Warning to New VTAB Owners

[marvin02]

The sad thing is that I would disagree with almost every post in this thread and believe them to be misleading, except yours but then I disagree with your conclusion; . . .

Well that conclusion was written out of frustration with the users who continue to post info that is meileading and inaccurate.

Vizio took root away to block export of the free trial sofware and labelled the memory in such a way to avoid having to include a microSDHC card with the tablet Here's my take:

Vizio isn't the only (or the first) manufacturer to use this configuration. It solves many support issues for them and it benefits the end user if the included memory is faster than an external card would be and is adequate (Vizo dropped the ball here).

-Naturally, all programs have to fit in the first 2GB
-many programs assume SDcard is the external SDcard and it isn't. As default, most programs put all downloaded books, movies, MP3s, etc in the internal 2GB and it fills up quick
-Apps2SD just moves the app from the first internal 2GB to the second internal 2GB and doesn't use the actual SDcard at all.

Much Android software (including some of the big ereaders) cannot look anywhere but the 2nd 2GB internal memory. Copilot, for example, puts all it's maps there and cannot use the actual external card e.g. I got an out-of-storage error when I tried to download the entire USA maps and it would not let me put the maps somewhere else. Yes, I do expect my tablet to be as capable as a $49 GPS. No, I do not want to go walking around the airport looking for a free wifi so I know here to go with my rental car.

The first 2 GB is probably OK for the OS/programs; the second 2 GB is very limiting for storage. As a work around, I use Moon+ reader and ES File Explorer that can see the real external SDcard. I do not have a work around for Copilot and am annoyed. The Vizio tab is beautiful in many ways but this is a pretty serious limit. Of course, eventually, more Android software will ask you where you want to store things but in the mean time...

I hope that application developers will catch up and include settings to allow the user to choose where data and files are stored. They can do this, but many don't. Also, I did research the problem and while assuming that the /sdcard mount point is a user installed SD Card is a practice - it is not an Android standard, so app devs have built this problem on an assumption - not a good practice.

The root exploit allowed some to alter the OS to swap the names for the second 2GB and the external SDcard making the storage as large as you were willing to buy in microSDHC format. I literally implemented the root exploit and was looking at the memory card fix when the OTA update notice came in. Turned out to be a steep price for upgrading Flash video from 10.1 to 10.3.

OTOH, it does seem Vizio is trying. I walked through BB and Costco looking at each tablet. In the end, the Vizio is still the price/performance/features leader. If someone figures out a new root exploit, it will be darn near perfect.

If Vizio comes out with another tablet I hope that they include more user storage, which would fix the biggest issue with their first effort. The swapping of the mount points does address the issue - at the cost of not being able to get any future upgrades.