Another post so soon because we have some interesting developments out of China. The most important news will lead off this post and then we’ll degrade into the recent reviews that have been published.
In the last post I mentioned the absence of Onda in Chinese tech blogs. Well, the day after Onda popped up in an advertorial post about its 3.2 firmware update and power consumption [Google English]. This advertorial has been running for several brands and seems to contain charts supplied by CPU maker AllWinner (a similar advertorial has run for Colorfly’s U781 clone, see Google English).
The big Onda news is word of an Onda V819mini [Google English]. It will be thinner than the V818 mini — and that’s all we know so far. Likely it will use the A31s CPU again. What’s more interesting is their upcoming V975 quad-core, which will be a 9.7-inch tablet with iPad Mini-like narrow bezels. No other details yet. But if Onda beats the iPad 5 to market with slim bezels, Apple won’t have a case to prevent its sale outside of China due to “trade dress.” Onda will have the legal high ground.
AllWinner is not content to let Rockchip steal the Android excitement with its MultiWindow Android.
In a publicity counter-attack, AllWinner announced it will be the first to adopt Android 4.3 and push it to its tablet partners [Google English]. And to prove how fast they’ve been working, they’ve released a screensnap allegedly showing 4.3 running on an A31s-based system:
It’s going to be interesting to see what Rockchip will do with Android 4.3, since MultiWindow Android is based on 4.2.
As for the above screensnap, let me complain about the fact that the first thing everyone does with a tablet — especially at trade shows — is go to the About information. Yet Google has placed that last in the list! Isn’t it past time Google got wise and moved that to the top of the list?
For Rockchip tablet owners: I’m not sure if RKTool is new but it’s being pimped [Google English]. As seen below, it’s Windows-only:
It assists in things such as gaining root, batch installing APKs, system backup, and the like. Since the program’s text is all in Chinese, theres’ not much more for me to go on. A download link is at the post for the adventurous. Be aware that you could brick your tablet if you don’t understand Chinese.
In a ridiculous advertorial post not labeled as such, iFive pimps its iFive Mini 3 clone [Google English]. They still haven’t disclosed what CPU this thing has, so what the hell are they pimping? And why is the Photoshop in this so damn bad:
They didn’t even bother to rotate the customized UI into portrait! Since this tablet has been seen only as renders, I have my doubts that it even exists outside of advertorial hype.
For those who want to check out the specs of the iPad Mini versus eight clones, there’s a post [Google English] that’s probably an advertorial. I can’t otherwise explain the bizarre order of the list, which begins with pimping AllWinner tablets first, then Actions, then Rockchip. In terms of CPU power for the money, it should be Rockchip, AllWinner, and Actions. I note that even though the ICOO Fatty 2 is listed, there’s absolutely no mention of it having a 2GB RAM version. So perhaps ICOO never released more than a few of those. If there’s only a 1GB model, then avoid it. 2GBs is likely required for MultiWindow Android and past reviews of tablets with 1GB of RAM have pointed out force closing of apps and browser tabs.
And now to the reviews…
The Cube Talk79 is reviewed [Google English], its box is examined [Google English], and there’s even a slideshow [Google English]. This is not a tablet I’ve had any interest in. If you have, note that it lacks microSD card expansion!
The Teclast P88s Mini is unboxed [Google English].
It claims to have an “OGS” screen rather than IPS and further claims it’s better. This is an A31s-based clone with just 1GB of RAM and 16GBs of storage.
The Colorfly U781 Q1 is “toured” (not an unboxing, really) [Google English], disassembled [Google English] and also gets a weird fumetti-like slideshow [Google English].
And we close this installment with more advertorial pimpery for the only-seen-as-renders M Brand’s A821 tablet [Google English].
Again, that uses a quad-core MediaTek 8389 CPU and has 3G.
Previously here:
Chinese iPad Mini Clone Notes #9
Chinese iPad Mini Clone Notes #8
Chinese iPad Mini Clone Notes #7
Chinese iPad Mini Clone Notes #6
Chinese iPad Mini Clone Notes #5
Chinese iPad Mini Clone Notes #4
Chinese iPad Mini Clone Notes #3
Chinese iPad Mini Clone Notes #2
Chinese iPad Mini Clone Notes #1