Are Technica gave it a glowing review and they're incredibly picky with Android devices. From what I've seen it's the best 7" tablet out right now.
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Tablets
- Thread starter crikker
- Start date
Are Technica gave it a glowing review and they're incredibly picky with Android devices. From what I've seen it's the best 7" tablet out right now.
I just picked myself up a tablet... "Ainol Novo 9 Spark" 9.7" Retina screen (same as the iPad), quad core CPU, FULL compliment of ports... including microSD that works well with a 64gb card.
They run about $250 new, I scored this one off eBay for less than 1/2 that... with leather case and sleeve. It has the original stock rom, I'm loading something decent to it later today. Even with the badly written, mostly Chinese stock ROM it is pretty responsive.
My wife has had an HTC View (7" single core) hooked to our Sprint 3G account for 2 years. Solid tablet that is holding up well, but getting dated OS and performance wise.
They run about $250 new, I scored this one off eBay for less than 1/2 that... with leather case and sleeve. It has the original stock rom, I'm loading something decent to it later today. Even with the badly written, mostly Chinese stock ROM it is pretty responsive.
My wife has had an HTC View (7" single core) hooked to our Sprint 3G account for 2 years. Solid tablet that is holding up well, but getting dated OS and performance wise.
My sibs are working on me to become a member of the I Corps. They are all fully kitted with I phone, I pad, and macbook.
I'm still using my flip phone and have a desktop windows platform.
I'm loving this novo9 tablet... upgraded to tapatalk 4 this morning for 99¢ and I'm even happier 
Three days is a while. Let's here it pal.
-Mike
OK, After using it for a week, here is my opinion. I didn't want to just post quickly, I wanted to use it and feel the nuances. I got the 16GB (shows up as 12gb in storage) Wi-Fi entry level model, as it is our first tablet, and mostly for my wife anyway, or so I say now Muahahahaha...
First, it is pretty light. It has a soft rubber feel that is grippable, although I will be getting a case, and a comfortable bezel. First thing I noticed is that the volume and power buttons are on the bottom side of the bezel and that annoyed me at first. I had to put my thumb underneath (and a little extra effort) to get to the power button or volume buttons. It turned out to be a good thing though, I can handle it without hitting them accidentally and that would have annoyed me more.
It is also fast. It switches very quickly between applications and loads them quickly also. I have an entry level router that give me a wi-fi 3 bar (not 4) in my bedroom and from there web pages load seemingly faster than my fairly new desktop. I imagine this has something to do with the increased 2gb ram.
The screen is FANTASTIC - very clear and sharp.
Yes the speakers are on the back, but they are split up so you actually get stereo and they are surprisingly loud! I was watching a movie on Netflix last night in bed, and could not bear it over 2/3. That's good for public places. Also, the surround sound was good, you could easily hear the transition of action from side to side. Same with headphones.
Battery life is rated at 9 hours, so supposedly it can last very long. I am not going to use it for that long, let alone an hour at a time unless I'm traveling. I did let my daughter watch a movie on it and after a half an hour of wifi streaming, the meter still appeared at full power - or very close to it, so that should not be a problem. This unit also has "Qi" something wireless charging ability, which I have not used or explored yet.
Both cameras, front and back) seem to take nice quality pics and video. The camera options have some very quick and cool editable functions on the fly.
OS - This has the latest edition of Jellybean on it and boy is it nice. This is the first new Android edition I have played with since getting my Droid Razr nearly 2 years ago. There are 2 swipeable areas from the top of the screen...quick access to settings and connectivity related features on the right and notifications on the left. This is not how it used to be...you had to access a menu first and then go to your settings. Now I can change the brightness quickly, probably my most common and frequent setting change.
Another feature here that I really appreciated is that no matter the orientation of how you are holding it, the home button, back button, and 3 windows looking icon (scrollable open application list) always appear on the bottom. Have not seen that before.
Something else I liked - when clicking a link where 2 are very close to each other...if it cannot tell exactly what you wanted, a zoomed bubble comes up quickly and you can clearly go where you want. Very nice to not have to make the screen bigger before continuing. I could not find anything I have not liked so far. I have not experimented with the separate profiles feature yet, which is new so I cannot comment on how that works.
One more OS feature I almost forgot about...the voice recognition is much better than what I have used with my Razr. I spat out a few sentences and I was surprised to see no errors and perfect punctuation! I'm not saying it's going to happen all the time, but seems much better than in previous versions.
I also have the Chromecast dongle, and it is really, really nice to be able to use this as a remote for watching web content on my TV. Chromecast works VERY well BTW, totally worth it. Now the tablet is our Netflix remote, we can watch You Tube videos from the couch and view any Chrome browser tab on our TV.
The biggest drawback to me clearly is the lack of a SD card expansion slot. Other than thak and the pre-installed bloatware, of which I'd prefer only the OS with ability to install only what you want, I don't think I could ask for much more, especially at this price point. Quad core, 2GB ram are all benchmarks as of current. If anything reveals it'self to be negative as I continue to use it, I'll chime in at a later time.
My first smartphone was the Samsung Galaxy 2. It was a really nice phone, but it certainly had some wonky thing about it. memory management could get iffy, and I had to manage my open apps a lot. It would crash and need to restart every once and a while. The GPS was crap. Just crap, didn't work worth a damn.
When with an iPhone. A lot I like about it a lot.
For Tablet's however, for $280 I got the 10.1" Galaxy Tab 2 refurb. It has been excellent. Every bit as good as the iPad 2 my ex wife, my mom and my sister have. My dad bought himself the same thing I have, and everyone is very happy. I use the Tab 2 for Talkbass and general net surfing, Netflix, Kindle and as a general E-Reader.
Only thing that is screwed up is that you can get the Amazon Instant Video player on a Kindle device which is Android based, you can get it on your iPhone and iPad, but if you have a non Amazon Android, your SOL. That does kinda suck.
When with an iPhone. A lot I like about it a lot.
For Tablet's however, for $280 I got the 10.1" Galaxy Tab 2 refurb. It has been excellent. Every bit as good as the iPad 2 my ex wife, my mom and my sister have. My dad bought himself the same thing I have, and everyone is very happy. I use the Tab 2 for Talkbass and general net surfing, Netflix, Kindle and as a general E-Reader.
Only thing that is screwed up is that you can get the Amazon Instant Video player on a Kindle device which is Android based, you can get it on your iPhone and iPad, but if you have a non Amazon Android, your SOL. That does kinda suck.
I'm very happy with my Nexus 7. You have to be really picky about Android tablets though, I probably won't buy one that isn't sold on the Google Play store. iPads are always a decent option too, if money's not an object.
@kbakerde You're the first other person I've seen mention that problem with Amazon Instant Video, it bugs the crap out of me!
@kbakerde You're the first other person I've seen mention that problem with Amazon Instant Video, it bugs the crap out of me!
It annoys me too. Amazon is my go to place to buy TV shows I really want to watch, but don't make to Netflix.
Basically, it's my Dexter viewer LOL.
But I cannot watch it on my tablet. The browser is gimped so it won't load the player, and they won't release the app for it. I think most people don't care cause they can still use Netflix. But yeah, it bugs me.
