Yesterdays dreams; todays reality: I am a Ziio owner now...

[pparijatt]

Hi drussthelegend!
I'm thinking of buying a ziio now and I happened to read thru your entire decision making process from the time you were considering the buy. You seem to have had PRECISELY THE SAME requirements as I do, and hence you're the best person for me to take opinion from. Since you've already spent a couple of months with this gizmo, can you enlightne me on your views about it now? Is there anything I need to know that probably you dint until you bought the ziio?
Your inputs will be truly appreciated.
Thanks in advance!

 

[drussthelegend]

@pparijatt:

Hello and welcome to the forum!

I am glad that my "journey" to buying the Ziio helped you out. Before I answer you, let me bring up a few points again.

My decision to buy the Ziio was largely economical. I live in the Middle East and here we do not have the large selection of product available to us as in the West. So the Ziio was one of the three product I was looking at which also included the Samsung Galaxy Tab and the Archos Series. The Tab was grossly overpriced for me and I could not get the Archos from any mainstream retailer other then the grey market - which meant no warranty!

One of Ziio attractiveness lies in its price; but do not forget you are still ONLY getting what you paid for. A lot of the other devices available in the market will most certainy give you a better expeicence, but I am of the opinion that none can beat the Ziio in value. Since my purchase, I had the chance to use both the Apple iPad and the Tab; and I will honestly admit the user experience was better for both the devices. But then again both the devices costs twice as much and the Ziio is totally functional for my needs.

Third, this was my first tablet device and my first Android device. So understand this, I did not go into it having bloated expectation. I knew from the start that it has a resistive touchscreen. My previous experience with resistive touchscreen was with the Nokia 5800. So I was pleasantly surprised by the Ziio's touchscreen experience. If you are coming in from a capacitive touchscreen, then be prepared to be frustrated initially. That said, I believe that if you have the patience to stick with it, eventually you will not be bothered by the touchscreen. It will become second nature to you.

The operation of the Ziio is quite acceptable. I am not so spoiled as to require my applications to appear on screen as soon as I tap the widget. The minor delay does not trouble me at all. After all, it has a 1 Ghz processor and with the recent 2.2 Froyo update, I don't think there should be any complaint in that front either.

As for apps; they are all out there. You just need to research a bit. As a matter of fact, all the popular sites have been repeatedly mentioned in this forum. Initially, I downloaded the .apk file in my laptop then just copied them SD card using a card reader, inserted the SD card into the Ziio and directly installed it using the File Browser/Manager provided by Creative. It's that simple. There are many places you can get .apk files and believe me within one week I found a lot of repos of .apk files on the net.

Last, my main use of the Ziio was alway web browsing. And the browsing experience has satisfactory for me. I read articles online and Android 2.1 does that quite satisfactorily. I have not had the chance to install the 2.2 update yet as I have been very busy with work; but with Flash support available now you should get desktop grade web experience.

Email and IM is covered since long in Android so I don't believe you will lack for anything. The available freewares in either categories should more then serve your need. You can use goggle to find user review of softwares that does the best job for each category and install then.

I am not sure what more you are looking for, but if you need specifics I'll be happy to talk about it. I'll be honest, if you do decide to buy the Ziio, it wont be the hardware that will trip you. So il'll comes down to Android experience, and the Android experience in any other device should theoretically be the same. The only drawback I can think about is the resistive touchscreen. If typing in the resistive touchscreen becomes frustrating, just use a stylus. A resistive touchscreen + stylus trumps capacitive touchscreen any day.

I am not the same as you, so I my values and expectation should differs from your. Even though I was nervous, I crossed my fingers and took a leap of faith with the Ziio. And I am pretty satisfied with it. It's not my THE goto device, but I do make use of it at least once everyday.

You should talk with @razer here in the forum. He should be very helpful too.

Anyway, read through all the old post and you should get some idea what the Ziio is about. I am just waiting of some hacker/developer to adopt this device and show some love to it, then it will really explode. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Take care!

 

[drussthelegend]

@pparijatt:

Hello and welcome to the forum!

I am glad that my "journey" to buying the Ziio helped you out. Before I answer you, let me bring up a few points again.

My decision to buy the Ziio was largely economical. I live in the Middle East and here we do not have the large selection of product available to us as in the West. So the Ziio was one of the three product I was looking at which also included the Samsung Galaxy Tab and the Archos Series. The Tab was grossly overpriced for me and I could not get the Archos from any mainstream retailer other then the grey market - which meant no warranty!

One of Ziio attractiveness lies in its price; but do not forget you are still ONLY getting what you paid for. A lot of the other devices available in the market will most certainy give you a better expeicence, but I am of the opinion that none can beat the Ziio in value. Since my purchase, I had the chance to use both the Apple iPad and the Tab; and I will honestly admit the user experience was better for both the devices. But then again both the devices costs twice as much and the Ziio is totally functional for my needs.

Third, this was my first tablet device and my first Android device. So understand this, I did not go into it having bloated expectation. I knew from the start that it has a resistive touchscreen. My previous experience with resistive touchscreen was with the Nokia 5800. So I was pleasantly surprised by the Ziio's touchscreen experience. If you are coming in from a capacitive touchscreen, then be prepared to be frustrated initially. That said, I believe that if you have the patience to stick with it, eventually you will not be bothered by the touchscreen. It will become second nature to you.

The operation of the Ziio is quite acceptable. I am not so spoiled as to require my applications to appear on screen as soon as I tap the widget. The minor delay does not trouble me at all. After all, it has a 1 Ghz processor and with the recent 2.2 Froyo update, I don't think there should be any complaint in that front either.

As for apps; they are all out there. You just need to research a bit. As a matter of fact, all the popular sites have been repeatedly mentioned in this forum. Initially, I downloaded the .apk file in my laptop then just copied them SD card using a card reader, inserted the SD card into the Ziio and directly installed it using the File Browser/Manager provided by Creative. It's that simple. There are many places you can get .apk files and believe me within one week I found a lot of repos of .apk files on the net.

Last, my main use of the Ziio was alway web browsing. And the browsing experience has satisfactory for me. I read articles online and Android 2.1 does that quite satisfactorily. I have not had the chance to install the 2.2 update yet as I have been very busy with work; but with Flash support available now you should get desktop grade web experience.

Email and IM is covered since long in Android so I don't believe you will lack for anything. The available freewares in either categories should more then serve your need. You can use goggle to find user review of softwares that does the best job for each category and install then.

I am not sure what more you are looking for, but if you need specifics I'll be happy to talk about it. I'll be honest, if you do decide to buy the Ziio, it wont be the hardware that will trip you. So il'll comes down to Android experience, and the Android experience in any other device should theoretically be the same. The only drawback I can think about is the resistive touchscreen. If typing in the resistive touchscreen becomes frustrating, just use a stylus. A resistive touchscreen + stylus trumps capacitive touchscreen any day.

I am not the same as you, so I my values and expectation should differs from your. Even though I was nervous, I crossed my fingers and took a leap of faith with the Ziio. And I am pretty satisfied with it. It's not my THE goto device, but I do make use of it at least once everyday.

You should talk with @razer here in the forum. He should be very helpful too.

Anyway, read through all the old post and you should get some idea what the Ziio is about. I am just waiting of some hacker/developer to adopt this device and show some love to it, then it will really explode. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Take care!

 

[pparijatt]

@drussthelegend:

Thanks a lot for taking time out and writing to me in detail. I use the resistive screen on samsung star cellphone and am not very picky about having a capacitative touchscreen. also, from most of the reviews, I've learnt that ziio has the best resistive screen so far.
Did you say Flash support? Does the ziio have flash support now? That woud really be great!
I live in India and I guess I wud have about as much access to gadgets as you do..

My reasons for buying a tablet are:
1. Reading work related ppts, pdfs and other ebooks before going to sleep.
2. Surfing the net, chatting with friends and the occasional video chat.
3. Watching movies while I travel
4. Carrying a digital photo album wherever i go

Thus my requitrements with the gadget are low price, reliability, good battery life and compatibility with various file types.
Of course I am not looking for iPad quality when I am not paying even half as much..

As I can see, you are still happy about the purchase you have made; this is green signal enough for me to go ahead and buy it. I guess I have made my mind

Do share your views about the battery life and ways how you save power on it.
Also, how is the viewing angle? I read a review which said two people would have difficulty watching the same video on the ziio at the same time. Is it that bad?

 

[drussthelegend]

@pparijatt

Hmmm...battery life can be tricky issue to talk about. It all comes down to how you use your device. That would be the diplomatic answer used by most Tech sites. If you want an honest answer from me, this is it. Battery life could have been a better...not the worst thing out there but sometimes it can trip you up if you are not careful...

I don't carry my Ziio with me when I leave the house. It remains at my bedside to be used when I am done for the day and want to relax. I use the Ziio for about 2 hours everyday. And most of the time it is for web surfing and checking my email. I keep background data syncing switched off. I do not need a notification the instance I receive an email. I am okay with refreshing my Inbox at the time of checking my emails...

I also keep my display brightness at 70% and the screen to switch off after 2 minutes of inactivity.

I never made it a point to specifically test out the battery life of the device, but with my usage pattern, I usually find that I have to charge the Ziio every third day. Some Tech site list the Ziio as having 5 hours of video playback and 25 hours of music playback. I am sorry of I cannot confirm these number, but they should give you a general idea as to what the Ziio is capable of. Maybe some of our other helpful members can additional input on this matter.

Lastly, as I said before, my expectation are different from your. For me, the Ziio was never a replacement device. Believe it or not, I own a powerful desktop and a mid-ranged laptop. But I found that the laptop is not as portable as I would have liked...in other words, I could not curl up on the bed with my laptop. That's where the Ziio comes in for me! When I am done for the day, and am ready to turn in, I use it to for some light reading and catching up with my social communication. Then again, I am not the type of guys who lives of Facebook...so I cannot say if if the Ziio will satisfy a Facebook/Twitter addict.

The Ziio has not made me give up my laptop by a longshot...

Well, this is my input. I would strongly suggest asking around this forum for more reviews to get a clearer picture of what you are getting yourself into. My reviews are mostly positive because the Ziio satisfied my limited requirement. There could be other people in this forum who may have had greater expectation for this device and who could give you a better insight into the Ziio's shortcomings. As I don't carry this device with my when I travel, I cannot comment on points 3 & 4 of your posts. Hopefully, someone else here maybe able to answer you...

Well, I am glad I could help you out. My advise is to hand out around this forum a little longer. The guys here are pretty helpful too. And be patient with the Ziio. There is a solution out there is you bother to look around...

 

[drussthelegend]

@pparijatt:

The Ziio has a ZiiLABS ZMS-08 Processor which is a ARM Cortex-A8 at 1GHz. The minimum requirement for Flash in Android is A7 - the previous iteration (as far I understand...feel free to correct me if I am wrong); so there should be no problem with flash...

This processor is capable of playing 1080p video too...

check out the link below for more information on the Ziio processor:

ZiiLABS ZMS-08 ARM Cortex A8 Media Processor

Android 2.2 brings Flash SUPPORT only. You will have to download and install the Flash .apk to get Flash on the Ziio. As I have already mentioned before, I did not install the 2.2 update yet, but my understanding on the issue is as I mentioned above.

There is no news of Android 3.0 on the Ziio - which was released by Google specifically for Tablet.

Beyond 2.2, Android 2.3 was released in the beginning of the year which brings more optimization to Android...and again there is no news if the Ziio will be upgraded to this iteration of Android.

But I suppose Android 2.2 should be sufficient for the Ziio...