Next gen hardware, but the software needs improvement, December 16, 2010

After mulling over the Archos 101 back in October, and increasingly frustrated with their delays, I found this gem in my local SEARS. It has a Nvidia Tegra 2 chipset, which you will probably be hearing about increasingly in 2011. A really nice device overall, but it’s not without its faults which I will summarize. First, the hardware….

Hardware Pros:

- Tegra 2 chipset dual-core with 512MB RAM. Bleeding edge hardware, so much that the software has not caught up, yet (see more on that, below).
- MicroSD slot, which supports up to 32GB.
- A full USB port. You can hook up peripheral devices to it, such as a USB keyboard.
- Micro USB port (not proprietary) , for mounting to your PC. Forgot your cable and you’re at a friends house? No worries, just use any micro USB and you are in.
- Front facing camera. It’s not the best, but it works.

Hardware Cons:

- The LCD. Yes, ironic given that this is packaged by a company known for its displays. The 1024×600 10 inch screen is essentially a netbook screen. It’s actually not bad at all when looking at it straight on, but the viewing angles are not very good. This is critical if you were planning on using this as a gaming device where you’ll be moving it around.
- h264 support is limited. This is confusing to some, as technically h264 works in certain configurations. 1080p “high profile” encoded videos do not work, whereas “main profile” does work. The bottom line here is that you might find issues with certain high-def videos that will be very choppy or flat out crash the device. My understanding is that this is a limitation of the Tegra 2 chipset itself.

The hardware is very impressive, overall. However, where this device loses a full point is the software that is supplied out-of-the-box. Although it’s Android based, the stock launcher is replaced with a interface called “Tap N’ Tap”, which is actually a third party vendor. I don’t particularly like the interface myself – it’s slow, buggy with a tendency to “Force Close” very often, and the Marketplace that’s been recently added is very different than the Android Marketplace you might be used to on your phone (and not in a good way). Overall, it’s just plain bad.

If you are technically inclined or don’t mind thinking outside the box, there are already several alternate firmware replacements for the device that can be found by Googling “Viewsonic G Tablet xda-developers”. These mods can turn the device into something you are more familiar with, if you use an Android phone. But, keep in mind that these alterations are not supported by Viewsonic and you could void your warranty. So buyer beware.

The other major problem is that Android itself is not built for tablets, yet. But version 2.3 is about to be released, which could change things considerably in the next few months. Whether or not the GTablet eventually gets an official 2.3 release, or a more Android-looking interface that is fully supported by Viewsonic is anyone’s guess at this point – so, just know what you are getting into.

12/21/10 EDIT: The next official firmware slated for release this week by VS should allow the user to bypass the Tap N’ Tap homescreen, and use a more vanilla Android interface. This is a step in the right direction, imo.

04/17/11 EDIT: I’ve gotten some heat for the title of “Next Gen Hardware”. Remember, this was written in December – that’s an eternity in technology terms. The GPU is actually still up-to-date as of this writing, but Android devices with better screens are starting to show up (ie. the Xoom and soon the Transformer). So just keep in mind when this review was written….

04/23/11 EDIT: I’m hearing reports that these new Amazon GTablets MIGHT be arriving with the latest Viewsonic firmware – this firmware adds a lockscreen, Adobe Flash and French / Spanish languages and a few other things. You can tell if you have this new firmware if you go into Settings — About Tablet and check the TapUI version — “1.2″ means the new firmware, and “1.1″ means the old firmware.

If you have a “1.2″ firmware, please be careful with mods on XDA (as of this writing) as they are generally built around the “1.1″ firmware, only. Or, alternatively, you can try the few 1.2-based mods at Slatedroid (just Google “Slatedroid Gtablet 1.2″ and you’ll find them). You can downlevel your firmware from 1.2 to 1.1 – but there is a small chance that you could soft-brick your device, especially if you don’t read directions carefully – there are specific steps to take. Just be careful, and have fun with your new tablet!

7/28/2011 EDIT: VS has recently stated that there will be no Honeycomb support for the GTAB. However, there are unofficial mods on both XDA and Slatedroid.com, if you are willing to risk it and void your warranty of course. And 1.2 based firmware has…

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]]> https://lap-tops.net/viewsonic-gtablet-with-10-multi-touch-lcd-screen-android-os-2-2/tablet-pc/#comment-629 Tony.A Thu, 02 Aug 2012 13:10:25 +0000 http://lap-tops.net/viewsonic-gtablet-with-10-multi-touch-lcd-screen-android-os-2-2/tablet-pc/#comment-629

Awesome product after you install the latest update from Viewsonic, March 8, 2011

So after I spent a couple of days exploring my new Viewsonic G tablet, I felt like I had to write a review and let everybody know how cool this device is:

I did my homework and researched the G tablet thoroughly before I decided to buy one. I read tons of reviews on various websites before I finally decided to go for it (over an iPad) for the following reasons:

1. Price!
2. Super fast Hardware (Tegra2 processor)
3. USB Port
4. SD card slot for additional storage
5. No need for a sync software!
6. Access to the file system
7. Customizable desktop (live wallpaper, widgets, icons..etc)
8. The availability of custom firmwares (XDA-developers)

Note: I ended up NOT installing a custom firmware, I am pretty happy with the latest update from Viewsonic, which is a must have!!

The tablet was a horrible experience out of the box. No matter what I did, everything seemed to just crash!! Then I got the Update notification as soon as I connected my G Tablet to my home WiFi. After the download was done, the update installed and the device rebooted. I finally went through the setup process (create a new profile..etc) and Voila. Let me tell you, The update is pretty damn stable and seems to boost performance significantly.

The latest update from Viewsonic lets you choose between the crappy TapNTap interface and the standard Android 2.2 interface.

Flash: I got Flash working by simply downloading a Flash .apk (Android application) available on Viewsonic’s website. YouTube never looked better!!

USB: I tested the USB port by connecting a thumb drive. The drive was recognized without problems. Got a decent data transfer rate (~3 Mbps). I also connected a physical USB keyboard. The G Tablet recognized it almost immediately.

SD card slot: I also tested the SD card slot with a 4 GB SD card. no problems there! I love copying media files over to my G Tablet by simply dragging them from my PC and dropping them on my G Tablet!! Good Bye iTunes!!

Bluetooth: I was able to pair my G Tablet with my Bluetooth headphones. Also, I was able to get Google Maps to connect to an old Bluetooth GPS receiver I had purchased a couple of years ago (you will need an app called BlueGPS for this).

WiFi: Connected to my home WiFi without issues.

Webcam: The built-in webcam is good enough, may not be the best but it’s good enough for me (1.3 MP).

Screen: The touch screen is pretty responsive. Yes it does get fingerprints but that’s the case with my iPhone too!! The viewing angles aren’t the best on this device. They aren’t as bad as other reviewers had described though. it only gets bad when you tilt the tablet away from you in landscape mode. I found a cool way to get a better viewing angle: turn the tablet up-side-down!! the desktop will not rotate though but apps will.

Media: Tested a few videos with different formats. The tablet couldn’t play a VOB. AVI’s and mpeg’s played fine. Performance is amazing thanks to the Tegra2 processor. My favorite music library stored on the SD card got recognized just fine and imported into the device’s music library.

Web browser: unmatched browsing experience with the stock browser. Pinching and double tapping work great for zooming in/out. I can’t stress enough how easy the virtual keyboard is to use! And it has spelling suggestions too!

Apps: Out of the Box, the G Tablet doesn’t support the Android market but it does offer an alternative which is Handango. I was able to find almost every app I wanted and for free: Google Maps, Pandora, file browser, weather channel, Skype…etc. To install the app, simply download the .apk to your G tablet and execute it.

Mail: I was able to setup my Hotmail account in less than a minute. The Contacts app lets you import all your Gmail contacts to your G Tablet. If you have a Hotmail account you can simply create a Gmail account, import you Hotmail contacts to Gmail (web) then import from Gmail to your G Tablet.

Battery: battery life is Excellent. I browse the Net while listening to Pandora radio (yes, multitasking!!! ) for hours.

In summary, I love my new G tablet. I highly recommend it. Wait until you have installed the latest update from Viewsonic before judging it!

Thank you Amazon for such an awesome product at such an awesome price! Got mine for $359.99

Note: I have been updating this review as I come across new features.

***Update 06/15/2011***
I have flashed my G Tablet with a custom ROM: Vegan Gingerbread (Google it). The reason for this is to have full access to Android market. Note that the stock firmware works just fine so you don’t really need to flash a custom ROM if you don’t want to.
Also, I thought I’d share that there are currently at least two Honeycomb ROM’s being…

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