My SuperPAD II experience (firmware post #17)

sinistersnipe

Member
Mar 1, 2011
6
3
LINK TO POST DESCRIBING FIRMWARE UPDATE IS HERE


Hi all,

First off, this is the first tablet I have ever owned, and its the first android device too.

At the time I ordered this I believed I was getting a "Flytouch 3 aka Superpad 2". Now I know that that was a scam, and its actually just an updated Flytouch 2... but who cares, its just a name difference.

Here is the one I ordered: 10.2" Android 2.2 GPS WIFI WebCam 3G 512 RAM SuperPAD 2 on eBay (end time 21-Feb-11 20:59:19 GMT)

Physical description:
This tablet has 4 screw covers around the device, 2 USB ports, 1 micro SD slot, 1 mini HDMI, 1 RJ45, 1 power, 1 3.5mm audio out, 1 GPS port, Power button, volume rocker switch, menu button, home button, "round apple type button", wifi switch, 2 speakers, stylus holder, webcam, and a reset pin hole.

Rooting:
Z4root crashes. Other ideas?

Performance, Specs:
Straight out of the box I put Quadrant standard on it, and it scored 205 points.
The accelerometer is a BMA150, but the axis are mixed up. Ive heard of a work around for that in another thread, but I didnt have a chance to try it out yet. Auto screen rotation does not work.
From android system info: "Internal device storage space, available space: 2,48 GB"
Mini Info app says RAM is 373 MB total, and internal NAND is 2.8GB total.
CPU: ARMv6 compatible processor rev 5(v6l), IMAPX200
GPU: Vivante GC600 Graphics Engine
Display: 600x1024


Android version 2.2-update1-20110221
Kernel version: 2.6.32.9
Build number: FRF85B

Apps:
Android market works, no probs.
Angry birds and angry birds seasons does not work, "error 18".
Youtube app (pre installed) crashes while loading.

About 50% of apps work fine, 25% have an error during installation, and 25% crash upon opening them.

GPS
Seems weak so far, but didn't try it fully yet.

Indoors, no antenna: No signal/weak signal
Indoors, antenna hanging out of the window: Signal from many sats, but too weak too position.

Hence I couldn't try out google maps yet, it keeps on placing me in the ocean west of Africa. :(

Battery
Battery life seems pretty decent. Without having disabled cellphone services yet I get about 3.5 hours of playing around with it after a full nights charge. Note for 2.5 of those 3 hours the battery indicator remained at 100%. Its said to have a 5800mah battery in it - ill crack it open soon and see if that's actually true.

Usage
A bit slow at first, but installing launcher pro made the home screen and app draw a lot more responsive.
It comes with google pinyin keyboard installed, very annoying to start with, and it can only be disabled with the "select input device" option.
The screen is far more responsive than i thought it would be!
Games and graphic apps run quite slow, e.g. Sketch pad "SKMB" or the game "NinJump" are quite laggy. Also, many games look terrible blown up to 10.2 inches.
Also, the speakers are very quiet, and (at least on my device) the left speaker is considerably louder than the right speaker.
No flash support. And Java websites seem to give me trouble too.

Overall:
Its my first tablet, so I wasn't sure what to expect. The screen is more responsive than I thought it would be. The speed of the device is mediocre, but as expected. I think for 150 pounds (What ever that is in dollars) its a good device, fun to use and mess about with.


I hope this is helpful for people, any more questions? anything specific someone would like me to try? Or any new insights on what tablet this actually is?

Cheers!
 
Last edited by a moderator:

redincali

Member
Mar 2, 2011
3
1
Hey sinister. I also just received my tablet, but its the normal 256, 2.1 android ft2 model. Have you tried rooting using UniversalAndroot? That one worked for me. I also installed the Superuser.apk manually before running Androot. Then install Root Explorer and rename or delete the stock "wow" launcher if you dont like it, I didn't.

Mine has a continuous static sound coming from the speakers, even while something else is playing sound. Does yours do that as well? Its very faint though. Also, I set my backlight to go off after a minute but I noticed after a day of use that a lot of the time when the screen goes off (automatically or manually with power button), it seems to actually go into a standby. I have to use the power button to get my screen back on, the button on the front with the square on it wont wake it up. It vibrates real fast when it comes on from standby as well, but not like the normal power on long vibrate, with the wifi off. Sometimes its checked in the settings still, sometimes its not.

Let me know if your having any of these issues. Mine may be due to me not updating it but from what I have read, the update above mine has issues with the camera and some other things. As of right now, everything works 'ok' as far as actually working. Not many errors. So hopefully they update it again soon to address these issues and not create new ones.

Hope you like yours as much as I do! (Even though my phones waaay faster)
 

tarakmehta

Member
Feb 5, 2011
7
0
Could you let me know how to insert micro sd card in the sd slot . Do the metal contacts on micros sd card face the screen or face down towards the non-screen side ?
 

camycam178

Member
Jan 22, 2011
24
1
Is this one the same as the ChinaGrabber one?! I'm regretting buying it a lot from these problems you listed, mine arrives on tuesday. :(
 

sinistersnipe

Member
Mar 1, 2011
6
3
First off, the metal contacts face the non-screen side of the device.

I tried the superuser/universalandroot method described above but no luck. My speakers dont have a static hiss, but they are still useless unless there is absolute silence. Re rooting via z4root: i now get prompted to enable usb tethering, but that option doesnt exist on this tablet... again, there is a work around, but i havnt tried it yet.

I have somewhat of a warning: dont try to install a swipe patter lock. After playing around with some pattern apps i got to a settings screen where i could enable the pattern lock. This option does not normally exist on this device!!! So i was happy to have found a work around, enabled it, and subsequently bricked my tablet. When locked i was prompted with the normal slide to unlock... however, sliding did no longer unlock it, it just got stuck. So i was forced to do a factory reset by pressing(but not holding) the menu button immediatly after pressing power to turn it on.

On the upside, setting up the tablet the second time was alot faster.. ;)

Updates to my first post:
-auto screen rotation works, but because of the mixed axis you have to tilt the device away from you to reorientate the screen after rotating it.
-the viewing angles across the narrow side of the screen are misrable! Using it in portrait mode gives me a headache, the distance between my eyes is enough to severely alter how the screen looks.
-youtube mobile works fine in the browser, but for some reason without sound.
-regardless, i still like this device a lot... enough to type this post on it :)

Sent from my sdk using Android Tablet Forum App
 

sinistersnipe

Member
Mar 1, 2011
6
3
Yes, cheers mate!

The app they suggest is still a bit bugged though, for instance the time line to skip through the video doesn't align itself with the bottom of the screen... it stays in the middle on top of the video and only disappears if you tap the video.

Looks like a good tech support forum, their mod seems very helpful!
 

Hwrd

Member
Mar 5, 2011
3
0
Is this one the same as the ChinaGrabber one?! I'm regretting buying it a lot from these problems you listed, mine arrives on tuesday. :(

I bought the Chinagrabber one and am having some additional problems (typically no sound). Although my one plays Angry Birds.

I have no idea what to do to resolve it. I definitely regret my purchase (someone I know wholeheartedly recommended it, will ignore things like that in the future... )
 

camycam178

Member
Jan 22, 2011
24
1
Hey OP, I got the same tablet. :D Very impressed. any fixes for the mixed axis? My only issue really.
 

Reverb

Member
Feb 8, 2011
20
0
hey sinister love the post, mine broke with in 2 hours tried the reset didn't work but anyway they are sending me a new one so another 2 weeks or something.

but im pretty much new to android period. and just wanted to ask which apps are kinda necessary for it to run good. etc.
 

MrSmith317

Member
Mar 16, 2011
12
2
Sinister, to root this thing you need launcher pro and z4root. Kick up launcher pro and add a shortcut to the development activity and then enable USB debugging. Once you have USB debugging enabled Z4root should work properly.
 

samstables

Member
Mar 18, 2011
5
1
Take out the SD card/ unmount it and then try installing Angry Birds again. You can put the card back in and move Angry birds to SD and it'll work - until you want to update it! I don't know why this works but it does, and also on other games like Cordy.
 

dwcunpluged

Member
Dec 25, 2010
248
16
Hey OP, I got the same tablet. :D Very impressed. any fixes for the mixed axis? My only issue really.

So does that man you actually got the ft2 with two tf slots? The one I got has all the same specs and software stats but only has the one tf slot. I don't know if that means they found a way to trick the Android System Info app or just forgot my second slot.

Sent from my rooted wwe 10 using Android Tablet Forum App
 

mummy2

Member
Mar 20, 2011
2
0
you guys is lucky, most of you have OS 2.2. I received my SuperPad yesterday. But OS is 2.1, supplier said there is no way to upgrade to 2.2 or latest. My question is how to watch on FLV online if can't upgrade to 2.2? :(
 
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