A 7" iPhone 4 'Dropad A8' Reviewed - Most Powerful Shanzhai Apple Clone Ever?

xaueious

Administrator
Staff member
Jul 9, 2010
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Here is a Japanese user review video showing the device in action with functional multitouch, an intensive Adobe Flash video, browsing, multitouch test, as well as Gallery3D:

Packed with a Samsung S5PV210 core, which typically clocks at 1GHz, this is one of the first shanzhai tablets to ship with a capacitive screen and a Cortex A8 processor along with the new Witstech A81G+. This is a generic tablet marketed as a '7" iPhone 4 in various ads', under multiple brands. It comes with a 7" 800x480 screen, along with a two-point capacitive multitouch touchscreen.

As expected with many of these tablets, while the hardware is packed with promise, the firmware is lacking. There are some features that do not work properly, such as the g-sensor in games. This is a shame, as the gaming capabilities should have been quite powerful on this PowerVR540 also present in the Samsung Galaxy S lineup. The available memory is only shown as a notch over 320MB, which may be indicative of further optimization needed for the firmware. There is also the strange case of a self-resetting MAC address, another common feature of these unpolished pieces of hardware. Quadrant benchmarks currently do not complete.

Additional Sources:
Shanzhaiben

Thanks to RobMtl007 for starting the conversation on this, as well as the link to the Youtube video.
 
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strider_mt2k

Member
Nov 22, 2010
406
19
Oh for the final polish that so soften NEVER COMES.

Keep up the great work with the tablet coverage.
 

teegunn

Member
Nov 28, 2010
78
2
Two problems. It looks like a damn iPhone. And, as is always the case with these chinese knockoffs, some key portions of the tab don't freaking work. Hey, here's a cheap Icrap knockoff.... don't worry some of the features won't work but it looks like and iphone.
 

RobMtl007

Member
Jan 15, 2011
18
0
Greetings Teegunn:
I think you make a strong point that with these Chinese Tablets some key portions don't work.

One example on this Dropad A8 is that Fring and Skype doesn't work correctly.
But the difference we here in this forum have is that we all work as a community and try to resolve issues.

This isn't the case for more popular brands that cost 5x the price.

I also give you points Teegunn for pointing out that Chinese Tablets and consumer electronic products have a serious
quality control problem, they just don't check their products in prototype stage enough before they go into
production.
Hopely someone will solve this problem, because customers want Tablets that work.

Regards Robert
 

VeNoMouSNZ

Member
Oct 10, 2010
4
0
Just gonna chuck my 2 cents in here...

Having done a fair bit of development on various android tablets.... There are a couple ways around the button mapping thing, one is that the keycodes for each of the buttons is in the kernel, this can be remapped, tho that requires you buillding a custom kernel, asure is trying to talk me into jumping in on the project, tbh it isnt that hard to resolve, I can mention it to him to place on the todo (there was an identical problem between the M701/X5A/etc etc)...

Regarding quality control.... we I don't disagree with you there, but you do get what you pay for, buy something cheap, get something cheap :p You cant really complain tho for the price its not too bad.

- VeNoMouS


Greetings Teegunn:
I think you make a strong point that with these Chinese Tablets some key portions don't work.

One example on this Dropad A8 is that Fring and Skype doesn't work correctly.
But the difference we here in this forum have is that we all work as a community and try to resolve issues.

This isn't the case for more popular brands that cost 5x the price.

I also give you points Teegunn for pointing out that Chinese Tablets and consumer electronic products have a serious
quality control problem, they just don't check their products in prototype stage enough before they go into
production.
Hopely someone will solve this problem, because customers want Tablets that work.

Regards Robert
 
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