Droid X or Droid 2.... Does that FlyTouch have that? cause i cant seem to find any information pertaining to that.

no flytouch2 is not multitouch but otherwise i am more than happy with mine, best €130 ish i've ever spent

Leader i7 tablet root + roms?

This is a nice little tablet and I was wondering if anyone had successfully ported a rom to it yet. From a bit of research, mainly here and here, rooting is defiantly possible with a little finesse.
Besides getting android market and google app bundle to work, it would be great to have a custom rom for this tablet. If anyone is willing to take this on, I'd be more than happy to donate and post a system dump.

Well I have also done some research. The leader i7 tablet goes by another name. IT is apparently some re boxed tablet... lost the name. But stay tuned as i will post it here when i find it. But the reason you wont find roms or tricks for this is because theres another name. Find its root hardware before rebranding and you will find roms

Its other name is the impression 7.
Sent from my SGH-I897 using xda premium

It is an "Infotmic" based MID. Particularly the x210 model.
Listed in the hardware information program i used.
Theoretically its internals are the same and it can be flashed to anything the infotmic x210 tablets have listed on various sites, as the only difference would be the external ports, case and etc for the rebranding.
This is good and makes sense because if you were to mass produce a cheap tablet, you would want the insides to be universal (it saves money) but modular enough to fit into different rebranding schemes. (easily resolder/connect additional or less IO ports on main board)
Spread the word on any forum you find, see if we cant and find some people smart enough to crack open these F***ers

Generic android set top box guide(i have a great many questions)

So, I was at Menards a couple weeks back and saw a generic looking android set top box for around 30$, and so I came here, and find there are a few different kinds of chips that they may use, so... my first question is...
What are the differences between those chips, which is the best, and how can you tell before purchasing, what you are buying, as well as how to buy a good one, as in what to look for, to avoid a bad purchase, and what specs to look for
The next question is, once I buy a generic looking set top box,(the one I saw was labeled abx-12 as a model) how easy is it to find roms for them, and will one rom work on them all
To be fair, I do know about phones, but im out of my depths here, but would like to get into set top boxes, and possibly putting custom roms like resurrection remix (my favorite), on them... i would like this thread to eventually be a guide for every set top newbie, such as myself, and this is the best android modding, and well, anything android, website in my opinion... if these answers can be found elsewhere on this site, condensed into a single thread, please link it, else, if you guys can help me and others like me, I would appreciate it...
I edited it with the right model... i put upx 12, when it was abx 12...

Oh... and id also like to know how much android version matters in set top box discussions as well...

Here's the link to the one I saw at Menards...
https://www.menards.com/main/electr...x-and-wi-fi-router/abx-12/p-1518075021952.htm

i just picked this QFX ABX-12 cheapo ATV box at Menards on Clearance for $20.
Pretty much what i expected, pos china thing.
the rom that is on it is ancient android 7.1 from 2018.
update does not work.
came searching here on XDA to see if maybe someone had easy way to root/re-flash this model box and put a decent ATV rom on it, newer os at least.
but, seems no one cares about these cheap china no name boxes.

Hi, you woukd need to find out what SOC is in your box (amlogic,rockchip ect...) and what model (s905x, s905w ect...) or what bootloade (eg p212, p281 ect...)

The QFX ABX-12 uses the Amlogic S905X, has 1 GB RAM and 8 GB flash. At $25 I might grab one just to mess around with.

I picked up a Transpeed_6k from a Chinese supplier for under €30 to play around with an as a stopgap for my dead Humax box. It runs Android 9.0, has 4GB/64GB memory. CPU-Z tells me that the SOC is Allwinner H6 @ 1.49 GHz, with 4 ARM A53 cores. Bootloader is unknown and no root.
The operation is fast, but the navigation is painful - you have to constantly toggle the mouse mode on and off and you can't scroll the screen. I contacted the supplier because the lack of scrolling prevents Netflix from working. The solution was to install a previous version of the Netflix app. It's still awkward to use. BBC iplayer works with limited scrolling which means you have to use the search function to find TV shows.
I also thought of maybe using it as a Chromecast receiver (like my Mi TV stick does), so I installed Allcast Receiver, but it wouldn't work.
I've also tried using a phone as an external mouse, but that too doesn't let you scroll.
That's it. I haven't managed to find any way of changing the ROM or OS. I suppose not many people are spending time on these boxes.

Has anyone bought generic unbranded smartphones available on ebay etc?

1) I'm hoping someone can advise pls! I'm a very light user mostly for wsapp and sometimes maps/gps when walking (no gaming and occasionally watch youtube videos) so was hoping to find something £40-£50.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/M20-Pro-...var=564119885073&_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649
There are others I'm looking at but they don't mention anything about the processor (sometimes it'll mention the number of cores but no name)? The specs seem way better than even xiaomi phones for the same money, I know there's gonna be no support updates etc. how important is that? Couldn't I just search for a custom ROM, try to upgrade to higher android version etc? Would it be difficult/impossible to find roms for an unbranded phone?
Also I've read that there's a possibility they could just be sneaky re-brands so potentially could be getting a xiaomi etc. phone for less?
2) I'm also considering paying a bit more if unbranded is a no-go. Xiaomi Redmi 7 3GB/32GB around £100 vs Xiaomi Mi Play 4GB/64GB if it's £6 more?
I like the extra ram and storage for only £6 more but the battery seems better on R7 and larger screen

MTK devices
supashaka said:
1) I'm hoping someone can advise pls! I'm a very light user mostly for wsapp and sometimes maps/gps when walking (no gaming and occasionally watch youtube videos) so was hoping to find something £40-£50.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/M20-Pro-...var=564119885073&_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649
There are others I'm looking at but they don't mention anything about the processor (sometimes it'll mention the number of cores but no name)? The specs seem way better than even xiaomi phones for the same money, I know there's gonna be no support updates etc. how important is that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've seen some advertisements (on wish.com or Ali Express) for devices with no apparent name brand that mention having 10 core processors, dual sim, Android 9 and more. These are all MTK devices which pose difficulties if you want to flash a ROM into them to upgrade or change something. RCA tablets are MTK devices and I, along with many others have spent a lot of time just trying to gain access to such devices. It's been done. However, it has been more than difficult as of yet to find any compatible ROMs and these devices are extremely picky when it comes to using other ROMs. For those of us that are currently still working on it, we have yet to find anything compatible. That's not saying they are bad devices, they are actually pretty good I've had mine (the RCA Maven, Viking and Galileo) for years with little problems.

Casper Young said:
I've seen some advertisements (on wish.com or Ali Express) for devices with no apparent name brand that mention having 10 core processors, dual sim, Android 9 and more. These are all MTK devices which pose difficulties if you want to flash a ROM into them to upgrade or change something. RCA tablets are MTK devices and I, along with many others have spent a lot of time just trying to gain access to such devices. It's been done. However, it has been more than difficult as of yet to find any compatible ROMs and these devices are extremely picky when it comes to using other ROMs. For those of us that are currently still working on it, we have yet to find anything compatible. That's not saying they are bad devices, they are actually pretty good I've had mine (the RCA Maven, Viking and Galileo) for years with little problems.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply. Any MTK processor devices are difficult/unlikey to have custom roms or tweak/upgrade in any way?

MTK devices
supashaka said:
Thanks for the reply. Any MTK processor devices are difficult/unlikey to have custom roms or tweak/upgrade in any way?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Theoretically there should be, but many here would rather work on the newest devices most of which are not MTK (Media Tek). They're not built like Samsungs and if you open one up the whole motherboard is the size of today's phones or roughly one quarter the size of the tablet which could be the reason they're so cheap. The only thing I've been able to flash into mine is the original stock firmware, anything else led to bricking. And recovering from a brick is difficult the SP Flash tool is nothing like the Odin3 we use for Samsungs.

Casper Young said:
Theoretically there should be, but many here would rather work on the newest devices most of which are not MTK (Media Tek). They're not built like Samsungs and if you open one up the whole motherboard is the size of today's phones or roughly one quarter the size of the tablet which could be the reason they're so cheap. The only thing I've been able to flash into mine is the original stock firmware, anything else led to bricking. And recovering from a brick is difficult the SP Flash tool is nothing like the Odin3 we use for Samsungs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have also bought uhans u300 and took a look at the Development & Support topic here, there's absolutely no way to upgrade it from Android 6.0?