Huawei S7 Slim in hand, Initial thoughts and info. Detailed review soon....

[Joshua]

Initial thoughts:
+Nice build quality Shorter and thinner than original.
+Better screen viewing angles and brightness vs Original S7
+Fast Fast Fast
-Miss the kickstand
-Poor GPS performance compared to original S7
-Heavier than original
-Wifi misbehaves at times.

Benchmarks (Best score out of 3 runs)
Linpack: 35.968
Caffeine Mark 5731

System Info:
App storage 2.44 Gigs internal
File Storage 4.66 Gigs internal
Rear Cam 3.2mp Fixed Focus
Front Cam VGA Fixed Focus


More info to follow. But so far I like it.

 

[raduque]

Does it have phone/cellular capabilities?

 

[efidol]

Wow! It's heavier? Didn't see that coming.

Sent from my IDEOS S7 using Android Tablet Forum

 

[Joshua]

Wow! It's heavier? Didn't see that coming.

Sent from my IDEOS S7 using Android Tablet Forum

I think the extra weight is due to the much larger battery and glass capacitive screen. Also to answer another question, it has no telephony functions.

 

[Zeve]

Are you having problems with Gmail and Android Market? I am seeing posts from other buyers saying that they are having problems with it.

 

[Joshua]

Are you having problems with Gmail and Android Market? I am seeing posts from other buyers saying that they are having problems with it.

No problems with market, and i dont really use Gmail. I dont think that the wifi radio/antenna in the new S7s are as good as in the old model as i have lots of dropouts in the signal in places my 1st gen s7 does fine.This could be part of the problems people are seeing.

Im on the fence about keeping it. Some other bugs ive had,

1. Screen Auto rotation quits working after the device has been sleeping a while.
2. Every so often the screen becomes non responsive for a few seconds, a pain when playing games.
3.Ive had the emotion interface crash on me twice and resets all my panels to their default icons & widgets.

If i could be assured Huawei would work out these bugs and relese updates id keep it for sure, but we all know Huawei's track record for updates.

 

[raduque]

If i could be assured Huawei would work out these bugs and relese updates id keep it for sure, but we all know Huawei's track record for updates.

It's better than Samsung's!

 

[avaburnette]

Are you having problems with Gmail and Android Market? I am seeing posts from other buyers saying that they are having problems with it.

I too had problems with market and Google.....I reset and its great....Internet kind of hinky....device is HEAVY....I'm a Mac person so Android OS is not really my style but iPad limited me.

 

[robdroid]

I too had problems with market and Google.....I reset and its great....

Can you explain how you "reset" your S7 Slim?
Do you lose any data or apps you've installed when you perform the "reset"?

Thanks!

 

[Mr. Ed]

Can you explain how you "reset" your S7 Slim?
Do you lose any data or apps you've installed when you perform the "reset"?

Thanks!

you loose everything....and it does fix the market/gmail issue. For some reason there are a ton of update/installs that did not take part upon initial unboxing that did take place after a full reset

I believe I found it in the settings menu but I don't have my s7 in front of me. I will update later when my buddy is done playing with it.

here is a quick little bit I typed out about my weekend with the s7, a500 a rooted nook color... I will go back and clean it up when I have time

n the end..the a500 is going back....the nook color is going back...and of all three that I tried over the weekend...I am actually keeping the s7 slim. The screen though not as bright had much deeper colors and was much crisper. The UI is fantastic and I didn't get all of the choppiness and lag that was present on web pages and videos on the a500.

the really cool thing about the a500 is that usb port...I could see many people using that for photography etc...but I do caution you...compared to other screen side by side the a500 just didn't display depth and color well at all.

I also had some issues with wacky things like That wifi issue some are having is really odd...mine may have been doing it as well ..all I know is the screen kept waking...over an hour period just sitting there it would occasionally wake ..then sleep..then wake...about every 10 minutes or so it would wake to the lockscreen for 5 minutes.

The external sd card cannot be read via a computer, you have to remove it and add etc via a reader

Stupid Short power cord, and the lack of USB charging of the unit

Ridiculously bad about finger prints and smudges (I know I know..a screen protector would help here..but this was just out of the box comparison of the three)

I am sure some of the issue with the a500 will be solved over time if the Devs can get a working recovery on it.

All three were ridiculously easy to root...but there really is no good recovery option for the a500 or s7 slim yet. I am sure this will be solved over time.

The rooted nook had a real "neato" factor..but hardly practical for my use. After an hour or two navigating through the menus and hitting softkeys and downloading some apps I knew it would be going back.

 

[robdroid]

Can you explain how you "reset" your S7 Slim?
Do you lose any data or apps you've installed when you perform the "reset"?

Thanks!

you loose everything....and it does fix the market/gmail issue. For some reason there are a ton of update/installs that did not take part upon initial unboxing that did take place after a full reset

I believe I found it in the settings menu but I don't have my s7 in front of me. I will update later when my buddy is done playing with it.

SOB! It worked....!
Go into "settings", go into "privacy" then hit "Factory Data Reset"- it will warn about losing all customer data... hit OK.
Unit will reboot- you'll see Android being re-installed, reboots again.
As soon as it rebooted- I tried Google Market.... this time it synced perfectly and I could install apps, and my Gmail notifications popped up too.
Nice thing is S7 stayed rooted too! yes, all apps (except root/superuser) were gone- but at least Market and Gmail are now working!

Big thanks to avaburnette and Mr. Ed!

 

[Zeve]

Just got mine, had the same problem, reset to factory settings, works perfectly now.

One question, though. Other than overclocking, any other good reason to root it right now, as it already allows non-market apps to be installed and have "move to sdcard" option for apps?

 

[robdroid]

Now we need to find a case for this beast....

 

[robdroid]

Got home from work last night- turned on tablet- touch screen not working!
Couldn't turn off cause touch screen not working, so I removed battery. Rebooted- same problem, display works, volume control works, even screen rotation working, power button brings up power down menu- but touch screen digitizer not working so no way to use tablet. Removed battery again, waited 30 min, replaced battery- booted again, still not able to use touchscreen.
Boxed it up, drove to Best Buy, refunded $326... purchased 7" Galaxy Tab which has worked perfectly since unboxing.

This tablet is not ready for prime time.... so sorry!

 

[vferrari]

Got home from work last night- turned on tablet- touch screen not working!
Couldn't turn off cause touch screen not working, so I removed battery. Rebooted- same problem, display works, volume control works, even screen rotation working, power button brings up power down menu- but touch screen digitizer not working so no way to use tablet. Removed battery again, waited 30 min, replaced battery- booted again, still not able to use touchscreen.
Boxed it up, drove to Best Buy, refunded $326... purchased 7" Galaxy Tab which has worked perfectly since unboxing.

This tablet is not ready for prime time.... so sorry!

Which version SGT did you get? I'm also an S7 (original) to Galaxy Tab convert, but check back here frequently to see if Huawei has bothered to update the OS to version 2.2. Though more polished and solid than the S7, the Galaxy Tab has its quirks and shortcomings too so give it some run time too before you declare victory.

Probably not fair, however, to characterize the entire S7 product line as not "ready for prime time" based on a single infant mortality screen failure (pretty much any tab could suffer the same fate). Probably too early to tell whether Huawei actually has a quality control or design-based reliability problem based on a single data point. Though I don't blame you for jumping to another tab as a result of the failure. The reset issue doesn't sound like a big deal.

Sent from my GT-P1010 using Android Tablet Forum