Just got the Cruz T301 and I like it

deb

Member
Aug 24, 2010
22
1
I just got this on Saturday (a belated birthday present to myself).
I didn't want an expensive tablet, just something to read on, play a few games, view documents and maybe watch a conveted movie.

It has Android 2.2.3 on it.

I had an SD card (8Gb) that had some items all ready on it because when we changed computers at work, I put some items on it so I wouldn't lose them. Music and some personal documents. These work on this Cruz. I was glad I had that card so I could see how it worked. Some didn't work and I'm not sure why, it could have been the document or the way it was saved, because I could open .doc and .docx and .pdf documents. No problem.

My T301 came with flash and plays .MP4 movies I converted. There were some TV shows I converted (with DVDCatalyst) for my Droid 1 phone and I moved them to my SDCard and it played them fine. I wish the speakers were better, but it's just a tablet, not a sound system. There was also an .MP4 movie I converted for my netbook that I moved on my Cruz to give it a try and it worked fine. The box says that a lot of different video conversion work, but if .MP4 works, that's great.

I went to Mcdonald's for the free WiFi (closest to my house) and got my Kindle books on there. Kindle was pre-installed. I can read them easily on this tablet. I was using my phone, but every 3 seconds I had to turn the page. Although I loved it, the continious page turning was a turn off.;)

I tried downloading a few apps and some weren't tablet specific. The tetris didn't work out well. I downloaded a brain game and that seems okay. Kind of had to tilt it on one game, really far back. I have a word search and the only problem is the words go across the top notification section, so when I press, occassionally it will bring up the notification bar and I have to wait to move on. But it works. I would get a higher score if it didn't do that.
I wish I could get Angry birds but I tried a few ways and it wouldn't download:mad:.

I didn't try the web or e-mail or anyother internet site as I was trying to download games and my Kindle books.

I got it at Office Depot for $199, which is more then some paid, but it's less then what other tablets are. This was the price I was looking at (or lower). Just wanted a basic, smallish tablet.

It's not perfect. I had a few tried to get it connected to my netbook, but after the third (and turning off and on my netbook) it connected easily. The touch on the touch screen could be better, but it's not bad and doesn't bother me.

So far I'm enjoying it.
 

deb

Member
Aug 24, 2010
22
1
Just an update.

I really like watching my tv shows at lunch on this.
I found an .apk for Pinball Deluxe somewhere and this is perfect on here. Plays great. I'm now addicted to this game ;).
Also enjoying Toss It.

Kindle works greatstill.

On another post I talked about battery life on this Cruz T301 and so I watched a 2 hr 24 movie and it worked great on here. No problem except the sound, really need headphones or a really good speakers. After that movie, a 24 min tv show, some games, being unplugged for about 15 hours, I had 68% battery left.


Sent from my Droid 1 using Android Tablet Forum
 

ohtastic

Member
Aug 9, 2011
1
0
My wife won one of these in Atlantic City about a month ago. It may be an older version, it came with 2GB onboard storage but most models online seem to be 4GB or 8GB. Operating RAM is also only 256MB, just like a 1st generation ipad. I think newer versions come with 512MB. Of the 2GB onboard storage it reported around 900MB was free.

It was pre-loaded with the latest Kindle app. It was a real pain to get the T301 running right - right off the bat I noticed it was running android 2.2-rc7, the "rc7" made me think uh-oh a "release candidate"?, like it was perhaps unofficial or unfinished version of the OS / software. The browser wouldn't load any pages, and after employing a safety pin for a few resets which did nothing I downloaded the android 2.2 upgrade from Velocity Micro's site. I put that on an SD card and flashed the T301.

It now reports Android version 2.2 (I think 2.2.3, but can't remember atm, my wife and daughter hog this thing!!!), no issues with the internet browser now. I'm comfortable with the browser as it's Webkit-based, and is similar to the Webkit browser on my Blackberry Torch. I've seen online prices for this tablet range $150 to $180 new, refurbs seem to be $130-ish. Can't beat free though :cool:

There's a Cruz market app pre-installed, first thing we installed from there was the Youtube for android 2.2 app. Youtube works well with it, no problems watching and searching for videos. The Kindle app is nice, had zero problems with it so far, I was also able to drop a few of my old .mobi format e-books onto the SD card and the Kindle app had no problem with them.

I can also report that the tablet seems to support playback of xvid-encoded videos, as long as its standard definition resolution or lower. xvid is a free, open source video codec and I believe is based on mpeg4, which the tablet allegedly supports.

Angry Birds definitely doesn't work on this tablet, tried installing but it won't happen. I assume it's because the tablet doesn't have good enough graphics, or perhaps the CPU is too slow for Angry Birds.

Another nice thing about this is it can charge either from the regular pin-type ac adapter, or from a mini usb cord if you connect the tablet to a computer via usb and there's enough juice from the usb port.
 

deb

Member
Aug 24, 2010
22
1
Glad to hear someone else having a good tablet.

Yes mpeg4 works. I downloaded a video from internetarchive.org which has old, public videos, etc., and it worked fine.
 

dooroo

Member
Aug 1, 2011
8
1
I am very happy with my Cruz T301. I know it's limitations and I do push it to the limits.

- I can watch my Divx encoded videos that I originally created for my pocket PC. (640x480 original res. fits screen and looks fine.)
- I use Overdrive to read ebooks and listen to audio books from local libraries.
- momento is my fav app for creating databases. (This is where I keep my database for contacts.)
- browsing, while not desktop fast, is acceptable.
- sound quality could be better but what do you expect for <$150.
- youtube videos play fine.
- Pandora, Slaker and Jango stream over wifi fine. (Jango does have a strange login glitch that you have to navigate around)
- A.I. Keyboard makes typing work so much better.
- dropbox and evernote work great
- Xfinity app works.
- I have all of the major App sites installed, (Amazon, SlideMe, Google Market, Appoke, AppBrain and CruzMarket)
- I use Business Calendar
- Cloud Printing works great.
- Dolphine Browser HD is my fav browser
- Kindle works great with Kindle books and other mobi books on SD


What I'm missing.

- contact editor that integrates with Google Contacts
- GPS
 

BahiaCruz

Member
Sep 3, 2011
1
0
I am very happy with my Cruz T301. I know it's limitations and I do push it to the limits.

- I have all of the major App sites installed, (Amazon, SlideMe, Google Market, Appoke, AppBrain and CruzMarket)

May I ask how you install Google Android Market on the T301? Thanks.
 

sdiaz5796

Member
Sep 9, 2011
1
0
I really likde this tablet at first. I got it back in June as a birthday gift, but here it is September and I am frustrated. I have a lot of IT books in PDF format and have tried to convert them to mobi and epub files but they don't convert properly. So I have tried to download and install 5 different pdf readers for the tablet and none will install, can anyone help me or point me in the right direction to get some assistance? The preloaded PDF reader is slow to load pages and I have to adjust every page to read it properly. I got a 2 year warranty so I am about to take it back.
 

deb

Member
Aug 24, 2010
22
1
sdiaz, sorry no one has helped, I haven't been to this forum for a while. I'm not sure how to convert to read on Kindle.

I'm still enjoying mine and reading with the Kindle on it. I only had time to download a few games and my pinball game is the one I keep going back to. The brain games not bad, but pinball, although takes some thought, is pretty easy and relaxing after reading.

On my Kindle account I have Reader's Digest, I just go ti to try it out and have stuck with it. On this tablet it's pretty good and clear. I think this size would be perfect for magazines. I think the paper magazines a tad big anyway.

After having this one, I could see the Kindle Fire as a good alternative or competitor to this Cruz T301. I would have got the Kindle Fire if it was available and if I knew it was coming this soon, I may have waited (may have).
 

ricardocr

Member
Nov 28, 2011
1
0
I really likde this tablet at first. I got it back in June as a birthday gift, but here it is September and I am frustrated. I have a lot of IT books in PDF format and have tried to convert them to mobi and epub files but they don't convert properly. So I have tried to download and install 5 different pdf readers for the tablet and none will install, can anyone help me or point me in the right direction to get some assistance? The preloaded PDF reader is slow to load pages and I have to adjust every page to read it properly. I got a 2 year warranty so I am about to take it back.

Hello sdiaz
this software http://calibre-ebook.com/
a
nd aldiko for reading books is the answer for your problems
 

techristian

Senior Member
May 7, 2011
3
0
Flash WILL NOT work on T301 . I hacked mine for almost a year and could never get Flash working. I did root it though and got Gmail, Market etc. (GAPPS) and Cyanogen


Dan
 
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