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Which cheap tablet?
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alanwarwic
15-01-2012
Once you get to dark maybe you could post your ANTuTu benchmark score.
Its not there yet on AnTuTu so yours would be the first MIPS report.

Unlikely your CPU is too close but the GPU on mine is a Vivante GC800 compared to your Vivante GC860.
slick1two
16-01-2012
This new wave of Chinese tablets seem to be getting better and still under the £100 mark, Heard and seen good things about the Ainol Novo 7 tablets. US based MIPS do the CPU and there is a dedicated GPU as well. Got a youtube vid here of this tab in action. Oh and it's got a capacitive touch screen and the new Android 4.0 OS. They claim there tablet is google certified as well. Looks a good buy.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ainol-NOVO...ht_4045wt_1037

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-TvuMl-510
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIT0Q...eature=related
Notice how smooth and responsive the touch screen is.

Surely for the spec and the smooth user experience you cant beat it at this price?
darkjedimaster
16-01-2012
Originally Posted by slick1two:
“This new wave of Chinese tablets seem to be getting better and still under the £100 mark, Heard and seen good things about the Ainol Novo 7 tablets. US based MIPS do the CPU and there is a dedicated GPU as well. Got a youtube vid here of this tab in action. Oh and it's got a capacitive touch screen and the new Android 4.0 OS. They claim there tablet is google certified as well. Looks a good buy.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ainol-NOVO...ht_4045wt_1037

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-TvuMl-510
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIT0Q...eature=related
Notice how smooth and responsive the touch screen is.

Surely for the spec and the smooth user experience you cant beat it at this price?”

I ordered one of those a few days ago from another seller & it is expected to arrive tomorrow. While it hasn't got Flash capabilities as yet, both Ainol & Google are working on a fix for it, which should be in the 4.0.3 firmware.
John259
16-01-2012
Originally Posted by darkjedimaster:
“I ordered one of those a few days ago from another seller & it is expected to arrive tomorrow.”

I'd greatly appreciate a brief review once you've had chance to play with it.
darkjedimaster
16-01-2012
Originally Posted by alanwarwic:
“Once you get to dark maybe you could post your ANTuTu benchmark score.
Its not there yet on AnTuTu so yours would be the first MIPS report.

Unlikely your CPU is too close but the GPU on mine is a Vivante GC800 compared to your Vivante GC860.”

I have looked up that benchmark application as I hadn't heard of it until you mentioned it, but once I get the device I will be happy to run a test & upload the results.

Originally Posted by John259:
“I'd greatly appreciate a brief review once you've had chance to play with it.”

Sure no worries, I will do a review giving all the good & bad points about the tablet once I have had a good test of it.
slick1two
16-01-2012
Originally Posted by darkjedimaster:
“I ordered one of those a few days ago from another seller & it is expected to arrive tomorrow. While it hasn't got Flash capabilities as yet, both Ainol & Google are working on a fix for it, which should be in the 4.0.3 firmware.”

Was doing a little more digging and there are some new tablets out from Ainol. The Novo 7 Elf and Aurora. Both of which have upped the screen resolution to 1024X600. The Aurora apparently has the same screen technology as the ipad 2. Which does bump up the price. The Elf also has the same res but not the better screen. However it's cheaper. Just over a hundred. Seen it for £111 on ebay. Checked out some youtube of the Elf, looks a really good bit of kit.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ainol-NOVO...ht_2407wt_1270

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmgj2bkAF8g
darkjedimaster
16-01-2012
Originally Posted by slick1two:
“Was doing a little more digging and there are some new tablets out from Ainol. The Novo 7 Elf and Aurora. Both of which have upped the screen resolution to 1024X600. The Aurora apparently has the same screen technology as the ipad 2. Which does bump up the price. The Elf also has the same res but not the better screen. However it's cheaper. Just over a hundred. Seen it for £111 on ebay. Checked out some youtube of the Elf, looks a really good bit of kit.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ainol-NOVO...ht_2407wt_1270

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmgj2bkAF8g”

It does look nice but as it is coming from Hong Kong, it is highly possible that you will get nailed with Custom fees, which would result in the tablet costing a lot more than £111.
slick1two
16-01-2012
Originally Posted by darkjedimaster:
“It does look nice but as it is coming from Hong Kong, it is highly possible that you will get nailed with Custom fees, which would result in the tablet costing a lot more than £111.”

They got it on this site for under £100 after doing the dollar to pound conversion came to about £97 With Free shipping. Wonder if you ask them, if they can mark the value down, which usually lets the item slip through.


http://www.pandawill.com/ainol-novo-...campaign=20260
alanwarwic
16-01-2012
Methinks Darks Novo may not be that much a slouch with regards to the CPU so its better that mine all round ignoring the fact that I have a 4/3 screen.

It is not that much an upgrade to 1024/600 when you consider it is too high definition for its size. Its like with the larger iPad which owners think suits its 1024 X 768 screen.
slick1two
16-01-2012
Originally Posted by alanwarwic:
“Methinks Darks Novo may not be that much a slouch with regards to the CPU so its better that mine all round ignoring the fact that I have a 4/3 screen.

It is not that much an upgrade to 1024/600 when you consider it is too high definition for its size. Its like with the larger iPad which owners think suits its 1024 X 768 screen.”

But would that in any way be detrimental to its performance in anyway? refresh rates and what not?

Also the extra pixels must give a little more in terms of sharpness I would have thought? I've read people complain a bit about 800X480 on a 7 inch tablet. When you consider I have a Desire HD, which is only 4.3 inches and that has an 800x480 screen and looks fantastic when you got the brightness up. Very sharp. So I would have thought going up a few more inches in screen size, 1024x600 should add a little more definition and display webpages a little better too.

The next batch of smart phones from Samsung and HTC are looking to go even higher with 720p for the display. Still on just a 4.3-4.7 inch screen.
alanwarwic
16-01-2012
Better for photo's and even some videos but fit a full non mobile view web page into 7", and you have to zoom in, which thus gives less sharpness.

I can only conveniently read stuff on my 3.5" phone in 'mobile view'. I'm not saying 1024 x 600 is bad, just that it loses some advantages as the screen gets smaller .

On my Odys, in non mobile web view I can click stuff. But you have to be really exact with the small click area.
darkjedimaster
17-01-2012
Originally Posted by alanwarwic:
“Once you get to dark maybe you could post your ANTuTu benchmark score.
Its not there yet on AnTuTu so yours would be the first MIPS report.”

I have submitted the results to Antutu, but here they are for others to see.

RAM : 189
CPU integer : 501
CPU float-point : 200
2D Graphics : 318
3D Graphics : 437
Database IO: 145

Total score 1790. As I haven't got a memory card, I wasn't able to run the test on it, but will do that at a later date.

Originally Posted by John259:
“I'd greatly appreciate a brief review once you've had chance to play with it.”

Okay here goes for the review.

I have been playing with the Novo 7 Paladin for a couple hours now & have to say that it is built quite solid. The capacitive screen works really well & does what it is told by my fingers, unlike the nasty resistive screens, I would go as far as saying as the screen is almost as reliable as my Samsung Galaxy S2. Web browsing is quite smooth but am yet to find a decent browser to use as the inbuilt one is very basic but does the job. Video & Audio playback is excellent quality, haven't seen any dropped frames in video as yet & if you have got the audio up high, you can feel the bass at the back of the unit but without distorted sound. Applications load really fast & the general use of the tablet is really fast as well considering it is a really new Operating System. The tablet can be used as a USB storage device, as files can be transferred easily. However if you copy across an APK file, then you must load the APK manager on the tablet, to install the application.

Android market is installed but isn't shown on the main screen, you have to search for it & place the widget on the screen yourself, which only takes a matter of a minute to do.

Negatives

The only real gripe I have with the device is the reliability of the WIFI connection as it does like to drop quite a bit, despite me being in the same room as the router, but it does reconnect quite quickly. Also downloading files is quite slow.

Due to not many applications being compatible with the MIPS CPU, the Android Market is quite limited. However I installed a file called Magic Code ICS & this makes more APK files compatible, however you must download them from various sites first & install them manually as they don't appear on the market. Hopefully as time goes on, more applications will appear for the device on the market.

On certain images you can see the pixels of the screen but it isn't that bad as said earlier with the video playback being really good.

Finally you do get a lot of Chinese applications when you first turn on the device but these can be removed with ease. Finally ICS requires a lot of disk space & even after removing all of the Chinese applications, you are only left with 760mb, so if you get this tablet, it is highly recommended to get an SD card, especially if you intend to put on a lot of Music / Video files.

Despite the slight flaws of the device which could be fixed in future firmware updates, the Novo 7 Paladin is an excellent piece of kit for the money as it does exactly what it is supposed to do & is far more better value than devices like Scroll Options. If you are after a cheap tablet with decent video / audio playback, with pretty good web browsing experience then I would say that you won't get better than this for the money, especially with UK Ebay sellers doing them for £90.

My next thing to get is a decent case, as there have been reports of cracked screens when people have dropped them, as this tablet isn't something you would want damaged.

If there are any other questions then I will do my best to answer them.
alanwarwic
17-01-2012
This was my Ody Loox benchmark.
RAM 313
CPU Integer 571
CPU float 144
2d Graphics 351
3D graphics 650
Database IO 200
Total Score excluding a 183 for SD is 2429

No dramatic differences, much accounted for with my CPU running at 1.2Ghz.
The top gadget Asus Prime hits 12,000 near double some of the fast dual core ones.
The Vega hits 4000+ I think.
alanwarwic
17-01-2012
duplicate deleted
slick1two
17-01-2012
There is a Chinese tech store pandawill anyone bought from there? They have the new novo 7 Aurora for about £110 free shipping, if you don't mind the wait. Provided you can get away with customs fees, that's a steal of a price. The Aurora has a better screen more ram and faster and more compatible CPU since its an arm cortex. I guess Ainol had to ditch the mips. Looks a great tablet and not much more than the paladin. Waiting to see what price UK sellers can offer it for.
alanwarwic
19-01-2012
A mini review of my Odys Loox. It is amazingly well usable with the touch screen very accurate but not great for swipey stuff.
The screen is bright and viewable at 178 all round though is very slightly grainy.
3G has a quirk on sleep that needs the usb replugging on wakeup and
I curse the lack of a proper keyboard but am sure one can adapt.
WiFi like my phones is weaker than on a laptop. It is probably not for games and have concluded that an 8" screen more suits a 800*600 screen. Full web pages on 7" are still quite readable though and the battery seems very good too.
I got full market when I plugged in the 3g dongle but have to use it via a web shortcut. It is easy to see why the Amazon reviews are full of praise for their £80 spent. It hardly sold at £100 despite the 4/3 screen.
alanwarwic
19-01-2012
There are now some on Amazon for £70 if you are quick.
Most 3G sticks work in it too.

FYI the 178 178 178 viewing angles is not quite 178.
On video play it darkens when viewed at a 45 degree angle.
JasonWatkins
19-01-2012
The odys loox is quite intruiging, especially for £70 quid.
JasonWatkins
19-01-2012
this seems a bit too good to be true ..

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/WIFI-Ainol...item27c1de86b8

WIFI Ainol Novo 7 for £80 quid ?
darkjedimaster
19-01-2012
Originally Posted by JasonWatkins:
“this seems a bit too good to be true ..

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/WIFI-Ainol...item27c1de86b8

WIFI Ainol Novo 7 for £80 quid ?”

I got that tablet a couple days ago, read my review on it on post 37.
JasonWatkins
19-01-2012
Originally Posted by darkjedimaster:
“I got that tablet a couple days ago, read my review on it on post 37.”

i did, that's why i was being nosey on ebay. £80 quid does seem far too cheap for what it is though.
slick1two
20-01-2012
Originally Posted by JasonWatkins:
“i did, that's why i was being nosey on ebay. £80 quid does seem far too cheap for what it is though.”

£80 is about right for that particular model.

http://www.pandawill.com/ainol-novo7...ck-p54556.html

Chinese store doing it for $103 which converted to £66 so about right. Remember the Paladin replaced the Novo 7 basic, which is right at the bottom end. You now got Novo 7 Advanced 2, Novo 7 Elf and Novo 7 Aurora. They are all about in the £100 bracket. Still good value, as the Aurora is the beast out of that range of tablets. They are all budget tablets, but the Paladin is the BUDGET budget tablet lol. If that makes sense.
JasonWatkins
21-01-2012
This would be a good deal but only if you could flash it with the latest version of android

http://www.amazon.co.uk/ViewQuest-in.../dp/B004FGMB70
darkjedimaster
21-01-2012
Originally Posted by alanwarwic:
“This was my Ody Loox benchmark.
RAM 313
CPU Integer 571
CPU float 144
2d Graphics 351
3D graphics 650
Database IO 200
Total Score excluding a 183 for SD is 2429

No dramatic differences, much accounted for with my CPU running at 1.2Ghz.
The top gadget Asus Prime hits 12,000 near double some of the fast dual core ones.
The Vega hits 4000+ I think.”

I have been doing some reading on various tablet forums & it seems as though people have been getting better benchmarks with custom roms & have added speculation that if the source code was to become available then you could possibly get a further 3x the original performance.

Also some great news regarding the WIfi drops, it seems as though there are some problems with older routers that are not using N band which are responsible for the drops. I tried the tablet around a friends house who has an N band router & not only did I experience less drops in connection, but I also experienced a massive increase in download speed.
clonmult
26-01-2012
Originally Posted by darkjedimaster:
“I have submitted the results to Antutu, but here they are for others to see.

RAM : 189
CPU integer : 501
CPU float-point : 200
2D Graphics : 318
3D Graphics : 437
Database IO: 145

Total score 1790. As I haven't got a memory card, I wasn't able to run the test on it, but will do that at a later date.
”

For comparison, the Vega (running 3.0/HoneyIce), give you an idea of the potential difference with a Tegra 2 device.

Standard clock
RAM: 820
CPU int : 1404
CPU float : 1085
2D: 256
3D: 1017
Database: 385

1.2gHz Overclock (maximum available at the mo, used to be able to get 1.4 or 1.5gHz running the Corvus rom)
RAM: 987
CPU int: 1684
CPU float: 1282
2D: 256 (unchanged, wierd)
3D: 1044
Database: 465

Intereresting that 2D is weaker.
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