Choosing A Tablet

[thaicbr]

VOiP (Voice over Internet Protocol). Several apps that allow you to call using Wifi such as Skype, Google Voice, etc

http://www.cmpcc.org/tablet-phone/

http://virtual-offic...-tablet-pcs.htm

Thanks, so people with tablets are not making regular calls, just VOIP calls

Are you sure she is losing them rather than selling them?

Does she always have to get a new sum card?

How old is she?

If you insist on buying phones just get the cheap Nokia or Samsung phones @ 550baht.

sent from my Q6

She is 18 and she has that typical Thai careless attitube about objects, which as a Westerner I just can't stand.

Like "I lost my phone, so what, who gives a sh!t!"

She's not cheating, she just does not care much about things, like so many people here.

By the way, where do I find those 550 baht Nokia or Samsung phones?

Tesco Lotus normally sell them. Give her one of those then she will be to embarrassed to use it. Problem solved it will never leave her bag unless she MUST use it

sent from my Q6

[Pib]

And for you fine folks who are considering a V971 please note over the last few weeks apparently Onda is now producing Retina Display 2048x1536 versions also...while still selling the V971 1024x768 display version I bought in Nov 12. What you buy today will be outdated tomorrow...oh well. See this English language Link for various models.....be sure to look at the whole page as all the V971 versions are not side-by-side on the page...you need to scroll up and down a little....some at the top of the page...some at the bottom of the page.

Interesting, on the link you posted, at least as of today, it shows them out of stock for all of their V972 models and most of their V971 models, except for the white V971 16 GB retina version.

The Onda-sale.com in above link is only "one" of numerous distributors of Onda tablets...they apparently have both online retail sales to individuals and also wholesale sales to stores who want to order in quantity. I only identified that link since it had Onda tablet info/specs in English. Other online companies and/or your local Thai store that sells Onda's may already have some. I know the store I bought my Onda V971 from already shows the the V972 on their Facebook page but not yet on their local Thai web page....but the owner did tell me last week they would be going for around 7,100 baht...I got the impression he already had them...but maybe he only has them on order as I don't see them on his local store web page....maybe he hasn't updated his local site yet because he hasn't had time or still has a bunch of V971's he needs to sell before starting to sell a significanlly better spec'ed model at only a little higher price.

[jbrain]

And for you fine folks who are considering a V971 please note over the last few weeks apparently Onda is now producing Retina Display 2048x1536 versions also...while still selling the V971 1024x768 display version I bought in Nov 12. What you buy today will be outdated tomorrow...oh well. See this English language Link for various models.....be sure to look at the whole page as all the V971 versions are not side-by-side on the page...you need to scroll up and down a little....some at the top of the page...some at the bottom of the page.

Interesting, on the link you posted, at least as of today, it shows them out of stock for all of their V972 models and most of their V971 models, except for the white V971 16 GB retina version.

The Onda-sale.com in above link is only "one" of numerous distributors of Onda tablets...they apparently have both online retail sales to individuals and also wholesale sales to stores who want to order in quantity. I only identified that link since it had Onda tablet info/specs in English. Other online companies and/or your local Thai store that sells Onda's may already have some. I know the store I bought my Onda V971 from already shows the the V972 on their Facebook page but not yet on their local Thai web page....but the owner did tell me last week they would be going for around 7,100 baht...I got the impression he already had them...but maybe he only has them on order as I don't see them on his local store web page....maybe he hasn't updated his local site yet because he hasn't had time or still has a bunch of V971's he needs to sell before starting to sell a significanlly better spec'ed model at only a little higher price.

You could give Digilife a call on 084-3619310 if he has stock of the V972, he sells certain models of Onda and Ainol and his prices are remarkable lower then the one on the website link you provided.

He will also ship them by EMS.

[Pib]

Oh, I don't want to imply the local store website I provided is the cheapest....but this particular store is close to me here in western Bangkok and provides good service to include warranty service (or at least the store did for me)....not to imply other stores don't provide good service also.

[Pib]

Oh, by the way, regarding running ICS 4.0.3 (which my V971 came with) or JB 4.1.1 (which I also installed/flashed on my V971), I decided to stick with/go back to ICS. On Onda's support website they have both ICS and JB which you can download and flash to the tablet.

Actually, I did install the Onda ICS upgrade which updated the baseband/kernal/build, but apparently the key/most significant change was an improved baseband for faster Wifi performance....even with the updated baseband/kernal/build it was still identified as Android version 4.0.3. I did notice the Wifi performance/speed was a little better after upgrading the original ICS to the upgraded ICS.

Anyway the main reasons I went back to ICS was JB used-up the battery faster, some Apps still have not updated themselves yet to be JB compatible, and the V971 seemed/tested faster with ICS. Testing with the AuTuTuBenchmark App gives me approx a 12,000 result on ICS and 10,000 on JB....and ICS boots up faster. Now, I did notice that JB "initially" gave me the impression it was faster than ICS in the way the V971 scrolled through Home and Apps pages, but after updating to the latest ICS version and realizing part of that impression was just the difference in how ICS and JB makes some Home/Apps index pages materialize on the screen (like how you can change how photos, powerpoint slides, etc., materialize on screen) I decided JB really wasn't faster (an AuTuTuBench confirmed that) but just initially gave me that impression when first using JB for an hour or so. And like I said when updating the ICS to latest ICS my scrolling got faster/smoother...then I couldn't tell any difference between ICS and JB when just scrolling around.

One other benefit with ICS on the V971 is since ICS is smaller in size it uses less of that ROM/RAM space (usually tablets come with 1GB or less ROM/RAM space)....you know, that critical space that many Apps "must/can only" install to; I'm not talking the internal SDCard or external SDCard "hard drive-type" storage space...I'm talking the ROM/RAM space. And believe it or not, JB made the tablet backside (battery location) feel warmer when viewing videos...maybe using more battery power...maybe running the CPU/ICs more, maybe I don't know why, etc.

Yea, for now, I'll stick with ICS on the V971 unless someone can tell my why using JB will change my tablet-using-life. If you get a V971 and want to confirm whether it has the updated ICS 4.0.3 running, just look at the Baseband version...if it says Baseband version V1.5.5 you have the latest ICS version (as of today according to their website) from Onda...if it says baseband version V1.5 then you have the earlier ICS 4.0.3 version from Onda.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Thanks for the interesting report, Pib. BTW, my comment above wasn't complaining about the Onda website you posted a link for, but instead, meant to note that there seems to be some considerable demand for the newest Onda tablets, based on the new models being listed as out of stock.

As for Jelly Bean, I've been hearing various things around the Android world about various problems, but it's hard to tell whether the various reports are significant or not.

Here's a kind of recap from a piece that appeared on CNET UK in late 2012:

Android 4.2 Jelly Bean has been described as "one of the most bug-ridden releases since Honeycomb", while Windows Phone 8 blowers are reportedly switching themselves off with no warning.

Android Police lists the bugs that have turned up in Jelly Bean, from flickering auto-brightness and battery problems to glitchy lockscreen widgets and broken Bluetooth -- not to mention the small matter of December disappearing entirely from some Jelly Bean calendar apps.

Both Jelly Bean and Windows Phone 8 are also prone to random reboots, according to complaints on user forums.

http://crave.cnet.co...blems-50009801/

And here's a similar recap from the BGR website a month earlier:

The latest version of Google’s (GOOG) operating system brought a variety of goodies to Android users, however it also included a number of bugs and glitches. One such problem was in the People app, which removed December and only displayed 11 months in a year. Google is now reportedly pushing Android 4.2.1 to Nexus-branded devices. The small update is said to fix the December bug and it also addresses Bluetooth connectivity issues, although it is unclear if it fixes problems concerning poor battery life and random reboots. AndroidCentral reports that the update does not disable the tweak that allows the Nexus 4 to operate on LTE networks.

http://bgr.com/2012/...-update-google/

And here's another BGR post that basically says most of the problems listed above are based in JB 4.2, unlike the prior 4.1 version.

Android 4.1 Jelly Bean received widespread acclaim as one of the best updates to the Android operating system to come around in some time. Android 4.2, however, isn’t getting the same praise. Android Police, which first broke the story about Android 4.2 lacking the month of December in its contacts app, has done the dirty work of chronicling the problems encountered so far in Android 4.2 and has found a wide array of issues. Among other things, Android 4.2 renders Bluetooth “basically broken,” creates random Windows Phone 8-like reboots, severely drains battery life and slows charging time. Taking all this into account, Android Police says that Android 4.2 is “one of the most bug-ridden releases since Honeycomb,” which at least had the excuse of being the first version of Android designed for tablets.

http://bgr.com/2012/...-multiple-bugs/

And here's the Nov. 2012 Android Police article that chronicles the various JB 4.2 problems listed above:

http://www.androidpolice.com/2012/11/19/android-4-2-gate-here-are-some-of-the-major-issues-plaguing-googles-newest-release/

Edited January 18, 2013 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[jbrain]

Since the Onda tabs are rooted, I wondered if you could install just any custom 4.1 Rom on it ?

[Pib]

Gosh, after reading through the links in TallGuy's post #366 it makes me think of when Windows Vista came out...and caused so much grief for many people for many months (including me) until many of the bugs and software driver incompatibility problems were fixed by Microsoft and software/hardware manufacturers through updates. RIP Vista....I was so happy the day I upgraded to Windows 7 which has been all but problem free for me from day one.

Seems strange Google didn't spot & fix many of these 4.2 bugs before releasing it on their Nexus series....it's not like 4.2 was being initially released on a whole bunch of different Android tablets where spotting all the hardware compatibility problems would have been much harder to initially spot. But hey, who would have thought Windows Vista would have had some many problems on release, the Apple Maps App release which caused Apple to apologize about the problem-prone App, etc...etc....etc. Buy hey, we (humans or companies) all make mistakes but hopefully resolve them quickly.

[Pib]

Since the Onda tabs are rooted, I wondered if you could install just any custom 4.1 Rom on it ?

Apparently you can as this Link talks about people installing custom ROMs on the V971.

[jbrain]

Today I had the pleasure to have my Onda v712 returned to sender.

I had a lot of battery issues. It came with jb 4.1.1 but the battery would drain at 1% per minute with only the screen active.In the battery usage it would show that 80% of the usage was through Cell standby, and this while in aeroport mode and wifi off.Sometimes it would also not charge, while the indicator showed that it was connected, but the battery level would not increase. I had My battery drain.apk and battery calibration.apk installed to double check the figures.Both would give the same statistics.

Then I downgraded it to firmware version 1.5.5 with ics, downloaded from Onda.cn, and then it would drain at 25% per hour but once it reached the 48% level it would go down to zero within 5 minutes.Installing the factory firmware would give issues that most of the time it could not be completed.

It would also charge at 35- 40 % per hour, which is also not normal, so I brought it in.I got the typical Thai reaction, we will change the battery sir, come back in an hour.

When I went back they said the had changed MB and battery, however all symptoms mentioned above were exactly the same,m so it was clear that they hadn't done anything other than reinstall the firmware. Downgrading gave them the same results as I had, including the errors when installing the firmware.

They argued that they would repair it within a few days, but since it was clear that they had lied about the MB and battery replacement I refused that.

Also they didn't have any stock currently, but I'm quite good in arguments so managed to get full refund .

So now I plan to buy an Aigo M80D since they are going for 3999 Baht today.Dual core Cortex A 9 , 1 Gb ddr3, 8gb flash and 8" screen 1280 x 768 with 5000 mAH battery and bluetooth, so in fact better specs than the Onda. Only problem is that one site will show it's a 1.2Ghz cpu while another will show it's 1.5Ghz.

On the box it says 1.5 Ghz and so does the Aigo website, but Orangutan posted here that he bought an Aigo M80 and it had a 1.2 Ghz cpu.

The one I want to buy is named M80-D, is this a different one from the one Orangutan bought?

Anyone heard anything good or bad about Aigo Tablets.

Fact is that they have a wikipedia page and seem to be a big company, with sponsorships of Alonzo, Man united and many other big sport events.Not sure if that is a reference or not though.

[retoocs01]

So now I plan to buy an Aigo M80D since they are going for 3999 Baht today

Hopefully, you won't run into the same problems like these guys:

http://androidforums...nnect-wifi.html

Edited January 23, 2013 by retoocs01

[jbrain]

So now I plan to buy an Aigo M80D since they are going for 3999 Baht today

Hopefully, you won't run into the same problems like these guys:

http://androidforums...nnect-wifi.html

I found that thread yesterday also, and for sure it has activated some warning signals with me.

I'm planning to visit a shop that sells them today, and that will be the first thing I will test thorougly.

However, when I have set my mind on some item I always run a lot of google searches wit combinations of **** issuses, **** problems etc., and actually so far the above mentioned thread was the only result so far.

Anymore links are always welcome of course.

From the other side, since this seems to be a quite well established company, it worries me a bit that there isn't much talk about on the android forums.

Typing Onda or Ainol in google gives you many more results.

Edited January 24, 2013 by jbrain

[dddave]

Last year, I bought an Aigo M802 which was the precursor of the M80 for my GF. It had an 8" screen and decent specs. She uses it primarily for email, music & video and a lot of games. It has been carried around a lot, used by kids and generally subjected to the normal abuses of an everyday tablet. So far, it has held up well. It was one of the early versions of Android 4.0 and I have never intentionally modified that though it may have upgraded it's own firmware along the way without my being aware. So far, it has continued to perform without any glitches and still seems as responsive as it was out of the box.

Sorry to read of your problems with the Onda V971. I've had a Onda Vi40 for about 8 months and it has been problem free.

[Pib]

I had a lot of battery issues. It came with jb 4.1.1 but the battery would drain at 1% per minute with only the screen active.In the battery usage it would show that 80% of the usage was through Cell standby, and this while in aeroport mode and wifi off.Sometimes it would also not charge, while the indicator showed that it was connected, but the battery level would not increase. I had My battery drain.apk and battery calibration.apk installed to double check the figures.Both would give the same statistics.

As mentioned in my earlier post on my Onda V971 I also saw the same "Cell Standby" issue when I upgraded from ICS 4.0.3 to JB 4.1.1. Even if turning "Airplane" mode on. Although the tablet is Wifi Only I thought it odd it would show battery usage for Cell Standby along with Screen and Wifi usage. The Cell Standby battery usage was showing more battery drain than the big battery eater in most any Wifi Only tablet--the Screen battery eater.

I figured it was just something quirky about JB (or at least the Onda-tweaked JB) since ICS did not show any Cell Standby usage. And although JB was showing Cell Standby usage I doubt there really wasn't any usage since there is not any cell phone transmittor/reciever hardware in the V971 as it's Wifi only. With ICS installed the V971 would not show any Cell Standby usage...it didn't even report Cell Standby....it only reported Screen and Wifi hardware battery usage. From looking at the Battery use/status in my V971 a few minutes ago it reported 91% being used by the Screen and 9% by the Wifi. Keep in mind I'm talking what the tablet is reporting for "hardware" battery usage; not individual Apps battery usage.

But whether the Onda JB 4.1.1 was really using any battery for Cell Standby, as I mentioned in my earlier post(s) I did see a noticeably faster battery drain with JB compared to ICS. But it seems most people regardless of the tablet/smartphone manufacturer (ie., Samsung, Onda, whoever) report JB drains the battery faster than ICS because of the JB programming.

On my V971 with its 6,000ma battery it will charge from pretty much zero charge to 100% in around 4-5 hours...it charges at approx 19-22% per hour of charge based on some of my tests.. But keep in mind from what I've read that on many tablets/smartphones and due to the nature of lithium battery, the battery will take approx as long to charge from 0 to 70% as from 70% to 100%....it probably won't be a linear charge rate from 0 to 100%. But as mentioned, on my V971 is averages around the 20% ballpark per hour of charge.

The "it's the firmware" response but be used a lot by tablet/smartphone repair shops. I realize each manufacturer can have various/tweaked governors (i.e, for the CPU speed, for the battery charge rate, etc) in their firmware/hardware, I'm beginning to think Thai repair shops working on a warranty repair may use line like a "stick playing with a dog"....that is, throw the stick (i.e., tell the customer it's a firmware problem) versus a hardware problem and hope the dog gets tired of chasing this stick and just goes lays down and sleeps somewhere...stops bothering the stick thrower (warranty repair shop).

Anyway, even the shop that repaired my V971 under warranty (battery replacement supposedly) played the "it could be the firmware game" with the store owner and me. When the tablet came back from the shop it was running the Onda ICS version titled baseband/user interface 1.5.0 (which is Android version 4.0.3) which the tablet originally came with....I had turned it in for repair with JB 4.1.1 on it. Now that Onda ICS baseband/user interface 1.5.0 version is not on the Onda.cn web site anymore and they only have ICS baseband/user interface 1.5.5 and JB baseband/user interface 2.0 on their website.

In getting the tablet back from the store owner I asked him what did the repair shop fixed, he called the shop up on the phone, the shop said they replaced the battery. Ok, I take the tablet back home. I ran the originally ICS baseband 1.5.0 for several charge cycles...charging worked fine; I then flashed the Onda ICS baseband 1.5.5 and charging continued to work fine/the same; and then I flashed Onda JB baseband 2.0 and charging worked fine. I then reverted to ICS baseband 1.5.5 since JB drained the battery noticeably faster and I got faster benchmarks with ICS as compared to JB. For example using the Antutu benchmark App I would get a score of around 9,900 with JB but a significantly higher 12,300 with ICS. So hopefully, the shop did indeed replace the battery and what he told before he had sold many V971s so far and no one else had brought one back for charging problems (maybe I just got unlucky with my V971)--but I take what the shop owner said with a grain of salt. Anyway, I got the V971 back on 13 Jan and it's been charging/working fine....and I get excellent battery usage/runtime from it with ICS 4.0.3 (Onda baseband/user interface 1.5.5) installed.

By the way, from some googling I found some interesting info on the Onda V972 Quad Core Retina Display model that recently came out like it benchmarks slower than the V971 Dual Core like I have. I post something on it later.

Edited January 24, 2013 by Pib

[jbrain]

I had an Onda 712 but probably I just had the misfotune to have a lemon.

I read that the aigo is almost impossible to root and without root doesnt have access to playstore and can not be upgraded

Sent from my GT-N7000 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[Pib]

In case you are thinking about buying an Onda 972 Quad Core Retina Display tablet at the following link are some Onda V972 benchmark results. Link. Lots of other good V972 info at the link also, especially talking about its Quad Core A31 CPU... so, be sure to surf around the the links within the article if you are thinking about buying a V972.

The V972 uses a 1.2GHz Quad Core device but I guess it's Normal operating speed is 1GHz (actually 1008MHz) unless over-clocked which some Apps can do. Even the Antutu benchmarking App will force CPU into overclocked mode, or maybe I should say the max operating/rated speed for the CPU, during the benchmark test for many tablets/smarphones....and you don't even have to buy the paid version of Antutu for this to occur on some devices like my V971. And I guess the paid version of Antutu can actually overclock a CPU past its max operating/rated speed, not that such operation is recommended for continuous use. Anyway, you can look at above link for some Antutu V972 benchmark results and overall review...it's running Jelly Bean 4.1.1.

Additionally, in ICS 4.0.3 a person can set the CPU speed to Normal or Power Saving (or at least on my V971 ICS you can)...and on my V971 when setting it to Normal the speed set is 1.2GHz and the Power Saving speed is 800MHz. I run it in Normal mode all the time. I don't remember Jelly Bean offering any CPU speed setting/adjustment like ICS offers...but a person can download Apps that will adjust the CPU speed at least on rooted devices.

And below is a Antutu result from my V971 Dual Core (1.5GHz) and a result from another popular benchmark App called Quadrant Standard. Please note my V971 Antutu results beats the V972 Antutu result, even with th V972 overclocked way past its rated 1.2GHz speed. But maybe the firmware on the V972 has not been optimized yet or Antutu don't accurately benchmark Quad Core CPU or maybe ??????....or maybe it is accurate.

My V971 Antutu Result

My V971 Quadrant Standard Result (my device/the V971 is the top bar on the chart)

[Pib]

Since the Antutu benchmarking App has been mentioned several times a person can go to their web site to see the Ranking of several well known, big name brands/models. Here's the Link to the Ranking section...you'll need to select the type of ranking your want to see...like clicking Highest to see the highest/faster tablet/pad/phone results. Maybe reviewing these brand name, higher cost tablet results will give a person a baseline or idea as to how a not-so-well-known-name, lower cost tablet compares in different aspects like speed. May help in the tablet/phone buying decision.

[jbrain]

Last year, I bought an Aigo M802 which was the precursor of the M80 for my GF. It had an 8" screen and decent specs. She uses it primarily for email, music & video and a lot of games. It has been carried around a lot, used by kids and generally subjected to the normal abuses of an everyday tablet. So far, it has held up well. It was one of the early versions of Android 4.0 and I have never intentionally modified that though it may have upgraded it's own firmware along the way without my being aware. So far, it has continued to perform without any glitches and still seems as responsive as it was out of the box.

Sorry to read of your problems with the Onda V971. I've had a Onda Vi40 for about 8 months and it has been problem free.

Well I think for me the tablet story is finished.

If I want to buy a half decent tab i will have to travel to Bangkok, that means also travel 300km retour if there is a problem. The Onda costed me more in travel costs then the tab itself costed.

Here in Pattaya there is a Tuckom with 500 shops who all sell copy samsung and ipads.Not one who gets it in his had to sell something different from the 499 other shops.

Sriracha has also a Tuckom, and there you're able to buy copy Gpads. Yes you hear it right, copies from a Chines copy.

I could find Aigo today in Dtech shops, since Aigo Thailand is owned by Dtech, but they don't have the covers and who buys a tab without a cover.I did 3 shops between Sriracha and Pattaya.

8" covers are very rare, but I was able to find some shitty plastic ones that may last 2-3 weeks in Tuckom at 1100 Baht. No,thanks.

I could have bought the Aigo at one of those stalls on the floor in Panthip yesterday, but again that's a 300 km roundtrip if anything wrong, and I'm not gonna buy something from a stall that maybe or may not be there tomorrow.So I phoned Dtech Pattaya from there if they had stock, which they confirmed, but forgot to ask if they also had the covers.

It is clear that no Dtec shop has them as none of them was aware that they even existed.

[Tywais]

Since the Antutu benchmarking App has been mentioned several times a person can go to their web site to see the Ranking of several well known, big name brands/models.

Interesting as I downloaded and ran it a few days ago. They show the ASUS Infinity tf700 as #1 at 12848. My test comes in at 14116 but have hit nearly 15,000. Background tasks or services making a difference?

[Pib]

Since the Antutu benchmarking App has been mentioned several times a person can go to their web site to see the Ranking of several well known, big name brands/models.

Interesting as I downloaded and ran it a few days ago. They show the ASUS Infinity tf700 as #1 at 12848. My test comes in at 14116 but have hit nearly 15,000. Background tasks or services making a difference?

Could be...but a person would think a benchmarking program would kill/suspend background Apps running...but, then again maybe not. And based on my experience with my Onda V971 which Android version you are running can definitely make a very significant difference...and maybe whether your tablet is rooted or not can possibly make a difference since that may allow Antutu to max out the CPU speed. But hey, I'm guessing...probably a fair amount of variables...and I always take benchmark results with a grain of salt and use them as just one factor in making buying decisions.

[retoocs01]

Here in Pattaya there is a Tuckom with 500 shops who all sell copy samsung and ipads.Not one who gets it in his had to sell something different from the 499 other shops.

Yepp, that's really a pain in the a*s. Only "no-name" devices and cheap copies...

But that's a general problem.

Tukcom is ok for cheap things, like cables or cheap mainstream hardware/copies/bling bling, etc...

But if you want something beside the usual crap items, you have to travel to MBK, Pantip or Zeer Rangsit.

Sometimes, I really miss Amazon, Ebay and the online shops from Europe...(not only for IT hardware)

I am in the market for a new device too, but no chance to find them in Pattaya.

[RandomSand]

It seems many of these cheap tablets have build quality issues and/or low grade batteries.

I'm tempted to get a i-mobile smart phone that I've seen with a massive screen at B7500, it's similar to a galaxy note, and whilst the casing and screen look decent enough... I wonder if the battery is likely to be a let down?

Edited January 24, 2013 by RandomSand

[giddyup]

Here in Pattaya there is a Tuckom with 500 shops who all sell copy samsung and ipads.Not one who gets it in his had to sell something different from the 499 other shops.

Yepp, that's really a pain in the a*s. Only "no-name" devices and cheap copies...

But that's a general problem.

Tukcom is ok for cheap things, like cables or cheap mainstream hardware/copies/bling bling, etc...

But if you want something beside the usual crap items, you have to travel to MBK, Pantip or Zeer Rangsit.

Sometimes, I really miss Amazon, Ebay and the online shops from Europe...(not only for IT hardware)

I am in the market for a new device too, but no chance to find them in Pattaya.

The thing is, Tucom ain't that cheap. A Samsung Galaxy that is selling for 8900 baht at Tesco is over 11000 at Tucom. Also Tucom has an abysmal lack of choice when it comes to tablets, if you don't want an Ipad or Samsung (copy or genuine) forget it.

[StefanBBK]

Hi, I am maybe a little off topic here. Last June I bought an Ipad for the wife. When I held it in my hand I decided it is time for me to have a tab as well. However I was not certain how usefull it would be, as it does nothing more than my Galaxy phone, just has a bigger screen. I always favoured Android, as I find it more suitable for productivity. For games I believe I pad has the edge.

Anyway, not being certain how usefull the tab would be, I decided to go for a second hand Galaxy tab 10.1 , which I found at MBK for 10K. Half the price of a new one. I normally never buy second hand stuff. My rational was, if I like it, I can uphrade later to note10.1 etc. and if I dont like it, I can sell it with little loss.

Anyway, I love it and keot it until now.

At the same time the kids wanted tablets too. I bought a number of these low cost non brand thingies. All had the same problems:

1) Batteries drained much to fast

2) Batteries did not charge well after some time

3) I could never find nice covers, screen protectors etc.

4) some very badic hardware (someehat expected for the price) like shitty camera, not well responding sensors, lack of GPS, slow performance, trouble uphrading etc.

By now my doughter has an ipad mini, not too expensive and excellent for kids stuff and the son uses an ipod touch we had laying about.

I would be very carefull with any g-pad, aniol, etc. and rather save up and buy good brand.

By the way, my Galaxy tab was updated to ICS by samdung and still works like a charme.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[retoocs01]

I would be very carefull with any g-pad, aniol, etc. and rather save up and buy good brand.

Tablets are just toys (for me).

For serious work, I will always prefer a Notebook/PC with big screens.

And for this reason, I refuse to buy an overpriced Samsung...

Apple is no option.

I already have a cheapish one: *SANEI N90*

I does, for what I bought it...and yes, the battery is not the best.

~4h when browsing the Internet and *Angry birds* is running smoothly...

Never had any problems with it.

But now it's a little bit too slow, to run XBMC on it, so I will look for Dual/Quadcore tablet.

[Pib]

On my V971 with its 6,000ma battery it will charge from pretty much zero charge to 100% in around 4-5 hours...it charges at approx 19-22% per hour of charge based on some of my tests.. But keep in mind from what I've read that on many tablets/smartphones and due to the nature of lithium battery, the battery will take approx as long to charge from 0 to 70% as from 70% to 100%....it probably won't be a linear charge rate from 0 to 100%. But as mentioned, on my V971 is averages around the 20% ballpark per hour of charge.

Just another data point regarding charging of the V971 which has a 6000ma battery for other V971 owners or for people considering buying a V971. I was using it quite a bit last night and was up kinda late. Anyway I discharged the tablet battery all the way to 1% before I turned the tablet off at 12:52am and plugged it in to recharge....then I went to sleep. (Don't ask me how many hours it had been running as I don't know as I had been playing with it all day off and on....but it does have good battery life/run time at least on Android ICS). Ok, a few hours later I did a bathroom run to drain some Chang beer and when checking the the amount of charge at 3:24am the V971 reported 58%. OK, doing some math here that works out to charging at approx 23% per hour of charge. OK, I go back to bed, walk up at 5:07am and check the V971 charge again....it's now at 100%. Now at what point, X-seconds, X-minutes, etc., that it reached 100% before 5:07am I wouldn't know, but I doubt it was too much before 5:07am. But doing some math again, form 12:52am to 5:07am is 4 hrs 15 mins to charge the table from 1% to 100% which equates to approx a 23% charge rate per hour.

This 4 hrs 15 mins is real cost to what another ThaiVisa member emailed me about his V971 charge rate in that when the low battery charge notification popped up, which occurs at 15% charge remaining on the tablet ICS 4.0.3 (and gives you another pop-up notification around 5% remaining, he said it took his V971 4 hrs 25 mins to reach full charge.

So, based on testing with two V971s, to fully charge its 6000ma battery takes 4 to 5 hours and the charge rate per hour seems to be in the 19-23% area....and as FYI this is very, very similar to the charge rate for my (or should I say my wife's) high end/pricey Samsung Note 10.1 tablet with its 7000ma battery. With lithium-ion battery's most of the charging control circuitry is built right into the battery and I expect most tablet batteries of similar size have are pretty similar charging rates when working properly with a good wall charger.

In closing, for people who don't have a tablet yet but are thinking about buying one and have their battery charging experience based on their smartphone battery which probably fully charges in only 1 to 2 hours, please keep in mind your smartphone has a much smaller battery than a tablet, which allows your smartphone battery to reach full charge faster.

[jbrain]

On my V971 with its 6,000ma battery it will charge from pretty much zero charge to 100% in around 4-5 hours...it charges at approx 19-22% per hour of charge based on some of my tests.. But keep in mind from what I've read that on many tablets/smartphones and due to the nature of lithium battery, the battery will take approx as long to charge from 0 to 70% as from 70% to 100%....it probably won't be a linear charge rate from 0 to 100%. But as mentioned, on my V971 is averages around the 20% ballpark per hour of charge.

Just another data point regarding charging of the V971 which has a 6000ma battery for other V971 owners or for people considering buying a V971. I was using it quite a bit last night and was up kinda late. Anyway I discharged the tablet battery all the way to 1% before I turned the tablet off at 12:52am and plugged it in to recharge....then I went to sleep. (Don't ask me how many hours it had been running as I don't know as I had been playing with it all day off and on....but it does have good battery life/run time at least on Android ICS). Ok, a few hours later I did a bathroom run to drain some Chang beer and when checking the the amount of charge at 3:24am the V971 reported 58%. OK, doing some math here that works out to charging at approx 23% per hour of charge. OK, I go back to bed, walk up at 5:07am and check the V971 charge again....it's now at 100%. Now at what point, X-seconds, X-minutes, etc., that it reached 100% before 5:07am I wouldn't know, but I doubt it was too much before 5:07am. But doing some math again, form 12:52am to 5:07am is 4 hrs 15 mins to charge the table from 1% to 100% which equates to approx a 23% charge rate per hour.

This 4 hrs 15 mins is real cost to what another ThaiVisa member emailed me about his V971 charge rate in that when the low battery charge notification popped up, which occurs at 15% charge remaining on the tablet ICS 4.0.3 (and gives you another pop-up notification around 5% remaining, he said it took his V971 4 hrs 25 mins to reach full charge.

So, based on testing with two V971s, to fully charge its 6000ma battery takes 4 to 5 hours and the charge rate per hour seems to be in the 19-23% area....and as FYI this is very, very similar to the charge rate for my (or should I say my wife's) high end/pricey Samsung Note 10.1 tablet with its 7000ma battery. With lithium-ion battery's most of the charging control circuitry is built right into the battery and I expect most tablet batteries of similar size have are pretty similar charging rates when working properly with a good wall charger.

In closing, for people who don't have a tablet yet but are thinking about buying one and have their battery charging experience based on their smartphone battery which probably fully charges in only 1 to 2 hours, please keep in mind your smartphone has a much smaller battery than a tablet, which allows your smartphone battery to reach full charge faster.

Phil, there is a free app in the playstore named " My Battery Drain Analyser " it keeps a log of every 1 % change in the battery be it chrging or draining and calculates automatich to what percentage per hour that translates. Very handy and correct functioning tool.

Then there is another free tool called " battery calibration " and it shows exactly the load of your battery in % and mV at any given moment with just a click on it.

[Pib]

jbrain,

Thanks...I just may give that "My Battery Drain Analyzer" App a try. When having my battery issues I tried several battery monitoring and calibrations apps that promised the world but some really didn't seem accurate or do anything special beyond what could be monitored within the Android Settings menus with a few extra clicks. And none of the Apps I tried were worth a durn for monitoring battery charge rate in milliamps since the tablet is turned off during charging and/or seem to assume a linear charge rate...and the person also had to enter what the battery size was (which I knew was 6000ma but the battery App had defaulted to a common 1500ma smartphone sized battery...but I bet a lot of people don't know the battery size when using these Apps).

Anyway, thanks again...I give one of both Apps a try. There are indeed very good Apps out there but a person just needs to fine them through recommendations or hit & miss. Part of the fun of using a tablet/smartphone is just trying some of the thousands of different Apps out there...many are crap but many are good...and if you don't like them, then uninstalling them with a few clicks in a fews seconds is all it takes. Preaching to the choir I know.

Cheers,

Pib

[TexasRanger]

I thought I had done all my research and decided on a galaxy tab 2, couldn't get one and got a galaxy note 10.1 instead. The stylus I thought I would never use is now used daily. I love this tablet, there is nothing I need to do that it can't handle.

Sent from my GT-N8000 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[dddave]

Last year, I bought an Aigo M802 which was the precursor of the M80 for my GF. It had an 8" screen and decent specs. She uses it primarily for email, music & video and a lot of games. It has been carried around a lot, used by kids and generally subjected to the normal abuses of an everyday tablet. So far, it has held up well. It was one of the early versions of Android 4.0 and I have never intentionally modified that though it may have upgraded it's own firmware along the way without my being aware. So far, it has continued to perform without any glitches and still seems as responsive as it was out of the box.

Sorry to read of your problems with the Onda V971. I've had a Onda Vi40 for about 8 months and it has been problem free.

Well I think for me the tablet story is finished.

If I want to buy a half decent tab i will have to travel to Bangkok, that means also travel 300km retour if there is a problem. The Onda costed me more in travel costs then the tab itself costed.

Here in Pattaya there is a Tuckom with 500 shops who all sell copy samsung and ipads.Not one who gets it in his had to sell something different from the 499 other shops.

Sriracha has also a Tuckom, and there you're able to buy copy Gpads. Yes you hear it right, copies from a Chines copy.

I could find Aigo today in Dtech shops, since Aigo Thailand is owned by Dtech, but they don't have the covers and who buys a tab without a cover.I did 3 shops between Sriracha and Pattaya.

8" covers are very rare, but I was able to find some shitty plastic ones that may last 2-3 weeks in Tuckom at 1100 Baht. No,thanks.

I could have bought the Aigo at one of those stalls on the floor in Panthip yesterday, but again that's a 300 km roundtrip if anything wrong, and I'm not gonna buy something from a stall that maybe or may not be there tomorrow.So I phoned Dtech Pattaya from there if they had stock, which they confirmed, but forgot to ask if they also had the covers.

It is clear that no Dtec shop has them as none of them was aware that they even existed.

I don't know about current models but the Aigo 802 had an optional leather style, very nicely fitting cover (stand style) with openings for all ports that has held up well. It was about B400 additional.