Herotab M8

[vidavi]

New firmware spotted today ver0.9.9, beware dont flash it, lots of problems. Returning back to good old 0.9.6.1rc1

 

[hotmid]

I would not recommend to buy the M8 (aka SamPad M8) at the moment, the manufacturer produced about 100 units after this was introduced at the Hong Kong fair this year.
Only few last units are circulating via Chinese resellers and most of them are returned and repaired units which may fail after short usage.

Mass production is said to start end of June (means July), hopefully the second batch will have better quality and new firmware versions may fix many bugs.

 

[vidavi]

Then i am unlucky as i have purchased one of those mids.

What do u mean "may fail"? In what way?

 

[hotmid]

Then i am unlucky as i have purchased one of those mids.

What do u mean "may fail"? In what way?

Yes i guess you are the lucky one.

We have had users report devices not charging, loosing wifi connection very often, hang and rebooting randomly. Non of the firmware updates have fixed these issues.

Once again, i DONT recommend to buy this model till the new batch is tested and firmware stable for normal use.

 

[vidavi]

Posted from merimobiles

Issues encountered so far after flashing the rom to the one downloaded from merimobiles.
1) Headphone jack not working.
2) Tablet hangs after 'sleeping' for a short period of time. Need to hit the reset button to recover.
3) The default orientation of the tablet is upside down of the row of touch buttons on the front bezel.
4) WIFI MAC address unrecoverable or configurable.

These are the issues i have with 0.9.6 rc1 firmware so far while waiting for fixes. The bad thing is that the new firmwares posted are worse than that(wifi keeps disconnecting, worst display resolution, tablet loses precision while typing and many more.)

 

[hotmid]

Did you test latest firmware?
UM2801-0.9.9-original222

 

[vidavi]

Did you test latest firmware?
UM2801-0.9.9-original222

I tested it yesterday, wifi keeps disconnecting after a while, resolution was a bit blur, and android keyboard was half the screen and in chinese. I didnt test it a lot cause of the wifi problem.

 

[Duncasi]

I am also an owner of a Herotab M8. The device arrived with firmware 0.9.7, what immediately struck me was the date and time reset after sleep mode and power off.
Problems with firmware 0.9.7:

1. when I ‘power off’ the tablet then the date and time are reset to January 1 2010, 13:00
2. when I put the tablet in sleep mode the screen goes black. After a while the screen turns on and is completely white for less than a second en then stays on for about 5 seconds with the backlight off and turns off the screen again. This looks like an initialization issue about every 10 minutes it happens; also when I turn on the device after sleep mode the screen goes completely white for 1 second but maybe it’s normal behavior.
3. After sleep mode the Wi-Fi doesn’t reconnect to the Access Point although it indicates ‘Scanning’, I have to switch it off and on again, then it reconnects to my network directly.

After sending Merimobiles an email, I noticed the new firmware version 0.9.8 on their website but it did not solve my problems.
Problems with firmware 0.9.8:

1. Same
2. Changed: now the screen stays white and does not power off in standby mode.
3. Solved
4. The touch screen is hard to operate when typing characters appear more than once.

Merimobiles contacted the manufacturer and they released firmware version 0.9.9
After flashing the device it hang on the first Android screen and with the support of Merimobiles it was booting again(had to flash the Herotab a second time).
Problems with firmware 0.9.9:

1. There are some keyboard keys with Chinese text on it.
2. Wifi problem (connecting and disconnecting all the time)
3. Settings - Language & Keyboard - Text settings - between the option Android keyboard and User dictionary there is an option in Chinese. When I select this option I see more Chinese text and at the bottom I see 'Shift-space'. I changed the language to English (United States) but it didn't change this menu text or on the keyboard.

Because of the serious problems with the wifi connection I decided to go back to version 0.9.8. I must say that the change (2) has gone by the reflash to version 0.9.8 and is the same as point 2 of version 0.9.7. I contacted Merimobiles again and they told me: the new version 0.9.9 was not tested by Merimobiles. They will test it today and hopefully put some pressure on the manufacturer to solve the issues.


@vidavi: I only noticed your sleep/hang problem in version 0.9.6rc1 not in version 0.9.7 or 0.9.8 (did not test it in 0.9.9 because it is useless).

 

[vidavi]

For me the only usable firmware is 0.9.6.rc1. It has the sleep/hang problem, but as i mentioned in above posts i power off every time and dont put it to sleep to avoid resets. Every newer firmware than this, has all the problems you mention.

 

[Duncasi]

Merimobiles website indicates that now version 1 is available for download but this is actually version 0.9.6rc1
Hopefully, the real bug free version 1 is coming soon.

 

[vidavi]

This is the last stable firmware(with many bugs though), thats why they re-publish it. They dont test anything before publishing i guess!!!!

 

[deathofkai]

@ Hotmid - you said that there's a new batch coming, are you referring to the same batch that Merimobiles is getting in on July 5th, or will those models include previously mentioned bugs?!

tcha, was planning on buying the M8 next week once it's available, but i don't think i'm amped for the above mentioned problems...what a mission...

Hey Vidavi, did you ever manage to get any of those HD Gameloft games working?!

So far it seems the Herotab C8 is my best option as it's responsive, stable, custom firmware available, etc...

Was really looking forward to the M8. But, I still have till 5 July to decide...

 

[Duncasi]

I have received mail form Merimobiles where they stated:

"There should be a new version on july 10th, from what they (manufacturer) are telling me this will vastly improve the unit and make the firmware better we will post it on the website, once available."

 

[deathofkai]

Excellent... I hope that the new batch from 10 July won't be such a disappointment.

Did they mention any hardware changes/upgrades of is it just an improved unit in terms of materials used and software?

Thanks a lot for the info

 

[alcoholic]

I would not recommend to buy the M8 (aka SamPad M8) at the moment, [...]
Mass production is said to start end of June (means July), hopefully the second batch will have better quality and new firmware versions may fix many bugs.

Thanks hotmid, you seem knowledgeable about what the factory is doing. Could you let us know when the new devices "hit the market"? Do you know if it would be possible to buy such a device e.g at the Cybermart in Shanghai?