I thought this was kind of odd as well. However according to reviews, speakers are decently loud. In any case, I would use a headphone so this doesnt concern me too much.
It just has to become the std, i cannot think of any reasons not to put the speakers in the front. The only budget tab i saw that did this was the funbook infinity. More should do it. The only thing speakers at the back are good for is to annoy the person in front of you who cannot see your tab. Speakers on the side is an even worse design because your hands will muffle it. So people should defnitely not buy a tab that has this.
As this is my first tablet, I am clueless about tablets as such. How do you advise I go about this finding out who the OEM is? Is there some hardware code/serial database or something where one can find out who the OEM might be? Any help appreciated.
Then do not bother for the next six months. Get to know the capabilities of your tablet and shortcomings if any. This will give time for more people to buy it and start experimenting. Thing with these custom roms is you are entirely dependent on others, they may or may not do a good job, there will be bugs and certain things might not work. The simplest need for it is to remove unwanted apps to free up more space or with locked tabs. But since you have 16GB you will not face problems too soon.
Another might be to add USB 3G dongles and you need to install the required driver into the kernel to get that particular dongle to work. Its a lot of work and you and a handful of others are the only support you will get. Skip it for as long as possible or when you have a very clear need.
Yes, I found the lack of info on the topic of PDF read/display speeds disappointing as this is my primary requirement for the tablet. I would have thought they would have some sort of default benchmark for this sort of thing. The only "clue" I found on the topic is the thinkdigit video review where the guy states the tablet is good for reading books. See the below clip at 2:04 seconds.
This digit review was better than the previous one. Tells you exactly where potential problems are. Its clear that Spice have used a better quality touch screen in this model compared to others in the same price range. But it still did not show any PDF performance.
This one is with a nexus, ok its quad core but main question is how far away is your dual core pdf responsiveness in comparison. You can see a 500 pg book is no problem and the tab is very responsive. Now that is ideal.
The digit video review I linked above (see 1:32 onwards) claims they got 6.5 hours of battery time on their continuous video playback test with full volume, full brightness and WiFi on.
They don't say what resolution the video was.
What I'm looking for is 2-3 hours of reading time so I think I should be okay with the battery. Plus, as I don't intend to use WiFi at all (this will be an completely "offline" tablet so to speak) there should be some saving there as well.
Thats good. Two things you need to know about any Li-Po battery if you want it to last.
- Don't charge it up to 100%, pull it when its 90-95%
- Keep the discharge short before recharge, say, recharge at 50% rather than letting it run down to 10%.
Given your use profile the battery should be adequate for your needs. If you can get through a typical 8 hr day with it then you have a useful tablet.
Plus, the NDTV guys have also reviewed the tablet 2 days ago and claimed a battery life of 8 hours in their video playback test with full brightness. They go on to say that in their view, the tablet would easily give 8-10 hours of usage on a single charge.
Review link here in case anyones interested -
Spice Stellar Pad (Mi-1010) review | NDTV Gadgets
BTW, this product does reportedly have some issues based on reviews I found on the net.
Firstly, more than one review has stated it has some back light bleeding issues along the edges though they claim it was minor.
Similarly, charging problems have been reported in more than one review as well. Apparently it takes a significant time to charge the tablet though its reported to have a good battery life once fully charged. The fact that it uses a proprietary charger (rather than USB charging) kind of puts me off it a bit.
Third, the video link I posted in my earlier post (the one with the benchmark) had a very odd finding. Apparently the guy who reviewed it said the CPU's were clocked at 1.2Ghz and not 1.5 Ghz as they are claimed to be. This kind of worries me. Is this normal? Are the CPU's being throttled down to 1.2Ghz due to low load or is this a problem?
Long time to charge is a good thing for the battery as it puts less stress on it. My samsung charger is a 2A charger very fast but i bet the battery will die sooner.
Heh, lower clocked CPU explains the longer battery life. At the price point they have to be as competitive as possible, the low end tabs always have the latest OS on them. But that will be the only OS you will get unless you figure out how to install the successor android OS. I'm still on ICS, did not see any need for JB just yet. HC --> ICS was a much more signficant change then ICS -> JB.
If you do not have any performance issues then nothing to worry about you will be ok, otherwise you will have to root it to get more performance. Your call. Sleep on it.
The only remaining question i have what about service centers in your city. Are there any ? how easy will repairs or maintenance be should you need any.
