OK so Friday I received my $140 Cruz Tablet.
It is only a 7" 16:9 screen which I was well aware of when I ordered this toy. Played with it "as is" for a couple of hours. It is pretty decent out of the box. Seemed to be a little slow but not by much.
I went ahead and setup a Borders account and downloaded a few free books. The one most annoying item I have with the Borders Product is that everytime I left the book I was reading and would come back to it later, I had to be connected to Wi-Fi for it to re-download the book ( guess it is because the Borders eBook reader is really a "Borders E-book library portal") . I personally want to be able to download the book one time, and go with it. I do not like running my Wi-Fi at my house 24/7, I only run it when I need it. This is a MAJOR DISADVANTAGE to the Border's Book product. I do not understand why the books do not download to the device. It seems that you are basically reading it from the cloud.
Anyway, after playing around with the tablet for about 2 hours I went ahead and removed the bloatware by following the instructions at that link. I got rid of Napster, Facebook, Twitter, and the user guide (downloaded from Velocity Micros website to PC and it is really really basic). Really those were the only programs I do not see me using. Have no need for nor use of Napster. The basic Music Player works fine for both Music and Video. Simple copy of my mp3's and mp4's to the SD card and all was good to go.
I then loaded the following programs:
- Amazon Kindle
- AVG Antivirus
- Android App Store (not everything works on the Tablet)
- Awesome Blackjack
- Awesome Video Poker
- OI File Manager
- OI Notepad
- OI Safe
- OI VoiceNotes
- WordPlayer
Now the Amazon Kindle program works like a champ and it downloads the book to the device so that I can read at anytime without having to have Wi-Fi access. (I really, really wonder why the Border's program downloads the books everytime you access them? Is it that the program is really just "checking" for updates? Don't understand, very confuzzling and annoying.)
The basic Browser and Email programs that came with the device are sufficient for me. The email is pretty basic, but truthfully my intention for email on this device is to simply read and make quick responses to individuals and not to massive email lists or groups. Additionally, it is for personal use and not work related so I do not anticipate having to worry about syncing to my work PC or some such when I respond to emails.
Setup of email for my gmail accounts was quick and easy. Just enter account name and password and hit "Next" and the device took care of everything else. My POP3 accounts were a little more intensive due to the fact that I had to enter the actual Incoming and Outgoing server names. Otherwise, even the POP3 accounts were easy to setup. So much easier to read the emails on the 7" screen over the 2.5" screen of my Blackberry. Blackberries are good for texting, but email is another thing altogether.
The advantages of this device as I see them are:
- Cheap, I was able to get this for around $140.
- Easy setup.
- SD Card expansion slot giving ability to swap out as needed for different uses.
- USB expansion slot.
- Several natively support video, music and document formats.
- Good music and video playback (the two internal speakers have good sound + headphone jack)
- Recharging via USB or direct DC plugin adapter
- LONG Battery life. Have gotten close to 14 hours of use (reading books and listening to music)
The drawbacks I have come across so far are:
- The Borders book deal, I really think it is because the software is a PORTAL and not a eBook Reader.
- The device is a little thicker than I was expecting and is just a hair too thick to be comfortable holding for long periods of times.
- The weight is a little on the heavy side, I do notice the weight after holding it for 10-15 minutes.
- The touch screen is a little slow in response.
- The device sports a MIPS processor and not the "standard" ARM processor of so many other Android based devices. This makes alot of the Android programs incompatible with this device. Thus, there are a lot of "Android Programs" that do not run on the Cruz Tablet.
The issue related to the MIPS vs. ARM processor may be a big item for you if youwant to play a lot of games and want lots of different software to work on your device. For me, I am looking for a eBook Reader, Basic Web Browser, Basic Email Client and this device does all of those things very well.
If I were to be pushed to rate this device on a scale for 1 to 10 I would rate it 8 for my purposes and taking in consideration the cost I paid. For most Techno-Geeks however I think the device would rate a 4, maybe even a 3, since there are a lot of things out there that would not run on the tablet at this time.
Overall, given the limited time I have had to "PLAY" with an iPad vs. this device I would still rather an iPad. However, I am not willing to pay $700+ for the version that I would want, plus the iPad is non-expandable (no SD Card interface or USB interface). I really like the ability to swap out SD cards as needed.
Hope this helps anyone looking at purchasing a Cruz Tablet.
YASDC