A Non-Authoritative Android Tablet Buying List: What to Get, What to Avoid (2010)

[janesh]

Now i can tell you that i bought the herotab and he runs fine. I bought the same device from an other supplier, the third link of the post above, and that was a doa and send it back to the vendor. It was different from the one of merimobiles who have two srewes near the sd cart slot and the speacker. The other has not, but seems to have a better bild quality. My freescale i.mx515 mid runs very stable better than the wits a81e, but also about the wits, i am very satisfied. I have an apple ipad too who is very good but i prefer my android 2.2 devices who does have the same speed as the ipad or even better.
At last i love the 4:3 8 inch screen of the herotab and the easy possibility to hold the wits a81e in one hand and its possibility of easy change the battery.

 

[CoolerKing]

Dear xaueious,

Why is TCC8902 still the preferred budget platform, even if it's around 3 times as slow as the Cortex A8, and probably doesn't have as bright a future in terms of 3.0 support etc?

Also, in another post around these forums you were talking about adding the 8 inch MID802 as a recommendation (with caveats).. are you still planning to do this?
As you probably already know, a firmware project is going on for it, and it has better specs than the Wits, so it probably already deserves a mention.

ps. 8 inch seems to be turning into a new trend for these tablets and if you look at reviews such as shanzai.com's (YouTube - shanzaidotcom's Channel), people that tried this size seem to give it the edge over the 7 inch form factor..

 

[xaueious]

Added Nook Color. Increase recommendation on Archos 101.

 

[CoolerKing]

So you're not going to reply to my post? :/

 

[KristianS]

Hi,
I just bought this one: Real Android 2.2 8 inch Ipab bpad 1GHZ Cpu 512MB Rom 4GB Tab...USD 248.35/Piece Wholesale Price at **********
Payed 209 USD incl shipping.
Good or bad buy?

Kristian

 

[xaueious]

Sorry for not replying. Was just dropping by to update on the Nook Color and didn't realize there were replies.

Dear xaueious,

Why is TCC8902 still the preferred budget platform, even if it's around 3 times as slow as the Cortex A8, and probably doesn't have as bright a future in terms of 3.0 support etc?

Also, in another post around these forums you were talking about adding the 8 inch MID802 as a recommendation (with caveats).. are you still planning to do this?
As you probably already know, a firmware project is going on for it, and it has better specs than the Wits, so it probably already deserves a mention.

ps. 8 inch seems to be turning into a new trend for these tablets and if you look at reviews such as shanzai.com's (YouTube - shanzaidotcom's Channel), people that tried this size seem to give it the edge over the 7 inch form factor..

TCC8902 is the preferred budget platform because:
1) it's stable
2) it's a good $100 cheaper than the closest mature Cortex A8 alternative
3) it outperforms the HTC G1, which is the baseline device Android developers program for. That means most apps will work just fine on it.

I don't really like the 8" 800x600 form factor right now. That's an interesting video I haven't watched before. But it doesn't matter what the shanzhai manufacturers are making. The software developers and Google just don't care. Android 2.2 isn't supposed to even support 1024x600, but Samsung is spearheading the 1024x600 resolution. Having the correct resolution affects the drawables, and how developers create their software in general.

I don't find Shanzhai dot com's 'reviews' convincing at all. They also don't seem to get Android, and don't pay attention to details.

I know there's some people looking at the new 8" devices, but I'd hardly call that development. Look at what's been done for the Advent Vega and Viewsonic G Tab instead.

These tablets have all the right hardware specifications, but not the firmware to make it a solid all-around device. That's not a simple problem. Software is worth some money. In that sense, you are better off getting the much more polished products in the Archos 70/101.

Hi,
I just bought this one: Real Android 2.2 8 inch Ipab bpad 1GHZ Cpu 512MB Rom 4GB Tab...USD 248.35/Piece Wholesale Price at **********
Payed 209 USD incl shipping.
Good or bad buy?

Kristian

It can be a good buy if you have the proper expectations. There's two versions, and I have no idea which is better than the other. I'm not in China right now. These tablets are as 'prototype' as it gets.

I know the Apad branded version has:
g-sensor issues
excessive noise from audio jack

Beyond that it seems okay. I haven't seen a neutral discussion forum for the more popular one yet that describes the bugs...

 

[pwalt]

Thank you for this post/research!!

I am officially returning my Archos 7 (after less than 48 hours) and upgrading to the Huawei S7 ... hopefully at lunch time today.

With the limited App space I was only able to load 7 games on the Archos ... which is primarily why I bought it. I didn't know the App space was limited (and Best Buy sales folks leave a lot to be desired!)

I really think that the Archos 7 would have been a decent toy for my 11 year old for the month of January. With the Huawei I am now confident that it will provide plenty of entertainment for at least a year or two!

 

[xaueious]

Had to add the Advent Vega to the list because the price is right. Too bad it's not available in North America and is OOS otherwise.

 

[PMKJJN]

I just bought the New G10 Haipad M701 Android 2.1 Tablet from Euogo. I was very concerned about getting a cheaply made knockoff so I bought from this site based on your recommendation. The description of this item on their site goes into great detail about how this can be distinguished from the cheaper "copycat" M701's and that the units ordered after 11/26 include some upgrades (HDMI & 4G) over the earlier model. How confident should I be that this is a "quality made original"? In the reviews of the item on Euogo, it says that the unit will be upgradeable to 2.2 in the near future. I have been researching and decided on this item for my wife's Christmas present. She mainly wants to use it for email, a few games, internet usage, Pandora, e-reader and other basic stuff. I included the 8G memory card for a total of approx $200. Do you think this was a solid choice that will last for a reasonable amount of time (quality & functionality)? Thanks in advance for your response and your insight on these android tablets which is a great help to many of us that are starting to get more confused the more we read about them.

 

[rmr]

Hmm, It looks a like archos is the only real choice- a 5 inch screen does not make it a tablet in my opinion. I am intrigued by the nook though- that may turn out to be the best one yet. The hardware feels pretty solid.


----------------------
HTC Desire HD

 

[CoolerKing]

@xaueious

Thanks for replying.. from what I'm gathering from other places, you seem to be right about the 8 inch being more of a 'prototype' and also about Cortex A8 tablets not being very stable in general.. The big problem with the TCC8902 platform however seems to be the lack of ram and the lack of Android OS 2.2/2.3/3.0 support.. Is there anything you could say about that? Do you know of any TCC8902 tablets that have a non-hacky 2.2 or 2.3 implementation coming up or what the chances of that are?

 

[xaueious]

@xaueious

Thanks for replying.. from what I'm gathering from other places, you seem to be right about the 8 inch being more of a 'prototype' and also about Cortex A8 tablets not being very stable in general.. The big problem with the TCC8902 platform however seems to be the lack of ram and the lack of Android OS 2.2/2.3/3.0 support.. Is there anything you could say about that? Do you know of any TCC8902 tablets that have a non-hacky 2.2 or 2.3 implementation coming up or what the chances of that are?

Telechips tablets look real good right now considering that some of the smartest people in the community are working on Telechips based tablets. Even without kernel source, they have been working on porting Froyo, and not Gingerbread.

Look up team telechips.

But Android 2.1 is very good already for TCC8902. The best upgrade would be to Android 2.3 to support the new tablet based applications, but due to the limitations of the hardware itself, it isn't as big of an upgrade as one might think.

 

[Danbo1]

I have a question can a 10.2" apad tablet with a arm11 processor running at 1 ghz and 256 mb of dedicated memory be updated via firmware (maybe cynamod) from 2.1 android to 2.2? And if so, where would that firmware be available

 

[xaueious]

I have a question can a 10.2" apad tablet with a arm11 processor running at 1 ghz and 256 mb of dedicated memory be updated via firmware (maybe cynamod) from 2.1 android to 2.2? And if so, where would that firmware be available

Unless someone is working on a port, that isn't happening. Considering that it's ARM11, unless it's Telechips (which already has an ongoing project), it's pretty hopeless.

 

[Lubi77]

I ordered some Android tablets about a week ago for my wife and two daughters (ages 9 & 8). I bought:

1) Zenithink ZT-180 10" Android 2.1 for the missus (replacing a laptop in which she only does email, facebook, youtube, internet)
2) Anhub 7" RK2808 Android 1.5 for my 9-yr old daughter
3) Generic 7" VT8505 Android 2.0 for my 8-yr old daughter

I ordered before finding this site, but from what I'm gathering, it appears as though my wife is getting a pretty good, stable device & my daughters are getting something I am going to be spending a lot of time on fixing/upgrading, but should suit their pre-teen needs for media. Is this a pretty accurate expectation based on your experiences?