Android tablet on ice-cream sandwich 4.0

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surfs-up

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I am looking to import a new Android tablet from China, but I know nothing of Android tablets - I have only owned iPad tablets.

The one I am wanting to buy comes with Android 4.0 ICS, 2 camera's, 1.5 Ghz, 10" and same resolution as iPad etc etc

1. Now, I understand that the new Ice-cream Sandwich 4.00 does not support the Android store....is this true ?
2. How do you upgrade/flash the tablet with older/newer Android software ? is it possible ? can the software simply be updated similar to the iPad ?
3. Does anyone have experience importing Chinese tabs ? Are they shipped in Chinese and do I have to activate English, or will I be able to read what is on the display right off the bat ?
4. Is the ICS 4.0 backward compatible ie. can I load and run Honeycomb apps on it ?

Many thanks
 
you'll probably get some better answers than the ones that I can supply but here goes:

1. Not as far as I am aware, the Android Market is due for an update but I seriously cannot see that ics will not support the existing one
2. not my area of speciality, but yes you can flash and install custom roms, usually with HTC or Samsung you will get any OTA upgrades released by the vendor to your tablet
3. no idea
4. as far as I am aware there is no reason why any current apps will not run on ics, but I'll let those more experienced give you a better answer
 
surfs-up said:
I am looking to import a new Android tablet from China, but I know nothing of Android tablets - I have only owned iPad tablets.

The one I am wanting to buy comes with Android 4.0 ICS, 2 camera's, 1.5 Ghz, 10" and same resolution as iPad etc etc

1. Now, I understand that the new Ice-cream Sandwich 4.00 does not support the Android store....is this true ?
2. How do you upgrade/flash the tablet with older/newer Android software ? is it possible ? can the software simply be updated similar to the iPad ?
3. Does anyone have experience importing Chinese tabs ? Are they shipped in Chinese and do I have to activate English, or will I be able to read what is on the display right off the bat ?
4. Is the ICS 4.0 backward compatible ie. can I load and run Honeycomb apps on it ?

Many thanks
Click to expand...

1: False, My Phone is on ICS and access the store no problems, I also have access to all the 2.3 and 3+ Applications that run with no problems.
2: Depends on the support both official and XDA forums, worse case is you will have to download edit and compile the code yourself(Not an easy task)
3: Depends on tablet, most will be in English esp if its an exported product. Buying off a shelve inside China different story.
4: See point 1.
 
Thanks for the response. I had read somewhere that Google had blocked access to the Android market to the "Chinese" tabs that ran on ICS. I had also read somewhere that if I could get a Chinese tab reflashed with 4.03 (I think) then it would work.

Like I said, I know nothing about Android - so I didn't want to buy a cheap....but high spec tab from China, and then not have it work properly.

Thanks again for the responses
 
it happens that some of these tablets do not have access to the market. but it is not due to the version of android they are running.

i've never investigated why it is they have no access to the market.
 
Hmm after reading the review of the Novo7 MIPS based Android tablets I have a feeling people have to be very very careful when importing low end Tablets. The biggest problem is... you guessed it Fragmentation. Even if it has access to Google's market you still have a problem of a lot of applications not working.

http://www.theverge.com/2012/2/17/2804317/ainovo-novo7-basic-review

App Incompatibility

About half of the apps I tried to install from the Amazon Market failed with the message "The package appears to be corrupt." The issue appears to be that most apps are coded to expect support from an ARM-based processor, not a MIPS-based processor. Common apps like 1Password, Angry Birds (not the pre-installed MIPS-compatible version), Fruit Ninja, Flixter, Rdio, Retro Camera, Skype, SwiftKey X, and more wouldn't work on the Novo7 Basic. At all.

This is a serious problem, and not just for MIPS. A bunch of failed app installs on a $99 tablet that's not genuinely likely to gain any real marketshare shouldn't be cause for concern. However, if the reason for those failures is indeed incompatibility with the MIPS architecture, then Android as a platform has some dark times ahead. Intel is pushing hard to get its own processors on Android devices — Lenovo and Motorola already have phones planned and more are coming. Like MIPS, Intel's chips have a different architecture from ARM and could lead to app incompatibility.
Click to expand...

One of the biggest cost factors on ARM based tablets is the License fees that needs to be paid to enable OEM's to use the chipset. Its also one of the places the low end devices replace to cut costs. So look out for this nasty one.
 
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