My Honest Review of This Device

[lhommedangereux]

is it possible to find the dg2.01 firmware to downgrade? it was atleast somewhat stable with the dg2.01, as soon as i upgraded to the dg2.20... utter chaos. this update has caused way too many problems and i have flashed and data wiped three times on this device. after the update, music is not found on sd by mixzing or default music player. i did manage to root it, however my media rescanner wouldn't finish. everytime i restart the thing i have to take my sdcard out bc everytime it say "take sdcard off and reboot" <first of all that is HORRIBLE english... this reminds me of the Sciphone i tested out for a local retailer. awful. second of all, i have been developing android since the g1/cyanogenmod days and trust me, this is the first device i have ever came across with so many issues. granted i know the google applications, specifically the market, are googles proprietary applications which is why they are not available and why this tablet is so cheap (sylvania didn't have to pay google for the base android firmware it uses because it is opensource). i seriously seen a post where someone asked how to put music on an sdcard and had several responses. sorry but if you don't understand how to put music on an sdcard, turn the tablet off, put it down, and walk away. you do not need to be near any modern technology until you have the first ten year old kid you find show you how to use it. im not too mad cuz i got a good employee discount on this tablet and got it for $50, but i seen some people saying they got theirs at toysrus for 180. i would be pissed. for 180 sylvania could've afforded to pay google for the market and other important google applications. now lets talk about the screen. Android was developed to be used with heat sensitive screens (like the iphone) this is why if u take any android phone or the galaxy tab and you run a stylus across the screen guess what happens? nothing at all. the sylvania screen is a pressure sensitive screen, and a horrible one at that, i love how even with the stylus i can hit one letter and get the one next to it, yes even after screen calibration, even after assuming the first tablet was broken and exchanged it at my work. another thing, people asking why the autorotate feature doesnt work... i thought this would be obvious, this devices does NOT sport an accelerometer. that means it can't tell how youre holding it, and you can't play that tilt games like racing or labyrinth. it also doesn't sport a gps chip. in all honesty, i believe this think costs around $5-10 to make. i understand alot of people would hate this post because you are in denial about getting ripped off, but ask anyone who has had an actual android phone and they will tell you how awful this thing really is. from what i've read people can't overclock it and im not even going to ask about running a swap partition with this awful kernel. and before anyone assumes i don't know what im talking about, i've owned g1, mt3g, cliq, hero, moment, intercept, and currently own the evo4g and epic4g. i will say tho, it would be good as a childs toy, except for the spear like stylus which seem dangerously sharp.

 

[scott9050]

I bought a Nook color and rooted and put on a custom ROM. It is 20X the tablet that this POS is.

 

[cliffordtrue]

is it possible to find the dg2.01 firmware to downgrade? it was atleast somewhat stable with the dg2.01, as soon as i upgraded to the dg2.20... utter chaos. this update has caused way too many problems and i have flashed and data wiped three times on this device. after the update, music is not found on sd by mixzing or default music player. i did manage to root it, however my media rescanner wouldn't finish. everytime i restart the thing i have to take my sdcard out bc everytime it say "take sdcard off and reboot" <first of all that is HORRIBLE english... this reminds me of the Sciphone i tested out for a local retailer. awful. second of all, i have been developing android since the g1/cyanogenmod days and trust me, this is the first device i have ever came across with so many issues. granted i know the google applications, specifically the market, are googles proprietary applications which is why they are not available and why this tablet is so cheap (sylvania didn't have to pay google for the base android firmware it uses because it is opensource). i seriously seen a post where someone asked how to put music on an sdcard and had several responses. sorry but if you don't understand how to put music on an sdcard, turn the tablet off, put it down, and walk away. you do not need to be near any modern technology until you have the first ten year old kid you find show you how to use it. im not too mad cuz i got a good employee discount on this tablet and got it for $50, but i seen some people saying they got theirs at toysrus for 180. i would be pissed. for 180 sylvania could've afforded to pay google for the market and other important google applications. now lets talk about the screen. Android was developed to be used with heat sensitive screens (like the iphone) this is why if u take any android phone or the galaxy tab and you run a stylus across the screen guess what happens? nothing at all. the sylvania screen is a pressure sensitive screen, and a horrible one at that, i love how even with the stylus i can hit one letter and get the one next to it, yes even after screen calibration, even after assuming the first tablet was broken and exchanged it at my work. another thing, people asking why the autorotate feature doesnt work... i thought this would be obvious, this devices does NOT sport an accelerometer. that means it can't tell how youre holding it, and you can't play that tilt games like racing or labyrinth. it also doesn't sport a gps chip. in all honesty, i believe this think costs around $5-10 to make. i understand alot of people would hate this post because you are in denial about getting ripped off, but ask anyone who has had an actual android phone and they will tell you how awful this thing really is. from what i've read people can't overclock it and im not even going to ask about running a swap partition with this awful kernel. and before anyone assumes i don't know what im talking about, i've owned g1, mt3g, cliq, hero, moment, intercept, and currently own the evo4g and epic4g. i will say tho, it would be good as a childs toy, except for the spear like stylus which seem dangerously sharp.

I agree with you on some points and not on other points. I currently own an HTC Desire and an HTC Touch Pro2 with Android as second operating system. I have been running Android on my TP2 for about 2 years now and the resistive screen works great. To say that nothing happens when you run the stylus across the screen is false. I have the game Fruit Ninja on my Desire, my iPod and my tablet with the tablet being the best one to play it on. Now I will agree with you on the point of calibrating the screen and it is not very accurate. I get very frustrated with this everyday I use it.

I know with my DG2.20 upgrade it has been a mixed bag for me. Losing Market, Angry Birds Rio working better, charge/battery indicator working better, missing location settings, some delays when launching and several other minor pros and cons.

My unit does not have an accelerometer, but does have sensors that determine orientation. This has always worked for me on versions DG2.01, DG2.02 and DG2.20.

I know this does not compare to the cell phones you listed but this unit is not cell phone. The retail cost of of those cell phone when they were new was from $500 to $1000 off contract. It would be better to compare to other android tablets. Compared to the Xoom, the Galaxy Tab and others of this caliber and the cost 3 to 4 times as much this tablet seems like an OK entry point for some. With that said I would not recommend this tablet to most people unless they were willing to spend time and have patience with it. Reading these forums I would have made a different choice but I have this now and will continue to use it.

Pros (Some)
- Larger screen is better for viewing websites, PDF's etc.
- Runs many common apps fine (I know Zillow, Realtor.com and many dont, but most do)
- This Forum
- Great for watching YouTube and other videos


Cons (Some)
- Updates have not worked since the first one.
- Only provides mono output (Can be fixed with a soldering iron and wire though)
- No accelerometer (New units seem to have it though)
- No GPS (Location by WiFi worked for me on DG2.02 but not on DG2.20)
- No Multi-touch (Limited by resistive screen)

 

[cfrockit]

is it possible to find the dg2.01 firmware to downgrade?

I haven't engaged in these type of discussion's but let me share a few thoughts.

I've always referred to this device as a "toy' especially because I purchased it at Toys R Us for $139.

Different than you I had NO Android experience four (4) months ago. The last device I programmed for was PalmPilot which was really only a wrapper for Assembly language.

I had no expectations when purchasing this device, it was nothing more than a "puzzle" to play with and experiment. Some people like crossword puzzles, others like Suduko, and others like board games or something else to relax and test their brain. I like to disassemble programs to see how they work and then attempt changes to make them more useful or in this case workable.

Maybe with time you've forgotten what a dog 2.01 was, meaning with the Weather widget and Phone/Telephony applications running in the background, it was impossible to do anything. You couldn't even type an address in the Search box without waiting a long amount of time between clicks and even then it might select the wrong key. I posted in http://www.androidtablets.net/forum/sylvania-tablets/8061-quadrant-results-sylvania-synet7lp.html how poorly this device performed compared to other devices and it would need a 400% increase in speed to even be respectable.

With 2.20, if my calculation is correct, we got a perceived greater than 50% increase in Quandrant results without having to selectively remove pre-installed applications. I haven't experienced any typing issues and was amused that PalmPilot Graffiti still exists as an application for Android. While I agree some things are still messed up, we now know the device can be upgraded so there's nothing stopping someone smarter than me to port either AOSP 2.2, 2.3 or even 3.0 when available and boot it from SD like they're doing over at XDA on the nookcolor. For me it's all a learning experience that I didn't need spend more than $150 at the end of last year to have some of my kind of "fun".

Here's what's really great about this device. It led me to this forum where people are trying to help others by posting information they learn, like the original system.bin, building a nice collection of information for a low end third tier tablet. Now if you want to go back to 2.01 you can because there's a link and there's a method to make it so. In the time I've been participating here no one has ever criticized or negatively commented on anything I've ever shared. Even when, after a while I realized what I posted wasn't completely correct or the best method. Up to yesterday, I had no idea that an Android Terminal Emulation application could be run on a non-rooted device to do any of the shell commands "cat proc/cmdline" I was suggesting be done though adb. All the time spent with loading the SDK, rooting, installing adbWireless, executing adb commands when someone could have said "hey dummy, why are asking me to do that when it is so much easier to do it this way", no one ever complained.

Enjoy going back to 2.01. I'm moving forward. If 2.20 isn't perfect then there is 2.3 or a leap to 3.0 and more to learn, figure out, and fix so when and if I decide on a top tier model I know what to expect for the money spent.

 

[lhommedangereux]

"I currently own an HTC Desire and an HTC Touch Pro2 with Android as second operating system.
I have been running Android on my TP2 for about 2 years now and the resistive screen works great.
To say that nothing happens when you run the stylus across the screen is false."
I have worked on these phones changing screens and what not, i didn't really test out whether a stylus works on them,
but i will say for sure no phone i've ever owned does, this is one of the ways i "sell" my friends on the devices.
because with pressure sensitive phones you get a lot of pocket dialing or answering the phone before u even hear it ring
so the person in your pocket can hear whatever you're doing if you don't hear it and ur pocket answers it.
and even if you do get some sort of response from stylus on one of those higher end phones, it doesn't mean that they are
pressure sensitive. higher end touch screen phones havent used pressure sensitive touch screens for quite some time.
if you ever buy a phone that runs android and is not a heat sensitive phone, throw it back in the water and let it swim
away and go free. most likely the response on those phones were due to the stylus being warm, or you're lying and don't
really own either.
"It would be better to compare to other android tablets"
ok lets compare it to other tablets. the most popular tablets im going to assume are the only ones i've heard of,
the zoom and the galaxy tab. Have you ever played with the tab? it is insane how responsive and accurate
the touch screen is, and guess what no stylus.
"I've always referred to this device as a "toy' especially because I purchased it at Toys R Us for $139"
i feel so bad for you. you really paid $139 for this thing?? i wish for one second i could give you a galaxy tab
for you to compare. im planning on giving this thing to my son, but he's already rocking a mytouch 3g and he's
not even 2 for another month.
"Maybe with time you've forgotten what a dog 2.01 was"
uhh no, i had it literally for a half hour before rooting and flashing the .iuw over the otg port, but at least it played
music and i didn't have to remove my sd card just to turn the damn thing on.
"It led me to this forum where people are trying to help others by posting information they learn, like the original system.bin,
building a nice collection of information for a low end third tier tablet"
lol there are a lot of forum of information like this, way more beneficial than this one, here are a few off the
top of my head that i use the most, xda-developers.com sdx-developers.com wiki.cyanogenmod.com and there are many
many more. and i'm not critisizing anyone. i'm simply saying that to me this site seems like the blind leading the blind.
"Enjoy going back to 2.01. I'm moving forward."
moving forward with this thing would be like putting vista or windows 7 on an old packard bell. sooner or later the
software will "outdate" the hardware and unfortunately for this device it will be sooner than later.


there are a lot more complaints i had about this thing... such as the placement of the rotate button, the lack of some sort
camera (even a 2mp would be fine). i would like to see a custom for this but due to its inferior hardware and lazy technology
higher end developers like those on xda probably will never mess with it. if i could build a kernel, overclock it,
tune the screens sensitivity and accuracy, and run a swap partition i would be happy.. i will say one thing that did
impress me tho. i was surpised to have busybox installed correctly through androot. if you don't know what busybox is
then let me explain. it enables a lot of root capabilities, hence why normally you have to flash a rom with it
preinstalled. it did accept my commands i use every time i am backing up and batch reinstalling all my apps.
su, cd /data/app, cp * /sdcard/.... su, cd /sdcard, cp * /data/app
the only device that has even taken busybox for me without have to flash a custom rom was the sprint moment.

 

[lhommedangereux]

i haven't even owned this thing for 48 hours before posting this review. my hopes are that someone thinking this is anything like a galaxy or zoom will understand its not. this forum was very useful for updating to the dg2.20, even though the forum should have mentioned ALL the problems with it, with dg2.01 at least for that half hour i was content. i paid $50 and it did what i expected it to do for the most part. so after i restore it, i am giving it to my son. ill buy a galaxy off amazon or my local sprint retailer. they are only $300-350 and the price difference is well worth it. just go to the sprint, verizon, or tmobile (and i think at&t too) and you can play with real android tablets then come back and tell me how great this thing is.

 

[lhommedangereux]

I bought a Nook color and rooted and put on a custom ROM. It is 20X the tablet that this POS is.

really? hows the screen on that one? google proprietaries? if not, at least custom rom with g props?

 

[BEAW]

I can read a book or listen to music while taking the train every day to work. I can play solitaire or a slot machine, I can surf the internet at Mickey D's while my child plays and I can check my email at the dining room table in the morning. Would I be happier with a higher end tablet? Probably but I don't want to shell out any more than the 99 bux I already spent and I can take the diff in price and buy more coins for my collection or more mods for my Mustang. Everybody prioritizes, very few of us have enough to indulge all our desires. I am totally Satisfied with my Sylvania Tablet Express.

 

[cliffordtrue]

I have worked on these phones changing screens and what not, i didn't really test out whether a stylus works on them,
but i will say for sure no phone i've ever owned does, this is one of the ways i "sell" my friends on the devices.
because with pressure sensitive phones you get a lot of pocket dialing or answering the phone before u even hear it ring
so the person in your pocket can hear whatever you're doing if you don't hear it and ur pocket answers it.
and even if you do get some sort of response from stylus on one of those higher end phones, it doesn't mean that they are
pressure sensitive. higher end touch screen phones havent used pressure sensitive touch screens for quite some time.
if you ever buy a phone that runs android and is not a heat sensitive phone, throw it back in the water and let it swim
away and go free. most likely the response on those phones were due to the stylus being warm, or you're lying and don't
really own either.

I have changed screens in many phones as well. The TP2 is a Window Mobile device and I have it optionally boot to Android. This does have the resistive screen which you can see for yourself if you Google it. You are right about the pocket dialing which was overcome by installing a screen lock program. The stylus is an optional feature on both the TP2 and the tablet. If you want you can check howard forums and check for my posts in the US Cellular section which discuss the purchases of both of my devices. Username of clifftrue.

ok lets compare it to other tablets. the most popular tablets im going to assume are the only ones i've heard of,
the zoom and the galaxy tab. Have you ever played with the tab? it is insane how responsive and accurate
the touch screen is, and guess what no stylus.

The Tab is a good unit. I debated purchasing the Tab, but with I am waiting for the cost to come down and may buy a used unit. You seem very hung up on the stylus. It is optional on these devices. The tablet I will be purchasing for work will be the high end HTC Flyer and guess what, it has a stylus. This is an active capacitive stylus that more than just a dead stick though. See info here.

i feel so bad for you. you really paid $139 for this thing?? i wish for one second i could give you a galaxy tab

Me too, I can give you my address if you need.

"It led me to this forum where people are trying to help others by posting information they learn, like the original system.bin,
building a nice collection of information for a low end third tier tablet"
lol there are a lot of forum of information like this, way more beneficial than this one, here are a few off the
top of my head that i use the most, xda-developers.com sdx-developers.com wiki.cyanogenmod.com and there are many
many more.

I have been active on other forums as well like XDA, PPCGeeks, HowardForums. See my usernames of cliffordtrue, clifftrue and clifftrue respectively. This forum is a usefull tool like all of these. This just has a much more active section specific to this tablet.

and i'm not critisizing anyone. i'm simply saying that to me this site seems like the blind leading the blind.

Sounds like you just did

 

[cfrockit]

"It would be better to compare to other android tablets"
ok lets compare it to other tablets. the most popular tablets im going to assume are the only ones i've heard of,
the zoom and the galaxy tab. Have you ever played with the tab? it is insane how responsive and accurate
the touch screen is, and guess what no stylus.

$599 MOTOROLA XOOM with Wi-Fi
$379 Samsung Galaxy Tab + cost of a Wireless contract
$249 NOOKcolor by Barnes and Noble

"I've always referred to this device as a "toy' especially because I purchased it at Toys R Us for $139"
i feel so bad for you. you really paid $139 for this thing??

Don't feel bad, that was almost 5 months ago and was the best deal at the time. Given the half life of electronics I'm surprised anyone would even pay $50 to $99 for this now.

i wish for one second i could give you a galaxy tab
for you to compare.

No need, I know full well and that's old technology now but if you happen to have a $980 7" HTC Flyer Tablet with LTE send it along.

"Maybe with time you've forgotten what a dog 2.01 was"
uhh no, i had it literally for a half hour before rooting and flashing the .iuw over the otg port, but at least it played
music and i didn't have to remove my sd card just to turn the damn thing on.

That was fast to gather all the utilities, update files and method. It's taken this forum quite a while to get that information and apply it to this device.

"It led me to this forum where people are trying to help others by posting information they learn, like the original system.bin,
building a nice collection of information for a low end third tier tablet"
lol there are a lot of forum of information like this, way more beneficial than this one, here are a few off the
top of my head that i use the most, xda-developers.com sdx-developers.com wiki.cyanogenmod.com and there are many
many more. and i'm not critisizing anyone. i'm simply saying that to me this site seems like the blind leading the blind.

I'm aware of those sites but again that's multiple sites to search for relevant information. For example, there's only one thread at xda Sylvania SYNET7LP Work-In-Progress and it's currently 21 pages with over 200+ posts. This is the blind leading the blind but a lot of information is in one place making it easy for anyone searching to find something relevant.

"Enjoy going back to 2.01. I'm moving forward."
moving forward with this thing would be like putting vista or windows 7 on an old packard bell. sooner or later the
software will "outdate" the hardware and unfortunately for this device it will be sooner than later.

That's the point, the hardware is already "outdated" but still functional with new software/firmware giving new life to something of no value.

i would like to see a custom for this but due to its inferior hardware and lazy technology
higher end developers like those on xda probably will never mess with it.

Agree, xda is for developers whose work is valuable when it can even be applied to this toy. However, they maximize their efforts by working with devices with a lot of market share, the big names, not a device made with a poor processor, marketed by a gadgets company, utilizing a light bulb manufactures name. So, it's up to those users who want to participate to make it workable even with all its shortcomings to share information.

if i could build a kernel, overclock it,
tune the screens sensitivity and accuracy, and run a swap partition i would be happy..

There are many users looking for someone to guide them down this path. Most of the raw information is here to get started and the breakthrough's are at xda. Bring them together so this device could run a tablet OS like Honeycomb from the SD card that won't allow you to boot.

i will say one thing that did
impress me tho. i was surpised to have busybox installed correctly through androot. if you don't know what busybox is
then let me explain. it enables a lot of root capabilities, hence why normally you have to flash a rom with it
preinstalled. it did accept my commands i use every time i am backing up and batch reinstalling all my apps.
su, cd /data/app, cp * /sdcard/.... su, cd /sdcard, cp * /data/app
the only device that has even taken busybox for me without have to flash a custom rom was the sprint moment.

So keeping score the devices has more negatives than positives but might have some potential.

PS

I haven't engaged in these type of discussion's but let me share a few thoughts.

Now I remember why I don't engage in these type of discussion's, it take time away from enjoying my overpriced, old technology, poorly programed, light bulb manufacture digital gadget!

 

[lhommedangereux]

i really dont know what you're trying to prove by being cocky. this review was meant to help people from making a stupid decision and ordering this thing, considering i have found it online (ebay specifically) going for 125. and you can't start talking crap about it now dude, you're like king dork of this site so turning around and saying "No need, I know full well and that's old technology" doesn't dignify your efforts lol... you can reply if it makes you feel better but i probably won't be back on this site considering i won't be using this thing anymore. its a hot potato.

 

[giveen]

You get what you pay for.
I didn't buy this $170 tablet expecting a $800 tablet. I expect the performance of a $170 tablet.
Grow up, OP.

 

[bigwooly]

Cons (Some)

- Only provides mono output (Can be fixed with a soldering iron and wire though)

CORRECTION

no soldering needed someone else already posted this somewhere on this forum but all you need is the right adapter The socket is a 3 post socket like is used in cell phones so that you can have a mic attached as well.

Amazon.com: RocketfishTM - Stereo Headset Adapter for Most Cell Phones - Black: Electronics

I got mine out of china for $1.00 with free shipping works like a champ no soldering needed.

 

[bigwooly]

i really dont know what you're trying to prove by being cocky. this review was meant to help people from making a stupid decision and ordering this thing, considering i have found it online (ebay specifically) going for 125. and you can't start talking crap about it now dude, you're like king dork of this site so turning around and saying "No need, I know full well and that's old technology" doesn't dignify your efforts lol... you can reply if it makes you feel better but i probably won't be back on this site considering i won't be using this thing anymore. its a hot potato.

If you want to get rid of your POS and cut your losses i need a replacement screen for my tablet i'll give you $30 shipped. You can PM me if you wanna get rid of it.

 

[cliffordtrue]

CORRECTION

no soldering needed someone else already posted this somewhere on this forum but all you need is the right adapter The socket is a 3 post socket like is used in cell phones so that you can have a mic attached as well.

Amazon.com: RocketfishTM - Stereo Headset Adapter for Most Cell Phones - Black: Electronics

I got mine out of china for $1.00 with free shipping works like a champ no soldering needed.

Thanks for the info as I must have missed that post. When I clicked on the link you provided someone talks about this adapter not working for the 4 pole headset with mic setup. The forum post that showed the soldering fix does have a pix of what is needed ...

Sylvania SYNET7LP Work-In-Progress - Page 4

I will order one instead of cracking it open. Lucky for me I have not had time to "Fix" it.

Thanks again