Huawei S7 / Cruz e-Reader / Cruz Tablet comparison

pbrauer

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Sep 24, 2010
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Back in July I bought the Augen Gentouch 7/8 from K-Mart and while I could see the promise of the Android tablet, the overall device was really nothing more than a toy. A fun toy to be sure, but I could tell there was nothing serious about it. On top of poor build quality (I have gone through 2 of these), the touch screen was awful, there is no factory/vendor support, and the lack of hardware features made it not much more than a very basic e-reader. My cell phone is also an Android, I got my HTC Incredible the first week they were out and have flashed and reflashed it.

So, this past weekend I picked up the Cruz e-Reader ($199 @ Best Buy), the Cruz Tablet ($299 @ Best Buy and the Huawei S7 ($299 @ Best Buy). Out of the box the Velocity Micro Devices seemed to have a very strong product, form, fit and design was solid and sexy, although I found them to be a little on the heavy side (The Cruz both weigh in at 1 lb, and the Huawei is 1.1 lbs.).

The eReader was just horrible. The Touch Screen was unresponsive and inaccurate, the software was way too much for the processor, and there was no market capability. Add to that the lack of a planned upgrade path for the OS and this device is dead on arrival. Buy a Nook or Kindle for $20 less and you will be much happier.

The Cruz Tablet is a much better device, the capacitive screen is responsive and light, and the device seemed pretty snappy. I was nervous at first because the two devices on the floor at Best Buy both seemed to have a glitch that made their unlock screens non-responsive, but mine seemed ok (at first). The lack of the Android Market was only slightly mitigated by Cruz Market, but this is going to be a big hole for people as more apps are released. Also, after much exploring I found a post by Blazing Wolf that finally identified the processor. Turns out it is a MIPS processor, which means Android is a port, something that is sure to make ROMs and other mods scarce. Again, in the end I was disappointed in the device. Yes, it has a capacitive screen, but no camera, no Bluetooth, no phone capability. Oh yeah, and Monday morning when I turned it on, the screen was completely unresponsive just like the ones in the store.

So that brings me to the Huawei S7-104. The resistive touch screen is the most responsive one I have ever used. No, it is not as nice as my HTC Incredible, but it is very easy and quick. TWO 2 Mp cameras, one front and one rear, again, not great cams, but that is what the 8 Mp in my phone is for, right? Bluetooth, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, 3G wCDMA and GSM capable and GPS. Fully working Android Market via WiFi without activating the phone. All this for $299? Are you even kidding me? Right now it comes with Éclair 2.1 update 1, but since it has the 768 Snapdragon Processor I know it is only a short matter of time before a snappy Froyo ROM is cooked up for it. Finally, all of this for $200 less than the 3G version of the Samsung and $300 less than the Wifi version. Oh yeah, this little device rocks!
 
Thanks for that post. I really appreciate any insights or information.

I'm trying to figure out why the settings on the Cruz Tablet have options for bluetooth. (I tried one app, which just ground away, trying to turn on the bluetooth. That's better than locking up the device. I had to reset mine 3 times -- but I sort of expected that testing random apps. The thing that bugs me the most is what seems to be irregular sensitivity. Sometimes you have to hold or retouch an icon to get it to respond, but brush near the Home button and it dumps you out of your app nearly instantly.
 
I think the bluetooth is there because they didn't bother tweaking the OS. The sensitvity issue was annoying right up until the screen just stopped responding altogether. -written on my Huawei
 
I bought the Huawei and love it. I was really wanting the Cruz tablet since they are a local company to me but the S7 seems to be a steal. Some do not like the battery life but I have not run into problems yet. Seems to be a competitor to the Galaxy Tab and that is getting some very bad reviews. Only major complaint I have is that is does not charge through USB. I bought a Energizer Xpal portable battery last week and contacted them yesterday to find a tip for it to charge by USB. They said they would find one that will work. They say on their website if they do not have a tip for something they will get one.
 
there has been a recent post either here or on slater droid for googlemarket file for archos's prodycts..since cruz and archos are both running eclair ,i wonder if this file would work on the Cruz..
 
hello, I just got back from best buy looking at the S7 and Cruz. I liked the S7 much better but had problems getting the home screen icons to work anyway other than in landscape. was there a setting I missed or does the home screen and apps screens only work in landscape. Once I switched to settings the g sensor worked just fine switching from landscape to portrait with out a problem. This was inconvenient for me. I'm thinking about waiting for the Archos 70 internet tablet for my money.
 
hello, I just got back from best buy looking at the S7 and Cruz. I liked the S7 much better but had problems getting the home screen icons to work anyway other than in landscape. was there a setting I missed or does the home screen and apps screens only work in landscape. Once I switched to settings the g sensor worked just fine switching from landscape to portrait with out a problem. This was inconvenient for me. I'm thinking about waiting for the Archos 70 internet tablet for my money.

I do not use portrait on the home screen but you would probably need to use another launcher to do that with the S7 due to the overlay Huawei created.
 
It is the same issue as HTC has with Sense. In order for their customized UI to work properly they have only built a landscape version (HTC Sense only does portrait). On both my Incredible and my S7 I use Launcher Pro, which allows for both Portrait and Landscape layouts of the home screen.
 
Huawei S7 for sure. The Cruz is not even ARM

Correct, the Cruz is MIPS with Android ported to it. That is why in my comparison I was questioning whether or not there would be a strong audience out there for custom ROMs to be cooked. The Huawei as the QSD8250 Snapdragon, which while isn't the newest and greatest is still being put in the HTC phones and the Dell Streak
 
Would somebody translate into Newby-ese what ARM, MIPS, and Snapdragon mean and what the ramifications are of having them or not?

Thanks!
 
Would somebody translate into Newby-ese what ARM, MIPS, and Snapdragon mean and what the ramifications are of having them or not?

These refer to the processor (also called chip) that is used at the core of the device. This chip contains instructions and code that the computer uses for core processes. Just as in a PC you can have different chip manufacturers (Intel vs. AMD for example) there are also differences in the chip architecture or chipset. The main Android chipsets I believe are either the Snapdragon (used in most HTC devices) and the Qualcomm (MSM chips). This is important because since the majority of devices are using these chips, Android is optimized for them.

While there are other chips for mobile, such as the MIPS chip used in the Cruz devices, in order for Android to run on it there needs to be a full port (or migration/conversion/review) of the OS in order to ensure it works properly. This means that it is much more complex to code for this type of device.

So, the long and the short of it, ARM or MIPS is the chip type, Snapdragon or MSM is the chip version. MIPS is not trivial, but it does not have nearly the user or install base of ARM, so ARM is going to have more tweaks and ROMs available.
 
The instruction sets available should be different as well

Adobe Flash seems to require Neon:
NEON - ARM
http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/systemreqs/

I'm not sure about this might be what the major difference is for Adobe Flash requirements between the ARMv7 and previous generation chipsets.

MIPS is a bit premature right now. They aren't getting a lot of help from Google, that's for sure.
 
Hello All:
I'm not savvy at all when it comes to techno stuff, but I chose the Cruz e-reader for my 12 year old for Christmas. The selling points for me were (1) it only cost was $109 bucks, and (2) it can display ebooks in 3 or 4 different formats and I figured this feature would eventually allow me to access e-books from several sources. When I got it home and gave a closer exam, I liked what I saw and ordered another one for myself. That's how confident I was that you tekkies would figure out how to sidestep its limitations and make it hum. My confidence was well placed, bless your little techno hearts! Bottom line: thank you guys for checking this stuff out and sharing your knowledge with those of us who haven't got a clue. I can always count on you to have the answers to my techno questions.
 
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