Real Life performance? - Asus Transformer TF700

Could someone please see how much the HD display hinders performance of the tablet vs the Prime?
For example... are the transitions and scrolling just as good, do games run just as fast, are apps overall just as snappy?
Because this is probably my biggest concern with the Infinity, that the HD display will cause its overall performance to suffer.
Also does anyone know if capacitive stylus's work any better with the Infinity?
EDIT: Found some nice videos of this running real time!

I've had a brief play-through with the Prime, and I can't really say the Infinity is less snappy. I do believe I see more 'hiccups' when storage is accessed, like when you install something from the Play Store and try to do something else concurrently. It can take anything from a brief hiccup to some several seconds long. ; ) And I've had Aldiko crash my Infinity twice in a row by opening a pdf file; possibly, I/O or something else, as I must admit I don't know how the Prime would have handled that one, but it is an observation.
Scrolling is fine, nothing noticeably slower or less snappy. I haven't played heavier games for ages, so I can't really comment on that. Neither do I use styli, so I can't help you out on that one either, sorry.

I've only had a few hours yesterday toying around with mine. However, here are my initial thoughts:
Screen is great, and although a bit morror-ish when displaying larger dark areas such as night scenes in movies, I find it less reflective than I feared from reviews.
No flex, give or bleed when pushing the screen, although I'm not pushing excessively as some people in this forum seem to do.
A bit sluggish when multitasking (ie installing apps or syncing Spotify while surfing at the same time) and I seem to get the "XXX stopped responding, would you like to close or wait?" message a lot. I'm guessing this is related to the IO issue as discussed in the Infinity thread.
I'm using Nova for the launch screen, and all is running very smooth. No jagged home screen transitions of any kind.
The tablet turns quite hot while gaming at at max performance with IPS+ turned on, resulting in sweaty palms.
As mentioned by most others the speaker grill placement is puzzling at best. Placing both right/left speakers on one side totally ruins the audio balance, reducing the device to mono audio output. Headset is an absolute must imo.
There's really only one thing that bugs me, and that is sporadic lack of screen precision. It doesn't always register my taps, and it seems to confuse slides/scrolls with taps. Ie, when scrolling a list of apps it may suddenly interpret the release (lifting my finger) as a tap and open the app that I happened to point at when releasing. My Galaxy Note is also running ICS 4.0.3, and the tap-scroll-release issue is not a problem there, so I don't think it's my fingers being too "non-conductive" or the OS version. Still, it doesn't happen too often, and with a bit of determination when scrolling it's all good. No where near a deal breaker.
As I said, I have only had a short time with this tablet, but so far the Infinity seem to be everything I had hoped for in a tablet!

Its just as snappy but, when I play dead trigger the controls lag on highest setting, and If I put it on high the controls are still laggy, the framerate is decent but when I play on my nexus the control are much snappier, but the frame rate is about the the same , I don't know how the prime runs it, but I know that dead trigger is optimized for 1920x1200, .... shadow gun thd does run better than on the prime
Sent from my Jelly Beaned GNexus

terjeofnorway said:
I've only had a few hours yesterday toying around with mine. However, here are my initial thoughts:
Screen is great, and although a bit morror-ish when displaying larger dark areas such as night scenes in movies, I find it less reflective than I feared from reviews.
No flex, give or bleed when pushing the screen, although I'm not pushing excessively as some people in this forum seem to do.
A bit sluggish when multitasking (ie installing apps or syncing Spotify while surfing at the same time) and I seem to get the "XXX stopped responding, would you like to close or wait?" message a lot. I'm guessing this is related to the IO issue as discussed in the Infinity thread.
I'm using Nova for the launch screen, and all is running very smooth. No jagged home screen transitions of any kind.
The tablet turns quite hot while gaming at at max performance with IPS+ turned on, resulting in sweaty palms.
As mentioned by most others the speaker grill placement is puzzling at best. Placing both right/left speakers on one side totally ruins the audio balance, reducing the device to mono audio output. Headset is an absolute must imo.
There's really only one thing that bugs me, and that is sporadic lack of screen precision. It doesn't always register my taps, and it seems to confuse slides/scrolls with taps. Ie, when scrolling a list of apps it may suddenly interpret the release (lifting my finger) as a tap and open the app that I happened to point at when releasing. My Galaxy Note is also running ICS 4.0.3, and the tap-scroll-release issue is not a problem there, so I don't think it's my fingers being too "non-conductive" or the OS version. Still, it doesn't happen too often, and with a bit of determination when scrolling it's all good. No where near a deal breaker.
As I said, I have only had a short time with this tablet, but so far the Infinity seem to be everything I had hoped for in a tablet!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Indeed, the one major issue I encounter is the sometimes abysmal I/O throughput, resulting in lag (and, when transferring large files to (Micro)SD, the device hangs completely for a few seconds every 70 MB or so). I am a PC gamer, and do not currently use the Infinity to game on, but I have actually bought Dead Trigger and ShadowGun just ti try them out. When I have a bit more time, I'll give them a whirl. The TF does not run hot for me with high screen brightness when watching movies or documentaries and the likes, so it would be an issue with the Tegra3 running hot when actively rendering.
The scrolling here is fine, but it does miss a tap every now and then -- I'm under the impression that it has to do with the I/O issue mentioned above, however, and that it does not have anything to do with the screen itself (The Gorilla Glass version used here (v2) is thinner than the previous iteration, so the sensitivity should be better than with, say, the Prime, if anything.) But, obviously, that is just my feeling.

ray3andrei said:
Its just as snappy but, when I play dead trigger the controls lag on highest setting, and If I put it on high the controls are still laggy, the framerate is decent but when I play on my nexus the control are much snappier, but the frame rate is about the the same , I don't know how the prime runs it, but I know that dead trigger is optimized for 1920x1200, .... shadow gun thd does run better than on the prime
Sent from my Jelly Beaned GNexus
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh good, the sets my worries of the high density screen negatively impacting the performance of the tablet to rest.
Its kinda sad to hear that the sensitivity has not improved much though... perhaps asus "or ROM chiefs" will be able to improve it in updates.
EDIT!
Added some performance related videos to the first post.

What I'm getting is that most of these issues seem software related. So a quick bug fix when everyone is reporting these issues to Asus and we'll be on our merry way. But otherwise, this sounds like a great device....I don't plan on doing a lot of gaming on it, but I'll try out some Shadowgun or something...I'll probably just end up plugging in an Xbox controller if I want to play anything...I still don't enjoy playing games with a touchscreen. And playing some old N64 games will be awesome on this beast. Anyone tried playing emulators with an IME for Xbox, PS3, or Wii controllers yet? That's a good way to see performance...see if it can run Super Smash Bros well lol.

hi guys
I also noticed the lags when you install apps or copy files to the infinity. not even my old galaxy tab had those issues. and that was a single core!
the overall performance is not good and I don't feel the 4 cores at any point.
I also noticed, that asus uses a 2.xxx kernel with ICS instead of a current 3.xxx kernel.
I sent a mail to asus customer service and I encourage you to do the same so that this issue gets fixed asap.

KilerG said:
What I'm getting is that most of these issues seem software related. So a quick bug fix when everyone is reporting these issues to Asus and we'll be on our merry way. But otherwise, this sounds like a great device....I don't plan on doing a lot of gaming on it, but I'll try out some Shadowgun or something...I'll probably just end up plugging in an Xbox controller if I want to play anything...I still don't enjoy playing games with a touchscreen. And playing some old N64 games will be awesome on this beast. Anyone tried playing emulators with an IME for Xbox, PS3, or Wii controllers yet? That's a good way to see performance...see if it can run Super Smash Bros well lol.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats exactly what I probably will be doing to. XD
I mean all I used to do with my ipad was web surfing, check email, slight doodling, and light gaming. But I despise using a touch screen to game, especially if the game requires the use of a virtual analog stick.
From what I can tell the controller support is pretty good, just about any usb xbox or ps3 controller will work with most apps. Plus with android I get emulators out of the box.

Related

My A700 Review: Pros, Cons, & Heat

Amazon delivered my A700 last Friday, and spent most of Friday & Saturday messing with it. I've install a large number of apps & games to try out. I have NOT yet unlocked my bootloader/rooted, in case I do decide to return the A700. I did not do a full factory reset when I got the A700 either. Finally, I'm using my A700 in conjunction with a Poetic HardBack Case.
Pros: The HD screen is fantastic. I compared it against my gal's iPad 1 and iPad 3, and it is easily comparable to the iPad 3. The iPad 3's resolution is a hair better, but one can only tell if you are looking very closely - for all practical purposes, they are on par. I found that using auto-adjust brightness, left the screen too dim to my tastes. Instead I manually set the screen to approximately 30% brightness, and found that that setting is suitable for everything except outdoor direct sunlight. When I tested outdoors, I kicked up the brightness and found that 80% was the minimum needed to be usable in direct sunlight. Additionally, there is no backlight bleed.
As an Android fan, I like to tweak my devices & am a strong believer that Android's 3rd party offerings are one of its strong points. That being said, I've disabled Acer Ring, and installed Chrome & Dolphin to replace the stock browser, Nova Launcher to replace the stock launcher, and QuickPic to replace the gallery. It is also trivial to unlock the bootloader & a rooting method has already been released.
The A700 has a very solid heft and feel to it. It does not feel like it is cheaply-built. I like having dual speakers and found that the sound was good. Finally, per the Service Guide, the A700 is very easy to dismantle.
Cons: Acer did install some redundant bloatware apps, which I will immediately rip out when/if I commit to the A700 & root it. These include the Amazon App Store, an Acer Photo & Video app, Acer Ring, and a worthless anti-virus app. Thankfully, this is the only con I could come up with except...
Heat: This deserves its own section. The A510 had reported heat issues and the A700 definitely shares that as well. Due to the internal design, the CPU/GPU mainboard is on the lower right and when used heavily, can become unbearably hot. In my experience over the weekend, I found that casual use such as browsing, e-mail, & other productivity apps, only caused the A700 to get warm but not uncomfortable.
However, when I play-tested several games - Heavy Gunner, Flick Football, & Cut The Rope, the A700 got HOT. I use a Poetic HardBack Case, which "insulates" my hand but inhibits heat dissipation. Additionally, the A700 did crash on me a few times while gaming. I presume that the crashes were due to heat, but am uncertain. After each crash, I'd remove the A700 from the case to feel it back "naked," and it was excessively hot... hot enough that I wouldn't have continued gaming had the tablet been naked. I spent about 1 hour TOTAL, play-testing the above three games and all crashes occurred within that timeframe.
Studying the photos from the Service Guide, I'm curious to open up the A700. Looking at the back panel, it is lined with some sort of metal panel. Then there are several "pads" which contact different points on the mainboard. I'm curious to see if those "pads" are thermal pads and/or whether the metal panel on the back is supposed to act as a primitive heatsink to help disperse heat. If yes to both, I'm interested in experimenting with changing out/upgrading the thermal pads and using some paste. Additionally, I'm toying with the idea of modding the back panel to make a vent.
That's it for now. I'll be happy to field any questions & post more thoughts as the week goes on.
UPDATE:
My curiosity got the best of me, so I went ahead, opened up the A700, and added some thermal paste to the thermal pads. Check out my write-up here.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1735318
Beknatok said:
Cons: Acer did install some redundant bloatware apps, which I will immediately rip out when/if I commit to the A700 & root it. These include the Amazon App Store, an Acer Photo & Video app, Acer Ring, and a worthless anti-virus app. Thankfully, this is the only con I could come up with except...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You should know with ICS you can deactivate most of those apps without root.
I would rather have an hour or even two so less battery life to afford a smaller battery and then Acer would perhaps had space to accommodate a wider dissipation of heat.
The Infinity in spite of its thinner frame and higher clocked chipset apparently does not get hot. Price is $50 more, but to avoid the heat, seems a better option.
DЯΦ[email protected]П said:
You should know with ICS you can deactivate most of those apps without root.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How do you do this?
Quick Note: The Infinity is $150 more actually.
On the subject of heat dissipation, I was thinking about modding the back of this case for venting as well. I believe the crashes may just be from bad software programming for certain apps. I don't think the tablet is actually OVER heating just getting warmer than other tablets. It should be within the processor's limits. I was hoping to overclock this tablet in the future to pump up it's gaming capabilities since right now it's a bit slower than the other Tegra 3 tablets due to the resolution. Hence why I want to mod the casing to allow for venting. Maybe a few vent holes properly cut will allow for the processor to release a lot more heat.
To Disable Apps: Just goto Settings --> Apps --> ALL --> Select the App you want to Disable --> Click Disable -- If the app has had updates, Select Uninstall Updates then go back to that app again and choose Disable.
I disabled Virus Scanner, WildTangent, Face Unlock, Google+, Zinio, and Evernote. Those are the only ones I found I will never use.
32gb is $500 for Infinity and launching mid July. The 64gb version is $600.
Whoops, I see now that I was wrong. It IS only $500 for the 32GB version. That's a kick in the balls. I bought the A700 because it was thought to be so much cheaper than the Infinity, now that it's only $50 cheaper it seems a lot better. Oh well I still enjoy this A700 so I'll keep it, plus a new custom ROM will probably speed this up to Infinity levels anyways.
Heat issue fix
Some people are reporting that disabling McAfee will fix the heat issue, at least for the a510. Hopefully this will fix it for the a700 as well.
rushless said:
I would rather have an hour or even two so less battery life to afford a smaller battery and then Acer would perhaps had space to accommodate a wider dissipation of heat.
The Infinity in spite of its thinner frame and higher clocked chipset apparently does not get hot. Price is $50 more, but to avoid the heat, seems a better option.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Devil is in the details. I'm considering A700 instead of the Infinity for two reasons:
- I/O problems: though associated with TPI's Tegra3, I've never read about similar problems with A700 in any of its reviews (browser hiccups and the like)
- Poor speakers: "stereo" speakers placed side-to-side under one (!) small grill located at the back (!) of the pad facing away from the listener and at the right (!) side of the pad. As a result, when you're playing\watching a movie, you're:
- getting mono sound
- the sound comes from the right, not perceived center, which is off-putting
- if you're watching it on the sofa with the pad lying on your knees, or in bed with it lying on the blanked, the speaker is muffled by the blanket\clothes so much it's a big problem.
So basically since one of the main functions of the pad I'm about to buy is to watch movies at home when the desktop PC is occupied, speaker quality is a big item in choosing the pad, and TPI loses to A700 hands down.
Of course, A700 also has speakers in the back (why in Lord's name can't they be in front?), but they're genuine stereo and have larger grilles.
All Tegra 3 devices have some form of occasional hiccups since single channel (this is why the new dual core S4 beats it- more than one channel memory). As per the Anandtech review (and others) the Infinity actually has less events since higher bandwidth from clock increase. In spite of the higher clock, the Infinity apparently does not get hot (if reviews are correct).
Acer should not have used the same exact chipset as the 510, but considering how hot the 510 gets, perhaps that would have been too much for the 700.
Will be nice to see a smack-down of both devices (Acer & Asus). Problem is finding the Acer in a store, since retailers have the 510 which is also new and the same price. Asus at least has an excuse, since the Prime is now "older" by electronic standards and will be price reduced (maybe the 510 should do the same).
Still, perspective is for $450 a person can get a 1920x1200 Android tablet that has good performance. If you can put up with the heat, or do not play many high resource apps, it would be web surfer or comic readers best cost option.
---------- Post added at 01:03 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:58 PM ----------
All Tegra 3 devices have some form of occasional hiccups since single channel. As per the Anandtech review (and others) the Infinity actually has less events since higher bandwidth from clock increase. In spite of the higher clock, the Infinity apparently does not get hot (if reviews are correct).
Acer should not have used the same exact chipset as the 510, but considering how hot the 510 gets, perhaps that would have been too much for the 700.
Will be nice to see a smack-down of both devices (Acer & Asus). Problem is finding the Acer in a store, since retailers have the 510 which is also new and the same price. Asus at least has an excuse, since the Prime is now "older" by electronic standards and will be price reduced (maybe the 510 should do the same).
Still, perspective is for $450 a person can get a 1920x1200 Android tablet that has good performance. If you can put up with the heat, or do not play many high resource apps, it would be web surfer or comic readers best cost option.
Added:
BTW, why no reviews yet? The 700 came out first- zero reviews, but the Infinity already has a bunch of reviews. Acer not send review units out?
rushless said:
BTW, why no reviews yet? The 700 came out first- zero reviews, but the Infinity already has a bunch of reviews. Acer not send review units out?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why no reviews? Less, and mostly lacking detail and depth, but not nil:
http://www.slashgear.com/acer-iconia-tab-a700-review-25235533/
http://reviews.cnet.com/tablets/acer-iconia-tab-a700/4505-3126_7-35117923.html
http://androidheadlines.com/2012/06/acer-iconia-tab-a700-review.html
http://androidcommunity.com/acer-iconia-tab-a700-hands-on-and-unboxing-3-20120622/
http://enjoyit.ru/predvaritelnyy-obzor-acer-iconia-tab-a701-bolshoy-i-moshchnyy/
I've also seen some in-depth reviews (with charts comparing various aspects of A700 display with the new iPad, really technical and detailed), but they were all in Russian, so I won't link 'em here.
no reviews, no custom roms. Please developers begin cooking roms, the device has been out a month ago and the development section is still empty.
agdroubi said:
no reviews, no custom roms. Please developers begin cooking roms, the device has been out a month ago and the development section is still empty.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Keep in mind that it was only very quietly released (in limited quantities via Amazon) here in the US last week.
Adoption takes time.
Our A700's were delivered on the same day... My review slash first thoughts would've been exactly the same as you (the OP). The heat is my number one concern. I did not buy this for gaming, but when I did install the car racing game that was already on it and a deer hunting game, I was totally hooked. Sadly, it crashes after the same amount of time passes playing each of these games. The back in each instance got very hot. I have been using mine with the Slim folio Case With Multi-Angle Stand that I bought on Amazon as well.
I really like this tablet--the speed is amazing, the display quality is excellent, the speakers are the best I have seen on a tablet (including iPad 3) even when compared to some laptop computers, and more... but if it's going to crash each time I play a game for, say, half hour, and gets hot to the touch, then I am not too sure what to do...
XooLoo said:
I really like this tablet--the speed is amazing, the display quality is excellent, the speakers are the best I have seen on a tablet (including iPad 3) even when compared to some laptop computers, and more... but if it's going to crash each time I play a game for, say, half hour, and gets hot to the touch, then I am not too sure what to do...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What a shame. I'm seriously considering buying A700 instead of Prime primarily because of the speakers; and though also not for gaming, this heat issue is still a concern. A device over $100 should be sensibly engineered.
Looks like I'll have to get a google pad for the meantime and wait for S4 Krait devices or even a w8 pad.
Shame indeed... I am literally one click away from returning it. As stated, my original intention was not gaming, but after having spent time playing games on this tablet, I find it a crime to not play games on it! And the thought of playing a game and losing it all in the heat of the moment (pun intended) just kills all the excitement for me. It's almost guaranteed to crash as the temperature rises. Also keep in mind that although it didn't crash, watching HD videos on YouTube definitely does cause the temperature to go up. Perhaps it didn't crash because in between videos I paused quite a few minutes each time, and in the end did not spend that much time watching HD videos in one session.
XooLoo said:
Shame indeed... I am literally one click away from returning it. As stated, my original intention was not gaming, but after having spent time playing games on this tablet, I find it a crime to not play games on it! And the thought of playing a game and losing it all in the heat of the moment (pun intended) just kills all the excitement for me. It's almost guaranteed to crash as the temperature rises. Also keep in mind that although it didn't crash, watching HD videos on YouTube definitely does cause the temperature to go up. Perhaps it didn't crash because in between videos I paused quite a few minutes each time, and in the end did not spend that much time watching HD videos in one session.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could you kindly answer a couple of questions for everyone's benefit?
1. If you launch a game, it crashes after a certain time, coinciding with a considerable heating of the pad's body?
2. If you try to launch the same game right away (without letting the pad cool down), what happens?
3. If you try launching a different (but also graphics-intensive) game right away, what happens?
4. Have you tried uninstalling\freezing the McAfee antivirus, which, as claimed by some, may alleviate this problem (not very believable, though)?
Thank you!
I've been gaming on mine and after turning off unneeded running programs, and turning off unused services (gps, auto sync...) it still gets warm but it never crashes. I've also been watching movies without issues as well. A vent or better heat sink option should have been used to alleviate this problem although I have some ideas....The Asus is not even an option for me due to their attention to detail with the speaker, and all the potential build problems that will likely occur just like their past 3 models.
I can confirm that after shutting down and disabling a few apps, specifically Virus Scanner, WildTangent, Evernote, and Google+. I can play games for quite a while without any crashing. The crashing may be caused by the virus scanner rather than the heat, cause I can run RR2HD for over an hour without a single crash now but the back does indeed get really hot. I'm currently trying to figure out how I might be able to dissipate some of that heat via a case mod of some sort.
Is there a program we can install that will run continually so that we get the tab heating up without just playing a game? Just to let it run and see if it ever crashes the tab?

Ikaruga available worldwide

Like the title says.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ggee.vividruntime.gg_1638
Anyways, I'll be downloading this asap and I'll let everyone know if Xperia Play support is still available in this release and how well it works.
BrianChase said:
Like the title says.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ggee.vividruntime.gg_1638
Anyways, I'll be downloading this asap and I'll let everyone know if Xperia Play support is still available in this release and how well it works.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, it's not been improved any, from what it was.
Well, I hadn't played the JP version but I can say the Play controls work well enough but the lag is **** awful. Messing with settings right now but even no sound and low resolution don't seem to do the trick.
Would certainly not recommend this at $9.00. If you have an overclocked device give it a go but I can't find a way to make it run like anything but ass on stock.
Holy ****! Wish there was a demo to try.
BrianChase said:
Would certainly not recommend this at $9.00. If you have an overclocked device give it a go but I can't find a way to make it run like anything but ass on stock.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Game runs fine here on stock GB, sim free, rooted uk R800i, no lag, no sound issues, looks, plays and sounds as good as the DC original.
Slide the pnone open and you can use the D-Pad, and screen buttons or mix it up and use touch for move, and physical buttons.
Dunno what your issues are, but it's fine here.
Maybe reboot your device, or clear some crap from your phone/check whats running when the game is played..
And run G-Gee offline, that's more bother than it's worth.
I bought the Japanese version, which sits at game version 1.0.0, same as the Western version, it's just the G-Gee programme that was updated, not the game with the recent update a couple of days ago/Western Release.
Not ideal but playable on my xplay, levels work great, but some slowdown during the first two bosses.
Perspective is very disorienting
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2
RottenFoxBreath said:
Game runs fine here on stock GB, sim free, rooted uk R800i, no lag, no sound issues, looks, plays and sounds as good as the DC original.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Also running fine on stock for me.
No tweaks, no nothin'... just a root+debloat.
Heres a little video I made about Ikaruga
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=924RTWq0abs
LegionTHEFecalExcretion said:
Heres a little video I made about Ikaruga
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=924RTWq0abs
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cook, but a couple of inconsistencies with your review(on your site).
The ships are white and black, not red and blue, same with bullets(although the black bullets do have a red.hue to them).
And please don't mention the Gamecube version, it was an abomination, IMO.
It may be a shooter, in the sense you shoot things, but it's more of a bullet ballet, and memory game, as knowing where and when to chain, is vital, for a decent score/decent game, with attack patterns and boss patterns having to be foremost to enjoy the game.
Also, as you know, the game is available around the world, so you don't need market enabler any more to buy it.
And if you play with the network disabled/internet off, G-Gee doesn't hinder gameplay, and you get a screen that you just press the "Play" button to get to the game.
EspGaluda II and DoDonPachi Resurrection are another two titles worthy of your money, to add to your shooter collection, BTW.
Cool, thanks for the feedback. I made the video review a while ago for another site but it was never used. I decided to branch out on my own and I needed a starter article while I work on other aspects of the site so I threw that up real quick. Of course that very day the Global version comes out, I figured it would be best to leave the references in there seeing as how it was the japanese version I originally reviewed. I probably should update it though.
Well hopefully someone gets a video of it running on the Play because even after a clean reboot it runs terrible on my device. How do you run G-Gee offline btw?
BrianChase said:
Well hopefully someone gets a video of it running on the Play because even after a clean reboot it runs terrible on my device. How do you run G-Gee offline btw?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Brian, click on Legion's link to his site..he has it running on Android in the video in his review, it's not a Play it's on, but that's how mine runs, smooth, no lag, and plays just fine with the D-Pad slid out, and using the onscreen buttons for fire/change, and laser.
As to G-Gee, Just disable your wifi or your data connection.
Start Ikaruga, the G-Gee screen appears, and it should then go to a blank screen, with something like "Network Error", or "No Network", in the middle, with a logo top left, and as *mine is the Japanese version*, on the top right, I assume it says "Play Game",
Hit that, game starts, and to end it, long press on the back button and select Exit.
This, and DoDonPachi Resurrection, and EspGaluda II all run fine offline with wifi/network disabled.
In the video it runs quite a bit better than it does on my device but there is still a lot of choppiness. I'd love to see that same phone playing level 5 since each level (due to the increasing amount of enemies) runs slower and slower for me. Either way, if mine ran as well as the device in the video I'd probably be a lot less angry but I still wouldn't call it a great or even good port.
BrianChase said:
but I still wouldn't call it a great or even good port.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I't's the same as the original version, so I wonder how could it be any more towards "good"?
Ok sure. That is a Galaxy S3 right? It does not perform to my liking on an incredibly high end phone even though the hardware is more than capable had more work been put in to the port. JSR, Expendables, Crazy Taxi on the i-products have all translated well to newer devices (not using the Play as a benchmark here, keep in mind). It is a $9.00 application that is attached to a social networking program, something which I find very irritating. There are no game-play limitations like you would have in Ikaruga for the DC or GC since the game defaults to free-play with a level selector. Changing resolution settings and turning sound off does very little to help with performance which screams of bad port. When playing at the lowest settings the frame-rate becomes incredibly jerky since the game does not have a very good frame limiter. DDP and Espgaluda 2 both worked great on my device but this port clearly has not received as much love.
Works relatively well in my one x, it jinks a bit here and there, but it's mostly very playable.
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2
BrianChase said:
Ok sure. That is a Galaxy S3 right? It does not perform to my liking on an incredibly high end phone even though the hardware is more than capable had more work been put in to the port. JSR, Expendables, Crazy Taxi on the i-products have all translated well to newer devices (not using the Play as a benchmark here, keep in mind). It is a $9.00 application that is attached to a social networking program, something which I find very irritating. There are no game-play limitations like you would have in Ikaruga for the DC or GC since the game defaults to free-play with a level selector. Changing resolution settings and turning sound off does very little to help with performance which screams of bad port. When playing at the lowest settings the frame-rate becomes incredibly jerky since the game does not have a very good frame limiter. DDP and Espgaluda 2 both worked great on my device but this port clearly has not received as much love.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It performs just fine on Xperia Play, so something must be wrong at your end, either bloatware on your phone, or your operator rom/custom rom is rubbish, something interfering with it like apps/software running, or your memory card is either fragmented, or just plain slow.
I use a 32gb class 10 card, stock uk r800i sim free, no bloatware, rooted, a couple of sound mods edited build.prop, and nothing else.
Once you get past the "social networking" programme, the game itself runs directly from the SD card, hence the 170+meg download, it doesn't run from the phone, the .apk that is a couple of megabytes is G-Gee's app, with a link to the game.
The ports fine, it's designed for touch phones/tablets, what more do you expect?
The chaining/gameplay is something that was intended to use buttons and a stick, not swipe controls and 3 areas of touch for fire/lock on/change, but with the phone open the D-pad works well, and the on screen buttons work fine for their purpose.
As to free play, how many people do you imagine want to sit for 10+ hours or whatever it was to unlock things, and up their credits, like the original.?
You don't have to continue, you don't have to pick other levels other than the first, but for those who do, who maybe never unlocked everything, or can't/don't play for hours, it's perfect.
As to your earlier slowdown point, you are aware the original version had deliberate slowdown, and this is present in this version also, which leads me to think this is closer to the original version more so than the 360 ports new coding.
The only thing this version is missing is Shinra walking towards Ikaruga, on the startup screen.
And as to DoDonPachi, and EspGaluda, they're not on par with what ikaruga is, as it's full 3d rendering, etc is hardly a patch on 2d spritesm even though there is a ****load going on..heck some emulated old titles fling around similar amounts of bullets, and sprites.
save backup
can anyone provide a titanium backup for ikaruga 13.01.01 i was playing this game yesterday but after opening the game again game screen just went black i dunno what happened . .tried reinstalling but still the same. thought maybe because my phone is rooted or something. i will try your titanium backup file and see if this solves my problem :/
Just to confirm: is the game Xperia Play optimized? Or do you have to use gamekeyboard?

[Trying to fix] Display input lag

Request to fix Input Lag on Note II​
Hi everyone
I just made a video so everyone sees what input lag is, and to have an accurate estimation of how much this is on the Note 2.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MyfkypkNWk&feature=youtu.be
Update 2013/09/23 : Please also have a look at it (pro measurements of input lag comparing samsung to apple devices) : http://appglimpse.com/blog/touchmarks-i-smart-phone-touch-screen-latencies/
Update 2013/10/08 : A test of 21 smartphones' input lag, very interesting
http://www.digitalversus.com/mobile...st-results-21-smartphones-tablets-n29229.html
HUGE NEWS
This is not input lag, it's mainly display lag ! I'll edit the entire post when i got some time.
How do i know that ?
Because if you activate the touch vibration (for the keyboard) and haptic feedback, you feel like the vibration is in sync with your touches (so less than 50ms for sure, maybe less than 20 or 10ms, i will be able to measure it very precisely with a microphone when i got some time); on the other hand, the display is still 90 to 130ms late... So 2 solutions : laggy video software, or laggy screen/digital analog conversion. Maybe something to do with Pentile ? As SGS 1 and 2 were not Pentile, and way way faster than SGS 2 and 3. I don't know if it's fixable, as android seems to be already unbufferized and as fast as it can. By the way, just spam Samsung about it so they fix it at least for their new phones (unlike SGS4 and Note 3)
Introduction for input lag newbies
If you don't know what display lag is, please read this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Display_lag
It's about the same as input lag, except it counts your human interface device's response delay
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Input_lag
Just to let you know, Input lag concerns every phone, every input device, because nothing in the electronic world is instantaneous.
.
Some of you may have noticed that all the recent phones released have a non negligeable amount of input lag, even more than the previous generations that were already bad. If you didn't, no problem, you will be able to see it thanks to this topic, and i hope, understand why this is very very important to get rid of the maximum amount of input lag.
The Note 2 and Galaxy S 3 have about 100-170ms input lag wich makes many of you feel the response to your fingers' moves feeling late, slow, smoothed, and unnatural. It's painful to say that, but iphones does better, and for example, when a very good player of Ruzzle i know tried to play on my phone after playing every day on her iphone, that was a huge issue for her, and she decided to stop playing on my phone just because it was too slow for her, she was 2 times faster than the phone's reponsiveness. Yes, when you move fast, 100ms is a lot. Even while typing, unconciously, you're not typing as fast if lettering appears lately, almost if you activated "vibrating on touch" that is late too. I've noticed that i'm a bit faster typing with vibration off because of that.
Just to say it can bother anyone, almost if you have used a more responsive device even once only.
My hope is that we can find a fix to improve responsiveness, in case if it's not only a hardware issue, but also a big part of software. We are pretty sure that the capacitive touchscreen detection (+ refresh rate of the screen which is inevitable) is responsible for at least 80-100ms of this input lag.
The main target of this topic is to call amazing devs here to help trying to make the Note 2 experience even better. All input lag haters here would be really really grateful if anything was done to get rid of at least some of it, and other people would be amazed to see their phones being fast as light.
Never heard about input lag ?​
That's normal, there's a pretty bad communication about it, even if it gets better (see links in beginning of the topic). Gamers are mostly concerned about it with computers, but this is happening on any electronic device.
It's the delay between the input and the output of a device.
It's not about being "laggy" or "choppy", as input lag newbies confuse very often : it's about being late !
It's just a hardware and software treatment, due to several things, as any component introduces input lag (even if it's very small). CPU latency (a few nanoseconds) is negligible. A CPU can't cause latency itself. Refresh rate of the screen (the time to display a new frame), screen input lag (time to analyse images and to send it to the screen) touchscreen analysis (the capacitive detection of your fingers), can result in a delayed experience.The consequence is that when you make a move, the action will follow your move with a little delay. That's what you'll see when looking for it.
But if it's not annoying for everyone, anybody could feel the improvement in responsiveness between a big input lag and a low input lag. It just feels better, even if people can't explain it. It's the same difference for most people between SD and HD, or between a bad MP3 and a good FLAC, or a bad headphone and a good headphone : It's better, but most people doesn't have the ability to explain why.
As electronic and the clocking technique involves input lag, the target is just to make it the lowest possible using good hardware, and avoiding any kind of buffering or averaging that causes delay.
Microsoft made a video about that. They estimate that today, most devices has a around 100ms input lag, and that we would need 1ms input lag to make it feel real, to give you the feeling that you're actualy drawing on your screen, or movig an real object. In practice, as most screens are running at 60fps, 1/60 = 16ms, we could get under 20ms if touchscreen input lag was less than 2ms, with no frame buffering, no averaging on the finger's position while touching the screen, and no screen latency. Of course, it would get to 8ms with 120hz mobile phone screens, but i guess it's a bit too much for now.
Everyone having any doubt about how input lag matters, or wanting to see it in action should watch this video from Microsoft
http://youtu.be/vOvQCPLkPt4 or just simply watch mine (link at the beginning of the topic).
We mostly use to care about input lag :
- On TV or PC Monitors (but it's often heavier on TVs) because of digital/analog conversions, and non real time picture quality improvements. The standard of a TV is between 20 to 300ms (depending on the settings and hardware), some gets lower. Unlike people could think, it doesn't depend of the size of the screen, as electrons are fast enough so you can't notice their latency. The standard of a PC monitor is between 0 to 50ms for the worst ones.
- On keyboard and mices : Most recent mices offers a 1000Hz (1ms) refresh rate, but the normal value is 125Hz (8ms), some keyboards are running at 1000hz too.
- Software delays : Vsync for example, has been created to remove the tearing effect, but it adds delay to sync frames rendering, and screen refresh rate. We can also see "frame buffering" that consist in generating a few frames before displaying it so the overall framerate smoother (less fluctuation), but it adds delay too (we call that input lag too). Frame buffering is usually used to compensate a badly coded game/application.
- For example, in the audio and video recording and broadcasting, converters, buffers, clocks, must be as fast as possible.
The fact is that most people are used to input lag, and think this is the normal response of a device. You just have to watch reviews of recent phones to see that almost nobody talks about it. I'll tell you something : a 1/10s input lag is not a response time you should expect. You should expect a 1/1000s input lag according to Microsoft in the video i just posted, or at least for now, 1/30 to 1/60s. The lower the input lag is, even if you can't quantize it conciously, the most natural it will feel, the most accurate you will be, the fastest you will be, and finally, the more enjoyable will your experience be.
A little comparison, as i'm a sound engineer : As you may know, what you see dominates what you hear. Well, in the music production's world, when you hear the return of your instrument or voice in your headphones while recording it, it HAS to be under a 10ms delay, and you prefer it under 4ms, or if possible, in some systems, you can get it even closer to 0 (about 0,1ms). => The target is always to make it the lowest possible so the feeling or the feedback becomes more natural. So OK, you could record a guitar or drum part while hearing yourself 20ms late, you would just be 20ms less accurate, which is a lot and slightly audible.
The actual input lag on the Note II and SIII​
First of all, how can you see this input lag yourself ?
=> See video in introduction !
You can also
Go to System Settings, Developer Options, and tick "Show touches" (show visual feedback for touches).
=> It will show a dot representing the position of your finger, as the phone senses it.
Now if you make a slow move, the dot will stay under your finger, but if you move faster (for example try to make circles), you will notice that the dot follows actualy follows your finger.
Also see video here http://gigaom.com/2012/01/19/video-android-touch-lag-and-a-possible-solution/
This is what i've tested myself :
- Galaxy S1
- Galaxy S2
- Galaxy S3
- Galaxy Note 2
- Iphone 5
What i can say is the S1 and S2 have about the same input lag, and the S3 and Note 2 have the same at least twice bigger input lag.
Yeah, that's right : the new gen, supposed to be an upgrade, is for sure more powerful, is more expensive but has a lot more input lag. Quite frustrating isn't it ?
In the same time, the iphone 5 is way faster, more like the SGS1 and 2, something around 50ms.
We estimate that the input lag between 100 and 170ms, depending on the situation, and including all sources of input lag (vsync, frames buffering, screen refresh rate, and capacitive detection)
This is 1/10s to 1/6s ! It's just unsuitable for gaming, and comfort.
What To fix & Possible ways to do so​
Biggest input lag source : The Capacitive Detection
In the Input Lag thread, Chrissssssss made a test : He plugged a mouse to his phone, and made a reaction test. His result was about 80 to 100ms less while using the mouse than while using the touchscreen
=> We can conclude that the capacitive detection of the touchscreen touchscreen takes already at least 80ms.
KurianOfBorg just said :
I believe on the SGS2 and Note the OS actually uploads the touchscreen firmware to the Amtel controller. These blobs could be hacked in someway to reduced the number of samples (usually 4) per report.
Even Samsung cannot do it. In some other thread the Samsung engineers told someone that even they simply receive just the firmware blobs for the touchscreen from Amtel. The only thing that has been achieved so far on the touchscreen device is changing the Vitalij value via sysfs on the SGS2. You can look through /sys/bus/i2c/devices/3-004a/ or /sys/devices/platform/s3c2440-i2c.3/i2c-3/3-004a/ if they exist on your device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe a way to tweak ?
We use to see this tweak in ROMs : Disable Scrolling cache. It seems to improve a bit the response time already, but not enough for a real time feeling.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2003062
Here is some work made on the I9003
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1587553
About myself / why would you trust me ?​
I'm a drummer, gamer, and sound engineer student. As a gamer, i always tried to have low input lag input and display devices. I got a BenQ XL2420T and Steelseries Sensei Mice : Theorical input lag measured by several tests between 1 to 17ms (excluding refresh rate that is 8ms @120hz and with vsync OFF). So i'm used to input lag close to 0, and i know how a responsive device must feel. I've also measured several input lag delays of screen and mices, so i'm now able to estimate input lag between 1 ans 100ms quite accurately (never had to measure more so it's hard to guess how more it is, you just know if it's over 100ms or not).
As a drummer, and a sound engineer, i'm very sensitive to precision and i can notice any little thing that is not synced.
Finally, I don't know if it's fully fixable, or how much it can be improved, i hope it can get under 50ms by combining display tweak (disable vsync, frame buffering) and input tweak (tweaking the tacile driver so it is direct input, very low buffer, and high refresh rate).
I'll say thank you in advance to anyone trying to improve reponse time.
Please let me know if there's anything to correct in my main post.
See also
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2120867
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1730089 (nice example of input lag denial from newbies)
Reserved space
Useess
Re: [Dev request] Fix touchscreen input lag
nabilsweet007 said:
Useess
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah posting other's work under your name and not giving them proper credits is useful.
Sent from my GT-N7100
nabilsweet007 said:
Useess
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
TROLL SPOTTED
And giving a stupid personal judgement without any explaination is very usefull ?
I don't see the point : How could any improvement be useless ? Especially if some of us find this issue very unpleasant, and if it's directly about what you feel (consciously or not) when you're using your smartphone...
The fact is as you can't even write correctly, i guess you can't even use your fingers and eyes properly to enjoy a latency free device.
I do notice this input lag more often on a stock based roms then aosp/cm10.1. Ive tried the "show touches" options on both the roms and noticed that the input lag on the aosp rom is significantly less than that present on the stock. As for, whether this is a feature or intended to improve visual quality, i dont know but i do hope its not. This is an issue that does bother me alot and the only reason why i keep going back to custom stock roms is due to the poor batterylife present on the cm10.1 roms, other than that i was quite happy with aosp/cm10.1.
Hopefully, more people will get aware of this issue, enough for Sammy/XDA Developers to try and tackle it. Good Thread:good:
Re: [Dev request] Fix touchscreen input lag
I like your investigation but I think it is hardware issue. As MS engineer says "in the next decade".
Sent from my GT-N7100 using xda premium
bushako said:
Hopefully, more people will get aware of this issue, enough for Sammy/XDA Developers to try and tackle it. Good Thread:good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, nice to show how this is bothering you too :highfive:
And yes, even if we don't find a solution, at least poeple will be more aware of this global issue and the lack of efforts from Samsung about it. I'm sad to say that, but Apple is the only one that seems to take care of that, with a really lower input lag. I tried one more iphone 5 this morning, it must be around 50ms input lag, still not perfect, but much better already.
mariosraptor said:
I like your investigation but I think it is hardware issue. As MS engineer says "in the next decade".
Sent from my GT-N7100 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you too.
As the SGS2 and even the SGS1 has lower input lag, this just makes no sense, it's supposed to get down and it's getting up ?
There is almost always a hardware part and a software part in input lag. I know the touchscreen implies at least 80ms, but in those, how much are software due to buffers, or error corrections, or whatever it is ? I hope we can at least get rid of a big part of the software one, and i hope it's the biggest one... :angel: If the hardware is 80% of it, then i'll just wait for any other nice android phone without this bad spec, and change the Note 2, but at least, poeple will know about it, and stop thinking that this latency is a smoothing and is normal... This is latency, and it really sucks !
Smoothing would be a bad thing with touchscreens anyway (and i think it's a bad thing on any input device as well) as you should feel what you're doing, not something different, or your senses are just going mad, and it's the same for a delay. But yeah, just in case if anyone has a doubt : this is not a gentle smoothing, this is just a nasty input lag.
Edited the main topic with a comparison to music production's world.
Re: [Dev request] Fix touchscreen input lag
http://www.overclock.net/t/1351079/guru3d-galaxy-s-iv-confirms-exynos-5-octa-cpu/140
http://gamesfromwithin.com/lag-the-bane-of-touch-screens
Found this seems good.
This is only one page.
But as I said hardwre issue more than software. Yes optimizing software to 110% seems reasonable but because not to many seems bothered by this, then no jardware manufacturer will try to make hardware to have lower input latency.
If we press them and this becomes a common issue among android (and other touch devices users) then some light might show up at the end of the tunnel.
Anyway, good luck and I hope that some more knowledgeable then me responses.
Cheers
Sent from my GT-N7100 using xda premium
Yes, we do understand that all touchscreens have huge input lag... the thing is, the note ii's input lag is way higher than older gen devices.
For example Subway surfers is way more responsive on my Optimus 3D than on the Note II. If you have an older phone to compare, you can easylly see the difference. I dont care much about input lag, smoothing or whatever in UI, browsers and stuff like that. but in games, its very noticible and very annoying. It almost makes me want to throw my phone against a wall.
I prefer tearing, thats why i have vsync off and minimal frame prerendering.... on my PC almost all the time.
mariosraptor said:
http://www.overclock.net/t/1351079/guru3d-galaxy-s-iv-confirms-exynos-5-octa-cpu/140
http://gamesfromwithin.com/lag-the-bane-of-touch-screens
Found this seems good.
This is only one page.
But as I said hardwre issue more than software. Yes optimizing software to 110% seems reasonable but because not to many seems bothered by this, then no jardware manufacturer will try to make hardware to have lower input latency.
If we press them and this becomes a common issue among android (and other touch devices users) then some light might show up at the end of the tunnel.
Anyway, good luck and I hope that some more knowledgeable then me responses.
Cheers
Sent from my GT-N7100 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Looks nice, thanks, i'll read it entierely when i got more time, for now i really need to sleep and have a big day waiting for me tomorrow.
From what i've already read, i just can say that my hope is a tweak in the touchscreen driver... There must have a way to override stupid values.
Kiwito22 said:
Yes, we do understand that all touchscreens have huge input lag... the thing is, the note ii's input lag is way higher than older gen devices.
For example Subway surfers is way more responsive on my Optimus 3D than on the Note II. If you have an older phone to compare, you can easylly see the difference. I dont care much about input lag, smoothing or whatever in UI, browsers and stuff like that. but in games, its very noticible and very annoying. It almost makes me want to throw my phone against a wall.
I prefer tearing, thats why i have vsync off and minimal frame prerendering.... on my PC almost all the time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OMG, i thought it was a quote from me, i've written the exact same idea somewhere on the web ! Totally agree, about everything.
Good Thread:good:
I like your investigation and i dont think the hardware is the issue here at all look at the older sgs2 and iphone both of them have lower input lag
Great thread!!
This is the thing I hate the most about my Android phones (I had all the flagships - GS1, GS2, GN1, GS3 and now GN2).
My iPhone 4s and iPad 3 have significantly lower input lag (and much better/smoother scrolling, but that's another issue), but they also do have completely different hardware than the Galaxy line.
The thing is, that on CM Roms I also get lower input lags, so this must be fixable or at least significantly improved via software...
Re: [Dev request] Fix touchscreen input lag
Since these Gnote II uses a Wacom touchscreen, could there be a possibility that the screen is trying to detect the spen momentarily?
AFAIK Wacom is completely off if you have pen power save enabled and pen is stored inside Note2.
A goooooood notice .....
Re: [Dev request] Fix touchscreen input lag
xartic12 said:
Since these Gnote II uses a Wacom touchscreen, could there be a possibility that the screen is trying to detect the spen momentarily?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But the way the s-pen is detected for touches etc is completely different to the way you touching the screen with your finger is. That's why air view works, and you can hold your s-pen above the screen, use something to push the nib in, and the phone will register q touch without even touching the screen, so I highly doubt that's the cause of any input lag.
Sent from my GT-N7100 using xda premium
Did anybody try and compare whether there is any difference regarding the input lag on the touch screen with your finger and the wacom digitizer with the stylus?
The only solution I could think of is reverse engineering of the touchscreen driver and that is such an ungrateful huge work for such a small interested userbase that I'd say it is not going to happen. Unless there is a developer with immense skill and way too much(!) time around
I've just watched the S4 presentation > in the intro video > Exact same input lag. Then i wateched "hands on SGS4" videos > same input lag.
What a waste, I hate them.
mariosraptor said:
http://www.overclock.net/t/1351079/guru3d-galaxy-s-iv-confirms-exynos-5-octa-cpu/140
http://gamesfromwithin.com/lag-the-bane-of-touch-screens
Found this seems good.
This is only one page.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
=> I read it, it's interesting but gaming lag of a console isn't the same.
Anyway, that's not normal that input lag increased... Maybe touchscreens got more expensive, but physical digital controllers got cheaper.
I think software is where the problem lies. I tried an iphone 4 or 4s, couldn't tell which, and it was way more responsive, and the technology is the same as in Android phones. It can't be that big a hardware issue because it would be too easy to solve, just replacing a component, and in a race to sell millions of phones surely Apple couldn't be the only company that afforts an extra dollar or so per unit to purchase a more expensive, but better component. Plus we've all seen articles and teardowns showing that Apple uses plenty of regular components that are found in other phones as well, so there's definitely no magic there. Also, the trackpads in laptops seem to be based on capacitive technology as well, yet the input lag is a lot smaller than it is on the Note 2.
My guess is that there is noise filtering, to eliminate false touches, as well as smoothing and approximation, and the programmers are also generous with the input lag to ensure a smooth approximation. The smoothing, more specifically, is what must be the most lag-inducing feature. It's most obvious when we draw something quickly on the Note 2 with a finger (and even with the pen): small detail gets lost, but all the curves are smooth, and that's because the sampling rate for the finger position is low, and it interpolates points between the sampled positions to ensure a smooth animation. Since it can't approximate all the points between two sampled positions until you actually reach the second position, and it must also run the animation through all these approximated points at the same speed that you moved your finger, that means that a list doesn't start scrolling until the screen has captured at least 2 samples of finger movement, so the animation will always be at least 1 sample behind your finger's actual movement. How many samples is unknown, but the sampling rate can be found out, and together with an accurate measurement of the lag it would be possible to find out how many touch samples it needs before it starts actually performing an animation.
So the obvious solution would be to increase the touch sampling rate, so that animations start faster, and tone down the smoothing because it would be less useful and to compensate for the computing power used by the increased sampling rate (it's not enough to prevent the power usage from rising, that's my guess, and maybe that's why iphones don't last as much as droids with comparable specs in the battery department).
For what it's worth, I'm an amateur sound engineer, bass player with an ear and a passion for drums, so I really know how you feel about input lag OP!

Is it still worth buying this tablet?

Hello everyone.
I am considering buying this tablet, as the price for the TF300TG dropped in my country to the level acceptable by me, but I am a bit worried. This tablet is one year old, yet it seems to be still quite popular. I would like to know its performance, as Antutu results show like ~10k which is quite low these days, on the other hand youtube tests show real racing 3 running quite smoothly.
Is it still worth buying?
I need a tablet mainly for hd movies and web browsing, 3G is a must. I might play some games, but this is not the main goal. I am also considering Lenovo S6000 (but the MTK actually sucks) and PIPO M9 Pro.
I will be grateful for any feedback, suggestions and opinions.
Regards.
Dandry said:
Hello everyone.
I am considering buying this tablet, as the price for the TF300TG dropped in my country to the level acceptable by me, but I am a bit worried. This tablet is one year old, yet it seems to be still quite popular. I would like to know its performance, as Antutu results show like ~10k which is quite low these days, on the other hand youtube tests show real racing 3 running quite smoothly.
Is it still worth buying?
I need a tablet mainly for hd movies and web browsing, 3G is a must. I might play some games, but this is not the main goal. I am also considering Lenovo S6000 (but the MTK actually sucks) and PIPO M9 Pro.
I will be grateful for any feedback, suggestions and opinions.
Regards.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i love my tf300 and would buy it again in a heart beat, although there are some new toshiba tablets that look nice
Dandry said:
Hello everyone.
I am considering buying this tablet, as the price for the TF300TG dropped in my country to the level acceptable by me, but I am a bit worried. This tablet is one year old, yet it seems to be still quite popular. I would like to know its performance, as Antutu results show like ~10k which is quite low these days, on the other hand youtube tests show real racing 3 running quite smoothly.
Is it still worth buying?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if you want an android tablet + keyboard option there's nothing else as cheap around afaik.
if you arent intrested in the keyboard it loses a lot of appeal.
robgee789 said:
i love my tf300 and would buy it again in a heart beat, although there are some new toshiba tablets that look nice
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1. I love my tf300t. No issues out if it at all. Tom Tom is awesome on it unlike my prime (tf201). The screen is absolutely clear even in sunlight. I primarily use mine outdoors as a huge gps
Sent from my SGH-T889 using xda app-developers app
Yes, its still a great device especially if you grab the keyboard. I use mine everyday and haven't found a newer one that's been tempting enough to buy.I say go for it... and then root it and drop a great rom in it
Yes, i love my tf300t its the best tablet i have ever had
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF300T using xda app-developers app
I own the TF300T and (depending on the price) I 'd say it's still a great tablet for web browsing and watching movies.
Some remarks:
- Tablet feels generally fast/smooth, unless you're installing/updating applications or during heavy access of the internal storage. Then the device becomes very slow during these occasions (it's the known I/O issue with the ASUS tablets).
- The tablet screen is not very usable in bright sunny day outdoors, as someone claimed the opposite above. Even at full brightness, I need to find shade to be able to see the screen.
- The speaker is loud, but the placement is not ideal and that hurts/changes the sound depending on how you're holding or placing the tablet. For movies, you need to be careful not to cover the speaker with your fingers. If you want clear stereo sound, it's best to use headphones.
- Screen quality is pretty decent with comfortable viewing angles.
- I can play tons of fun games with no problems at all. However: I do not like/try the heavy 3D games out there. The few I did try long time ago (e.g. dead trigger), the speed was very good. But I generally prefer the simple(r) games.
hope this helps
I've been using my Asus Transformer TF300T (WiFi only) since August 2012 and I am satisfied with it.
At its price range, there is no tablet with a hard-wired keyboard dock (not bluetooth keyboard) that can match it. You should also check out the pricing of its more high-end brethren, the Transformer Infinity TF700KG (3G) and TF700KL (LTE). These Infinity models use a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 MSM8960 Dual-Core processor (1.5GHz) instead of the usual Quad-core Tegra3 in order to fit in the Mobile Broadband radio. The processor may be a downgrade but the screen is upgraded to a Super IPS+ 1920x1200 display. Since you don't plan to play games to much on it, the brighter display would be a nice trade for the less powerful processor.
Some notes if you are getting a TF300:
1. The tablet experiences a weird battery drain bug (especially when connected to the keyboard dock). Unlike an iPad, which you can leave on sleep mode for weeks or months with minimal battery drain, the TF300 will be out of juice within 3 days if you do not plug it in... Turning off all radios still doesn't improve this too much...
2. The charger is very proprietary. Unlike typical Android tablets, the device-side connector is proprietary (looks like an Apple or Samsung 30-pin connector, but is not compatible with either). This part is understandable since this connector also serves as the docking connector to the keyboard dock. The more annoying thing is that the charger is not a normal 5V (10W) USB charger but is a special 15V charger that uses a USB port... Asus fiddled with the wiring so that a normal USB cable plugged into the charger produces only 5V so as not to accidentally fry your other devices, but their proprietary cable produces the correct 15V to charge the TF300. Plugging the TF300 to a regular 10W 5V USB charger will only charge the device if it is turned completely off. And it will take quite a long time to charge...
3. If you will buy the TF300 for the keyboard dock, then you would probably bring it around docked (otherwise, what would be the point of getting the keyboard dock?). You will have a hard time finding a nice, slim case that would fit on the tablet and still allow it to be docked. AFAIK, there is no case that just fits over the tablet portion of the TF300 while still allowing it to be docked and undocked from the keyboard dock. There are folio-type cases that cover the two halves of the tablet when docked but they are not form-fitted to the TF300 and are held in place by elastic bands (ugly...)...
If the keyboard dock is not a necessity and you can live with a smaller tablet, you may want to consider the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 (8" tablet with 3G and S-Pen)...
Hope this helps you decide.
Best Regards!
^_^
Having my TF since around 3 months now, I have to revert my former prediction I would not buy it again, or recommend it right now:
Don't get me wrong, it is a great combination of a tablet and a somewhat capable notebook but:
- the CPU is too weak and once the Tegra 4 hits it will be outdated
- always runs at around 40 - 50 % of RAM already used by simple firing up the Tablet
- the screen is not good enough for longer sessions (had to experience that for myself first but it is true)
and the biggest reason for waiting:
Asus announced a new version of the Infinity coming up soon, the baby offers:
- 300 PPI
- 2560 x 1600 resolution
- Tegra 4
- 2 GB of ram (which will soon be the new standard)
So if you can wait a few month and don't mind paying a bit more you will probably end up with the best tablet on the market.
Hope that helped
- the CPU is too weak and once the Tegra 4 hits it will be outdated
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's fast enoughimho, the main bottleneck is the storage I/O. And of course it will be outdated once the new version comes out, that's the meaning of the word outdated....
- always runs at around 40 - 50 % of RAM already used by simple firing up the Tablet
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is a good thing because free RAM is useless RAM. Most of the system is loaded into RAM which means the slow storage I/O is much less of a problem. And even with the whole system loaded, you have ~60% free for demanding applications.
- the screen is not good enough for longer sessions (had to experience that for myself first but it is true)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why? Is it too bright? Is the refresh rate wrong? Because it looks fine to me and I watch movies on it.
If anything I think it's main weaknesses are the speaker, poor standby times since the update to 4.2 and the large bezel.
frankgreimes said:
- the CPU is too weak and once the Tegra 4 hits it will be outdated
- always runs at around 40 - 50 % of RAM already used by simple firing up the Tablet
- the screen is not good enough for longer sessions (had to experience that for myself first but it is true)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Regarding the CPU:
Personally, I think Nvidia over-sold the capabilities of the Tegra processors. They over-hyped the performance of the Tegra 2 but actually delivered that expected performance when the Tegra 3 was released, then again with Tegra 3 (where its over-hyped performance would only be delivered by the Tegra 4)...
I know this from personal experience since I bought a Motorola Atrix 4G (yes, people like me actually exist! ) for its Tegra 2 processor on Aug 2011 (Asia version) only to find out that its H.264 HW acceleration is limited to simple profile only... (its direct competitor then, the Samsung Galaxy S3, had better H.264 HW acceleration support...)
Tegra-accelerated games (THD) were few and far between and graphics performance was not as impressive as promised.
Then I bought the Asus Transformer TF300T (Aug 2012) with the Tegra 3 processor and thought: "Finally, the H.264 HW acceleration will be fixed and gaming performance would improve..." Well, the H.264 HW acceleration was fixed, but gaming performance remained "meh"...
A lot of popular games (mostly from GameLoft) don't even recognize the device and several workarounds needed to be done to get the games to play. When finally games officially supporting the tablet were released (like Dungeon Hunter 4 and Asphalt 7), I find out the games don't perform fluidly or stutters in the middle of gameplay (Asphalt 7) or are simply unplayable due to the low framerate (DH4)... Then I see my friends playing these same games flawlessly on a Samsung Galaxy Note (1st-gen)...
After some updates for the games and lots of tweaks to free up memory (RAM), I finally am able to play Asphalt 7 with a smooth framerate during the actual race (no more stuttering) but the menus are still not as smooth. I also am able to at least play DH4 (on medium detail settings)...
Which brings me to the RAM issue...
The TF300T came with a lot of gunk that I didn't and had no plan of using. I can't uninstall them without potentially breaking OTA updates. So after discovering that freeing up RAM would allow certain games like the above GameLoft games and other large games (SoulCraft, SpellStorm, etc) to run better, I looked around the forums (mostly this forum) to find utilities like App Quarantine - requires root - (to prevent applications/services from being started at boot and ever after) as well as Greenify - requires root - (to force applications you actually to be hibernated so that they don't "wake up" and "phone home" every so often and not release their RAM and CPU resources) and Auto Memory Manager (to tweak the OOM/out-of-memory settings of Android so that the OS will do a cleanup of empty processes and kill other less important processes when the free memory drops below a certain threshold)...
Regarding the Display:
The screen is not as bright as other tablets, but I knew that going in and obviously it was a trade-off to lower the cost of the unit. It is still usable, as long as you are indoors and do not have a bright light source behind you...
As I replied to Dandry's original post, for his application (general tablet use), the TF300TG (3G version) would still be a match to his needs as long as the price is reasonable (meaning lower than it's original price) and the hardware-docked-keyboard-w/-battery-pack feature is compelling for you...
Cheers!
^_^
Even better with the Official Cyanogen 4.3 Nightlies
I had mine for over 1 yr now, rooted a couple of months ago and now have the new Official Cyanogen 4.3 Nightlies rom installed. Runs great.
I have 2 of them and have no regrets
Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk 4 Beta
bcombel said:
I have 2 of them and have no regrets
Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk 4 Beta
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1
Both of my kids have each their tft300 and sharing one keyboard
Since one year now and nothing negative to say...
Go for it
Sent from my HTC EVO 3D X515m using xda app-developers app
Citruspers said:
It's fast enoughimho, the main bottleneck is the storage I/O. And of course it will be outdated once the new version comes out, that's the meaning of the word outdated....
This is a good thing because free RAM is useless RAM. Most of the system is loaded into RAM which means the slow storage I/O is much less of a problem. And even with the whole system loaded, you have ~60% free for demanding applications.
Why? Is it too bright? Is the refresh rate wrong? Because it looks fine to me and I watch movies on it.
If anything I think it's main weaknesses are the speaker, poor standby times since the update to 4.2 and the large bezel.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know about yours, but mine started to have ghostclicks and if I press the black border it acts touch sensitive. Sometimes the tablet runs as smooth as it gets other times I hate to work with it, kind of strange.
The RAM thing really depends how you are looking at it, free RAM should be reserved for tasks that need it, if you are constantly running on 50 % of the full RAM = less ram for the more important stuff. Believe me I have tried to remove all the startup blunder but some apps aren't just going away, i.e E-Mail clients although I am using K-9.
For basic things the screen is good enough, but when it comes down to PDF reading and looking at some more complex websites you can really tell the difference in terms of text-quality. I have seen tablet with 200 ppi + and black actually looked like black not just more grey.
Grifter thanks for your lenghty and great review and recommending some apps I really hope they are going to fix my startup problem because it gets annoying.
Disclaiming: The tablet itself is for sure not bad and the docked keyboard is a great pleasure but right now we are 2 months away from the next Infinity which will offer a lot more for for only + $ 150 so personally speaking I would wait and see this 300 ppi Tegra 4 baby in action before buying one right now. chances are it's going to fix all the previous problems the Transformer-series has had.
But if your looking for a great budget tablet you can't go wrong with the TF 300.
I've been dealing with lots of lag and my friends and dad's Nexus 10 is much smoother. Having the choice again for $100 more, I would have bought the Nexus. Keep in mind I'm on the stock rom and rooted. Can't unlock because of the rma'd issue. Hoping it's smoother with a custom ROM, which I imagine it will be, after the upgrade
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF300T using Tapatalk HD
TF300T hardware is not bad given the price. You can have a Samsung for better performance if you can afford to fork out more, evidently. My main grudge is the way they treat customers after the purchase. Witness petition after petition that went unanswered. If they don't care about customers, then we simply shouldn't spend money on their products, especially on one that's so prone to bricking as this model - and not always due to users' fault as they're so fond of clamoring. If they deliberately refuse to release the Key so as to drum up service, there's even more reason to stay away.
Unfortunately, corporate moral standards have been set so low in the last two or three decades, consumers can only get them to listen by hurting their bottom line. As the adage goes, evil will flourish where decent people stand idly by. A few years ago, China banked on low prices to gain market shares. Then they understood that without improving the quality of products and services, they will fall out of the race. We should remind Asus of that principle. In this business, being # 3 is a kiss of death. I can see Ipads battling Samsung Notes. Who ever heard of TF this and that competing against anything of substance? God help them, as I don't care to.
Update on the screen quality:
I gave it another chance by taking the tablet with me outdoors (in the shade, in a bright summer day). The screen is barely usable outdoors, period. At full brightness, it's barely visible. And the glass reflects the fingerprints a lot. At some cases I could hardly tell if the screen, beneath the fingerprints, was on or off. (I am not sure if a screen protector would solve this last issue)
graphdarnell said:
In this business, being # 3 is a kiss of death. I can see Ipads battling Samsung Notes. Who ever heard of TF this and that competing against anything of substance? God help them, as I don't care to.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Be reminded that the transformer line were the first mainstream tablets which had an additional detachable keyboard. That was an ASUS innovation and only now do we see similar hybrid/convertible devices from other manufacturers. Also, ASUS competes very well both with Apple and Samsung, simply because they are behind the Google Nexus devices.
TF300T Was a great workhorse for me for 14 months, I also have a TF700 which I no longer use(IO performance issues and overall slow performance due a 1080p screen resolution with a very slow Tegra SoC) and can finally can let those two go.
The TF300T is still great, specially for watching HD movies(720p only), with the docking option you can have up to 128Gb of storage. 720p videos run great, even 1080p videos run great on my 65"LED tv thru HDMI adapter as long as you disable the video on the TF300T and OC to 1.6 Ghz(Performance Mode), GPS works great, WIFI is decent enough and the multitouch feature on the touchpad was really useful. 8 Megapixel camera(rear)with AF still takes great pics specially if you use the right software and you can even make HD video recording.
My only big complain is regarding the browsing department, I tried everything you can imagine with no success, installed every single ROM, tried every single browser with no luck at all. I heard there's an IO performance issue with Asus TF300T and TF700 tablets.
My wife gave me a Nexus 7 32GB 2013 for my birthday, what an amazing machine for browsing internet content, this is amazingly fast, fast , fast. I just ordered a nexus 10 32Gb which will make my life easier and replace my TF700. I will no longer have the flexibility for the storage as I have with the transformers but who can complain if these new units can perform without glitches,lagging or slowdowns specially browsing internet and playing 1080p videos smoothly.
There is no blame to Asus or the transformer line, maybe just for the I/O issues, I had a TF101 as well(tegra 2). Tegra 3 SoC is the one to blame for. Such a poor SoC with so much publicity that was always under-performing, from the very beginning. It's time to upgrade for me. my 2 cents here.
jrsalda said:
TF300T Was a great workhorse for me for 14 months, I also have a TF700 which I no longer use(IO performance issues and overall slow performance due a 1080p screen resolution with a very slow Tegra SoC) and can finally can let those two go.
The TF300T is still great, specially for watching HD movies(720p only), with the docking option you can have up to 128Gb of storage. 720p videos run great, even 1080p videos run great on my 65"LED tv thru HDMI adapter as long as you disable the video on the TF300T and OC to 1.6 Ghz(Performance Mode), GPS works great, WIFI is decent enough and the multitouch feature on the touchpad was really useful. 8 Megapixel camera(rear)with AF still takes great pics specially if you use the right software and you can even make HD video recording.
My only big complain is regarding the browsing department, I tried everything you can imagine with no success, installed every single ROM, tried every single browser with no luck at all. I heard there's an IO performance issue with Asus TF300T and TF700 tablets.
My wife gave me a Nexus 7 32GB 2013 for my birthday, what an amazing machine for browsing internet content, this is amazingly fast, fast , fast. I just ordered a nexus 10 32Gb which will make my life easier and replace my TF700. I will no longer have the flexibility for the storage as I have with the transformers but who can complain if these new units can perform without glitches,lagging or slowdowns specially browsing internet and playing 1080p videos smoothly.
There is no blame to Asus or the transformer line, maybe just for the I/O issues, I had a TF101 as well(tegra 2). Tegra 3 SoC is the one to blame for. Such a poor SoC with so much publicity that was always under-performing, from the very beginning. It's time to upgrade for me. my 2 cents here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Finally managed to make my TF300T run smooth enough at 1.3Ghz(including browsing) with Latest Hydro 8 Rom(JB 4.2.1) and Greenify, App Quarantine and AutoMemory Manager Apps and latest Browse to Ram apK. I'm going to keep my TF300T and start experimenting with my upcoming Nexus 10. However My TF700 definitely goes to craigslist or ebay.

Tesco Hudl 2 tablet.

Ok, so i'm tempted to buy one of these as I have a bunch of vouchers which means i can buy it for £25 instead of £129.
I'm a little concerned about the lack of love of the original Hudl device in terms of custom roms and general hacking , and i kinda understand it since its a UK device. so i'm unsure to go for it because of this. Its an Intel Atom cpu so i would love it if it was able to be installed with windows 8.1/10 eventually.
Anyone else seen the device and have any thoughts on it?
http://www.tesco.com/direct/hudl2-8-wi-fi-tablet/454-7907.prd?pageLevel=&skuId=397-7926
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/tablets/391081/hands-on-tesco-hudl2-review
Looks like I've found the right place for my review
I tried posting this in a comment box on Engadget. Suffice to say, it did not fit! I thought there might be a modding forum for the hudl1 over here on xda but to my surprise there is not :-O slightly concerning. I don't understand why it being a British device would be an issue, we make great stuff!
Anyway here goes..
Had a good shot on the hudl2 today. Going in teaco today was like the opening scenes of the Lego movie. Hudl propaganda everywhere. Point of sale cardboards you expect. But I have to admit impressed with the kiosk they've set up. The branding is simple, and hey had all colours of hudl on display, it definitely lures you in. On top of tat, giving the big brother Lego-movir feel, all of the television displays are showing a hudl2 promo vids on loop. 'Were really pleased to announce...' Etc..
The demo units run in obviously a demo mode. Pristine, I think I might have been their first prodder. All the tabs were heleved in landscape view and the first Hong you notice therefore is how wide they look. If you've seen the nexus7, these seem like pretty much the same ratio. The demo mode has a display encouraging you to 'try it', which if you tap, takes you to the android home screen. Naturally it is maiden with blinkbox icons. The home screen to the left features tescos feed. Things like shopping offers, how to get started on blibkbox etc. You can hide then (they appear as cards), but they come back soon enough. The home screen one to the right of the main, is more blink box a centric with more direct links to movies and music etc.
You can choose to ditch blinkbox icons if you wish but long and short, you're not getting rid of these left and right home screens anytime soon. I had a good look through the options and settings, and nowhere did I see the option to remove ho.eacreens.
Neither was I able to enable developer option s, something to note.
Going into settings, apps, I attempted to close/stop any references to Tesco processes running to see if it was possible to 'de-teaco' the homeacreens. And sure, I was able to stop them. But returning to the home screen starts them again and back they appear, as if they never went away.
The homeacreen to.the left incurs the highest lag in all my experience using the tablet. As you scroll left, the background blurs, which is a nice aesthetic touch but I would hedge my bets that is what's causing the lag. As another person has reported, touching the app drawer brings up the app icons very promptly, with only a slight *very very slight* * delay. To the otaku, this will annoy them possibly, but to.most casual users who don't race around phones/tabs as they likely so on desktop PC's, this won't be a problem at all.
Similarly, launching apps was prompt, about th same as the initial 'pressing on app drawer' button.
It feels very much like a smartphone, with a. Bigger screen, which is what most ppl expect.
The screen. The screen is absolutely stand-out feature on this tab. The colours, to my taster are desaturated enough to look natural, I would estimate skin tones in videos would look very nice on this. Photos look absolutely lovely, and using the tab to tweak them with Google Photos was easy, fun and satisfying.
Play store..
Internet wasslow connection in this particular tescos but at least they're connected! A welcome change to a lot of stores/demos. Indeed, these tabs were 'box-fresh' I downloaded Flipboard, which flipped through lagfree, although I can't say 100% for sure about hr speed because the connection was so slow that images weren't displaying yet.
I downloaded flickr, a nice appfor viewing photos on nice screens and it looked wonderful with next to no.lag (aside the net connection ).
Feel in the hand. These things are naturally powered up and connected via mai s as well as a central stem from beneath the desk holding them up. So I wasn't able to feel how theysit in the hand vertically. But I was able to.hold it horizontally and that was indeed very comfy, the rubbery soft touch back is very nice and trippy too.
No accessories were available yet.
I can't comment on the sound, but the screen is just lovely. Again, to echo others, the viewing angles are not fantastic, but its respectably bright and crisp. No such 'cyan oven mode style' colour options in the settings though, if the look isn't to your preference.
This is my first time using an 8inch tablet, its a nice experience. However this like email in landscape could definitely so with a bit of a makeover (everything appears very large), like email for kids . (Gmail I'm talking about).
Goodgle Newsstand, this had had a recent update which makes it quite graphically intense, using the cards style material UI of upcoming Google Android L. Scrolling through the items incurred a bit of lag, I would put in on par with my galaxy S3 (running CyanogenMod 11l. As a news reading experience, this app has a lot of potential, but Aimo It would only be optimal under android L.
Browsing through the play store for music, movies and books requires a fair amount of close-up viewing it on a galaxy s3, not so here. The items on display are pleasant and text metainfo, like price, genre, year etc. Are nicely legible.
Browsing speed..
Now this is the only area where I was not particularly amazed with the hudl 2. I fired up theverge as its quite intense. The chrome.browser held most of the images in place, however a quick scroll from very top to very bottom of the site had images blinking out of view,, then re-appearing. Not a ram issue I don't think. I think (only suspect) this might be a limit of the atom CPU.
I did nothing more strenuous to he tablet, and apart from that, I would say it is very very serviceable. Especially for £129.
Were it not for this potential.nexus9 around the corner with rumoured android L, I would buy this immediately.
would it be possible to put the GEL launcher on this? and thanks for the in depth review^^^^^^^
nice hands-on. sort out the strange spelllings and wording and you could put that on a proper website.
i'll be getting mine tonight (cost me £25 on top of my clubcard vouchers which have been sitting doing nothing for years) so will give some feedback for what its worth. i'm totally wanting to run windows on it though. I can't get my head around why anyone would chose a (presumably more expensive) Intel x64 chipset over an ARM given that Android is optimised for ARM.
SkEvol said:
I tried posting this in a comment box on Engadget. Suffice to say, it did not fit! I thought there might be a modding forum for the hudl1 over here on xda but to my surprise there is not :-O slightly concerning. I don't understand why it being a British device would be an issue, we make great stuff!
Anyway here goes..
Had a good shot on the hudl2 today. Going in teaco today was like the opening scenes of the Lego movie. Hudl propaganda everywhere. Point of sale cardboards you expect. But I have to admit impressed with the kiosk they've set up. The branding is simple, and hey had all colours of hudl on display, it definitely lures you in. On top of tat, giving the big brother Lego-movir feel, all of the television displays are showing a hudl2 promo vids on loop. 'Were really pleased to announce...' Etc..
The demo units run in obviously a demo mode. Pristine, I think I might have been their first prodder. All the tabs were heleved in landscape view and the first Hong you notice therefore is how wide they look. If you've seen the nexus7, these seem like pretty much the same ratio. The demo mode has a display encouraging you to 'try it', which if you tap, takes you to the android home screen. Naturally it is maiden with blinkbox icons. The home screen to the left features tescos feed. Things like shopping offers, how to get started on blibkbox etc. You can hide then (they appear as cards), but they come back soon enough. The home screen one to the right of the main, is more blink box a centric with more direct links to movies and music etc.
You can choose to ditch blinkbox icons if you wish but long and short, you're not getting rid of these left and right home screens anytime soon. I had a good look through the options and settings, and nowhere did I see the option to remove ho.eacreens.
Neither was I able to enable developer option s, something to note.
Going into settings, apps, I attempted to close/stop any references to Tesco processes running to see if it was possible to 'de-teaco' the homeacreens. And sure, I was able to stop them. But returning to the home screen starts them again and back they appear, as if they never went away.
The homeacreen to.the left incurs the highest lag in all my experience using the tablet. As you scroll left, the background blurs, which is a nice aesthetic touch but I would hedge my bets that is what's causing the lag. As another person has reported, touching the app drawer brings up the app icons very promptly, with only a slight *very very slight* * delay. To the otaku, this will annoy them possibly, but to.most casual users who don't race around phones/tabs as they likely so on desktop PC's, this won't be a problem at all.
Similarly, launching apps was prompt, about th same as the initial 'pressing on app drawer' button.
It feels very much like a smartphone, with a. Bigger screen, which is what most ppl expect.
The screen. The screen is absolutely stand-out feature on this tab. The colours, to my taster are desaturated enough to look natural, I would estimate skin tones in videos would look very nice on this. Photos look absolutely lovely, and using the tab to tweak them with Google Photos was easy, fun and satisfying.
Play store..
Internet wasslow connection in this particular tescos but at least they're connected! A welcome change to a lot of stores/demos. Indeed, these tabs were 'box-fresh' I downloaded Flipboard, which flipped through lagfree, although I can't say 100% for sure about hr speed because the connection was so slow that images weren't displaying yet.
I downloaded flickr, a nice appfor viewing photos on nice screens and it looked wonderful with next to no.lag (aside the net connection ).
Feel in the hand. These things are naturally powered up and connected via mai s as well as a central stem from beneath the desk holding them up. So I wasn't able to feel how theysit in the hand vertically. But I was able to.hold it horizontally and that was indeed very comfy, the rubbery soft touch back is very nice and trippy too.
No accessories were available yet.
I can't comment on the sound, but the screen is just lovely. Again, to echo others, the viewing angles are not fantastic, but its respectably bright and crisp. No such 'cyan oven mode style' colour options in the settings though, if the look isn't to your preference.
This is my first time using an 8inch tablet, its a nice experience. However this like email in landscape could definitely so with a bit of a makeover (everything appears very large), like email for kids . (Gmail I'm talking about).
Goodgle Newsstand, this had had a recent update which makes it quite graphically intense, using the cards style material UI of upcoming Google Android L. Scrolling through the items incurred a bit of lag, I would put in on par with my galaxy S3 (running CyanogenMod 11l. As a news reading experience, this app has a lot of potential, but Aimo It would only be optimal under android L.
Browsing through the play store for music, movies and books requires a fair amount of close-up viewing it on a galaxy s3, not so here. The items on display are pleasant and text metainfo, like price, genre, year etc. Are nicely legible.
Browsing speed..
Now this is the only area where I was not particularly amazed with the hudl 2. I fired up theverge as its quite intense. The chrome.browser held most of the images in place, however a quick scroll from very top to very bottom of the site had images blinking out of view,, then re-appearing. Not a ram issue I don't think. I think (only suspect) this might be a limit of the atom CPU.
I did nothing more strenuous to he tablet, and apart from that, I would say it is very very serviceable. Especially for £129.
Were it not for this potential.nexus9 around the corner with rumoured android L, I would buy this immediately.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good review - and the web pages thing does seem to be an issue. I thought I would add a couple of points based on 24 hours of ownership of this device....
The first thing I noticed was how laggy the Tesco launcher was - not helped by the boat load of Tesco crapola on left screen. The first thing I did was put Nova on there and it was like night and day - zero lag. I disabled most of the Tesco apps and hid them in the launcher as well which basically left me with, essentially, a stock Android tablet. It also left no visible sign of Tesco on the tablet because Nova can get rid of the search bar (Tesco had moved their Tesco button up here instead of having it on the Navigation bar on Hudl1) The only gripe about performance would be that there is some lag with some live wallpapers.
I stuck Asphalt 8 and Modern Combat 5 on there and there no problems. Both games play really, really well. I also tested the touch responsiveness - an issue on Hudl 1 - by playing CounterSpy and Alone and it seems to be a lot better on Hudl 2. I have not really had a chance to test the speakers yet as I have mainly used it with headphones. I've also not had any issues with app incompatibility caused by the Intel processor yet. Internet speed seems great so far- even large games downloaded quickly both on home and work WiFi.
My biggest gripe is the 9gb of free space - 11 out of 16gb free should be the minimum. First thing I will do when I root it will be to get rid of some of bloat with Titanium.
Overall though - very impressed. As already mentioned, the screen is just fantastic. Huge improvement on the first one and a really, really decent device. For the money its a no-brainer.
Thanks for continuing the discussion! What you've said all sounds very positive!
Have you managed to root it? I note that there sadly didn't seem to be much support for custom rom'ing the hudl1. But those changes you made with the launcher sound like they took care of any lag, this is great!
One thing you did mention.. I thought i would ask you, for clarity.. When you said..
gripweed said:
Good review - and the web pages thing does seem to be an issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
--were you referring to your own experience with loading pages? Or were you just echoing the concern i had expressed in my review?
Also, to hear that games work well is also really great!
Took the plunge today used my staff discount didn't use any club card put the google launcher disabled everything other than child and my Tesco which I couldn't do. Tablet is really fast display and size and great feels better the nexus 7
SkEvol said:
Thanks for continuing the discussion! What you've said all sounds very positive!
Have you managed to root it? I note that there sadly didn't seem to be much support for custom rom'ing the hudl1. But those changes you made with the launcher sound like they took care of any lag, this is great!
One thing you did mention.. I thought i would ask you, for clarity.. When you said..
--were you referring to your own experience with loading pages? Or were you just echoing the concern i had expressed in my review?
Also, to hear that games work well is also really great!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was more echoing your concerns tbh - noticed it crop up in at least a couple of "hands on" reviews and was wondering if it was an issue. I haven't especially noticed but I will try a few more content heavy web page and see what happens. I should apologise for the lack of clarity on my original reply as I haven't rooted it yet- I rooted the last one and ran exposed and gravity box which did compensate slightly for the lack of custom roms. There was a bit of interest in Hudl modding on Modaco last time, which was where I found the rooting info.
I think Rooting may take a while as this is an Intel Atom Bay trail Z3735D cpu. The Onda V975i has the same CPU and has been rooted so it may be possible to adapt it to work although it is running an older version of android which may raise other problems. Also I would not try any rooting method until a recovery ROM and method are available.
My Hudl 2 on order.
---------- Post added at 11:23 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:37 AM ----------
Further From my previous post it appears that these Bay Trial tabs can have a Bios so It will be interesting to see how this tab matures. Windows Anyone!
vermillions said:
Further From my previous post it appears that these Bay Trial tabs can have a Bios so It will be interesting to see how this tab matures. Windows Anyone!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Pretty cool to think that would be possible.
Windows has a 1000 uses, what would you choose to do? (just curious)
Do you think that Kings might have solution to rooting?
SkEvol said:
Pretty cool to think that would be possible.
Windows has a 1000 uses, what would you choose to do? (just curious)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am the worst person with devices, I like to get them to do more than they were originally intended to do and to tinker and learn as much as poss, then I just end up never using them. But if a Dev overcomes all the obstacles in Boot and Bios and is able to roll all the drivers into a windows rom, I couldn't help myself I would have to test it.
Hudl2 Thread
How do we lobby the XDA Devs to open a section for the Hudl2?
Do we need to raise money to buy one to send it to a dev?
I'd quite like a recovery loader (at the bare minimum) to be able to back up the Hudl2, before asking for some kind dev to port a new Rom to it.
What can we do to make any of the above options happen?
giac0m0 said:
How do we lobby the XDA Devs to open a section for the Hudl2?
Do we need to raise money to buy one to send it to a dev?
I'd quite like a recovery loader (at the bare minimum) to be able to back up the Hudl2, before asking for some kind dev to port a new Rom to it.
What can we do to make any of the above options happen?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know the answer to any of your questions but I'd be willing to contribute £5 to the cost of finding out how to root it, in whatever form that takes.
Just out of interest has anyone tried Root Genius? it is made by the same people that made Shuame. If not working I suspect root will probably come from installing IntelAndroidDrvSetup and then a flash from Fastboot if we can get into Fastboot. But it will need someone with the correct knowledge to make the flashable update with the right parameters. All only a guess though.
Hi. Does anyone have an idea of how someone who's not in England can purchase one?
I'm very interest, seems great value for the money.
Thanks.
vermillions said:
Just out of interest has anyone tried Root Genius? it is made by the same people that made Shuame. If not working I suspect root will probably come from installing IntelAndroidDrvSetup and then a flash from Fastboot if we can get into Fastboot. But it will need someone with the correct knowledge to make the flashable update with the right parameters. All only a guess though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Someone over in MoDaCo had a similar thought and suggested this may work:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2681783
giac0m0 said:
Someone over in MoDaCo had a similar thought and suggested this may work:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2681783
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes it might, my Hudl 2 is not yet delivered so I am unable to test at present. But I think it is worth a shot.
(kicking myself for ordering with delivery and not picking up from store.)
vermillions said:
If not working I suspect root will probably come from installing IntelAndroidDrvSetup and then a flash from Fastboot if we can get into Fastboot. But it will need someone with the correct knowledge to make the flashable update with the right parameters.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm impressed! I have no idea now you had the thought process of thinking of doing that! I take it you must have quite a lot of experience with routing. I only ropted my s3 because i needed to. Sometimes i wish i had the insight to be able to suggest something like that. I usually work off of what faq or how-to suggests. I'm quite interested in why this device would require a different method because of it's cpu. Interesting to me.
Has anyone had success playing encoded videos e.g. x264 codec and similar? I used to get decent results using MXplayer or VLC beta on my previous tablet (a cheap Chinese version that should be worse than the Hudl2), but now I suspect that poor x86 support from those players is letting it down. I've downloaded the x86 codec for MX and played with the various performance options, but results range from good to appalling depending on the video, with stuttering or full crashes. I've also tried some other players that claimed x86 support, but no dice.
Any advice gratefully received, as I'm very happy with my Hudl2 apart from this.
Sent from my Hudl 2 using XDA Free mobile app

Categories

Resources