New Coby Kyros Tablet Pre-Orders on Amazon.com Reveal Pricing, to Launch this Month

[xaueious]

​

Coby Electronics had revealed their updated Kyros tablet lineup on their webpage featuring five Samsung S5PV210 Cortex A8 tablets at 1GHz, 4GB onboard storage, 512MB RAM, Android 2.3, HDMI, and sizes of 7", 8", and 10". However, all tablets are listed only with wifi g connectivity, which is a setback. Some of these tablets also will feature capacitive touchscreens (1025, 1026 as listed), although most will be cheaper resistive variants. Coby has been rumored to have invested heavily in Android tablets in recent months, as shown by their revamped webpage.

Despite the decent specifications, none of these tablets can be easily recommended.

Interest will only by dampened by Coby's attitude of dismissal and ignorance towards compliance with the GPL license in multiple products, and continuing in the illegal distribution of violating products in the American market. Rooting Android 2.3 on an unknown platform may turn out to be difficult, as Google has patched various exploits that allowed for the devices to be rooted, leaving it up to the community to create viable alternatives.

Pre-orders are available on Amazon show availability for 4 of the 5 models (found so far) for March 15, with specifications on the Coby webpage, as follows:
MID7025 (7" 800x480 resistive): $172.99
MID7026 (7" 800x600 resistive): $172.99
MID8025 (8" 800x600 resistive): $190.99
MID1025 (10.1" 1024x600" capacitive) $259.99

Of note are the variants with resolutions of 800x600, which is not a standard Android resolution and is known to cause some applications to fail, and as a result are not recommended except as dedicated ebook readers. However, the 7025 and 1025 models could turn out to be viable alternatives.

Equivalent Samsung S5PV210 devices from Shenzhen have not found profound success due to sub-par firmware implementations. In addition, there has not been any stable Android 2.3 devices on the market as of now. As a company that is known to rebrand shanzhai products, we cannot be confident of Coby's capabilities to supply viable Android implementations. These products will likely not be Google certified to use Android market applications such as Gmail and the Android market. Coby does supply appslib, which is rather insufficient. Many MID7015 users have elected to attempt to install the Google mobile applications, as seen in our Coby tablet forums.

As such, none of Coby's new tablets should be recommended until the actual products ship.

Thanks to dardoncas in our Coby tablet forum discussion thread

 

[strider_mt2k]

It's a shame that Coby takes such an attitude when they could have grabbed this segment and made a name for themselves (that isn't some form of expletive).

 

[tipstir]

Radio Shack Web Only showing the price on the 10.1" as $399.99 with GingerBread OS 2.3
RAM is blank, so it must be another 256MB (data is blank) 4GB Nand again. This is not good deal then.
Again 3 months protection like Craig does also with it's CVS $79 buck tablet.

TECH SPECS

General Features
Model MID1025-4G
Product Type Tablets
Enclosure Color Black
Miscellaneous Features
Supported Languages English
Connections
USB 2.0 (1)
1/8" (3.5mm) headphone (1)
1/8" (3.5mm) microphone (1)
HDMI mini (1)
Power Features
Power Device Li-poly battery
Battery Features
Battery Type Product
Chemistry Lithium Ion
Size Specialty
Capacity 480 mAh
Voltage 3.7 Volts
Rechargeable Yes
Display Features
Type Capacitive touchscreen 1024x600 (WSVGA) widescreen 16:9
Display Size 10.1 inches
Color Support Yes
Operating System/Software
Software Included Aldiko E-Book, for downloading and reading thousands of e-books (which supports the ePub standard) and AppsLib.
OS Provided Android 2.3
Memory/Storage Features
Supported Flash Memory microSD up to 32GB
Integrated Memory 4
Audio Features
Speaker(s) Built-in
Processor Features
Processor Type 1GHz Samsung S5PV210 (Cortex A8)
Installed Qty 1
Max Supported Qty 1

 

[jessrw]

I pre-ordered the 8025 from Amazon. I am returning the 7015 back to Wal-Mart this week. I had just purchased it, well received it from the store,when the news about the release date for the new ones. Wal Mart has a 15 return policy and luckily I am within those days. The 7015 was not bad, a little slow and would sometimes freeze for a second or two here and there but over all nice for the price $144.00. Which I had looked at WM site yesterday and they had 7015 for $134.00...go figure. I like the fact of support for adobe flash on the 8025 and the faster processor.

Jessica

 

[feverhost]

The "MID8025 (8" 800x600 resistive): $190.99" isn't a bad price actually... some-what tempting

 

[rokky]

Radio Shack Web Only showing the price on the 10.1" as $399.99 with GingerBread OS 2.3
RAM is blank, so it must be another 256MB (data is blank) 4GB Nand again. This is not good deal then.
Again 3 months protection like Craig does also with it's CVS $79 buck tablet.
...

I thought I was doing pretty well to get the Craig last week from CVS at $99, so what/when was the $79 deal? Also, what's this about "3 months protection"?

TIA
RO (another PDN "alum" )

 

[stargiss]

I'm wondering if I should return the 7015 I just bought in order to get the new model when it releases in a few days. On one hand I would be getting an upgraded model for just a few dollars more, but on the other hand I just rooted the one I have and got the Google Market and other stuff. Probably will be a while before the newer models are figured out and broke so they will be as useful as a rooted 7015.

Decisions, decisions! I'm leaning toward keeping the one I have. Even though the newer updated model is tempting, it's difficult to justify paying the extra money for something that would be less useful than what I have now. Eventually (in a few weeks/months) the new models might be worth it but by then the price will probably be lower anyway.

Yep...I'm going to stick with the one I have I believe. It's already rooted and running Clockwork mod...may be a while before this will be possible on the new models and by then they may be down to the same price as the 7015 is now. Besides...with either one we would be using outdated firmware...2.1 or 2.3...who cares when the latest and greatest is 3.0?

 

[stargiss]

I thought I was doing pretty well to get the Craig last week from CVS at $99, so what/when was the $79 deal? Also, what's this about "3 months protection"?

TIA
RO (another PDN "alum" )

I looked at the Craig...I wouldn't think I was doing pretty well with it at $99 or $79! Of course I would have thought the same thing about the Coby too until I actually owned it and realized how awesome it really is! Quite shocking really when considering that any Coby product I ever owned before was broken by the time I got it home and into the house. But this 7015 is really quite a decent product that I'm very satisfied with.

 

[rokky]

I looked at the Craig...I wouldn't think I was doing pretty well with it at $99 or $79! Of course I would have thought the same thing about the Coby too until I actually owned it and realized how awesome it really is! Quite shocking really when considering that any Coby product I ever owned before was broken by the time I got it home and into the house. But this 7015 is really quite a decent product that I'm very satisfied with.

Well, I have not actually bought the 7015, but from all I have read here and from handling it in the stores, I would have to say that I think the Craig is very comparable to it: Android 2.1, wifi, 256 MB RAM, wifi, maybe a bit heavier and thicker, and, the real deal-sealer for me is that it has USB host via a full-size USB port in addition to the usual mini-USB port for non-host usage (it also has a mini HDMI port, but since I don't care about that kind of use, I have no idea how well, or if, that works). I have used that host USB port for flash drives and keyboards.

I got a full updated image file via a thread on MobileRead forum (thanks to "Shad"), and it includes root and Market access - off to the races. Only real downside is that it will not stay connected to my WPA-enabled access points, but only with my WEP-enabled AP.

FWIW...

 

[ramost]

So the new tablets were shipped yesterday. Hopefully we'll start getting some reviews shortly. I'm on the fence between the 7025 and the ramos w10. I'm leaning towards the w10.

 

[tipstir]

I had picked up another Craig and got a CVS Gift Card this time the tablet only cost me $77 plus tax. Craig is faster than the Coby, but the Coby has better quality. 7015-4g is a keeper for me and it's very fast. The newer models not much is know about them. But they're made by LonPad for Coby.

 

[xaueious]

Lonpad doesn't seem like an actual manufacturer, but a Chinese rebrand. I'm guessing Emdoor.

Craig is JIT enabled, has 50MB more RAM, and no CPU downclocking. if someone figures out JIT on the TCC8902 and decides to run it at max clock, it would be flying.

Back on topic though, the Coby seems to have delays. Amazon has pulled it.

 

[Sketch_Says]

I was actually relieved that I got my 7015 before these new models came out. At first I couldn't believe my bad luck but after I got this one rooted, Coby came out with a new update that is apparently making the root process more difficult. I'm thrilled with the 7015 after rooting and while some of the new hardware in the new models would be great, I just don't think I could commit if they continue to hinder the efforts of the GPL/Open Source community. I think I'll stick with the 7015

Sent from my MID7015

 

[McGiles]

MyTabletLife.com had this to say yesterday: While last week we reported that Coby was shipping their newer Kyros line of tablets starting March 15th, it seems Amazon was not correct on this. Coby is reporting on their Facebook page that the new line does not ship until May/June. Amazon now no longer has the tablets available to pre-order either. Seems to have been a mistake on Amazon’s part, and I know many people pre-ordered these tablets thinking they would ship March 15th since thats what each Amazon order page stated. Somebody jumped the gun here, and I am sure many will not be happy about this.


My preorder on the 8025 still shows as of right now on Amazon: Delivery Estimate: March 21, 2011 - March 25, 2011 however I could no longer find the 8025 and 7025 by doing a search for them.

 

[jessrw]

I had also pre-ordered the 8025 and shipping dates still have not changed. I have not received any emails from Amazon stating any difference. I have a question tho. Can anyone suggest another tablet that is comparable to the 8025 that is out? I do not want to wait till May/June. I had purchased the 7015 and found it a bit slow and froze here and there. Also there was no flash support even with sky browser.

Jessica