New, £50 Android tablet arrived today.

BigRonW

And, contrary to the claims of all the nay-sayers here, it's excellent quality, and I didn't get hammered for "unpaid duty." It came with a UK 3-pin charger, rather than two-pin plus adaptor.

It's going to be an 85th birthday pressie for my Mum, who I expect will use it mainly as an e-reader, but also for "couch surfing". If you want an affordable tablet (and there have been many requests for suggestions) then this one looks very promising. It's available in Black, Blue, Pink, White and metallic grey ("none") from ebellking.com who delivered it surprisingly quickly via DHL - took just 4 days to reach me. Unsurprisingly, it's their best-selling item!

System

any pics/specs/thoughts on performance?

kwikbreaks

AS he's posted the url of where he got it I'm assuming it was

this one

custardy

what was the thread with the 'ney-sayers'?

kwikbreaks

Most threads I've seen warn against cheap Android tablets. Usually correctly.

That one is almost certainly missing some sensors such as GPS and the standard memory is low at 512MB which will limit the number of apps that can be installed (supporting an SD card won't alter that by much). It's a low res screen so all the mention of HD playback is hogwash.

It may well be worth £50 but a more expensive tablet will be better. There is no free lunch.

System

sorry, yeah I saw the link, I meant actual pics of the device, and opinions on how it operates rather than just the sales bumph

Lum

512mb RAM won't limit how many apps you can install, but it will limit how many you can run at once without hacking around with swap files and stuff.

The device has 4GB internal storage which is a bit on the low side, but not too bad.

The screen resolution is a bit of an issue though yes. You can play back HD video files, but they wont play back in HD. Throw in the lack of HDMI output and yes you can forget about HD video.

Looks like a good one to get if you're aware of those limitations. If I ever ressurect my car PC project I might base it around something like that. But only if it has bluetooth.

SnowTiger

kwikbreaks wrote: »

Most threads I've seen warn against cheap Android tablets. Usually correctly.

This is one area where iThing beats Android: at least with iThing you know what you're getting. Buying an Android device can be a bit of a minefield.

But I hate Apple as much as everyone else does, so I have a Nexus 7 - paid nearly full price for it too, but I'm still very happy with it. I've had it since the beginning of August and can still barely put the thing down.

Bought my Mother one too. Unfortunately she's now addicted to calling me on Google Talk. :rotfl:

DCFC79

custardy wrote: »

what was the thread with the 'ney-sayers'?

Might be this thread

fwor

If you believe the "expert views" out there on minimum system requirements, the 1GHz single core CPU might be a bit of a limitation with ICS (consensus seems to be that it needs dual-core at 1GHz or above), as might the Mali GPU? No bluetooth either, it seems, but then it is only £50.

Looks like you can run Linux on the A13 if you want to...

Lum

ICS runs just fine with 512MB RAM and a single core CPU. I ran it on my old HTC Desire Z for ages, and my GF is still using it now, albeit as a backup phone.

No bluetooth is a killer. That means no tethering to your phone and so no internet unless you're in your house or the likes of Starbucks, McDonalds etc.

OP: Does this tablet have bluetooth, and does it have access to the Google Play store?