Chinese Android Tablets

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gerasmus

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I would like to buy a tablet but can't yet afford the R6 000 - R7 000 for a decent well-known branded tablet. Ideally I would love the newst iPad. As an alternative I've found many Chinese Android tablets like the Flypad v3 to v6. The alternatives range from $180-$300, which is what I can afford. I've been getting promo emails from a Chinese shop of 10" tablets. I want large screen, 10# tablet with 1Gb Ram, 8-32GB expanded memory, (capacitive screen), 3G, Wifi, Android 4, 3D support, GPS/Glonass etc. I've been googling and so far yet to find a impartial site offering reviews/ & comparisons with the branded tablets (Acer Iconia, iPad, Samsung Galaxy etc). I've only ever seen the tablets demo'd on Youtube.
I currently own a pathetic Viewsonic Viewpad 7. It has so little RAM (I've googled this problem), sow CPU so it can't cope properly with video. There is so many things one can do with tablet, I will find another use.
What do I wanna use it for ? Watch video's

I understand all the tech specs. Do any of you own a alternative tablet ? What would you advise me to do ? Was it worth it ? I am looking for latest tech for the best price. In 12 months I will be in better financial position to buy a iPad, for now I have to contend with something cheaper. Where did you buy it as I'm looking at importing myself.

Here are some of the models I that caught my attention:
HTC Flyer
A1CS 10 inch
Motorolla Xoom 10.1
A1CS
Asus EeePad Transformer TF101, GBP289,00
... etc
 
If you don't need 3g then why not look at the Wi-fi iPad 2 it starts at 4k
 
I can live without 3G, but does anyone have knowledge of the Chinese tablets ? The Vodafone tablet would be nice, if I can find it.
 
HTC Flyer is 7" but it is quite a nice tablet. Overpriced though IMO. For $250 you can get the Galaxy Tab Plus 7.0 which is great value. Personally I own an iPad2 which is brilliant, and a Kindle Fire which is now running ICS 4.0.4 and with most things running perfectly it's also turned out to be a great piece of hardware.
 
You get what you pay for in the tablet world. I have a couple of tablets, but my Samsung out performs everything else. The cheap tablets are terrible to work with :(
 
cerebus said:
HTC Flyer is 7" but it is quite a nice tablet. Overpriced though IMO. For $250 you can get the Galaxy Tab Plus 7.0 which is great value....
Click to expand...

Thanks for all the advice. 3G is not most important as I I bought TP-Link's mobile MR-3020 3G router from www.dbg.co.za. It runs of mains or USB. Plug your USB stick into the router and voila you have fully functional wifi router.

I found a Motorola Xoom, Android 3.1, unlocked SIM, on eBay. Does anyone know how much tax I will pay on a import from the USA ? Thank you cerebus, I will investigare the HTC and Galaxy Tab + 7... The iPad prices are bit higher. I've had the opportunity to spend 5 minutes with 1st generation iPad Compared to Samsung Galaxy i preferred iPad because iPad screen is so bright and high resolution.
 
Yeah wait for the iPad to clearance sales to start, you won't be disappointed waiting and getting a better branded tablet. Another thing to consider is the EEE Pad transformer(TF101), I've seen quite a few of them selling for next to nothing lately.
 
Frankly though my advice is... save the money and get an ipad3 16gb. It just outclasses everything. Those Chinese tablets are held together by wood screws.
 
If you with fnb you can get an ipad 2 or 3 for 239 or something a month.

I dunno chinese tablets are not, isnt zte aka vodafone tablets a china make? The quality is bloody awesome and the specs are also good.
 
Just go look for 2nd hand ipad 2. you can pick them up for R2800-R3500. I'm still loving mine, video quality is excellent.
 
A friend of mine got a iPad 2 in December. He told me that he sold it 2 weeks ago for R2000 (Not a Apple fan, but for that price...). Apparently he wasn't using it as much as he'd expected.
 
These Chinese models have a lot of features but the performance all round is poor. Used one and firstly the screen looks terrible. Yes, it got high res, but there's that cheap look to it. Second, some of them are advertised as touchscreen, but I know of one that has a resistive screen! (terrible to use). Its also not a silky interface as with other tablets, sometimes it gets choppy.

Don't even know which one I used and if others compare, but this was a real cheapie.
Also, if you order from china be prepared to wait a while, and have customs make you wait even longer (and charge you a **** load)

Rather get your hands on a second hand Asus, samsung, apple etc. These companies are big enough to put quiality parts iin what they put out
 
I have just returned from a trip to south east Asia. Specifically Thailand and Hong Kong. I paid special attention to tablets and so I might have some useful insight for you.

Firstly, with the cheaper tablets, you really should not expect the same experience. The cheaper tablets typically supported 3G only through OTG connectors. In other words, you use the mini USB port with a cable that converts to full size USB in order to use a dongle. This works suprisingly well.

Secondly, all the tablets typically list that they already run ICS or are upgradable to it. However in some cases, this is a lie, and in others they are running hacked versions of it and are unable to use the Play Store. Honeycomb tablets abound.

Thirdly, the performance of these tablets is usually worse than their big brand counterparts. They often have worse specifications, but even the tablets that have similar specs (supposedly, it's not like you can open the actual tablets to verify what the box says) are not quite as snappy.

Finally, and most importantly, the screens are usually not anywhere near as good as big brand tablets. I say usually because I came across a few tablets that had screens that matched and sometimes surpassed big brand tablets. Correspondingly, these tablets had higher prices, although not quite as high as the big brands.

Now most people already know what I have said above, and I mentioned it simply for completeness (and for future googlers). But here is the fun stuff.

I had a Look st the ainol aigo tablets first. They are reasonably priced (R1500 - R2000 in Thailand, sometimes under R1000 in Hong Kong). They perform well. They support 3G through that OTG connector that is bundled. They run ICS. Try are pretty good performers too, some having dual core ARM processors. The main downside of these tablets is the display. Although they have 1366x768 displays, which is pretty high for smaller tablets, they have very poor viewing angles. They are comparable to some cheaper digital photo frames that I have seen in terms of contrast and viewing angle. They also tend to have very poor response time and refresh rate. The navigation through the interface looks great. Browsing is great. Games work well. Still images are ok. But video is terrible. The response of the capacitive touch screen is pretty reasonable, though. Build quality is average at best, with cheap plastics on the back and sides. But lots of connectivity options, including HDMI mini.

The next famous cheap tablet I looked at was the Novo range. These were on the same level as the aigo tablets, but cheaper. However you can see where the money went... The screen on the Novo tablets is not as "good" as the aigo. So it is pretty terrible.

Those 2 ranges stuck out for me, and while I was over there I did some Google searches that turned up a bunch of information and reviews; I suggest you have a look to contrast with what I am saying.

There was one more tablet that was the highlight for me. The Hyundai A7. It was priced at R1500 in Hong Kong. It is small, 7 inch. And has a lower resolution display, 800x480. The specs were not as good as others, having only 512 MB RAM, etc. But using the tablet was a dream, mostly because of its fantastic screen. Honestly, its IPS display surpassed even the original Transformer. It had a very fast response time, high refresh rate, high contrast and fantastic viewing angles. The touchscreen was also very snappy. Running ICS, it was also very fast and fluid, and despite the lower specs, it was able to play 1080p video without any issues. However you obviously aren't able to view that resolution on the screen, so it has HDMI output. I didn't get to test out the HDMI but the guy assured it me it was really good. I felt I could trust that opinion, as he had been upfront with all the other specs and testimonials that he gave me, which I was able to verify myself. I am very sorry that I did not buy this tablet, as it has so many possible uses. Unfortunately, general tablet usage is not one of them, and so I opted instead for a new iPad.

I hope I have been able to make a dent in the uncertainty for you. I know from experience that the sheer number of tablets out there can be overwhelming, and that it makes you twitch when you consider that big brand tablets are so expensive compared to others, which have similar specs. But if you want the best overall experience, the money is well spent. If you want it for a specific purpose only, you should be pretty happy with one of the cheap Chinese tablets that has your use as a strong point.
 
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