Chinese Tablet Buyers Guide.

[wizardofid]

Looking forward to your feedback as need to get more for the family and that is a good looking price.

Powerbank is good mate. Made sure to charge it fully, till the orange light stops blinking. Connected the tablet at 17% and then connected my phone at 53% after which, I connected my old tablet which I ran complete flat, all in all I charged maybe 8 000 mah, and indicator on the powerbank wasn't even half.

Wasn't sure whether or not it will actually provide the 30 000 mah, or charge two devices at once. Also does 2amps 5 volt, it's unlikely both USB ports does 2 volts, don't have a device that requires two volts so I won't be able to test, if one or both does 2amps.Also noticed it stays pretty cool to the touch with the exception of the IC's in front which get mildly hot. Also noticed they left a gap about two or three centimeters between the charge points, IC's and the battery, it's doesn't heat up the battery, like I found in more compact and cheap power banks.

I need to drain the entire powerbank to see if it can actually provide the entire 30 000mah it's rated for, but so far so good.

In other news tablet covers are still in HK, looks like I ordered just in time, it has been stuck there since the 7th or 8th.

Tablet wise, no problems to report, charged up the old tablet, removed the useless apps on it, installed a bucket load of games on it, switched it off and packed it away from a rainy day. Will serve as a backup and spare.

With the amazon echo I have now it's is paired up with the amazon kindle via bluetooth and now serves as my music, player, quite nice to be entirely hands free with skipping, and pausing music with voice commands.

With the chromecast I am getting next week thanks to mybb for the prize I will end up using the tablet as a cast device, and remote control.So next week will be quite interesting figuring out my little mix and match ecosystem.

Oh also got the ram usage down to 1gig, by disabling a few useless google apps that were running in the background.Considering this is a stock android, setting menu is quite basic, a few things I would have liked to change was the font color for example.

Battery saver is also pretty basic, compared to my LG phone, which enabled gives me around 175 hours standby and usages time more or less.

 

[Dan C]

Powerbank is good mate. Made sure to charge it fully, till the orange light stops blinking. Connected the tablet at 17% and then connected my phone at 53% after which, I connected my old tablet which I ran complete flat, all in all I charged maybe 8 000 mah, and indicator on the powerbank wasn't even half.

Wasn't sure whether or not it will actually provide the 30 000 mah, or charge two devices at once. Also does 2amps 5 volt, it's unlikely both USB ports does 2 volts, don't have a device that requires two volts so I won't be able to test, if one or both does 2amps.Also noticed it stays pretty cool to the touch with the exception of the IC's in front which get mildly hot. Also noticed they left a gap about two or three centimeters between the charge points, IC's and the battery, it's doesn't heat up the battery, like I found in more compact and cheap power banks.

I need to drain the entire powerbank to see if it can actually provide the entire 30 000mah it's rated for, but so far so good.

In other news tablet covers are still in HK, looks like I ordered just in time, it has been stuck there since the 7th or 8th.

Tablet wise, no problems to report, charged up the old tablet, removed the useless apps on it, installed a bucket load of games on it, switched it off and packed it away from a rainy day. Will serve as a backup and spare.

With the amazon echo I have now it's is paired up with the amazon kindle via bluetooth and now serves as my music, player, quite nice to be entirely hands free with skipping, and pausing music with voice commands.

With the chromecast I am getting next week thanks to mybb for the prize I will end up using the tablet as a cast device, and remote control.So next week will be quite interesting figuring out my little mix and match ecosystem.

Connect of of these on the 5v port and see how long it lasts

USB Powered LED Bulb 5W - 5V (emergency light backup power using power bank)

Up to 80% energy saving Made out of non fragile hardened plastic material 50 000 hours life-span 1 meter long USB cable Power: 5 watts Voltage: 5V Powered from any USB power source such as a computer, power bank, charger, etc

www.geewiz.co.za

 

[wizardofid]

Connect of of these on the 5v port and see how long it lasts

USB Powered LED Bulb 5W - 5V (emergency light backup power using power bank)

Up to 80% energy saving Made out of non fragile hardened plastic material 50 000 hours life-span 1 meter long USB cable Power: 5 watts Voltage: 5V Powered from any USB power source such as a computer, power bank, charger, etc

www.geewiz.co.za

Lol I actually just ordered this

https://www.gearbest.com/testers---detectors/pp_3005822364186269.html?wid=2000001

 

[Dan C]

Lol I actually just ordered this

https://www.gearbest.com/testers---detectors/pp_3005822364186269.html?wid=2000001

Looks interesting .

 

[wizardofid]

Looks interesting .

Yeah hopefully it works as intended would give a good indication of how much is being drawn.It's gearbest doubtful that their stuff would be an issue, unlike wish, which i wouldnt touch with a barge pole.I think in general it would be a handy device to have a around especially to troubleshoot. The also have a type c version.

In the mean time I have given up on trying to run the powerbank flat lol, guess that is a good thing.

Looking forward to comparing the mybb power bank with this one.

 

[wizardofid]

I have been scouring the web for the past week looking at all 4G/3G routers, looking for specials ect, target has been either the B316 and second B315, eventually decided to give bid or buy a bash, decided to risk it open box B315. Hopefully it pans out. It's is risky but worth a shot.

 

[Dan C]

I have been scouring the web for the past week looking at all 4G/3G routers, looking for specials ect, target has been either the B316 and second B315, eventually decided to give bid or buy a bash, decided to risk it open box B315. Hopefully it pans out. It's is risky but worth a shot.

I have both B315 and B618. What network are you going to use it on ? These two routers have different versions which support different bands. But mostly you should be covered using the B315.

 

[Darkjo]

As far as I am aware the mi pad 4 has the snap dragon 660 chipset, it is about 30% faster. So you would have decide what you are going to do on the tablet. Want to play a game like pubg or any game now and then, while both the t10, t20 and m20 can play games including pubg the settings will need to be tweaked, and there may be the occasional lag. Antutu score for the t10, t20 and m20(96K) is nearly a 100K which is pretty decent. The mi pad 4 is 129477 on antutu. So you have to decide is the 35k+score difference is worth the extra price, then decide on features break down and OS, and finally screen res and quality and battery.

If you planning on heavy gaming the mi pad no question, any thing else, take your pick between the T10, T20 and M20.

Just remember I chose the M20, because of the larger space I can load it full of series and movies to watch while the power is out, the downside is I only have a 6600 mah battery, were as the other have a 8000mah battery, not much difference but gives at least an hour more, to make up for the difference I ordered a 30 000mah battery pack yesterday.

So total tablet cost with insurance, shipping and powerbank, cover and extra screen protector is R3450.00+- and with in the 3.5K budget I set.

Best advise decide what you want to do with the tablet, look at performance, look at the android version, then ram and rom and then the screen, and whatever other features you want decide what you can live with or without, should make your life easier.

Personal opinion, 35K+- higher scrore at double the price, not worth it for me, score and price difference should be double on both counts.

Thanks for all the research and great explanation.
I'll be buying very soon and are keeping up with your reviews as you use the m20

 

[wizardofid]

I have both B315 and B618. What network are you going to use it on ? These two routers have different versions which support different bands. But mostly you should be covered using the B315.

In testing I pick up both MTN and Vodacom, on the tablet, so should be fine

Router bands
LTE: Band 1/3/40/41


Tablet bands ( Picking up both Vodacom and MTN 4G)
4G: TD-LTE Band 38/39/40/41

 

[wizardofid]

Thanks for all the research and great explanation.
I'll be buying very soon and are keeping up with your reviews as you use the m20

I don't think there is much else to say, is perfect for me, the OS is super stable.

 

[wizardofid]

Bid or buy seller responded quickly, shipping it B315 today. That is at least good news.


Will get the antenna month end then. This works with the B315 and B316 and dual polarised, 5m cable should be enough.

POYNTING Dual Polarised Medium Gain LTE Antenna (4 dbi) w/5m cable - Huawei B315, B618, B525

Medium gain omnidirectional antenna Wideband - covers wide freqeuncy band Window, wall or pole mountable Lightweight Waterproof Two antennas in one enclosure

www.geewiz.co.za

 

[Darkjo]

Still, how long did it take from China? Under two weeks to my door in EL in my case.

got the M20.
I hope i can match that to my door in EL

 

[Dan C]

No power tomorrow in EL, hope my T20 will last the day

 

[wizardofid]

got the M20.
I hope i can match that to my door in EL

Great

I hope you are as happy as I am. Well let us know how thing turn out, you went with the 4gig/128 version right ?

Dan C

No power tomorrow in EL, hope my T20 will last the day

lol you have enough powerbanks, to last a nuclear winter.

I finally got some one on one time with the tablet today, installed various games, some older android 4 games have issues with android 8, some games are just really badly optimized as I assume the lag I got was due to the tablet, turns out it was the games.Tried arma tactics, which is slightly demanding and ran butter smooth, where as an older android 4 2d games lagged a bit here and there.

Loaded some other 3D games especially unity engine games and all of them ran without issues.Also did some video playback with MX player and no issues there either, color tones were quite good as well, and video loading is also quick, larger 18gig 1080p MKV files took a few seconds to load, but ran perfectly. I specifically wanted to see how it responds to skipping ahead and without fail started playing right away.

File installation and deletion even big files are reasonable fast.

Definitely going to order a standalone full bluetooth keyboard soon with trackpad, they are on the pricey side with a track pad so some thing to do in the coming months.

 

[Dan C]

Great

I hope you are as happy as I am. Well let us know how thing turn out, you went with the 4gig/128 version right ?

Dan C
lol you have enough powerbanks, to last a nuclear winter.

I finally got some one on one time with the tablet today, installed various games, some older android 4 games have issues with android 8, some games are just really badly optimized as I assume the lag I got was due to the tablet, turns out it was the games.Tried arma tactics, which is slightly demanding and ran butter smooth, where as an older android 4 2d games lagged a bit here and there.

Loaded some other 3D games especially unity engine games and all of them ran without issues.Also did some video playback with MX player and no issues there either, color tones were quite good as well, and video loading is also quick, larger 18gig 1080p MKV files took a few seconds to load, but ran perfectly. I specifically wanted to see how it responds to skipping ahead and without fail started playing right away.

File installation and deletion even big files are reasonable fast.

Definitely going to order a standalone full bluetooth keyboard soon with trackpad, they are on the pricey side with a track pad so some thing to do in the coming months.

If you do order a bluetooth keyboard , make sure it's RII. Full stop, don't go for anything else.

 

[wizardofid]

If you do order a bluetooth keyboard , make sure it's RII. Full stop, don't go for anything else.

Yeah I was looking at this

Takealot.com: Online Shopping | SA's leading online store

South Africa's leading online store. Fast, reliable delivery to your door. Many ways to pay. Shop anything you can imagine: TVs, laptops, cellphones, kitchen appliances, toys, books, beauty & more. Shop the mobile app anytime, anywhere.

www.takealot.com

 

[wizardofid]

Ok I'm confused... In the earlier thread discussing prices of iPads you indicated yours cost around R2.5k I thought...

On special, it hasn't been on special in a while, and they do go on special often enough. Normal price is R4 100.00
https://www.gearbest.com/tablet-pcs/pp_009246785433.html?wid=1433363, T10 and T20 were on special two weeks ago, R2 250 for the T10 and R2 800 for the T20

M20 4g 4G/128G sells for around R3 600- R3 700 when not on special, it reverted to old price last week, otherwise it generally sells for 2.5k as well

Considering how often these go on sale, you can get them for R2 500 quite easily and often.But even at none sales price it's still cheaper any ipad that matches it performance wise....

 

[Dan C]

Ok I'm confused... In the earlier thread discussing prices of iPads you indicated yours cost around R2.5k I thought...

Was around that price. Can't login to Geatbest now. Beacon Bay is powerless ATM and my keypass database is on another PC

 

[wizardofid]

Eish... Heard about Beacon Bay today. Strongs lol. We had Telkom outage for an hour this morning. Thought it was related but it seems not. When I looked for the T20 it was quite a lot more... The T10 was R2.5k including shipping.

www.banggood.com has the T20 for R2 979.

Consider local asking price, couldn't find one for the M20 4G/128G version, but the 4G/64g locally is R4 000, T20 is R5 000 locally, it's whack........The prices is more inline what you would expect to pay here for these devices, but still it is freaking ridiculously with the markup being almost double.

Android Tablets Archives - MikroTech

www.mikrotech.co.za

 

[Dan C]

Eish... Heard about Beacon Bay today. Strongs lol. We had Telkom outage for an hour this morning. Thought it was related but it seems not. When I looked for the T20 it was quite a lot more... The T10 was R2.5k including shipping.

Oops maybe I made a bit of a mistake. Blame it on the ANC.



BTW that dashcam works 100% loving it