Dropad A8 vs. LY GT-Pad?!

[Trixaren]

Hi
Update on HD movies - yes it seems to be playing HD perfectly well with no visible time lag between sound and video
I downloaded home some HD trailers from Best Place on the Web to Download HD Trailers - HD-Trailers.net (HDTN) (damn those files are big for just one min of video)

pm me the links of what you want me to install and test and I will do it. Still playing with all the functionality so this will be a great way for me to learn too.

 

[DJACID]

My mate showed me on his tablet if you switch flash off the browser is much more smooth and doesn't get that slight lag when scrolling

 

[deathofkai]

Ye, I've seen that, very useful...

One of my main deciding factors between these 2 tabs are how well psx4droid runs on the SenseV7 / GT-Pad...

I've seen HD games like Asphalt 6 run very smoothly on the Herotab C8, but nothing on the V7 yet 1080p movies run perfectly on the V7.

I've noticed that the Herotab is very responsive while the V7 is a little sluggish but no train smash (it's obviously because of the high-res screen on the V7's part)

Also, the V7 has a better quality screen in terms of colour reproduction which is perfect for 1080p movies. (Games are still unknown in my books, besides the basic stuff like Angry Birds n all that jazz)

Pathetic that it's taken me this long to decide on a Tab, then again, it took me a month to decide on a "gaming" headset...haha

 

[DJACID]

The herotab m8 is out 8" 1024x768 screen,
No idea yet how hd videos will cope now due to the higher res screen

 

[deathofkai]

HD movies don't seem to run properly on the M7 at all. might be due to the low res-screen, so hopefully the high-res screen on the M8 will help...It's a little more than I really care to spend on a tab and I'm not a fan of 8" screens as the ratio's 4:3...but, I'll check out the vids on Meri's website and decide from thereYou know anyone with the M8??(awesome that it has BT and GPS)

 

[deathofkai]

Can't seem to find any more videos on the M8, have you seen any other vids besides the one on Meri's website?

Still leaning towards the Dropad A8 though...dunno why ?!

 

[DJACID]

Just saw the video on meri's site, my mates thinking about it but same thing doesn't like the 8" screen,
Plus need to see a comparison between the herotab c8 to see if the higher res screen as affected the performance,
Also a comparison with the gt-tab...

 

[deathofkai]

let me know if your friend takes the M8...
I'm wondering how well the S5PV210 cpu handles HD games and videos seeing as it has a higher res screen...

thinking about just spending the extra and buying the M8?!

was playing with the Samsung Galaxy Tab (old 7") and pxs4droid ran perfectly at 60+ frames. As far as I know the Galaxy has the S5PV110, if I'm not mistaken, making the C8 faster.

(Also according to GLBenchmark - Phone details comparsion)

also keeping in mind that the Galaxy has a higher res screen...

 

[Daioz]

I'll help out on this decision in the coming weeks, as I'm someone who bought a Dropad A8 and sold it, and now from the money I have a SenseV7 incoming in a week or at worst 2.

 

[deathofkai]

awesome, i look forward to your review

 

[Musicante]

I'll help out on this decision in the coming weeks, as I'm someone who bought a Dropad A8 and sold it, and now from the money I have a SenseV7 incoming in a week or at worst 2.

hi why you sold it?

 

[Trixaren]

right bit of update
had to exchange the original Telechips TCC8803 tablet as the headphones port was bad
received the new one and it does not want to charge up properly grrrrr
so will have to exchange again probably

the build quality of these leave a lot to be desired!!!!

 

[deathofkai]

wow...that sucks...kinda makes me not want to get one

I'm still kinda up in arms with the 2 tabs...but it seems that the M8 has everything I'm kinda looking for, the S5PV210 cpu and the High Res screen, so I'm also waiting on a review there to finalize my decision

But, I'm still amped to hear what both the V7 and M8 can do...

Thanks for the effort so far though

 

[phiit]

right bit of update
had to exchange the original Telechips TCC8803 tablet as the headphones port was bad
received the new one and it does not want to charge up properly grrrrr
so will have to exchange again probably

the build quality of these leave a lot to be desired!!!!

How about updating the firmware? The chinese 2.3.3 (LY-F521 5172.3.3? - ?GT-PAD TCC8803M708 EM73 - ?99Pad.com ??? Android ???|?MID BBS|??|?-????) is much smoother and corrcts the battery charge issue, english update guide is on XDA. Build quality on these tablets is very good, the cgarger connector is a bit too small so the plug won't stay in place correctly, but this also can be charged by USB.

 

[Daioz]

Okay so I got the Sense V7, I didn't do a thorough test as of yet, and its still on 2.3.1, I'm really hoping the 2.3.3 will fix most of my problems with the machine.

As of yet, I would say even with this piece of **** firmware, the SenseV7 is better than the Dropad A8, unless you buy it especially for gaming.

Pros and cons coming, all of them when compared to the A8.

Pros:
- The screen. The 1024x600px resolution makes a world of a diffrence when reading, surfing the net, or in my case reading manga, which is the main reason I bought the device for. And its not just the resolution, the colors are great while my A8 had a blue as hell screen, its colors were a lot more washed out than that of the SenseV7. Also the viewing angles are both good and bad, from 3 sides (right/left and top when facing the device in landscape mode) the viewing angles are GREAT, you can tilt it a lot before it changes colors too much, however the fourth side, the bottom is the opposite, it's contrast shifts almost immedietly when you arent facing the machine. Its a slight problem when using the device in the dark, with a lot of black on the screen, especially in portrait mode, as I remember the dropad had no good or bad qualities in viewing angles. (An odd thing about the SenseV7s screen though is that when the light bounces on it in the right angle you can easily see the framework of the touchscreen, it is NOT annoying at all but one will notice it from time to time, when facing the device and there is no hard light in front of it it is invisible to the eye)

- The form. While the screen size stays the same, as far as shape, build quality, materials used go, the SenseV7 wins in every regard over the A8. The device is very small when compared to the A8, its size nearly matches the Samsung Galaxy Tab, its just as thick, heavy and wide, its only 1cm longer than that, so the Sense is nearly as small and sleek as the Tab, on the other hand the A8 is a bulky, very thick brick, very heavy also. Build quality and materials are great on the S7, most things fit close to perfectly, the aluminium frame is actually the whole front panel, with the back panel being a thicker kind of black plastic. On the other hand the A8 while having a good frontpanel and that huge metal frame, had the worst backpanel ever, a brittle layer of plastic that also gathers fingerprints like the front, which is pretty disgusting when looked at from the other side(The sensev7's back will not have any fingerprints at all). It was uneven and when pushed from the other side it clearly disturbed the screen. The fitting of the A8 was also pretty bad, my screen wasn't exactly right under the glass and there were just a bit too many crevices where dust could pile up. Also the ****ty iphone button was so loosely fit that dust easily could go through it and onto the screen, a huge problem.

- Video playback. As advertised the machine has glorious video playback abilities, I won't bother with pointless 1080p tests, I don't have any plans to use it to stream to my TV as I think thats stupid, but I do watch 720p mkv files on it. The Dropad A8 while being able to play these 720p mkv files, it did fail audio/video sync from time to time when seeking, and always screwed up subs after seeking never to work again until you restarted the file. Using mVideoPlayer in both cases, the SenseV7 plays these files without any problem, nothing goes out of sync no matter what is done, seeking and such. Its also pretty quick to load these, unlike the A8 which took its sweet time when starting a video.

- Wifi. While still not even close to a proper notebook wifi, it is better than the A8's. Testing in the same spot with the same wifi router, where the Dropad kept dropping the connection the S7 establishes a stable but slow wifi connection.

- Market, a nice surprise the SenseV7 comes with full market access, while the Dropad only had missing some things.

- Screws. Yes, 4 of them, thats and fitting bumps keep the backplate of the S7 on, not god damned glue or doublesided tape, its very easy to pick apart with a suction cup, without any damage done to it.

I don't want to go into much software though I'll have to now at the cons.

Cons:

- Gaming. The A8 undoubtedly the faster and better machine for games. The S7 has no problems pulling off the usual Angry Birds and alike, but in 3d heavier games lower FPS and slowdowns do appear. I didn't buy it for games so this didn't disappoint me but its a fact.

- Menu surfing and hiccups, on these accounts the Dropad's strength wins over the S7. Browsing the menus, transitioning and such is NOT as bad as it seems in Colonel Zap's video, with Launcher pro installed it feels but silky smooth, however unlike the Dropad hiccups, frozen screens and such do occur from time to time. New firmware might improve on this but I do believe most comes from the machine being slow.
Also startup is also slower than the A8, I'm not sure just how they did it but whenever the machine starts, it mounts its internal memory (Nand) and mediascans it, this freezes the machine for about ~20s more after it booted up. I'm not sure about the diffrence but the way the A8 (or was it just the 2.2 on it, vs the 2.3 on the S7) handled its internal memory caused me a lot less trouble.

- Now this might be only my personal bad luck, but mine came with its Menu button not working, it doesn't respond at all. The rest is fine, and thankly 2.3 has all these keys on the screen, but when the android taskbar is hidden it would be handy. I was told by merimobiles that the FW update should fix this, I'm not that optimistic about that.

- Touchscreen, now this could also be a personal problem, but as the S7 is 3 point touch, now while mine recognizes 3, only the first two work fine. When my third finger is recognized it plainly ****s up the other two and locks them onto the same veritcal or horizontal position, despite where my fingers are. This could also be fixed by the FW update. In terms of responsiveness I can't feel a diffrence you can feel the A8's speed a lot more in the response of the machine, than actually the touchscreen.
(Also once you removed the original screen protector from the device it'll be sticky as hell)

- Battery, though this is the most UNREALIABLE point made here, I'm pretty sure its quite a bit weaker than the A8 in this regard. However since Battery reporting does not yet work in this firmware, and the phone.apk is still sucking away a lot of power I can't be sure just how much. The battery itself is like half the size of the A8's, but I'm sure it has much more than half of the power.

Few word Con list, or rather just complaining:
-Very short charging cable, like 50cm, also the charger's head doesn't fit well into the S7, but it works fine.
-I don't really like the very small Power slider, its not comfortable and it sticks out a bit too much.
-only 3 way g-sensor, mostly annoying because if I could flip the view the other way that would solve my problem with the kind of ****ty viewing angle on the opposite side.
-indicator light, dislike its position and size, though still much better than the A8, the led here is not exactly under the see through point so it does not bother the eye.



As a summary I'd say the S7 is the better machine, I bought both to surf the net and read manga/watch movies on them, not really to play. All three of these were a worse experience on the Dropad, manga images and text is muddled with the 800x480 display, unfit for reading such small fonts, the Wifi in the dropad I had was pretty ****, this one isn't leagues better but it IS better, surfing itself went smoother/faster on the A8, however again, the higher resolution makes webpages, forums look a TON better.
The small sleek design also lends itself much better to use on the move, or around others, it also doesn't make the sound of a brick hitting the floor when you put it on the table.

I really like the S7, and even with all its faults I don't think I'll change for a while, unless these same people would make a newer Sense device with a stronger CPU/GPU combo in it, and hopefully a slightly bigger battery(there is some space in the casing for that).

I'll come and give some details once I'm on the newer FW, tell you wats fixed and what is not. If you want something checked or have questions do tell them.