A warning to potential buyers. DO NOT BUY! !

irishpride

Member
May 3, 2010
9
0
I bought the cruz reader for my Mom for Christmas and it was the biggest piece of s#!@ that i've ever used. After playing with it for a while, trying to show her how to use it, i wanted to throw it through a wall. It is extremely unresponsive and poorly designed.

So on the day after Christmas, i took it back for the cruz tablet, thinking it had to be better, and it was, but not by much. There is no way that it has a capacitive screen, and Android 2.0, what a joke. I will never buy anything from velocity ever again. Just horrible.

Sent From My GalaxyS
 

pbrauer

Administrator
Staff member
Sep 24, 2010
3,649
561
I believe if you had read the reviews here by myself, Xaeuious and others you may have saved yourself the frustration. Sorry about that, but we agree with your assessment of the Cruz.
 

Bilgediver

Member
Dec 3, 2010
163
4
Its a not very sensitive capacitive screen. Its tolerable, my gf likes it just for reading. I just can't wait for my archos to show up!

Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using Android Tablet Forum App
 

Bonmon62

Member
Dec 28, 2010
4
0
OH No, I just bought one... haven't opened it yet. What does everybody think the best one to buy> I was on ***************, they have so many, I was thinking of getting the ones with the Cortex a8, 2.2 os. I'll check and see if there are any reviews of it.
 

tandrufski

Member
Dec 28, 2010
1
0
I bought the Cruz Reader for my wife for Christmas and I have been working diligently trying to connect to wifi. I would at times and it would just cut off. Driving me nuts!!! I have had a trouble ticket since Christmas and no one has contacted me yet from Velocity. I can't believe someone would put something like this out to the public!!! Soooooo upset!!!
 

geekgirl70

Member
Dec 28, 2010
12
0
I've seen a lot of complaints about the Cruz Reader. I had the opportunity to play with one in a Waldens bookstore (the manager owned one) and honestly, I didn't see much to complain about. It was fairly responsive and seemed fine as an eReader. At the time, I was shopping around for a device that I could use as both an eReader and to manage my appointments, so the tablet-type devices seemed to fit the bill. I didn't have the kind of money to put into one of the more expensive devices, which not only cost a lot of money, but then required a monthly service contract (I don't THINK so!!) and not a cheap one at that. I also wasn't interested in anything as large as the iPad (even if I could have afforded it).

I went to several stores in the mall to look at devices, and there was one other place which had a tablet similar to the Micro Cruz. Radio Shack had one, it was a little less expensive, so I asked to look at it and it was TRULY awful. The poor store clerk was embarrassed it was so unresponsive. I decided the Micro Cruz was worth the extra money.

Rather than the Readers, I ended up buying two of the Tablets (103), because I got a truly exceptional deal on them. I bought one for myself, and one as a christmas/graduation gift for my sister. Although I've had a few annoyances with it (lack of Android Market being one), overall I'm very happy with the Tablet, and so is my sister, she uses her voraciously. It's really good for what we wanted them for, which is essentially just an eReader with a few perks. The calendar app is good enough, it does its job. I would really like to find an application to store contacts in it as well.

The tablet is acceptably fast, and although it's a little unresponsive sometimes, it's not too bad and certainly no worse than many other, similar devices I've tried. I've also noticed that it's often the apps themselves that are unresponsive, not the tablet. Since the tablet has a capacitive screen, and it works essentially on the electrical charge in our body, it sometimes helps to rub your fingers together a bit before touching it. When using the Reader, it helps to use a stylus (a stylus won't work on the Tablet).

There are a few things I want to tweak, but overall we're both happy with our Tablets, and I don't understand what all the fuss is about. Considering the price, they are good devices and worth the money. If you're looking for an alternative to a laptop, it would be better to spend more money and go with one of the higher end devices.
 

irishpride

Member
May 3, 2010
9
0
I ended up getting my Mom the NookColor and it is really amazing, night and day when compared to either of the velocity's and for practically the same price(as the tablet anyway). Barnes and Noble really hit a homerun with this one, for anyone looking to get a inexpensive tablet/e-reader, I would say your best bet is the NookColor hands down.
 

zarahlin

Member
Dec 27, 2010
27
0
I ended up getting my Mom the NookColor and it is really amazing, night and day when compared to either of the velocity's and for practically the same price(as the tablet anyway). Barnes and Noble really hit a homerun with this one, for anyone looking to get a inexpensive tablet/e-reader, I would say your best bet is the NookColor hands down.
Can you watch videos and youtube on it? Does the Nook Color have access to the Goggle Store? For only $50 more than the Cruz, I may consider this option.
 

Omnicron

Member
Dec 31, 2010
5
2
Rooted my wife’s Cruz reader and it's AWESOME!!!
I was a little hesitant grabbing one of these since there has been so many complaints.
I did my research and saw that I was able to root the device and speed up the CPU (set it to 800Mhz from 500Mhz)

After I rooted the Cruz Reader I tested it out and what a difference.
I now have access to the Android market, all Google applications and can watch Youtube vids (after installing the Skyfire browser)

It took me about an hour to root the device (most of that time was waiting for programs to install) and can say this was a fantastic bargain at $120 taxes in.

Follow these instructions to root your device in you are interested: CRUZ READER ONLY - Step-by-step for Update, Root and SetCPU

Happy New Year!
 

bob6003

Member
Dec 26, 2010
1
0
I bought a cruz reader before chrismas just to check it out even though the clerk and the manager said I could not return it if the box was open. It only took an hour to determine what crap it was. Took it back the next day returned it with no problem at all.
 

CenturionFive

Member
Dec 11, 2010
73
1
I bought a Velocity Cruz Micro Reader the first part of December. I love it. I use it mainly as a book reader, but also for light surfing and facebooking. I use the Kindle App, the borders app and the Aldiko reader. They all work very well. I do not use the Nook App because it is several time larger than any of the other readers and does nothing that they do not do. I also generally convert kindle books to epub.

I have called tech support on two occasions and got through on the first call and my questions were answered promptly.

Pleased with the purchase.


Cen5
 

paulmicro

Member
May 26, 2011
14
0
I have a Cruz R101. I have decided not to modify it if I don't have to, and the only thing I cannot do is play youtube videos right from the website. So, I download them on another machine and load them sideways, not really a problem. Oddly, some other videos will play right from the web. I am using skyfire, so I'm not sure whaqt the deal is. I had a Pandigital Novel, and I instaled the Canadian OS (Android 1.5), and using the Opera mini-browser on the PDN I was able to watch youtube. Just ain't working wioth the Cruz R101, but it plays movies, reads books, and surfs the web. I can't complain. I dropped my PDN and it went to reader heaven. I got the cruz recently off Woot! for $85 wand that included taxes, shipping. For that price, I think the cruz is a very good deal.
 

paulmicro

Member
May 26, 2011
14
0
I have a R101, and I haven't modified it, except to remove bloatware. I must say it does what I expected and more. I got a deal, only $80, and before that I had a Pandigital Novel, so maybe my expectations are low, but I think the more likely answer is that there are some bum units out there, and if you get one, you think they all suck.
 

rgallini

Member
Sep 27, 2011
9
2
I have a Cruz Reader and am very happy with it. Maybe I had lower expectations for something less than $100, but it does everything I wanted it to do.
 
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