Following on from an earlier thread where these were discussed:
http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/eken-7-android-tablet-anyone-using-one
I wont have an Apple product in the house (prejudice and stubborness, bite me) I like the tablet concept and also love Android as an OS and open source concept that doesnt require an IT MSc to use unlike Linux.
Ive had the Apad for a little over a week now.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260634296093&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT
I BINd with an offer of £130.
Research suggested that the Rockchip driven unit was a much better bet than the Eken one.
In the (very crappy) box is a two pin charger with a small three pin UK adaptor and a pair of cheap headphones.
The charger is a rather obscure looking 0.8mm/2.4mm centre positive pin, 5v. Very skinny and I havent found a direct UK plugged replacement yet.
The unit itself is light, reasonably well made considering. The screen is a cheap touch screen (not like the new capacitive, AMOLED screens you can get) this is one of the main areas of cost saving. It has a satin feel and is soft to press, not hard like glass. It takes a bit more of a Fat Fingers aproach to get it to be responsive rather than the more subtle multi touch capacitive screens. Brightness is fine indoors, struggles a bit outdoors and dont even bother with it in direct bright sunlight.
The 1.5 (cupcake) version of Android on this tablet is fairly stable but Ive found there's a good deal of apps that are very unstable on it (instantaneous or action specific force closes) as its not a heavily tested piece of hardware. I've listed below some of the apps I use and why, especially the monitoring ones.
WiFi radio signal is pretty weak but is pretty reliable. Recovery from waking can be a bit flaky, easy to remedy with a reacquired connection though.
Micro usb connection with a female adaptor allows USB hosting, as well as being hosted. Micro SD slot works fine out of the box.
Camera is rubbish, front facing. Murky and slow. But there really isnt much need on such a tablet IMO.
As you can see from the pics Ive modded the body a bit to make it more robust to being hurled around (orange corners) and also to make it easier to hold one-handed as an eBook reader (green cross) as well as for typing (blue lines). I have used http://sugru.com/ which is utterly brilliant stuff but deserves it's own review.
Overall the chip speed is adequate but use Advanced Task Killer to keep on top of memory usage. The secondary video (hardware decoding) chip means video playback is pretty good. (Be aware that Flash and hence streaming is NOT supported on pre 2.x Froyo Android)
I wont go much into apps as this is just a review of the hardware.
Overall, over the last week or so getting it set up just as I want, the Apad has proven itself useful, especially for browsing in front of the box, as well as a great book reader and MP3 player. Battery life is surprisingly good at about 4-5 hours with WiFi on.
I tether the Apad to an unlocked Mifi dongle (Note USB 3G Dongles are not supportable on this unit) and it works brilliantly as a browser out and about.
Having proved it a useful concept, at the end of the year I will probably look for a better produced version around £300 - preferrably with a Snapdragon 1Gz chip and a capacitive AMOLED screen and Android 2.x+ which is what my HTC legend has got and is much more stable and a better experience.
I will definitely get my £130 out of this one though on the weekely train journey into london as well as evenings browsing in front of the box.
