Just bought VTAB1008, having second thoughts

[skallal]

I am new to Android and current user of the 1st gen iPad. I am happy with the iPad from a user's perspective. But I am also a programmer who likes to know what's under the hood. The iPad is a very closed system. And I'd like to dabble in some app development.

With that in mind, I did buy a Vizio VTAB1008 last night at Costo. However I wish I had read this forum a little more throughly. I am concerned about the issues with the SD card.

As I understand it, I can write to the SD card on my desktop PC, and get the tablet to read it. But I can't write to it from the tablet itself. Is this correct?

My desktop is running Windows 7 Professional. I don't know if it requires a Linux machine to properly write to the SD card. Somewhere I read the VTAB1008 is formatted in vfat and not ext4. Don't recall if that file format was for the SD card or the whole device.

Also I've read where there is an internal virtual SD card with 2 GB that is NOT the external card. Is 2 GB in addition to the 2 GB Vizio advertises as available.

The reason I ask, is my 64 GB iPad is already half full. So a 32 GB SD card would be pushing my limits, although I have to admit most of that is audio content I never listen to.

Since I got it at Costo, I have 90 days to return it. I am tempted to opt for a different Android tablet. Looking at the Acer Iconia A100. I like the smaller size of the VTAB1008 and the Acer is a little smaller. Also I've noticed the VTAB1008 is quite sluggish, though it has twice the RAM of my iPad.

I am looking for opinions and advice on which way to go. Should I wait for Vizio to release the promised update or look for a better solution. I realize the Vizio is a bargain tablet, but I am willing to get go a little higher in price.

 

[marvin02]

. . .

As I understand it, I can write to the SD card on my desktop PC, and get the tablet to read it. But I can't write to it from the tablet itself. Is this correct?

Not correct. You can write to it from any app that allows you to choose the destination directory.

My desktop is running Windows 7 Professional. I don't know if it requires a Linux machine to properly write to the SD card. Somewhere I read the VTAB1008 is formatted in vfat and not ext4. Don't recall if that file format was for the SD card or the whole device.

Your windows machine will access the internal user memory and the external user installed sd card (if there is one) just fine. The internal user memory is formatted FAT32 and the user installed sd card will probably be unless it has been pruposefully formatted with another file system.

Also I've read where there is an internal virtual SD card with 2 GB that is NOT the external card. Is 2 GB in addition to the 2 GB Vizio advertises as available.

The reason I ask, is my 64 GB iPad is already half full. So a 32 GB SD card would be pushing my limits, although I have to admit most of that is audio content I never listen to.

There is a total of 4 GB of built in memory on the VTAB, 2.4 GB is set aside for the user and is mounted at /sdcard.

Since I got it at Costo, I have 90 days to return it. I am tempted to opt for a different Android tablet. Looking at the Acer Iconia A100. I like the smaller size of the VTAB1008 and the Acer is a little smaller. Also I've noticed the VTAB1008 is quite sluggish, though it has twice the RAM of my iPad.

I am looking for opinions and advice on which way to go. Should I wait for Vizio to release the promised update or look for a better solution. I realize the Vizio is a bargain tablet, but I am willing to get go a little higher in price.

If you don't like it don't keep it. If it doesn't do what you need it to do, don;t keep it. In the end you have to decide if the money has been well spent.

 

[Tuberocity]

Same here, but have had this for a month now, and paid $234 so am owed a $48 price match refund from Costco, But! A big but, lol for what this tab offers at $189, I think anyone would be hard pressed to equal it at this point, and time. My wife wants a tab also, so the $48 I get back could go towards another, and I have 2 tabs for the price of one Transformer which is or was actually what I had decided to get; That is, until I read about the new Transformer with it's 32GB, super IPS Plus screen, GPS (if it's real as on the Vizio), and lets not forget the quad core 1.4 Tegra chip, and for sure forthcoming Ice Cream Sandwich update! I am in a quandry as I can't afford both at the moment. Also, at $499, the Transformer is a bit much for a toy, I can get a nice laptop for that. LOL Anyway, the VTAB1008 has better sound than any device I have played with in the stores, has a full fledged GPS chip, an IR blaster, terrible battery life, fairly good screen visually, and touchwise. Bottom line is this tab offers so much for the dollar, I challenge anyone to come up with a better deal?

 

[BillTracy]

New forum member here and I would like to thank everyone for this forum and their good insights.

I am having second thoughts too although I do think the Vizio is a very good tablet for the price (I paid $194 at Sam's). My thoughts:

Pros

1. Price. I can't justify big money for something that is really just a toy when I usually spend around $450 to $550 on my desktops. So the Vizio is a good deal.
2. I love the voice search. When it works it's a really nice feature.
3. The screen is pretty good for a budget machine.
4. Access to Android Market.

Cons

1. Battery life. I am getting 5-6 hours (wi-fi on all the time). This is my biggest gripe.
2. SD card problem although I am beginning to wonder if I really need more storage or not.

My wife is probably getting a Kindle Fire. I am going to look at hers and check out the battery life. If it is significantly better than the Vizio I may use my 30 day return option. What I am going to have to do is list the apps I am really using now and see if they have Kindle counterparts. I know the voice search will be out but I can live without that.

Just my inpresssions-once again great forum!

 

[skallal]

Well it's been almost a month since I bought the Vizio from Costco and I've only turned my unit on a couple times. I've been waiting to see about rooting the device, but it now seems like Vizio is not interested in the consumer. I'd be plenty happy to run unrooted if they would fix the sd card issue.

I bought an Asus Transformer soon after my last post. With much more storage memory, the app2sd issue is moot. But I'm left still wanting a smaller 7" tablet. The Vizio does have Hulu going for it. Hulu is not available on honeycomb yet and likely will come out for ICS if ever.

I'm still within my return window at Costco. I'd like to thank those in this forum who worked out the rooting even though Vizio has now plugged the hole. I'll still be watching this forum to see how the issue turns out.

 

[xphyle]

I really liking my Vizio Tab so far. Like someone mentioned, to find everything that this device has at the same price, well, you'd be hard pressed to do so. The big problem as everyone knows is the limited internal storage space. I'm pretty much filled up with apps/games, save for a couple hundred megabytes. I have a 16GB sd installed with movies and games, and yes, it would be nice to use it as internal storage and maybe move some of my games to it, but not a deal breaker. For surfing the internet, reading the news, book, and even playing games (NOVA runs GREAT!) I'm enjoying this device.

One last thing. Since I've installed JuiceDefender, I've not really run into any more battery issues even with heavy usage. Might want to give it a shot.

X

 

[Martel]

I personally have been watching this forum since about a month and half before I got my Vtab. I was wondering about the SD card issue too <wondering, not worrying>, but now that I have been playing around with the device, I've decided I'm ok with it. If there comes a time that I need more space I will see where we're at with rooting, and fix it then. Of the apps I have an interest in right now, the space consumption isn't bad, so I will have space for a long time. Maybe, MAYBE, I will have an issue with uploading new maps for GPS <since I like to geo-cache>, but I'm willing to bet I can live with the maps the way they are.

For the price, I can't beat it.

 

[tlyonstlyons]

Same here, but have had this for a month now, and paid $234 so am owed a $48 price match refund from Costco, But! A big but, lol for what this tab offers at $189, I think anyone would be hard pressed to equal it at this point, and time. My wife wants a tab also, so the $48 I get back could go towards another, and I have 2 tabs for the price of one Transformer which is or was actually what I had decided to get; That is, until I read about the new Transformer with it's 32GB, super IPS Plus screen, GPS (if it's real as on the Vizio), and lets not forget the quad core 1.4 Tegra chip, and for sure forthcoming Ice Cream Sandwich update! I am in a quandry as I can't afford both at the moment. Also, at $499, the Transformer is a bit much for a toy, I can get a nice laptop for that. LOL Anyway, the VTAB1008 has better sound than any device I have played with in the stores, has a full fledged GPS chip, an IR blaster, terrible battery life, fairly good screen visually, and touchwise. Bottom line is this tab offers so much for the dollar, I challenge anyone to come up with a better deal?

I think the Vizio is by far the best price/performance/features going right now, excepting a couple of the Black Friday deals. My thoughts:
Pro:
-I far prefer a 7" tab for reading books
-beautiful screen
-I like the offscreen soft buttons
-Bluetooth for headset and OBDII, GPS for nav with Copilot
-microSDHC slot
-charges over USB! so I don't need yet another collection of chargers
-actual manufacturer updates
-real market support

Cons:
-battery life
-no root takes away Ad Hoc and Quick Reboot

The SD card thing is an annoyance but not a big one. I use Moon+ reader that will read directly off the card so all video, music and books go on the microSDHC card. Overall, the VTAB is a great value. I think they aren't as popular due to the initial software being slow; that was fixed in the first update.

 

[JustLukin]

Are you using the free JuiceDefender? I loaded the free one and it is giving FC/.

 

[ktackel]

Are you using the free JuiceDefender? I loaded the free one and it is giving FC/.

I am not sure what XPHYLE is using but I have had the free version of JuiceDefender loaded for almost 2 months now with no issues.

 

[southsound]

I've had my Vizio tablet for a nearly two months now. I also have an iPod Touch so I thought I would be OK with it and my notebook - but with older eyes, the larger screen made me start to investigate tablets. My background is fairly technical, having worked for Apple, NeXT, and Microsoft, but I would not consider myself to be much of a programmer anymore. When I bought a RePlayTV system years ago, I was more than happy to muck in the code to expand the storage to 500GB instead of the 40GB it came with. But on the VTAB, I don't think that gaining root would be a personal advantage for me. I use my VTAB for gmail, Google Voice, Bible reading, YouTube, web browsing, presentation control, and reading .pdf documents I've created on my notebook. I would not consider myself to be a heavy user but I have used it nearly every day since I bought it. I bought it at Costco for $235 and when the price dropped to $189, Costco credited the difference. Yea Costco! Here are my thoughts:

Positive:
- 8" screen with 4:3 aspect ratio is great for viewing websites I've created, reading my Bible program or doing other things that would require me to wear glasses on a smaller or more narrow screen. Quality is more than adequate for my needs.
- Flash! Some of my sites require Flash to display properly. I understand that Adobe is not going to do a lot more with Flash for mobile devices in the future, but until I get familiar with newer coding technologies, I like to be able to see my sites as I have created them.
- PDF access. I like being able to take documents I've created on my notebook and view them in a size that is large enough to read easily on a convenient sized device.
- Great speakers for listening to music and other audio content. Some of my sites supply streaming audio (via a flash player) and the quality is excellent on my VTAB.
- Responsive - even with a single core processor. I don't do much gaming on my tablet so I've very happy with the speed and the way the touch screen works.
- Access to the Android Market. I have found some great apps - most for free. I just installed one that controls my PowerPoint slide shows. Loads the slides onto the tablet, shows me my speaking notes, and allows me to control the presentation from anywhere I choose.

Negative:
- Seems like there is a problem with displaying tags properly on .wma files. My .mp3 files show perfectly - but the .wma files have scrambled tags. I have tried other media players on it and they do the same thing. These files show perfectly on my Creative Zen and were created in Media Monkey.

Overall:
- I'm very pleased and will be keeping my Vizio Tablet. For me it is a great combination of capability and value. Depending on your needs, YMMV.

 

[xphyle]

I am not sure what XPHYLE is using but I have had the free version of JuiceDefender loaded for almost 2 months now with no issues.

Yep. I'm using Free also. I have it on my phone also. No issues EXCEPT, I can't get to start on boot. I have to start it manually each time I turn on the tablet. No biggie.