Android 2.1 Tablet PC X220 flytouch2 with GPS and Webcam
date : August 18th, 2011Laptop & Tablet PC
Review : 3 Reviews
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List Price :
Price Now : $ 154.00
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Tags : Android, flytouch2, Tablet, Webcam, X220
Highlights
This great new ePad Android 2.1 10″ Touch screen Tablet PC is convenient, easy-to-use and the latest in personal computing trends. This is perfect for those who want to work on projects or e-mails while they’re out and about, but don’t want to carry around something as bulky as a laptop.
The Tablet PC comes with 256MB RAM. It has a processor speed of 1GHZ, 2 USB port, TF card slot, HDMI, and built-in memory of 2GB. It also comes with a camera of 1.3 mega pixels. With a USB GPS Nav
List Price: $ 154.00
Price: [wpramaprice asin="B004FGTGBY"]
You see… I have this silly smile I can not get rid of.,
I ordered this tablet, my first Android device, and I was kinda wondering what I would receive…
So far I’m really pleased with this thing!
Being a Palm and iPod Touch user and early adopter of what people call “smart phones”, I wasn’t sure if I wanted a large-format device. I have friends who are pushing their Apple tablets at me and I’m an iMac user myself… but I just wasn’t sure if I needed (read that as wanted) a tablet.
I bought this on “speculation” to see if I could have a little fun and perhaps learn something new.
I’m having the fun part right away and I can see that some learnin’ is headed my way here with the Android operating system this tablet uses. Not hard learning, but with the “open-ness” of Android I expect to be finding new stuff to do for a good while.
Out of the box I received a durable-feeling device with a nice large screen. It turned-on first try and responded to the battery charger just like the (little) owner’s manual predicted. There is a great deal more going on with this thing than the little booklet speaks of, but the manual is complete enough for anyone to realize all but the nuts and bolts of Android… I believe the manual was not intended to tech Android to a user but to simply expose the buyer to the capabilities of the tablet. The manual is a translation, but a good one with pictures and diagrams. Easy to read and understand.
I haven’t done much with it yet, but I have connected to the net using my WPA-2 WiFi “Apple Airport Extreme” and had no problem with the setup. It reminded me of getting a Nintendo DSi connected… it was that easy. I am using MAC address filtering and that posed no problem after putting the tablet’s MAC address in my list.
The Localization settings were easy with the only “snag” as yet being the temperature display in the Home screen is in Centigrade and I can’t (as yet) figure out how to switch to Fahrenheit. It even “found” my little home town to use as the target city
The only other thing I haven’t figured yet is if the operating system is consuming part of the 2 gig of memory, leaving only 1 gig free or if the device shipped with only 1 gig of memory.
I think this problem is my lack of familiarity with Android
I will attempt to provide a better review as time allows, but for now I’m happy.
One final note, the device is called a “MID” in the Owner’s Manual and the following information appears in the “About Device” screen on the device it’s self;
Model Number: deb
Firmwear Version: 2.1-update1
Kernel Version: 2.6.32.9 hzhao@emma #1
Build Number: deb-r2.1.1170
There is another tablet listed on Amazon called a “MID” but it does not seem to have a camera or a GPS receiver. This unit’s GPS “antenna” is external and I think the little hocky-puck is both an antenna and receiver combined.
Update: (12/26/2010)
Liking the tablet! The hardware is working great, no problems at all, no glitches or silly business from the device or the Android “build” as is installed.
The only things I’m watching are;
- The “Home” button on the front is not indexed exactly right under the front cover. Not a problem but there was a moment where it was trying to get stuck.
- One of the tiny little “plugs” covering the cabinet screws has fallen out. This is no problem at all as there will come a day when I want to take those screws out myself and those plugs are going away on that day. As a side note, this tablet survived a drop from my desk top to the plastic carpet protector under the desk without a glitch.
- The Android “build” has a little trouble when rotating the screen. Two issues so far 1.) When you use Google’s Star application, the Horizon is oriented incorrectly and does not correct even when you try the adjustments for screen rotation in Android or in Google’s application. Weirdly, the names of planets and stars continue to rotate (to the wrong angle) even if you turn-off all the rotation controls. 2.) When you use the device in the “Landscape” orientation there is a very useful “Back” button in the screen in the top right… when you rotate to “Portrait” orientation that button goes away and you have to use the hardware buttons. Not really a big deal but the behavior of the on-screen “Back” button and the hardware button are not exactly the same in all applications.
- About keyboards, mice, and memory devices. USB supports all these but does not recognize anything else. I am using a Bluetooth “dongle” and my Apple “Magic Mouse” but my HID Bluetooth keyboard and Bluetooth GPS are not recognized. So far I have not found an application that can pair any Bluetooth devices that are not physically incorporated in the device (that’s none so far). The Bluetooth dongle I have states it is a wired equivalent of a mouse and keyboard.. but that HID keyboard is not working…
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|The Good, the Bad, and a few things inbetween,
First of all, I do like this tablet. It is not a flawless, polished piece of technology, but it is pretty good for the money. If you want a flawless tablet experience, spend $700 on the iPad. I love that this has USB ports and TWO SD card slots. The ethernet is also nice since large downloads, like GPS offline maps, can take a long time over the wireless. I use this to check my email and surf the internet when I’m sitting in bed or out and about. Its much lighter than any netbook which would have been my other choice. Some notes on my experience so far.
The Cons:
- Get a screen protector, the plastic scratches easily. I found some that are made for it on ebay, search for “superpad” (it’s the same thing)
- Sluggish interface response, you can find some youtube videos floating around, that is not the video being choppy it is the interface, use your finger nail or built-in stylus for best touch results
- “cheap” feel, plastic can be bent out of shape, etc.
- Visible screen flicker when holding in vertical position
- Speakers are not very good at all, any kind of noise in the room makes them basically in-audible
- display is not visible at all in sunlight, even on brightest setting.
- GPS requires external antenna, some have complained about GPS lock on time, I live in the northeast and it does it by the time I can exit the GPS settings and get the GPS test program running.
- Shipping did take awhile, but was well packaged and shipped right away, its just coming from China.
- I have locked this up once or twice, but its hard to say if it was an android app, or the OS it’s self.
The Pros:
- Cheap!
- 2 SD card slots that support 32 GB
- 2 USB ports, the case I found on ebay has a small usb keyboard built in which is awesome when typing an email on the road
- Ethernet port for when there is no wifi
- Lots of apps in android market place.
- Some folks have been successful flashing this with Ubuntu Linux which I would love to do, but if you mess it up you have an odd shaped paper weight.
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|Great for the 220 price I paid,
We have been using the one I got for my wife now for a couple weeks.. So far we like it for the price. The GPS on ours is internal and the included antenna gives about a 5x increase in sensitivity to satellites. We can put the antenna on the roof of the car and use the tablet in the car no problem. The screen sucks in sunlight but does well in the house. I much prefer the better screens such as on the IPAD. This is a simple touch screen that you can use a stylus or your fingernail on.. It is not multi-touch. But your not going to get a multitouch screen for this price (the price I paid 220) .. for the 289 they are selling it for now I’m not sure I would buy it… maybe..
We are using a 8 gig SD card in it with no problems. I haven’t played with the USB or ethernet.. Wireless works well. Sometimes I have to reboot our wireless router to get it to connect.. Issue is on the router end. It is a linksys router.
I can stream and watch 780p video from youtube on it no problem.
I find that my HTC EVO running android 2.2 is much faster and smoother than this but the large screen size is pretty awesome for stuff like video and reading books using the downloaded kindle app.
My wife loves it..
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