[tomtom]

I'm assuming you don't want to pay Apple prices otherwise I'd get an iPad. 

You seen this one? Looks quite nice.

Isnt the iPad2 now £300?

I have one - but trying to be objective, I've never heard anything especially good about the Android ones... and they've not exactly been flying off the shelves... If you want a budget one, ensure it has a capacative touch screen...

[Jim]

I've been looking at the archos 101 g9 turbo but have decided to wait a while longer before getting a tablet

[Paul B]

TomTom, it's still a lot more than £84 (accepting its in a different league).

Looking at the Momo9, Ebuyer now have the updated version (different name) with double the RAM (Sumvision Cyclone Astro Tablet PC).

Jim - how could you resist, its Turbo'd 

[Paul B]

Most people might want to skip most of this...

For those interested (Jim, Dave), I took a punt on The 'Sumvision Cyclone Astro 8gb' which exists in many forms, under many brands.

Straight out of the box I was really impressed. After initial setup it didn't seem at all laggy (unless you're installing and trying to multi-task in a heavy handed manner) and the touch screen seemed good (however the resolution isn't mind blowing) but then things quickly began to go awry. I was searching for apps I knew existed which were unavailable as the market simply knows it as an "unknown tablet". Furthermore one of the core google services (calendar) wouldn't sync. This is an android problem and not limited to cheap products (I think its linked to the processor for some reason).

Like all things open source, there's always a thread where somebody much brighter has fixed the issues. Said thread is here. Seeing as though it was already running ICS I just ran the custom script (meant to change the device signature, remove bloatware etc.). This pretty much broke everything, mainly marketplace/play.

The hard buttons also stopped working which made it impossible to do system restore. Instead I had to install Clockworkrecovery and this allowed me to flash factory settings. However, factory settings were different to at unboxing! Thus I ended up re-flashing another manufacturers ICS build, running the custom script (everything apart from disabling 'phone services') and installing clockworkrecoverymod. After this a quick re-flash back to factory settings (remove horrible keyboard) and some guesswork to get the language out of Japanese and I have full market access (the script gives it a signature of another more well known device) and a very slick ICS tablet.

Although it sounds like a ball-ache (and is distinctly un-iThings), once you know the sequence of events it can be done in well under 30 minutes and for £84 seems like a steal. Iplayer etc. works and it happily outputs 1080p via HDMI cable.

I meant to output a system image before adding any personal details but I forgot so you'd have to do it yourself. If I had chance again I'd install CWM first and create a Nandroid backup of the out of the box setup. This should be available direct from the manufacturers but they've ran out of bandwidth and I wouldn't trust it to the be the same.

I'm unsure if its just going from Froyo to ICS but image rich tablet browsing is very impressive and better than on my netbook. Apps such as pulse news just look stunning.

/end slack--line 

[dave]

Sounds like a good deal but I dont know what 90% of the above means....

[Paul B]

If you're ok installing drivers etc, then there's nothing that should  tax you too much really. As well as the thread, there's also a youtube video but he drags things out a bit (56 mins)!

[Obi-Wan is lost...]

Theres an official ICS release now, or is this what you used that didn't connect to the Marketplace?
http://www.sum-vision.co.uk/productinfo/cyclonetablet/cyclonetablet_astro.asp (under support)

[dontfollowme]

To any Samsung Galaxy S2 users on ICS, does the feedly app for you? Mine doesn't want to scroll.

[slackline]

Works here, can take a while (i.e. appears to hang & not scroll) if you've not synced recently though.

[Paul B]

Theres an official ICS release now, or is this what you used that didn't connect to the Marketplace?
http://www.sum-vision.co.uk/productinfo/cyclonetablet/cyclonetablet_astro.asp (under support)

It'd connect fine out of the box but without changing the device signature a lot of apps weren't showing up as compatible, instagram, facebook etc. It came with ics out of the box, the manufacturers download has been out of bandwidth since  I got the tablet.
I don't think the script to change the signature works with the manufacturers ics build, it didn't for me. However, no doubt it'll be updated soon.

[dave]

...a lot of apps weren't showing up as compatible, instagram, ....

Thats a selling point in itself.

[Jim]

hows the tablet going now Paul?
Am after something like this for the kids to use as they are always on the wifes GSII

[Paul B]

Its 'OK'.

After turning it on, or whilst it re-syncs large numbers of things it feels quite laggy and I get a "Wait for this app to respond" dialogue. Once it syncs or has turned on it's usually fine.

Good for iplayer, emails, games, feed reader etc. Its manageable whilst using a standard browser. With photo apps the screen seems really quite good.

Battery life seems OK, an hour and a half of iplayer didn't seem to have much impact yesterday.

I guess it'd depend on what you'd expect them to use it for? For me, I think its shortcomings detract from the tablet experience but then I remind myself of the cost and I care a lot less.

[Jim]

would you be tempted to throw, say another £50 at it to of bought something that may be slightly better?

[Paul B]

dual core or something? (link me Jim, link me!)

[Jim]

well I'm probably going to order one of these
I was considering something like this or this
obviously specs aren't alway everything
any other suggestions welcome, budget is only about £100 as its only for messing about with

[Paul B]

For messing I'd say the Sumvision is fine (if you're over in Sheffield any time you're welcome to take a look), just don't expect to be blown away.

It seems like the stats look identical to what I've got but there aren't any reviews. Am I missing something? All of the other reviews were favourable etc.

For flashing custom ROMS what you need to find out is which MP camera is in the version you've got, that seems to be the key to get everything working. I packaged everything that I used up into a zip so I wouldn't have to trawl the forums again if I ever screwed it up, PM if it'd be useful.

[slackline]

Clocked this linked on another forum £79 for Android tablet

[Paul B]

Its the same, as is AllWinner, Momo, Sumvision etc.

[Jim]

looks the same as this which I have ordered but has 4x the storage (16GB) for 99p more

[slackline]

Fair-do's didn't bother doing any digging, just clocked the offer and recalled this thread.

[Obi-Wan is lost...]

I'm waiting to see what the Google offering is like.

http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2012/06/googles-tablet-is-the-nexus-7-a-cheap-quad-core-attempt-to-sell-android-to-the-masses/

Officially announced in a few days, no word yet on launch date in the UK, pricing also guessed at the mo.

[slackline]

I don't think I'd get on with typing on a tablet, but quite like the idea of a dockable keyboard to get round this (and improve battery life).  In no rush to fork out for something at the moment, but if/when a tablet comes out with dockable keyboard that dual boots into Linux when docked and then Android when as a tablet I might be more interested (this isn't too much of a pipe dream given the Ubuntu Android project).

[Obi-Wan is lost...]

I'm waiting to see what the Google offering is like.

http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2012/06/googles-tablet-is-the-nexus-7-a-cheap-quad-core-attempt-to-sell-android-to-the-masses/

Officially announced in a few days, no word yet on launch date in the UK, pricing also guessed at the mo.

Nexus 7 announced and available for pre-order

8gb £159 16gb £199

https://play.google.com/store/devices/details?id=nexus_7_8gb&feature=nexus7_campaign

[Obi-Wan is lost...]

Getting an error on the store at the mo, may be being a bit premature.