I bought this tablet expecting it to be junk, and it turns to be from WonderMedia and running on a common chipset from VIA. That’s good, because there’s a support forum over at AndroidTablets.net, and it looks to cover a number of related tablets.

Here’s the spec page, in case you’re interested. Don’t read too much into it; my tablet is better than the specs suggest.

What I really like about this tablet is the firmware. It’s surprisingly complete, and it includes subtle touches like  custom home screen, lock screen, web browser, as well as support for 3G dongles and most of the basic apps you might need. My home screen looks  lot like this (only bigger):

The software is good, but the hardware is another matter. This tablet feels cheap – very cheap. The seam between the shell and the front isn’t well sealed and I could easily get  fingernail under the front. The button to the right of the screen also feels cheap and it doesn’t fit the space quite right. And I have the feeling that the screen is slightly crooked in the frame.

But aside from that, the specs and performance are okay. I haven’t instilled any apps yet, but it was okay at browsing the web. Youtube worked fine. And the camera was only VGA, but the image quality was decent.

All in all, it’s not the worst tablet I’ve seen. If you come cross this tablet on sale for less than $100, go for it.

I should be able to post a real review in a couple weeks.

Specs

• 800MHz WM8650 CPU
• 400MHz GPU
• Android v2.2
• 10″ (1024×600) resistive touchscreen
• VGA webcam (decent quality images)
• 4GB Flash storage
• microSD card slot
• ethernet
• Wifi
• 3 USB ports (2 host, 1 client)
• speakers, mike
• g-sensor

First Impressions of the 10″ WonderMedia wm8650 Android Tablet

Early last year Improv Electronics shipped their first product, the Boogie Board. This was an 8.5″ digital writing tablet based around a new type of cholesteric LCD screen.

This isn’t your average tablet.  It might have a new hi-tech screen, but Improv built a product that behaved as not much more than a sophisticated etch-a-sketch. You might also think of it as a digital whiteboard, because like a whiteboard the Boogie Board couldn’t show anything other than what you drew on it and it also couldn’t save your scribbles after the screen was wiped.

That not being able to save the screen killed the idea for me. At least, it killed any interest I might have had in the first gen Boogie Board; the Boogie Board RIP is a whole other matter.

Given that this is an ebook reader blog, you can probably guess that I’m interested in screen tech. So I’ve been keeping an eye on the Boogie Board, and about 2 months back Improv Electronics shipped their second gen device, the Boogie Board RIP. This model costs a lot more, but it adds that one key feature that I wanted.

Now I can save the screen shot as a PDF.

The RIP has only 4 functions. You can scribble, clear the screen, and you can save the screen as a PDF.  After you save the PDF, you can then transfer it to your PC via a USB cable. The RIP has 8MB of storage, and that’s enough space for thousands of single page PDFs (each is about 2k in size.)

And there’s also a 4th function. After you install the companion software (Windows only), you can plug the RIP into your computer and use it as a Wacom type of writing slate. You cannot do anything more than the same 3 functions you had when it wasn’t attached, and I think it’s actually more useful unplugged. But it’s still cool.

You can draw on the black monochrome screen with almost anything, but a stylus works best (one is included). In a pinch you could use a pen with the cap on.

As you scribble, your marks will show up as gray lines on the screen. I found that the best way to use it was to write at a normal speed. This was quite readable. Also, if I scribble quickly the lines get thin, but if I draw at about writing speed then the lines are more visible.

It took me a few minutes to learn the best way to use it, but once I did I began to see the value. This tablet would make a great semi-permanent sign. I know someone who has the original $40 Boogie Board and uses it as a whiteboard (an alternative to notes on the fridge), but that’s just one use.

This tablet doesn’t quite do what I need but it’s interesting none the less. I seriously considered bringing it to CES so I could take notes on it, but eventually I realized that I usually needed to start any set of notes with a couple entries that I wrote at home. And when I go to a trade show, I usually have a dozen or more sets. That means I need to have a pad of paper with the starter notes, and once I have the pad I might as well stay with it.

But if I didn’t need to start my notes with saved info then the RIP would be great. This tablet could make a great replacement for paper notes in certain situations. For example, it might be usable for a student in a lecture.

On the other hand, it does save the notes as only single page PDFs. I can easily foresee that by the time I took a few dozen pages of notes, sorting through them will be rather annoying. I wish it could concatenate the pages into a single file or that the RIP offered screenshots instead of the PDFs.

Still, this is a neat little gadget. If you get a chance to see it at CES 2012 (or some other trade show), you should.

Improv Electronics

Companion Software Download

Review: Boogie Board RIP

I’ve been following this screen tech for a couple years now. I first heard of it just after CES 2010, and I saw it for the first time a couple months later. Ever since I saw it, I’ve lusted after Mirasol (for the obvious reasons). It’s a low-power color alternative to E-ink which was supposed to offer video abilities and can be read in sunlight.

But the screen is not there yet. As I showed in the other post, it’s not all that much more energy efficient when compared to LCDs (at least the Kyobo eReader isn’t). And while this screen is daylight visible, the color quality is disappointing.

Have you seen the old demo videos posted to Youtube or possibly glimpses one of the demo units on display at a trade show? The production model looks very little like the prototypes. I wonder if the reason for the difference is how the screens were made, or possibly the fact that I can finally interact with the screen rather than just watch a demo video.

On a related note, guess who made the demo screens? Prime View International, that’s who. Yes, back before they bought E-ink, PVI was E-ink’s main manufacturing partner but they also did small production runs for just about everyone, including LiquaVista, E-ink, Sipix, and Mirasol.

frontlight off

The dominant color of the screen is silver, not white like an E-ink screen. The color quality  of the screen is best described as washed out  when the frontlight is on, and when it’s off the screen resembles the monochrome screen from an old PalmPilot (with a few hints of color added). Yes, it’s visible outside, and that does improve the color quality. But it still looks washed out.

frontlight off in outdoor lighting conditions

In fact, I’m not sure that this screen really offers better color than a color E-ink screen. I’m going to have to put it side by side at CES to confirm, but I have the feeling that the color E-ink screen will only be marginally worse than Mirasol.

frontlight at 100%

And then there’s the viewing angle. It’s difficult to catch this on camera, but the Mirasol screen has a narrow viewing angle (unlike E-ink screens or good quality LCD screens). I know it’s not fair to compare Mirasol and E-ink viewing angles, but the Mirasol screen is narrow even when compared to even LCD screens.

One of the Kyobo commercial for this device shows a family clustered around the small screen. Unfortunately, that scene is just not possible. If you turn the screen more than about 10 degrees in any direction, the colors shift drastically.  It’s still readable, but most subtle details are lost. I would go so far as to say that the viewing angle on this screen is actually narrower than some cheap LCD screens in my collection.

I’m really disappointed, and TBH that’s why I held off this part of the review for several days. I wanted to take time to really think about the screen and confirm my impressions. I had been unhappy with the Kyobo eReader’s performance as an ebook reader, and I didn’t want my dissatisfaction with one to bleed over into the other.

P.S. All photo credits belong to Mersfire, who is a much better photographer than me. Check out the review post for a gallery of photos.

Review: Kyobo Mirasol eReader – The Screen

And today I have one in my grubby little hands and can finally post a first hand review.

I’ve been looking forward to the screen on this device for over a year now, and I find it difficult to express how disappointing the actual device is. Yes, the screen tech is very cool, but the device wrapped around it does not live up to the hype that Qualcomm generated over the past couple years.

This is actually my second post on  the Kyobo Mirasol eReader, and the first was more of a how-to guide. There are a number of details on this device’s abilities that I haven’t repeated here, so I suggest that you go read that post as well.

I’m also going to cover the screen tech in a later post because I feel that the device itself deserves its own discussion.

Hardware

So what’s the device like?

The Kyobo Mirasol eReader runs Android v2.3.5 on a 1GHz Qualcomm SnapDragon CPU, but it is most definitely an e-reader. It’s not a tablet, and just to make sure it stays that way you are blocked from installing apps. While I have not made any strenuous effort to bypass the block, all the obvious tricks did not work.

The screen measures 5.7″ and it has a capacitive touchscreen. It has Wifi, of course, but it also lacks any accessible internal storage. If you want to load your own ebooks you will have to get a microSD card.

There’s a power button and microphone on the upper edge, and on the lower edge is the headphone, microSD card slot, and USB. On the lower back of the device are a pair of speakers. It also has a set of notches on the upper and lower edges that I believe are intended for a case.

I wish I had the case, because the back of this device is smooth. It’s not easy to maintain a good grip (without having a thumb on the screen). I’ve found I cannot use it one handed. The Kyobo is noticeably heavier than any of my 6″ ebook readers, and I have to be careful how I hold it so I don’t drop it.

Battery Life

One of the key selling points with the Mirasol screen is that it is a low-power alternative to LCDs. Unfortunately, the Kyobo eReader is an example of how battery life depends on more than just the screen. The CPU, software, and general hardware design is almost as important as the screen tech. This is doubly true with any device using a low-power screen; the rest of the device uses a greater proportion of the battery power and a poor design can negate any savings from the low-power screen.

I’ve only had this device for a week, but based on how the battery is dropping with only light usage (with Wifi on) I am going to estimate that actual battery life is not much more than 2 weeks. Clearly that is far less than a number of ebook readers, and it’s also not much more battery life than some of the better tablets.

Reading Features

Qualcomm Kyobo blocked a number of tablet features on this device, so you would think that it would at least be a good ebook reader, right? Well, no, it’s not.

First, it takes over 30 seconds to open an ebook. Yes, 30 seconds. I timed it.

Also, the reading app crashes often. It kicks me out to the web browser, which is a little strange. I’m guessing that I end up at the browser because there’s no actual home screen. Note: this stability issue might be useful for hacking the Kyobo eReader.

But wait, there’s more.

I cannot get it to load DRMed ebooks. I tried repeatedly to authorize this device with Adobe DE, but the app never noticed it. While I have an extensive library of DRM free ebooks, I still feel that DRM support is one of the minimum requirements for an ebook reader – especially one that costs $300. To be fair, I’m not sure that the DRM is a valid complaint. No one ever claimed that the Kyobo could support Adobe DE DRM. But you have to wonder why it doesn’t; that’s the dominant Epub format.

Next, this device does not properly support Epub. Yes, the spec lists PDF and Epub, but the reading app does not display the CSS correctly nor can it find the external TOC in an Epub. It also cannot use an internal TOC because it’s not configured to let you click on a link.

And the reading features are quite limited. It has a landscape mode for both PDF and Epub, which can be triggered by the g-sensor or locked in one position. I can adjust the font size or set bookmarks, and that’s the limit of the actual functional features. I can also theoretically search for a word, look it up in the dictionary, or use TTS, but none of those features work for me. The search does not work, the TTS is crap, and the dictionary is in Korean.

On the upside, the page turn speed is slightly faster than that of my Kindle Touch. But it is also slightly slower than the page turn speed of Aldiko (running on my Samsung Galaxy Tab).

PDF support is also lacking. There’s no reflow mode nor any set zoom levels (fit to text would have been nice). You can zoom using a inch (and you can scroll around a page), but it’s incredibly sensitive. It was very difficult to get it to zoom to any specific level.

The reading app is exceptionally disappointing. While I could forgive the latter several broken features, this app fails at basic abilities like DRM support and properly displaying ebooks. These are the kind if mistakes that you do not make with your flagship product.

Video

The video abilities of this e-reader do not make up for the poor reading app.

Like I said in my getting started post, this device doesn’t have a video app. That means there’s no way for you to play the demo videos that Cheryl Goodman showed off for NetbookNews. To be honest, I think the video app was left out deliberately. But lucky for me this device is using a standard Android web browser so I was able to watch Youtube.

I wish it had been blocked.

This device has a slow refresh rate for video, and the refresh rate is most obvious with higher resolution videos. It’s so slow that I could often see it pause after refreshing 2/3 of the screen and then the rest would update. Also, it has an annoying screen wipe when the scene changes in a video. And when the camera view scrolls to one side, it’s jerky.

These problems are likely due to a crappy graphics driver, but it boggles the mind that anyone let it happen.

In fact, now that I’ve seen it in action, I can understand why this device was locked down. If this ebook reader had been released as a tablet then there would be shrieks of horror from almost everyone. The video abilities are that bad.

image credit: Mersfire

Wrap Up

I’ve carefully left out details on the screen tech and focused this post on just how well the Kyobo eReader performs as just an ebook reader. While I do lust after the screen tech, I felt that the rest of the device deserved its own review.

This is a most unsatisfactory ebook reader. It’s not only limited in features, but it is also unstable and less capable than most tablet or e-readers in its price range. There are many devices on the US market that offer a better value, and that includes both tablets and ebook readers. I would get one of those.

But if you’re lusting after the screen tech, I’d still wait for a better device. I freely admit that I bought this just to see the screen, but I regret that. I wish I had waited for the next model. It’s bound to have better performance.

Review: Kyobo Mirasol eReader

Asus first started teasing this tablet  hybrid around the time of CES 2011, but the device only hit store shelves in September. I’d planned to get one but I never got around to it. Other, cheaper gadgets caught my attention, and I passed on this one.

But now that I’ve read a few reviews, I thought it would be interesting to compare the Slider to the Transformer. Much to my surprise, I think the Transformer comes out ahead.

Based on the reviews I would say that performance was generally the same between the 2 tablets. So I’ll pass on the software and just look at the hardware difference. I love what Asus has done in customizing the OS on the Transformer, and I would expect that they’ve done a similar fantastic job on the Slider.

The eeePad Slider is a close relative of the eeePad Transformer, and shares a lot of the same hardware specs. It’s running the latest version of Android v3.2 Honeycomb on a dual core Nvidia Tegra 2 CPU, and it has Wifi, Bluetooth, g-sensor, compass, and a pair of cameras (5MP and 2.1MP).

The keyboard is smaller than on the Transformer, and  the Slider also has the speakers moved  so they are on the lower chassis behind the screen. According to Brad Linder, that resulted in a muffled sound when the Slider is closed.

Given the design, it’s probably no surprise that this is a rather heavy tablet (2.5lbs). All the reviewers noted that, and one commented that it made the Slider heavy enough that it wasn’t comfortable to use as a tablet. Unfortunately for Asus, that’s not exactly something they could avoid. Both sections of the Slider needed to be structurally strong and still pack in the necessary batteries and other hardware.

BTW, the eeePad Transformer actually weighs more than the Slider (2.8lbs), but of course the Transformer can be undocked. That reduces its weight to 1 pound and a half.

The Slider got between 6 and 8 hours of battery life, depending on who reviewed it. That’s less than the Transformer, which usually got around 8 or more hours of runtime from just the tablet. Add the keyboard and the Transformer could get as much as 15 hours of battery  life.

When opened, the Slider can only have the screen at a 45 degree angle. That didn’t make anyone happy, given that a normal laptop (or the Transformer) can open at any angle.

Most of the reviewers were pleased with the number of ports and card slots on the Slider, but it actually has less than the Transformer. The Slider has just a USB port, HDMI, and a microSD card slot, while the Transformer also has a second USB port, and an additional SD card slot. Of course, the Transformer has its ports divided between the 2 parts, which means that those who don’t have the keyboard  are missing out.

The Transformer also wins out in the keyboard department. The Slider’s keyboard  lacks the trackpad found on the Transformer. A couple of the reviewers reported that it was less than satisfactory, with one reviewer reporting that the keys got stuck, and another commenting that the keys felt cheap and didn’t travel deep enough when pressed.

Conclusion

I don’t know about you, but I’d call the Slider one of Asus’ less successful experiments. It’s not only less satisfactory than most tablets, it’s also outperformed by another Asus model – two actually, now that the Transformer Prime is now shipping. The Prime is even thinner and more powerful than the original Transformer, so it’s definitely a better buy than the Slider.

images via Liliputing

SlashGear

Pocket-Lint

Asus eeePad Slider Roundup of Reviews

There were even a couple Ebay auctions (here, here) for the Go in the beginning of December. One was bid up to 1,500 before HP killed the auction.

But now one of these scarce tablets has shown up in the hands of webOSNation, a gadget blog. They liked it. According to their review the interface works well on that screen size and it had decent hardware.

They’ve posted an extensive review. While the reviewer was careful to note that it was a prototype, not a production model, he couldn’t help but wax poetic about its features.

The Go has a smaller screen, but other than that it has better hardware. It has a second camera on the back (with Flash) in addition to the camera on the front. Unlike its larger cousin, the Go is designed with landscape mode in mind; the home button and camera are centered on the long sides of the screen, not the short sides.

While they liked the Go, they also found fault with a number of details. For example, it’s too think, and they feel that HP could have shoehorned in a better camera in that space. I’m not sure that’s a valid complaint; this was a prototype. The production model would probably have been thinner.

All in all, this would have been a nice tablet. It’s significantly better than the original TouchPad. It’s a pity  that HP didn’t launch with this tablet instead of the 10″ model; the Go might have succeeded at the original retail of $500.

–

BTW, I almost got one of these. I passed, mostly because I was outbid, but also because I didn’t try very hard to get it. You see, the TP Go that I was offered wasn’t necessarily a legal product. I’m sure you know that most companies remove such marks before they sell off their equipment, right? The back of the Go said that it was still property of HP, and that worried me.

Do you recall last year when Gizmodo bought a stolen iPhone 4? They ended up being raided by the police because well, the iPhone was stolen property.  I don’t know that the TP Go was illicit, but I could not afford to risk it.  Also, HP killed both the Ebay auctions that I know of, and that tells me that they really don’t want this device changing hands. I was afraid that HP would have played rough in order to get it back.

I would have been happy to sell it back to HP after my review, but the possibility of their negative reaction was a little too much for me.

via webOSNation

HP TouchPad Go Reviewed – It’s a 7″ TouchPad

The Slick ER-701 is a rebranded basic ebook reader that was originally designed by Gajah, a Singapore based e-reader maker. It’s running their standard firmware, and it has a 7″ screen, 4GB Flash storage, a microSD card slot,  and a headphone jack, but it lacks Wifi or a touchscreen.

Opinion

The ER-701 is available in a number of stores (Sears, Big5, Dollar General) with retail ranging from $45 to $70. I’m mentioning the price first because for only $80 you can get a K4, which offers a significantly better value as an ebook reader. The K4, Nook Touch ($99), and Kobo Touch ($99) all offer a lot more reading ability for not too much more money. (But if you also want it for video, that’s a different matter.)

But before you buy it, let me warn you that my unit was fairly buggy.  I’ve had it for less than a week and it has frozen several times, rebooted itself several times, and it has not been able to keep the back light at the correct level.

Another reason to avoid this e-reader is that it only has a 90 day warranty.

Hardware

This is a minimal hardware design that takes the unusual step of placing all the buttons on one side of the screen. While that looks odd, it works.  And given that you can change the orientation so the buttons are on both the right and the left, it’s not a limitation.

The power button is on the bottom edge. On the uper right corner edge is the microSD card slot, USB port, and headphone jack. Stacked to the right of the screen are the page turn buttons, D-pad, and 4 buttons (back, play, font size, and menu).

The side with the buttons is wide enough so that I can hold the ER-701 with my thumb placed between the screen and the page turn buttons. It feels like I have a good grip,

Video & Audio

The ER-701 does come with video and audio players, and they are the same basic ones I’ve seen before. It does an adequate job as a media device, but the lack of a speaker could be a problem. I don’t always have my headphones with me.

I tested the ER-01 with a couple different clips I have on hand. Both were about 630×350, or about TV resolution. They played them just fine with no dropped frames. The viewing angle did drop off, though, but that’s what you would expect from a cheap LCD screen.

Reading Features

The ER-701 is using the same reading app as a number of other ebook readers (Elonex 700EB and more), so far as I can tell. Format support includes Epub, PDF, TXT, FB2, PDB, and HTML.

It’s really not a great reading app. It looks like it was designed to display the bare minimum text from a PDF or Epub, and it does not go beyond that. It’s simply not displaying the ebooks correctly. I tested it with several hand made ebooks and the formatting was ignored. It also doesn’t support the external TOC in an Epub or PDF, but it will  remember your place when you exit an ebook and when you put it in sleep mode.

The only annotation option is bookmarks, and it cannot see the external table of contents in the Epub or PDF. But it does have some customization options: screen brightness, font size (5), font color (6), background color (6), screen orientation, and zoom. It also offers a page jump option and auto page turn option.

It does support PDF zoom (4 levels). It can also reflow a PDF, which is great (and it supports 4 font sizes for the reflowed PDFs). But you need to remember that if you reflow a PDF with graphs or charts, you’ll lose them. When you’re zoomed in on a PDF, you can use the D-pad to scroll around the screen. But you’ll need to back out of the zoom mode before you can turn the page.

BTW, I didn’t need them but this ebook reader does ship with the installation files for the Kobo PC and OSX app. The ER-701 supports ebooks from most major ebookstores (except B&N and Amazon), so you don’t have to buy ebooks only from Kobo. But it is nice that Southern Telecom is making it a little easier for you.

Reading Experience

Physically this is a very pleasant e-reader to use. It might look lopsided, but it is still nice to hold with either hand. But I’m not happy about the lack of proper formatting, lack of features, or the general bugginess. If I’d gotten this e-reader 6 months or a year ago,  I would probably have been kinder about the limitation and lack of features.  But since then I have come really miss not having basics like a TOC, proper formatting, and so on.

Specs (from the user manual)

• 7″ screen (800×480)
• 4GB Flash storage
• microSD card slot
• Ships with Kobo Desktop apps (installation files)
• Ebook formats: EPUB, PDF, TXT, FB2, PDB, HTML
• Audio formats: MP3, WMA, AAC, WAV, OGG
• Video formats: MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4(Xvid), Divx, H.263, H.264, RM/ RMVB, MKV, MOV, VOB, FLV, WMV 7

Review Slick ER-701

I had heard that the Tab had a good camera, and that some people had even used it for blogging. But I wanted to see if I could use it as a blogging tool.

I’ve just got back from spending the afternoon at BB and a local bookstore, and I have to say that I am pleased with the outcome.

Both the camera on the Tab and the software running it are surprisingly capable. It maxes out at 3.2MP, but that’s actually more than I need. My old camera could do 10MP hots, but I never set it above 3MP, which is enough for blogging.  The camera on the Tab also has a Flash, lighting options, and the ability to take up to 9 shots in a row (plus lots more abilities).

I wasn’t trying for pro photography, but I was trying to see what I could accomplish in conditions similar to a trade show (spotlights, noise, crowds, etc). The camera worked better than I expected. It’s actually better than most consumer cameras for this particular purpose.

I’m definitely taking this tablet to CES 2012. In fact, I like the performance enough that after  the trade show I’m planning to look at the Samsung Galaxy player, the 5″ cousin to the Galaxy Tab.  It appears to have the same camera and it should have the same camera app. I didn’t think much of that tablet when i covered it before but now I do.

In case you’re thinking about trying this yourself, I’ve uploaded my test shots to Flickr. Most are junk, but that’s okay.  I found at least 2 shots out of any set that would work for me (after some editing, of course).

P.S. The photo at right shows the bookstore that opened where Borders used to be. They sell a mix of new and used and they accept trade-ins.

Flickr

Camera Test on the Samsung Galaxy Tab

The eMatic Twig first caught my eye a couple months back. I’d been wanting to find a cheap small Android tablet to carry around as a pocket media device. So long as it could play music and read an ebook format, I would have been happy.

But the one I bought can’t do anything because it came with a truly futzed touchscreen. It worked for maybe 10 minutes, and in that time I managed to install Aldiko and set up the Wifi. Since then it has been only erratically responsive. Most of the time I cannot even get the screen unlocked.

I also briefly got Aldiko open. It crashed, and that was what made me decide to pass on reviewing this tablet. Even if I get a replacement that has a functioning touchscreen, I’m betting that the Twig will still have problems installing apps.

But before it went back in the box I did note a few details.It has a tiny speaker on the back, and on the one edge it has a microSD card slot, USB port,  headphone jack, and a jack for TV out – but no cable is supplied. There’s a stylus in the box, along with a screen cloth and a short user manual.

I also took some photos, which are at the end of the post.

And I opened the case. I can tell you that this tablet is running on an Ingenic JZ4760B CPU. According to the info I found online, this is a MIPS based CPU, which means that I probably have a device similar to the one that Brad Linder reviewed over at Liliputing.

That model was sold by Skytex as the Pocket Primer, but it is very likely a close cousin of the eMatic Twig. The screen size and CPU suggest that they are related. Feel free to read his review. He had any number of issues with apps that would not install, and that is a problem that I would expect to see on any replacement Twig.

He’ll talk you out of buying one. As for me, I’ve already seen enough.

Specs

• Ingenic JZ4760B CPU
• 4.3? LCD (800×480 resolution)
• Android 2.2 OS
• Wifi (g)
• 4GB Flash storage
• microSD card slot (up to 16GB)
• g-sensor
• Supports Media Formats: MP3, WMA, FLAC, AAC, WAV, MP4, AVI, FLV and more
• Picture viewer in JPEG, BMP formats
• Dimensions: 4.5? x 3.0 x 0.5

My eMatic Twig 4.3″ Android PDA is Unreviewable

This is a cheap 7″ Android tablet, and it’s running v2.1 Froyo on a 1GHz CPU. As you can see it has a basic tablet shape with slots and ports on the lower edge, a speaker on the back, power button in the bottom left corner and the 4 buttons to the right of the screen.

Pros

• cheap ($99 retail)

Cons

• marginal build quality
• buggy software
• poor battery life
• poor touchscreen

 Hardware

The eGlide Reader2 is one of those crossover tablet designs. For the most part it is a tablet, but it also has some details of an ebook reader. That’s where the 4 buttons to the right of the screen came from. Two are page turn buttons and the other 2 are the standard Android back and home buttons.

The overall feel of the tablet is about what I expected for a cheap tablet. That’s not a criticism; the tablet feels fine. But there are a couple of hardware details that are disappointing. For example, the microSD card slot is poorly mounted. Somehow I managed to insert my card into the case while completely missing the slot (that’s something I’ve never seen before). Luckily I was able to get a pair of tweezers and pull it out again before it was permanently lost inside the case.

And then there is the touchscreen. This is a truly junky touchscreen. It does not like fingertips nor does it work well with a stylus.  I’ve used a lot of touchscreens, and no matter what I did to change how I pressed the screen I still could not get it to work consistently. Even after I calibrated the touchscreen I still saw a high number of mis-hit keys. And they’re not my fault; the issue persisted after I switched to a stylus.

Battery Life

The Reader2 is specced at 22 hours music or 9 hours of reading.  Unfortunately, I never got to use it that long. There have been several mornings that I picked up the Reader2 and found the battery almost drained overnight.

This tablet looks to have the same battery life issue as the eGlide Reader Pro that I reviewed a couple weeks back. It looks to me like neither tablet has an actual sleep mode; when you press the power button you merely turn off the screen. The tablet is still running down the battery.

Video & Audio

The Reader2 comes with a fairly good audio video players. It can play background music while you are using other apps.  The sound quality was acceptable, considering that it had just the one cheap speaker on the back. But the one speaker also wasn’t very loud, not even when I cupped my hand. This is definitely a tablet that needs headphones.

The tablet came with a number of sample videos (480×854). They played fine without dropped frames or visual artifacts. The image quality was decent for cheap Android tablets (an IPS screen this is not). I don’t have anything with a higher resolution at the moment so I couldn’t push the abilities. Unfortunately I could not play my usual test video on Youtube; the Reader2 won’t play the video in the browser (and the Youtube app wouldn’t install).

Apps

I covered the stock apps in my first impressions post, so here I’ll just discuss trying to install apps. I got the Amazon Apstore to install okay, but I’ve had to repeatedly go back and reenter my log in info in the Appstore app.  I also got some unexplained errors when trying to install  the Youtube app. Angry birds eventually managed to install, and it runs slowly.

I also had a mysterious error while trying to read ebooks in the Kindle app. It told me to delete the ebook and download it again. I did, and the problem persisted. BTW, I’ve seen a similar problem on other tablets with a Rockchip CPU (including the eGlide Reader Pro). I generally take this as a sign that there is a problem in the original firmware that some single developer is using on multiple devices.

Reading Experience

Given the numerous other issues with this tablet I’m not sure that this section is worth writing. But for the sake of completeness-

The eGlide Reader2 comes with both the Kobo app and a stock reading app. The stock app supports Adobe DE DRM, and it reads Epub, PDF, and an number of other formats. It’s workable, and it has a nice minimum set of features ( 5 font sizes, TOC support, bookmarks). But it also a faux page curl, and I hate that. PDF support is okay, but the app only supports 5 zoom levels and does not reflow the PDF. A standard 8.5×11 PDF is readable on the 1.25 zoom setting. You can also zoom in closer and then swipe your way around the screen. The zoom will persist after you turn the page.

The Kobo app is their usual Android app. It had a lot of features, including a night reading mode, both serif and san-serif fonts, a slider bar of font sizes annotation, and a special menu just for the highlights and notes. BTW, the page turn buttons don’t work with the Kobo app; that’s a limitation of the app.

The stock reading app was actually nicer to use than the Kobo app because of the page turn buttons. It was easy to keep my thumb wedged below the next page button and then shift it up ever so sightly to tun the page. The stock app will also accept screen taps ans swipes for age turns, which is nice.

Expectations

I was expecting a cheap Android tablet that would be underpowered for most activities but still work okay for use as an ebook reader and for light web browsing.

Opinion

The low price of this Android tablet is reflected in its poor build quality.The builders scrimped on everything from the touchscreen to how much they paid the programmers. I believe there are better options out there.

Specs

I have the spec sheet here.

• 1GHz CPU
• Android v2.1
• 7″ (800×480) LCD screen
• resistive touchscreen
• Wifi
• g-sensor
• 4GB Flash
• microSD card slot
• speaker/mike
• ebook format support: ePub, TXT, PDF, MOBI, LRC-FB2, RTF, HTML, PDB
• audio/video support: MP3, WMA, FLAC, AAC, OGG, MPG, RMVB, WMV, WAV, MP4, AVI, FLV, ASF, 3GP, RM, DAT

Review: eGlide Reader2 Android Tablet