11/06/2012

You cannot beat the price vs. performance of this tablet.

Let's keep this simple - For the price this is a steal for anyone wishing to learn more about the Android tablet market. This is my first so I'm a complete 'Droid newbie. My first warning: If you want iPad performance, then go buy one. It's not a Samsung Galaxy either. This tablet is solid but limited at 'Droid v2. What do you really expect for $80?

PRO's: Arrived quickly and looks brand new. Booted without issue out of the box. Touch screen is resistive but highly responsive. Does not take a heavy finger poke at all. ALMOST as good as a capacitive screen, but doesn't do any two finger inputs like re-sizing. Desktop is easy to customize, and the included App market is sufficient for my beginner needs. Found a free solid Flash Player, so YouTube now works great. Have accessed the included B&N market as well as transferred many ebooks from my netbook without issue. Reading experience is very good, but beware the reflective screen in outdoor light, which is common to all color tablets. Have also downloaded other apps such as MapDroyd that extend the use of the tablet.

CON's: Slow to boot from power off. Get a cup of coffee. Be patient. Wireless can be a pain at times. Connectivity drops out for no good reason, and other times it can't find my router that is in the same room. Toggling wireless on/off usually works, and at other times I've had to power cycle it. Again, it's $80 and you need to bring a lot of patience to the tablet on occasion. Did I already ask what do you expect for $80? It's HEAVY. Annoyingly heavy. Almost TOO heavy. Bet it's the battery which I have not tried to exhaust yet (4.5 hours without a warning was my longest.)

BOTTOM LINE: You cannot beat the price vs. performance of this tablet. Call it a glorified e-reader with apps. It's a perfect traveling companion with videos, books, wifi web access, e-mail, maps, google, and more. Since I never work while on vacation, this keeps me in touch with friends and family via the wifi, and keeps me entertained as well. Beats lugging my laptop through the airport and to the beach. I would buy another in a heartbeat and would recommend it to my frugal AND patient friends.We purchased two of these Pandigital Novels when a certain department store had them on sale for a blindingly low price. I'm a nerd with an admitted love of device hacking, so this device seemed right up my alley, and the kind of thing that would get as much use as our homebrew enabled Wii. Not so much. While I still occasionally use my tablet to run a few apps or to have an additional screen for walkthrough/achievement info when I'm playing my Xbox, I find myself defaulting back to my aging laptop so that I have a responsive keyboard. I am looking at purchasing a Samsung Droid Charge in the near future, and I expect it to make this completely obsolete for me. I can't deny we had a good run, but in the end it's not for me. Maybe I like real buttons (or at least haptic feedback) too much.

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