This review is from: NATPC M010S 8GB Capacitive Android 4.0 ICS (Ice Cream, Sandwich) , 7″ Android Tablet PC Responsive Capacitive Screen – Flash Player 11.1 – Compatible with BBC iPlayer / Youtube / Facebook – HD 2160P – compatible with SKYPE VIDEO calling (Personal Computers)
I received this a little over 10 hours ago, 2 days before the earliest “expected delivery” date, so brilliant service, and have spent the day putting the tablet through it’s paces. First appearances, It’s fast, not even just for the money, but genuinely slick. It’s a little plasticky, but it’s well put together and feels solid. The screen is responsive and bright, the resolution isn’t amazing, but is more than sufficient to read anything down to about 5 point font, so more than good enough for using the tablet as a kindle substitute. ICS is beautifully intuitive and fast OS. I’ve installed the BBC Iplayer app, (Flash 11.1 is pre-installed on the tab), and it works perfectly, no sound-sync issues or video stutter, which is impressive considering the price.
I’ve also been busy downloading all the apps I had on my previous tablet (the previous generation resistive edition of this), while checking emails/facebook/twitter, multitasking quite heavily for a single core, but this kept up well, with only very occasional momentary pauses before a click responded, so very impressed on that count. On the subject of emails, the on-screen keyboard is the ICS standard one and is easy to use, and more than sufficient for browsing easily with/writing short emails etc.
Then, having set it up for my everyday usage, I started testing the performance, which of course meant gaming. I installed temple run (surprisingly CPU heavy, often causes my friends Nexus S to hang), and it ran perfectly, without lag. It did romp through the battery (the table arrived with 72% charge, lasted about 4 hours with wi-fi running constantly, fair usage) a bit, but that’s to be expected. The table is currently charging, so I’ll try a run down from full battery and update this then. The forward facing camera works well with skype, tested a video call to myself using a friend’s account to test the quality, and it’s as good as the inbuilt webcam on my laptop (HP Pavillion dm4). The inbuilt speaker isn’t the greatest, but then it’ll hardly be used, since I’ll mostly use this on the train with headphones. the inbuilt apps are fairly good, but thanks to fully available Play Store, there’s a choice of hundreds of if you disagree with them. I also pace-raced against my sister’s 7″ Galaxy tab, launching the same app/downloading etc, and found that (probably thanks to not running a custom-build android, this runs pure ICS), the M010s was often faster to respond.
Overall an utterly amazing piece of kit for the price, I would recommend this to anyone who wants a good small tablet but is unwilling to fork out for a more expensive branded model.
Update: I’ve now had this for a couple of weeks, and continue to be impressed. I’ve been using iplayer a fair bit, and I’m still surprised by just how well this tablet can stream video (both youtube and iplayer). I’ve found that the battery life with wi-fi on constantly and the screen turned up to full brightness is usually about 5 hours (there’s a very good in-built battery use feature in ICS, which lets you keep track of what’s using power easily). Without wi-fi, I’ve managed to stretch it to almost 8 hours use with the screen brightness right down. Also on the theme of battery use, locking the tablet reduces battery consumption to a minimal level, as with far more upmarket tablets, meaning that this tablet can (in my experience at least), be left turned on ready for immediate use, but locked for hours on end without draining the battery in much the same manner as an ipad. So after two weeks of using this, I’m still very pleased with it.
Further update: also, on the Google maps issue with black screens, if when google maps requests using gps to improve your location service you deselect the option and just use wi-fi network location, then maps works perfectly. Wi-fi location (at least in urban areas) can pinpoint you to about 20m radius, so is more than good enough for getting directions.
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This review is from: NATPC M010S 8GB Capacitive Android 4.0 ICS (Ice Cream, Sandwich) , 7″ Android Tablet PC Responsive Capacitive Screen – Flash Player 11.1 – Compatible with BBC iPlayer / Youtube / Facebook – HD 2160P – compatible with SKYPE VIDEO calling (Personal Computers)
Recently, I recommended this tablet on a bargain-sharing group I run. As a result, I was asked several questions about the tablet. In this review, I’ll address the most commonly asked questions asked by my group, in the hope that it will help someone else!
Apps: (You DO have access to Google’s ‘Play Store’ and all the apps therein). Angry Birds: Works perfectly. BBC iPlayer: Works perfectly, no lag, good sound. Netflix: Works perfectly, streams with no issues. The sound can be quite low on some films though. I’d suggest speakers/earphones. YouTube: Searches, plays and skips perfectly with very little buffering time required. Kindle App: Set up in seconds and works perfectly.
Website based games/browsing: Moshi Monsters: Allowed me to create/change a monster, so I *assume* this site will work fine. Nick Jr: Allowed me to play non-keyboard games with very little problem. Youtube: Streams and functions well using via the tablet’s web browser. Various text and/or flash based websites have loaded with very few issues.
The screen is pretty responsive (not quite as good as a £400 iPad, of course) and game play on websites, while perhaps *slightly* slow to load (in comparison with a laptop), is of a comparable speed to my flash-supporting Samsung Galaxy S Plus mobile, app speed is identical to my iPad2 so far (remember, the iPad doesn’t support flash). App download speed is good, definitely comparable to the iPad2.
The casing of the unit does feel fairly robust (but not at all ‘sleek’), and the screen feels like an average touch-screen smart phone, it’s not cheap & nasty like the screen on some budget tablets might be.
Negatives: Certain apps, like Google Maps, have refused to work and have frozen the tablet/caused a black screen. I have taken the ‘oh well, it’s not an iPad after all!’ approach to such issues and have just rebooted the tablet, deleted the offending app(s) and tried an alternative. The sound on the tablet is fine, but could be doing with being boosted a little when using some apps/sites. There can be some small issues with the touch-controls, in so much as you may find yourself having to repeatedly tap certain icons/links, but that also happens with my iPad2 occasionally.
For the price paid, I’m very impressed with this tablet, regardless of any small issues that have presented themselves to date. I’ve actually ordered two!
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This review is from: NATPC M010S 8GB Capacitive Android 4.0 ICS (Ice Cream, Sandwich) , 7″ Android Tablet PC Responsive Capacitive Screen – Flash Player 11.1 – Compatible with BBC iPlayer / Youtube / Facebook – HD 2160P – compatible with SKYPE VIDEO calling (Personal Computers)
Firstly, for the price (£65 with postage) this is a great product. It runs BBC iPlayer and Kindle perfectly. However, any app that tries to find your location will crash and the only way to use the device again is to power it down and restart it. The following apps do *NOT* work on this device –
Google Earth Google Maps Google Goggles London Tube Status SpeedTest Met Office Trip Advisor
There is a general problem with apps calling geolocation. As this device has no GPS nor phone connection, Android uses the WiFi signal to look up the location via Google’s database collected when they did the StreetView filming and data collection.
I emailed Wendy at NATPC and she was very quick at replying and trying to help but could not solve the problem. I suspect there is a hidden setting somewhere that gives the wrong information back to the apps and this is what causes it to crash.
Still even with this, I give the device 3 stars and Wendy and NATPC deserve 5 stars for their speedy service.
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Brilliant Tablet,
I received this a little over 10 hours ago, 2 days before the earliest “expected delivery” date, so brilliant service, and have spent the day putting the tablet through it’s paces. First appearances, It’s fast, not even just for the money, but genuinely slick. It’s a little plasticky, but it’s well put together and feels solid. The screen is responsive and bright, the resolution isn’t amazing, but is more than sufficient to read anything down to about 5 point font, so more than good enough for using the tablet as a kindle substitute. ICS is beautifully intuitive and fast OS. I’ve installed the BBC Iplayer app, (Flash 11.1 is pre-installed on the tab), and it works perfectly, no sound-sync issues or video stutter, which is impressive considering the price.
I’ve also been busy downloading all the apps I had on my previous tablet (the previous generation resistive edition of this), while checking emails/facebook/twitter, multitasking quite heavily for a single core, but this kept up well, with only very occasional momentary pauses before a click responded, so very impressed on that count. On the subject of emails, the on-screen keyboard is the ICS standard one and is easy to use, and more than sufficient for browsing easily with/writing short emails etc.
Then, having set it up for my everyday usage, I started testing the performance, which of course meant gaming. I installed temple run (surprisingly CPU heavy, often causes my friends Nexus S to hang), and it ran perfectly, without lag. It did romp through the battery (the table arrived with 72% charge, lasted about 4 hours with wi-fi running constantly, fair usage) a bit, but that’s to be expected. The table is currently charging, so I’ll try a run down from full battery and update this then. The forward facing camera works well with skype, tested a video call to myself using a friend’s account to test the quality, and it’s as good as the inbuilt webcam on my laptop (HP Pavillion dm4). The inbuilt speaker isn’t the greatest, but then it’ll hardly be used, since I’ll mostly use this on the train with headphones. the inbuilt apps are fairly good, but thanks to fully available Play Store, there’s a choice of hundreds of if you disagree with them. I also pace-raced against my sister’s 7″ Galaxy tab, launching the same app/downloading etc, and found that (probably thanks to not running a custom-build android, this runs pure ICS), the M010s was often faster to respond.
Overall an utterly amazing piece of kit for the price, I would recommend this to anyone who wants a good small tablet but is unwilling to fork out for a more expensive branded model.
Update: I’ve now had this for a couple of weeks, and continue to be impressed. I’ve been using iplayer a fair bit, and I’m still surprised by just how well this tablet can stream video (both youtube and iplayer). I’ve found that the battery life with wi-fi on constantly and the screen turned up to full brightness is usually about 5 hours (there’s a very good in-built battery use feature in ICS, which lets you keep track of what’s using power easily). Without wi-fi, I’ve managed to stretch it to almost 8 hours use with the screen brightness right down. Also on the theme of battery use, locking the tablet reduces battery consumption to a minimal level, as with far more upmarket tablets, meaning that this tablet can (in my experience at least), be left turned on ready for immediate use, but locked for hours on end without draining the battery in much the same manner as an ipad. So after two weeks of using this, I’m still very pleased with it.
Further update: also, on the Google maps issue with black screens, if when google maps requests using gps to improve your location service you deselect the option and just use wi-fi network location, then maps works perfectly. Wi-fi location (at least in urban areas) can pinpoint you to about 20m radius, so is more than good enough for getting directions.
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|A great tablet for a great price!,
Recently, I recommended this tablet on a bargain-sharing group I run. As a result, I was asked several questions about the tablet. In this review, I’ll address the most commonly asked questions asked by my group, in the hope that it will help someone else!
Apps: (You DO have access to Google’s ‘Play Store’ and all the apps therein).
Angry Birds: Works perfectly.
BBC iPlayer: Works perfectly, no lag, good sound.
Netflix: Works perfectly, streams with no issues. The sound can be quite low on some films though. I’d suggest speakers/earphones.
YouTube: Searches, plays and skips perfectly with very little buffering time required.
Kindle App: Set up in seconds and works perfectly.
Website based games/browsing:
Moshi Monsters: Allowed me to create/change a monster, so I *assume* this site will work fine.
Nick Jr: Allowed me to play non-keyboard games with very little problem.
Youtube: Streams and functions well using via the tablet’s web browser.
Various text and/or flash based websites have loaded with very few issues.
The screen is pretty responsive (not quite as good as a £400 iPad, of course) and game play on websites, while perhaps *slightly* slow to load (in comparison with a laptop), is of a comparable speed to my flash-supporting Samsung Galaxy S Plus mobile, app speed is identical to my iPad2 so far (remember, the iPad doesn’t support flash). App download speed is good, definitely comparable to the iPad2.
The casing of the unit does feel fairly robust (but not at all ‘sleek’), and the screen feels like an average touch-screen smart phone, it’s not cheap & nasty like the screen on some budget tablets might be.
Negatives: Certain apps, like Google Maps, have refused to work and have frozen the tablet/caused a black screen. I have taken the ‘oh well, it’s not an iPad after all!’ approach to such issues and have just rebooted the tablet, deleted the offending app(s) and tried an alternative. The sound on the tablet is fine, but could be doing with being boosted a little when using some apps/sites. There can be some small issues with the touch-controls, in so much as you may find yourself having to repeatedly tap certain icons/links, but that also happens with my iPad2 occasionally.
For the price paid, I’m very impressed with this tablet, regardless of any small issues that have presented themselves to date. I’ve actually ordered two!
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|Great device at the price but apps using location lock up the tablet,
Firstly, for the price (£65 with postage) this is a great product. It runs BBC iPlayer and Kindle perfectly. However, any app that tries to find your location will crash and the only way to use the device again is to power it down and restart it. The following apps do *NOT* work on this device –
Google Earth
Google Maps
Google Goggles
London Tube Status
SpeedTest
Met Office
Trip Advisor
There is a general problem with apps calling geolocation. As this device has no GPS nor phone connection, Android uses the WiFi signal to look up the location via Google’s database collected when they did the StreetView filming and data collection.
I emailed Wendy at NATPC and she was very quick at replying and trying to help but could not solve the problem. I suspect there is a hidden setting somewhere that gives the wrong information back to the apps and this is what causes it to crash.
Still even with this, I give the device 3 stars and Wendy and NATPC deserve 5 stars for their speedy service.
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