Related
This phone is amazing, speed, screen, programs, etc.
Only two things I do not like is:
1. No mini USB connection
2. Battery could have been more than 1230 mAh.
Maybe HD3 will be dream machine.
Micro-USB is now the default mobile port and ALL phones will have it (bar the iPhone). It's been agreed
http://gizmodo.com/5389063/united-nations-approves-microusb-universal-phone-charger-standard
rocksford77 said:
This phone is amazing, speed, screen, programs, etc.
Only two things I do not like is:
1. No mini USB connection
2. Battery could have been more than 1230 mAh.
Maybe HD3 will be dream machine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
While I also agree that this device is blazingly fast compared with previous HTC offerings, I'm with you too on the two issues you've noted.
On point 2, I suspect that it won't be too long for me to pick up an after-market extended battery for the HD2 as I did for the Touch Diamond.
Point 1, concerning the miniUSB... I have to agree, it's bad enough having multiple devices, that require all different types of connections. Seems if one travels anywhere carrying a range of different electronic devices then half the baggage in-tow is all the cables. It's ridiculous! I have several Nokia phones, which I haven't used for several years since I picked up my HTC P3300 when it was first released. Great device with all the usual goodies that we come to expect now from HTC. I especially liked the way I could navigate the menus/device using trackball and scroll-wheel, which is especially great when using GPS. Since the purchase of the P3300 I've bought two other HTC's; TD & TD2. Both great additions, luv both of them but miss the trackball and scroll-wheel.
Aside from each being feature packed & all round great devices, they've all shared the same mini-USB connection, which meant I only needed to have one power cable either in my car, on my motorcycle or elsewhere, especially important for when I use GPS and want external power. The flip-side being that the same connection also was utlilised for the headphone/FM antenna, which was no biggie for me, I didn't use them much anyway.
Fast forward to my HD2 purchase a few weeks back, to my surprise the miniUSB connection is gone which I never realised until after I'd bought it -had I known I may have reconsidered the purchase. While I have dedicated miniUSB power & car accessory chargers, I already have a couple of universal car-charger kits which come with multiple plug adaptors. All the ones I have and all those I have seen since buying the HD2, have miniUSB connectors, and not one has this new slimline connector. Even yesterday I checked out a number of different stores and none have the new connector.
What a pain in-the-arse, I now have to carry two different connectors if I want to use my HD2 and any other older HTC... especially a pain to setup on my motorcycle. I've even thought about going to a tech repair store and asking them to swap-out the connector to the miniUSB. I'll see...
Just my two kuais worth... (Rant over) from a foreigner based in mainland China.
Has anyone had the chance to use\test this tablet? On a scale from 0 to 10 what would you rate it? What are the pros and cons? Any feed back would be appriciated. Thanks.
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
http://www.microcenter.com/product/414898/Iconia_W3_Tablet_PC_(W3-810-1600)_-_Silver
sinister1 said:
Has anyone had the chance to use\test this tablet? On a scale from 0 to 10 what would you rate it? What are the pros and cons? Any feed back would be appriciated. Thanks.
http://www.microcenter.com/product/414898/Iconia_W3_Tablet_PC_(W3-810-1600)_-_Silver
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm very pleased with my one week old one. 9 out of 10. It fulfils my needs for full windows on a tablet and makes similar sized android tablets look a bit silly, at least in respect of what you can do. But if your need is just for multimedia (and gaming I suspect) look elsewhere.
Pros:
Low price for a full Win 8 machine, and you get Office Home (for small screens) thrown in.
Very quick, hardly any lag or waiting whatever you're doing.
Battery life like the best android tabs (this was the biggest surprise). 8 to 9 hours light use. Only uses about 5% battery overnight on standby and wakes immediately.
Nicely put together hardware; feels solid (within the limitations of a cheap product). All sockets work nicely and should last.
Full USB2 host, although you have to use a (provided) adapter cable. Even seems to power a portable hard drive. YMMV.
Cons:
Screen not stunning. It's only TFT and optimised for portrait use, so in landscape, as you would tend to use Windows, left-right viewing angles are pretty poor. For work it's fine, for multimedia less so, difficult for 2 people to watch at once. Which is a shame, as the hardware acceleration seems to cope with any movie you throw at it, and smoothly. Brightness and contrast are OK though, as is resolution. I wouldn't want to use it for photo viewing.
Wifi is a bit erratic, mainly because the antenna is somewhere under where yout left hand sits when using landscape mode. In portrait mode it would be fine.
Automatic light sensor in the wrong place for landscape use - you tend to cover it with your left hand. Best to disable it.
The 32GB model only has about 10GB available to the user. It does support 32GB microSD though.
Finally, for anyone wanting to actually carry it around out and about, quite possible as it's small and light enough, there are issues. Even when it's powered right off, a short (rather than long) press on the power button turns it back on. And, when it's put on standby, even though there's a swipe operated standby screen, the timeout of this screen seems to be the same as the standard timeout. So if you've set 10mins before standby, this lock screen also takes 10mins to turn off. Doh!
Don't hesitate to ask anything I might be able to answer
Pete_S said:
I'm very pleased with my one week old one. 9 out of 10. It fulfils my needs for full windows on a tablet and makes similar sized android tablets look a bit silly, at least in respect of what you can do. But if your need is just for multimedia (and gaming I suspect) look elsewhere.
Pros:
Low price for a full Win 8 machine, and you get Office Home (for small screens) thrown in.
Very quick, hardly any lag or waiting whatever you're doing.
Battery life like the best android tabs (this was the biggest surprise). 8 to 9 hours light use. Only uses about 5% battery overnight on standby and wakes immediately.
Nicely put together hardware; feels solid (within the limitations of a cheap product). All sockets work nicely and should last.
Full USB2 host, although you have to use a (provided) adapter cable. Even seems to power a portable hard drive. YMMV.
Cons:
Screen not stunning. It's only TFT and optimised for portrait use, so in landscape, as you would tend to use Windows, left-right viewing angles are pretty poor. For work it's fine, for multimedia less so, difficult for 2 people to watch at once. Which is a shame, as the hardware acceleration seems to cope with any movie you throw at it, and smoothly. Brightness and contrast are OK though, as is resolution. I wouldn't want to use it for photo viewing.
Wifi is a bit erratic, mainly because the antenna is somewhere under where yout left hand sits when using landscape mode. In portrait mode it would be fine.
Automatic light sensor in the wrong place for landscape use - you tend to cover it with your left hand. Best to disable it.
The 32GB model only has about 10GB available to the user. It does support 32GB microSD though.
Finally, for anyone wanting to actually carry it around out and about, quite possible as it's small and light enough, there are issues. Even when it's powered right off, a short (rather than long) press on the power button turns it back on. And, when it's put on standby, even though there's a swipe operated standby screen, the timeout of this screen seems to be the same as the standard timeout. So if you've set 10mins before standby, this lock screen also takes 10mins to turn off. Doh!
Don't hesitate to ask anything I might be able to answer
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
WiFi should penetrate through your left hand without issue, I doubt that is the issue. Human flesh is near transparent as far as WiFi is concerned, bone may well be a factor though. But regardless, the antenna in these devices should not be so short that your hand can completely cover it. Only other thing I can think of is polarization, most wifi routers are polarized and as such most wifi devices have antenna with bends and kinks etc etc so that they can pick up multiple polarisations regardless of orientation, I highly doubt polarisation is the issue, I highly doubt the antenna is short enough for your hand to effect it when I can hold my phone with both hands entirely engulfing the device and still stream data from wifi while outside in the garden a fair old distance from the router.
It actually supports the entire SDXC spec supposedly so should take a 64gb card and when they are release 128 (the spec actually accounts for card capacities upto 2tb however we dont have the technology to manufacture 2tb nand flash within an SD package obviously).
That 32gb is partially consumed by the recovery (about half of it). If you follow the many guides online for creating a USB recovery drive, then test the drive to confirm that it both a) works and b) you know how to use it (common problem) then you can safely remove the recovery partition built into the device and free up a huge chunk of space.
What adaptor is required for the USB host? Is it just a standard microUSB male to USB A female as used on many android devices or is it something proprietary?
SixSixSevenSeven said:
WiFi should penetrate through your left hand without issue, I doubt that is the issue. Human flesh is near transparent as far as WiFi is concerned, bone may well be a factor though. But regardless, the antenna in these devices should not be so short that your hand can completely cover it. Only other thing I can think of is polarization, most wifi routers are polarized and as such most wifi devices have antenna with bends and kinks etc etc so that they can pick up multiple polarisations regardless of orientation, I highly doubt polarisation is the issue, I highly doubt the antenna is short enough for your hand to effect it when I can hold my phone with both hands entirely engulfing the device and still stream data from wifi while outside in the garden a fair old distance from the router.
It actually supports the entire SDXC spec supposedly so should take a 64gb card and when they are release 128 (the spec actually accounts for card capacities upto 2tb however we dont have the technology to manufacture 2tb nand flash within an SD package obviously).
That 32gb is partially consumed by the recovery (about half of it). If you follow the many guides online for creating a USB recovery drive, then test the drive to confirm that it both a) works and b) you know how to use it (common problem) then you can safely remove the recovery partition built into the device and free up a huge chunk of space.
What adaptor is required for the USB host? Is it just a standard microUSB male to USB A female as used on many android devices or is it something proprietary?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Regardless of the supposed penetrative capability through hands of 2.4ghz signals, I can say for sure that the hand holding the tablet at bottom left when in landscape mode causes a 4-5 bar signal (in a room directly above the wifi location) go down to 2 bars at best, sometimes 1 bar. It's quite repeatable. It might be the reason the W3 gets poor reviews in respect of wifi performance? It's a very poor internal antenna location for, what should be, a landscape device.
My phone, incidentally, prefers to be held at the bottom for best wifi performance, or at the top for best 3G!
It's good to hear higher capacity cards are supported as I didn't see a mention of SDXC, though I guess that's a function of windows rather than the hardware.
As regards drive space, I believe the 32GB model doesn't have a recovery partition, instead getting a recovery DVD, whereas the 64GB model has the recovery partition and no DVD. This is what I've read, anyway. Checking with windows disk management tools shows a couple of extra partitions of 500MB and 100MB at the "start" of the disk which appear to be unused. I don't think you could fit recovery files in that sort of space. I don't know what they're for.
The 18GB or so which you can't use simply seems to be windows, with page and hibernation files, plus the preinstalled stuff. I'm certain you could reclaim some of it. My main use is at home with a network drive, so I'm quite happy with what's left.
The adapter appears to be a standard off-the-shelf item, as you say microUSB to standard USB female.
Disabling hibernate will also free some space (by default, the hiberfile is the same size as your RAM, so it can be pretty significant). While hibernate on a mobile device is usually really nice, on a tablet I don't see the need. Any use case that involves putting it on the shelf unplugged for longer than you'd want to leave it in sleep mode should be fine with powering it off instead.
The main uses I have for hibernate are either:
A) Full-disk encryption (BitLocker) where sleep mode is less secure (because the decryption key can be recovered from the still-active RAM)
B) Emergency power-down for critical battery level (without losing any work).
Although these use cases are significant, for most people A is irrelevant and B isn't vital. Sleep mode at 10% battery remaining would still last you all day.
EDIT: To disable Hibernate, do the following:
Run an elevated CMD prompt (you can do it by right-clicking on the Start button, or selecting Command Prompt in the Start screen and choosing Run as Administrator from the app bar).
Run the following command (without the quotes) in the elevated prompt: "powercfg -H OFF"
You may want to then adjust your power profiles, if they were doing things like entering hibernate when the battery got low, so they do something else instead.
Yeah I got one too. Found it at staples for $269. I also have a Lenovo yoga, and while the Acer is obviously slower, its fine for something so small and cheap. I'm pretty happy with it. I do have one issue, and I'm wondering if anyone else is experiencing it. Sometimes when plugged in it gets REALLY hot on the back. When it gets this hot, it seems to stop charging. Anyone else experiencing this?
vinscuzzy said:
Yeah I got one too. Found it at staples for $269. I also have a Lenovo yoga, and while the Acer is obviously slower, its fine for something so small and cheap. I'm pretty happy with it. I do have one issue, and I'm wondering if anyone else is experiencing it. Sometimes when plugged in it gets REALLY hot on the back. When it gets this hot, it seems to stop charging. Anyone else experiencing this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't own the device so I can't have experienced this is course but I do have a fair bit of electronics knowledge. Most chargers are a higher voltage than the battery. Usually you use a switch mode regulator to drop 5v to 4.5v or so in a phone efficiently, but that's not a clean 4v signal and its still too high, you then use a capacitor to try to clean up electrical noise on the 4.5v signal and then feed it into a low dropout linear regulator to drop it to just over 3.7v for the batter, this will be a clean signal unlike the switchmode regulator however linear regulators do get very warm (can actually harm yourself on them). Often there is a polyfuss thrown into the mix aswell, essentially a self resetting fuse which is triggered with heat. I have seen in some Chinese devices to save cost they just use a linear regulator to go straight from 5v to 3.7ish, way way hotter, sometimes enough to trip the polyfuse effectively disconnecting the charger. It is possible Acer have also used a cheaper circuit or poorly located polyfuse which is tripped under normal charging conditions or your device may genuinely be faulty. A bit of heat when charging is normal though, heat in the charging signal is one if the reasons your supposed to turn your device off when charging, reduces the current draw which then reduces heat produced by any regulators on board the device.
A short could also be causing the problem
vinscuzzy said:
Yeah I got one too. Found it at staples for $269. I also have a Lenovo yoga, and while the Acer is obviously slower, its fine for something so small and cheap. I'm pretty happy with it. I do have one issue, and I'm wondering if anyone else is experiencing it. Sometimes when plugged in it gets REALLY hot on the back. When it gets this hot, it seems to stop charging. Anyone else experiencing this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It gets warm underneath the rear camera about where the Acer logo is. This happens under normal use or when just charging it, but It gets even warmer in the same location when charging whilst using it. I've not had it actually stop charging yet.
Might be best to not use it whilst charging and also place it screen down to help the heat escape. I often do this with phones and tablets because heat shortens the life of Lithium cells.
I've not witnessed *really* hot, but certainly uncomfortable for my left hand hot.
about the display
Pete_S said:
Screen not stunning. It's only TFT and optimised for portrait use, so in landscape, as you would tend to use Windows, left-right viewing angles are pretty poor. For work it's fine, for multimedia less so, difficult for 2 people to watch at once. Which is a shame, as the hardware acceleration seems to cope with any movie you throw at it, and smoothly. Brightness and contrast are OK though, as is resolution. I wouldn't want to use it for photo viewing.
Don't hesitate to ask anything I might be able to answer
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have a question about the display. I previously used a surface rt bought from Curry's for £279 I thought the price was very low and I would be able to live without installing win32 apps but that was a huge mistake however I was able to sell my rt for £220 and saw one iconia w3 on eBay for £260 as I want a full windows tablet but also on a tight budget would it be worth buying iconia for £260 because I saw lots of review they all said the display is terrible. Is it that bad?
The display isn't the best but I have no problems reading with the Kindle app, watching movies or playing games. I love using my W3, I even sold my Note 8.0. I have a Surface Pro and this is the perfect companion device. I don't have to make any compromises or find similar programs to use.
I am a Marine and we live in the Windows world and use our ID's (combined access cards) to log into the network and various DOD websites. Using my W3 and a USB cac reader I am able to do my work on the go. The only thing it is missing is the digitizer that my Surface Pro has. If it had that I would be 110% satisfied. Hopefully someone comes out with an 8in Windows 8 device with a digitizer. I would never have to carry pen and paper again.
I have the 64 gig version, first thing I did was disable hibernate and remove the recorvery partition. I also installed a 64 gig SD. I have 18 gig free on the hard drive and 16 free on the SD. I keep media on the SD card and use the hard drive for games and programs. Also being able to just plug things in without rooting it or resorting to other tricks makes it worth it. I can just plug in an external and read it. The Nexus 7 and Note 8.0 could to but I had to download an app and root them to be able to do that.
If you want Windows in an 8 in form factor get the W3. Also it is rumored that Acer will be releasing a refresh to the W3 with a better screen since that seems to be the largest complaint people have against the device. I am unaware of anyone else releasing an 8 in Windows device, there are rumblings that Microsoft could be in the works for a 8 in Surface. Who knows but right now the Acer W3 is the only one out there and it works very well.
big_b0sss said:
I have a question about the display. I previously used a surface rt bought from Curry's for £279 I thought the price was very low and I would be able to live without installing win32 apps but that was a huge mistake however I was able to sell my rt for £220 and saw one iconia w3 on eBay for £260 as I want a full windows tablet but also on a tight budget would it be worth buying iconia for £260 because I saw lots of review they all said the display is terrible. Is it that bad?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The display isn't terrible. 2-3 years ago it would have been great, it's just that everything nowadays seems to come with a wide viewing angle screen, making the W3's seem old fashioned. In other respects (brightness, contrast) it's a nice screen. The difficulty comes when you're watching a movie side by side. To the left it goes quite dark, to the right it's bright and rather washed out. If you are watching it head on, it's no problem at all. In day to day use you forget any shortcomings. The reviews always pick on something and exaggerate it.
I agree with sactownbwoy; I love my new W3; it does everything and is an absolute bargain for the price. My poor Asus android tabbie spends it's time in the cupboard now
sactownbwoy said:
I have the 64 gig version, first thing I did was disable hibernate and remove the recorvery partition. I also installed a 64 gig SD. I have 18 gig free on the hard drive and 16 free on the SD. I keep media on the SD card and use the hard drive for games and programs. Also being able to just plug things in without rooting it or resorting to other tricks makes it worth it. I can just plug in an external and read it. The Nexus 7 and Note 8.0 could to but I had to download an app and root them to be able to do that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow. Thanks for the quick reply. Would you please tell us how did u remove hibernate and recovery partition. I have just ordered a 16gig model from eBay I know it will have about 8gb of free space but its OK I will OK with it. Would be so nice if I can free up another gig
Sent from my GT-I9505G using xda premium
Please search before posting. Disabling hibernate and removing the recovery partition were discussed *ON THIS VERY FORUM* less than a week ago!
sactownbwoy said:
I am a Marine and we live in the Windows world and use our ID's (combined access cards) to log into the network and various DOD websites. Using my W3 and a USB cac reader I am able to do my work on the go. The only thing it is missing is the digitizer that my Surface Pro has. If it had that I would be 110% satisfied. Hopefully someone comes out with an 8in Windows 8 device with a digitizer. I would never have to carry pen and paper again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The smaller Windows 8 devices that have been shown are more in the realm of competing with cheapo Android devices and the poorly specced iPad mini. They're almost throwaway devices. I can only see a decent 7/8" tablet coming from Lenovo, Sony or Samsung, unless MS decides to make a Surface that small, but I doubt they would put a digitiser on it, because again, MS is looking at those devices as being budget tablets.
sinister1 said:
Has anyone had the chance to use\test this tablet? On a scale from 0 to 10 what would you rate it? What are the pros and cons? Any feed back would be appriciated. Thanks.
http://www.microcenter.com/product/414898/Iconia_W3_Tablet_PC_(W3-810-1600)_-_Silver
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So far I have very mixed feelings about the tablet. I have two of them now. On the first one, the lower half of the screen was black and as the unit warmed up, the screen would start flashing then eventually work. I sent it back to Acer (I got it from them at a conference) for repair. They replaced some stuff, shipped it back and the result was a unit with a cracked LCD screen due to poor packaging. I'm expecting the repaired (2x) unit today so we'll see how that unit fairs.
The second unit seems ok so far. I haven't done much with it other than charge it up. The keyboard stand is nice but it would have been better if the keyboard had come with a mouse pad. Still, I ordered a Bluetooth mouse for it and we'll see.
So far I prefer my Surface Pro.
I have the 64gb unit - give it a 7/10 so far.
I'd be keen to know how far people have got dual booting the device, or inded instaling a different operating system such as Android x86 or Linux/Plasma Active..
I've found the boot selector/bios but so far it wont boot from any of my devices. Although I will try a SSD tonight I have laying around.
./P
phazey said:
I have the 64gb unit - give it a 7/10 so far.
I'd be keen to know how far people have got dual booting the device, or inded instaling a different operating system such as Android x86 or Linux/Plasma Active..
I've found the boot selector/bios but so far it wont boot from any of my devices. Although I will try a SSD tonight I have laying around.
./P
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Clovertrail processors are locked in their UEFI firmware to windows 8.
I would definitely recommend seeing one in person before buying, I bought and took it back within an hour, the screen is terrible and Wi-Fi only worked with in about 10 ft of my router
Sent from my HTC One using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
I have the 64 gig model and I'm very happy with it. Even though it doesn't have an active digitizer for working with Wacom pens, the screen is the best I've ever used with a capacitive stylus. Could the display be sharper? Yes, but it's no worse than my 17" laptop. I've been impressed with the development of the Atom processor. I think Intel needs to rename them because the mere mention of an Atom processor might turn away some buyers. If you're serious about picking up one of these tablets, wipe any reviews you've read and interact with it first. Some of the posts here look as if someone read the spec sheet and dismissed it as a "throwaway" tablet without even touching it. Be your own reviewer.
Looneytoon98 said:
I have the 64 gig model and I'm very happy with it. Even though it doesn't have an active digitizer for working with Wacom pens, the screen is the best I've ever used with a capacitive stylus. Could the display be sharper? Yes, but it's no worse than my 17" laptop. I've been impressed with the development of the Atom processor. I think Intel needs to rename them because the mere mention of an Atom processor might turn away some buyers. If you're serious about picking up one of these tablets, wipe any reviews you've read and interact with it first. Some of the posts here look as if someone read the spec sheet and dismissed it as a "throwaway" tablet without even touching it. Be your own reviewer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do agree with you on the atoms they perform very well including the one in this tablet if not for the problems I mentioned above I would have kept it but I picked up a 10 inch w510 for now and I'm going to buy the 8 inch Toshiba windows tablet when it launches in a couple months. The display is hard to explain it almost looked like it was wet the entire time I was trying to use it.
Sent from my HTC One using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
I just got my New Xperia Z Tablet 32Gb, after being a long time asus transformer user, I had them all. tf101,tf201,tf300, tf700 and after got enough with Asus I/O Performance Issues and Drawn Battery issues w/ Dock, finally decided to jump out of tegra Soc Products and move into Qualcomm Snapdragon SoC's. First I got my Nexus 7 2013 and Now just got my Xperia Z Tablet. Here's my First impressions:
Positives:
- What a beautiful Sleek Machine(aesthetics), thin, waterproof(already tested it), not going to use that feature anymore, I'll explain why below.
-Superb Quality of the Screen,much better than my Nexus 10, Nexus 7 2013 and tf700, color reproduction on movies and photos are simply outstanding.
- Excellent Sony Apps, walkman, FM Radio, Video Player(doesn't support MP4 1080p video files with DTS sound), Dual Shock controller support without rooting, Wireless sound works just great, browsing experience was delightful(fast and accurate with no lag at all, Asus Anyone?)
-Snappy Performance, much faster than my rooted Nexus 7 2013(w/ custom Rom)
Negatives
- I already damaged the speakers cover, both of them, I'm a very delicate man, I was trying to find the ports to charge my unit and slightly pull both speakers thinking they were regular ports cover and bend so easy. So this is a Very Fragile and Delicate Machine, as a Pianist I may say too Fragile and poorly constructed, at least the speaker ports, fortunately it doesn't affect the speaker quality, however I won't be able to test the waterproof feature ever again.
- For god's sake, the MicroUSB port, really Sony???, is that a Standard MicroUSB port or just a proprietary Sony Port. Really Pissed me off I could't connect the micro usb cable to charge it because It didn't fit, after checking the Pins orientation, I found out it has to be plug facing down. Great Job Sony! At least put some Label on it. I already messed up a Android TV Box because of this. I hate these micro USB ports,in my case with my Android Tv Box It didn't fit and I slightly pushed it and micro UsB port(connector) got loose(broke down) and my unit was dead.
- 5-6 Hours charging time, Are you kidding me Sony, I thought the Nexus 10 charging time was bad. I was wrong.
- Very Poor Manual(See ports issues)
- Very Expensive accessories, the official Sony case only was a painful $90, we pay 15% tax in Canada.
Updated(a few hours later)
gdfrisco said:
I just got my New Xperia Z Tablet 32Gb, after being a long time asus transformer user, I had them all. tf101,tf201,tf300, tf700 and after got enough with Asus I/O Performance Issues and Drawn Battery issues w/ Dock, finally decided to jump out of tegra Soc Products and move into Qualcomm Snapdragon SoC's. First I got my Nexus 7 2013 and Now just got my Xperia Z Tablet. Here's my First impressions:
Positives:
- What a beautiful Sleek Machine(aesthetics), thin, waterproof(already tested it), not going to use that feature anymore, I'll explain why below.
-Superb Quality of the Screen,much better than my Nexus 10, Nexus 7 2013 and tf700, color reproduction on movies and photos are simply outstanding.
- Excellent Sony Apps, walkman, FM Radio, Video Player(doesn't support MP4 1080p video files with DTS sound), Dual Shock controller support without rooting, Wireless sound works just great, browsing experience was delightful(fast and accurate with no lag at all, Asus Anyone?)
-Snappy Performance, much faster than my rooted Nexus 7 2013(w/ custom Rom)
Negatives
- I already damaged the speakers cover, both of them, I'm a very delicate man, I was trying to find the ports to charge my unit and slightly pull both speakers thinking they were regular ports cover and bend so easy. So this is a Very Fragile and Delicate Machine, as a Pianist I may say too Fragile and poorly constructed, at least the speaker ports, fortunately it doesn't affect the speaker quality, however I won't be able to test the waterproof feature ever again.
- For god's sake, the MicroUSB port, really Sony???, is that a Standard MicroUSB port or just a proprietary Sony Port. Really Pissed me off I could't connect the micro usb cable to charge it because It didn't fit, after checking the Pins orientation, I found out it has to be plug facing down. Great Job Sony! At least put some Label on it. I already messed up a Android TV Box because of this. I hate these micro USB ports,in my case with my Android Tv Box It didn't fit and I slightly pushed it and micro UsB port(connector) got loose(broke down) and my unit was dead.
- 5-6 Hours charging time, Are you kidding me Sony, I thought the Nexus 10 charging time was bad. I was wrong.
- Very Poor Manual(See ports issues)
- Very Expensive accessories, the official Sony case only was a painful $92, we pay 15% tax in Canada.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Updated, why I'm considering return this piece of technology:
1. Charging time when the screen is on, it takes an unacceptable and ridiculous time of 9-10 hours, I don't even sleep that much on a daily basis, this is a power hog device when the device is in use, just regular use as browsing, the battery runs out quickly, I don't want to imagine watching 1080p mp4 video files for a couple of hours before the battery drains out and then have to wait 9-10 hours to charge my unit again. A possible solution would be to have 2 xperia Z tablet and while 1 is charging, use the other one to play my audio/video files(Sarcasm!) or just keep using my nexus 7 for watching 1080p movie files, I have a nexus 10 and nexus 7 2013 to compare with and on those units I don't even have to turn the screen off while I charge them. I know I'm not the only one, a bunch of people are having this issue. My only hope is to root it, install a custom ROM and wipe out all those overkill sony apps. I have 13 days left to try it.
As much as I love this tablet, the Nexus 7 2013 regardless of its smaller screen is a much better(functional) device.
I'm going to buy the charging dock so see if charging times improves a bit.
For a $689.98 unit($599+lovely 15% sales tax where I live), which is a pretty hefty price I'd expect much more than this. If you add the $92 price for the official sony leather cover, $40 for a micros sd class 10 memory card and $50 bucks for the charging cradle(going to buy it tomorrow morning), I get a total whooping and scary price of $871.98.
Now I understand why I've seen some people selling their xperia z tablet on local craigslist for a so low price($350-$400 for the 16gb model and $400-450 for a 32 gob model, there was even a guy selling his 32 Gb model for $350 with only 2 months use, and most of them were including a sony dock and a leather case with their offers, and those were with a proof of purchase(best buy receipt) so we know those are not stolen units.
Now I remember all of the sudden why the only other sony device in my crowded current gadget inventory is a Sony PS3 console.
Will report as I go if I ever solve this issue before the 14 days return policy from best buy. Cheers!
gdfrisco said:
Updated, why I'm considering return this piece of technology:
1. Charging time when the screen is on, it takes an unacceptable and ridiculous time of 9-10 hours, I don't even sleep that much on a daily basis, this is a power hog device when the device is in use, just regular use as browsing, the battery runs out quickly, I don't want to imagine watching 1080p mp4 video files for a couple of hours before the battery drains out and then have to wait 9-10 hours to charge my unit again. A possible solution would be to have 2 xperia Z tablet and while 1 is charging, use the other one to play my audio/video files(Sarcasm!) or just keep using my nexus 7 for watching 1080p movie files, I have a nexus 10 and nexus 7 2013 to compare with and on those units I don't even have to turn the screen off while I charge them. I know I'm not the only one, a bunch of people are having this issue. My only hope is to root it, install a custom ROM and wipe out all those overkill sony apps. I have 13 days left to try it.
As much as I love this tablet, the Nexus 7 2013 regardless of its smaller screen is a much better(functional) device.
I'm going to buy the charging dock so see if charging times improves a bit.
For a $689.98 unit($599+lovely 15% sales tax where I live), which is a pretty hefty price I'd expect much more than this. If you add the $92 price for the official sony leather cover, $40 for a micros sd class 10 memory card and $50 bucks for the charging cradle(going to buy it tomorrow morning), I get a total whooping and scary price of $871.98.
Now I understand why I've seen some people selling their xperia z tablet on local craigslist for a so low price($350-$400 for the 16gb model and $400-450 for a 32 gob model, there was even a guy selling his 32 Gb model for $350 with only 2 months use, and most of them were including a sony dock and a leather case with their offers, and those were with a proof of purchase(best buy receipt) so we know those are not stolen units.
Now I remember all of the sudden why the only other sony device in my crowded current gadget inventory is a Sony PS3 console.
Will report as I go if I ever solve this issue before the 14 days return policy from best buy. Cheers!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why are you charging with screen on? I charge mine overnight (with screen off as I don't watch it in my sleep ) and it takes about 5 Hrs to charge. Most people report 5 to 6 hrs charging time.
Also, charging / run down rates improve with time. I use mine mainly for browsing and the battery seems to last well.
Using the dock will not make it charge any faster. However , using a 2.0A charger (as comes with an iPad) does improve charging times.
vedlyH and
GretaLewd said:
Why are you charging with screen on? I charge mine overnight (with screen off as I don't watch it in my sleep ) and it takes about 5 Hrs to charge. Most people report 5 to 6 hrs charging time.
Also, charging / run down rates improve with time. I use mine mainly for browsing and the battery seems to last well.
Using the dock will not make it charge any faster. However , using a 2.0A charger (as comes with an iPad) does improve charging times.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks for the tip, will try my iPad 3 charger(2.1A/5V) with it.
gdfrisco said:
thanks for the tip, will try my iPad 3 charger(2.1A/5V) with it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The micro USB is a pain but then again it is the same on all other tablets and phones i own. Still pisses me off everytime i have to plug my nexus 4 in.
That's why i bought the docking station for the Z tablet. It is risiculously overpriced but it works flawlessly and you wont have to open close the waterproof caps that seem so fragile.
I reccomend using mx player with the Neon codec (link for the codec is within mx player settings) to watch movies with DTS.
This tablet has a very active modding community here btw. There are very good android 4.3 ROMs around.
Jequan said:
The micro USB is a pain but then again it is the same on all other tablets and phones i own. Still pisses me off everytime i have to plug my nexus 4 in.
That's why i bought the docking station for the Z tablet. It is risiculously overpriced but it works flawlessly and you wont have to open close the waterproof caps that seem so fragile.
I reccomend using mx player with the Neon codec (link for the codec is within mx player settings) to watch movies with DTS.
This tablet has a very active modding community here btw. There are very good android 4.3 ROMs around.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you send me the link for the 4.3 Roms? the xperia tablet z developer forum is quite a mess, tf300t, tf700 and nexus 10 and nexus 7 2013 developer forums where much better organized.
I cannot believe I cannot unlock the bootloader, I followed the instructions from sony mobile site and it's the first time I've failed in so many years unlocking and rooting android devices. I feel like a newbie, I'm getting "FAILED <remote: command did not succeed>, when I run from cmd "fastboot.exe -i 0x0fce getvar version" it works and prompt a reply "0.5". I'm guessing either I entered the wrong ID for unlocking generator tool(Foolish sony for making those numbers so hard and small to read, had to use my DSLR camera and take a picture of it and zoom it just to make sure wasn't making any mistake)
Any ideas why it went wrong???. The Fastboot mode is perfectly working, why do you think it's failing to unlock my device? I did attempt to replace adb driver on windows 7 64 bit with the one sony suggests and it didn't replace it. it says it's an older version. Any clues here?
gdfrisco said:
Can you send me the link for the 4.3 Roms? the xperia tablet z developer forum is quite a mess, tf300t, tf700 and nexus 10 and nexus 7 2013 developer forums where much better organized.
I cannot believe I cannot unlock the bootloader, I followed the instructions from sony mobile site and it's the first time I've failed in so many years unlocking and rooting android devices. I feel like a newbie, I'm getting "FAILED <remote: command did not succeed>, when I run from cmd "fastboot.exe -i 0x0fce getvar version" it works and prompt a reply "0.5". I'm guessing either I entered the wrong ID for unlocking generator tool(Foolish sony for making those numbers so hard and small to read, had to use my DSLR camera and take a picture of it and zoom it just to make sure wasn't making any mistake)
Any ideas why it went wrong???. The Fastboot mode is perfectly working, why do you think it's failing to unlock my device? I did attempt to replace adb driver on windows 7 64 bit with the one sony suggests and it didn't replace it. it says it's an older version. Any clues here?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If the device is reporting the status (0.5) then I guess the drivers are working.
Have you checked if unlocking your bootloader is allowed? Depending on supplier, it may not be.
Follow the instructions in steps 1 and 2 here : http://unlockbootloader.sonymobile.com/instructions to view the boot loader status.
Bootloader unlock allowed - Yes << this means that your Bootloader is Locked but can be unlocked
Bootloader Unlocked - Yes << this means that your bootloader is unlocked
GretaLewd said:
If the device is reporting the status (0.5) then I guess the drivers are working.
Have you checked if unlocking your bootloader is allowed? Depending on supplier, it may not be.
Follow the instructions in steps 1 and 2 here : http://unlockbootloader.sonymobile.com/instructions to view the boot loader status.
Bootloader unlock allowed - Yes << this means that your Bootloader is Locked but can be unlocked
Bootloader Unlocked - Yes << this means that your bootloader is unlocked
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, it is. Already checked that.
I'm reinstalling Latest Android SDK Manager and will delete old ADB driver to force it to used the sony one.
An android tablet with a lock boot loader, not root and no custom rom is a definitely No Go for me, I'd return it immediately if that were my case.
The good news is my xperia tablet z is now charging in 4 hours aprox.( iPad 3 charger w/ screen off)
gdfrisco said:
Can you send me the link for the 4.3 Roms? the xperia tablet z developer forum is quite a mess, tf300t, tf700 and nexus 10 and nexus 7 2013 developer forums where much better organized.
I cannot believe I cannot unlock the bootloader, I followed the instructions from sony mobile site and it's the first time I've failed in so many years unlocking and rooting android devices. I feel like a newbie, I'm getting "FAILED <remote: command did not succeed>, when I run from cmd "fastboot.exe -i 0x0fce getvar version" it works and prompt a reply "0.5". I'm guessing either I entered the wrong ID for unlocking generator tool(Foolish sony for making those numbers so hard and small to read, had to use my DSLR camera and take a picture of it and zoom it just to make sure wasn't making any mistake)
Any ideas why it went wrong???. The Fastboot mode is perfectly working, why do you think it's failing to unlock my device? I did attempt to replace adb driver on windows 7 64 bit with the one sony suggests and it didn't replace it. it says it's an older version. Any clues here?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=2309
I use the pacman rom atm. It's allways amongs the top 5 threads so far. Comes with a good tutorial in post 1.
gdfrisco said:
Yes, it is. Already checked that.
I'm reinstalling Latest Android SDK Manager and will delete old ADB driver to force it to used the sony one.
An android tablet with a lock boot loader, not root and no custom rom is a definitely No Go for me, I'd return it immediately if that were my case.
The good news is my xperia tablet z is now charging in 4 hours aprox.( iPad 3 charger w/ screen off)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just a bit more info :
The number I provided to Sony to get the unlock code was the IDID number. This should be printed on a label on the side of the box the tablet came in, and is also printed on the edge of the tablet (between usb & sd card ports?). I think I had to drop the last digit for it to work.
GretaLewd said:
Just a bit more info :
The number I provided to Sony to get the unlock code was the IDID number. This should be printed on a label on the side of the box the tablet came in, and is also printed on the edge of the tablet (between usb & sd card ports?). I think I had to drop the last digit for it to work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks I was troubleshooting everywhere with no success, I was using the wrong ID number, based on sony online help. I'll generate my new unlocking code asap, I hope it will let me use my same email.
gdfrisco said:
Thanks I was troubleshooting everywhere with no success, I was using the wrong ID number, based on sony online help. I'll generate my new unlocking code asap, I hope it will let me use my same email.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It worked right away with the new IDID. thank you for your help. Will install CyanogenMod 10.2 ROM, but I need to root it first, not sure what rooting method is better?
gdfrisco said:
It worked right away with the new IDID. thank you for your help. Will install CyanogenMod 10.2 ROM, but I need to root it first, not sure what rooting method is better?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
chinese method was the best one for latest 4.2.2 firmware 10.3.1.C.0.136 (SGP311/SGP312).
These complaints about the charging time are BS.
5-6 hours is the charging time when charging from EMPTY battery to 100%. (With an alternative 2A charger, 4.5 hours.)
Next point: Who really uses his tablet many hours a day? Since a tablet is not a work device (or, more specifically, a device one can do only very little work on), that would mean: Hey, get a life, don't sit around all day and uselessly play around with your tablet! (By the way: That now tablet sales eclipse PC/laptop sales shows that it's a myth that computers are used for work. The work part in reality is rather small; most time computers by most people are used for leisure activities.)
OK, so with REASONABLE usage, you are at, say, 40-60% battery at the end of a normal day. Charging from that percentage to 100% needs of course much less time. When going to bed, simply plug it in, and even if you sleep very short, it'll be full. And if you forget to charge, even charging it during the morning routine will help to get decent battery percentage to get through the day comfortably.
So, for a normal adult who goes to work and has a social life, this "5-6 hours" figure is irrelevant anyway.
hasenbein1966 said:
These complaints about the charging time are BS.
5-6 hours is the charging time when charging from EMPTY battery to 100%. (With an alternative 2A charger, 4.5 hours.)
Next point: Who really uses his tablet many hours a day? Since a tablet is not a work device (or, more specifically, a device one can do only very little work on), that would mean: Hey, get a life, don't sit around all day and uselessly play around with your tablet! (By the way: That now tablet sales eclipse PC/laptop sales shows that it's a myth that computers are used for work. The work part in reality is rather small; most time computers by most people are used for leisure activities.)
OK, so with REASONABLE usage, you are at, say, 40-60% battery at the end of a normal day. Charging from that percentage to 100% needs of course much less time. When going to bed, simply plug it in, and even if you sleep very short, it'll be full. And if you forget to charge, even charging it during the morning routine will help to get decent battery percentage to get through the day comfortably.
So, for a normal adult who goes to work and has a social life, this "5-6 hours" figure is irrelevant anyway.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your reply was very rude and disrespectful, I don't need to start a flame here and I don't need to give you explanations about my personal life. Just for your information I'm on sabbatical, what you consider normal for your particular case may not be the same reality for others, you sounded like a Sony Fanboy, how old are you? As a System Engineer I can do whatever I want with my tablets and portable devices specially now, when I finally have plenty of time to spend with.
One more question: Do you work for Sony? or maybe Google? Cheers!
I really do like this tablet a lot and i do believe that the runtime of it is ok considering how thin the device is.
Sony did screw up the chrarging though. This is a simple fact. I bought the 12W apple charger yesterday and the tablet charges in no time.
This should not be happening. From what i read this shouldn't even be possible because of charging electronics. Sony simply shipped the device with a ****ty charger.
gdfrisco said:
Your reply was very rude and disrespectful, I don't need to start a flame here and I don't need to give you explanations about my personal life. Just for your information I'm on sabbatical, what you consider normal for your particular case may not be the same reality for others, you sounded like a Sony Fanboy, how old are you? As a System Engineer I can do whatever I want with my tablets and portable devices specially now, when I finally have plenty of time to spend with.
One more question: Do you work for Sony? or maybe Google? Cheers!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why are you getting so worked up?
You just confirmed my thesis - only people who have exceptionally much time on their hands to dabble with their tablets (of course they are entitled to do that, but they're a really small minority, and let's admit it, there are better uses to one's time than sitting around for hours and hours in front of a screen) need all the juice of their battery to get through the day. All others won't, and hence the time to charge won't be 5-6 hours, but much less. q.e.d.
Of course it's always better to have more, but in reality it's mostly (mostly!) irrelevant, and if some people are honest, it's just this "but tablet X can run longer" **** comparison thing.
The Sony engineers were just realistic in this regard instead of participating in the **** comparison and thus were able to build an exceptionally light and thin device, which really makes the device more usable (when I had an Acer A700, I always reached for the Nexus 7 because of the weight & size; now the Nexus 7 collects dust, and there's absolutely no drive to buy the new Nexus 7 or another smaller tablet, I think that says it all).
Best Wishes!
hasenbein1966 said:
Why are you getting so worked up?
You just confirmed my thesis - only people who have exceptionally much time on their hands to dabble with their tablets (of course they are entitled to do that, but they're a really small minority, and let's admit it, there are better uses to one's time than sitting around for hours and hours in front of a screen) need all the juice of their battery to get through the day. All others won't, and hence the time to charge won't be 5-6 hours, but much less. q.e.d.
Of course it's always better to have more, but in reality it's mostly (mostly!) irrelevant, and if some people are honest, it's just this "but tablet X can run longer" **** comparison thing.
The Sony engineers were just realistic in this regard instead of participating in the **** comparison and thus were able to build an exceptionally light and thin device, which really makes the device more usable (when I had an Acer A700, I always reached for the Nexus 7 because of the weight & size; now the Nexus 7 collects dust, and there's absolutely no drive to buy the new Nexus 7 or another smaller tablet, I think that says it all).
Best Wishes!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah it is sick, how many hours people want to spend with their tablet. Watching movies, reading books, check mails, check facebook, check newssites, write documents, playing games etc.
I use my Tablet @ University. If you don`t play at every lecture games, it is more than enough for the whole day.
I stumbled across these forum posts looking into how to get power and data at the same time on the Dell Venue 8 Pro.
Many good ideas on cable combos and hacking USB hubs to get the power and data working:
http://forum.tabletpcreview.com/dell/59328-venue-8-usb-power-same-time.html
For the more adventurous, someone cracked theirs open and added a 64GB USB key:
http://forum.tabletpcreview.com/dell/60553-adding-128gb-flash-venue-8-pro.html
The USB hub mod looks very doable, petergunn posted some videos in that thread which show it step by step and you can pick up the hub (or one very like it) on eBay for less than £2. I ordered one a few days ago to try it myself.
The internal USB mod is a different matter, the soldering points involved look very small. I bought the 64GB model, so coupled with a 64GB SDXC I'm not going to be running low on space any time soon unless I really load the thing up with movies or games.
I have to say I'm pretty impressed with the device though. Bay trails are the first Atom chips Intel will be using the Pentium brand for (for laptop/desktop models) and you can see why. Performance-wise it feels like a huge jump from cedar/clover trail. I've installed a bunch of games on it (inc. Blood Bowl and SC2:Heart of the Swarm) and it plays them well, even on around medium settings. Windows 8.1 is a different matter though, I've already hit several annoyances.
I ended up getting a more expensive but similar hub. The cheap ones seem to be sold out everywhere unless they are shipping from China and I didn't feel like waiting for weeks.
I picked my Dell up as an open box at Micro Center for $139. I don't even know why it was so cheap. It looked like it was never out of the box. I couldn't be happier with the tablet especially for the price. Not as elegant a device as my RT but so much more useful.
cx1 said:
I ended up getting a more expensive but similar hub. The cheap ones seem to be sold out everywhere unless they are shipping from China and I didn't feel like waiting for weeks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If your soldering skills are as bad as mine, that was probably a good idea. Mine arrived today, and the 'mini' ones on eBay from Hong Kong are very small inside, with much smaller pads than the ones successfully modified by the guys over on tablet PC review. I attempted the mod today but something must have gone wrong as all I got was "unrecognised device" when plugging it in. In the end I gave up on that and just went for the simpler option (see attachment) and made an adapter from some spare bits and pieces.
It's worth noting that there are a few caveats though, these are mentioned on the thread but quite a few pages in. Firstly, it will only trickle charge while connected to another device, not fast charge (you can verify this by checking in the Dell diagnostics, accessible by holding volume up and the power button when switching on). In practice, this means the battery level should remain around the same if the tablet is on. I think this explains why there is no official docking station for the 8 Pro from Dell as it wouldn't be practical to charge it like this for everyday use. Secondly, you're going to need more power than the Dell 10 watt charger can provide if you want to charge the tablet and run power hungry devices like external hard drives - if I connect my external Western Digital drive to my adapter, it works but the tablet stops charging entirely. A solution is to use a powered hub (or if you're doing the hub mod, attach a second charger to the hub's power connector).
I'm really jealous of the prices the 8 Pro seems to be going for in the US, it's a steal as those. In the UK, I got my 64GB model for £279 which is around $458 USD. That's still cheaper than the official Dell UK price, believe it or not!
-edit-
Forget what I wrote about trickle charging, it turns out this was due to insufficient wire thickness. Something to watch out for when modifying your hub though. My tablet is now properly charging when connected to my external hard drive, no powered hub needed
Well, we could actually make a usb 3.0 hub out of the LTE socket.... Took pics of the shields off, I was thinking the notched corner was an sdcard slot. NOPE!
Not USB related, but another mod of sorts (firmware) has been mentioned over on tablet PC review. V3D says it's possible to downgrade to BIOS A03 (with the advanced eMMC/SD speed settings) but keep A04's embedded controller update that fixed the low charge problem:
I just downloaded [A03] right from Dell & used the command /writeromfile to extract the BIOS rom then used AFUWIN from AMI's site to flash the Main bios image & NVRAM. [...]
I don't recommend using DDR50 on the MicroSD card slot, From my benchmark testing I found it had no effect on the speed & others have reported the MicroSD card to becomes unstable, randomly dismounting at times.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll be giving it a go myself tomorrow.
-edit-
Confirmed as working, use the AptioV version of afuwin.
something does not go according to instructions complete hanging PC
Hey Everyone,
I recently purchased a brand new sealed 64GB Pixel C for $275. I have ALWAYS wanted one but never really needed a tablet until recently. My kindle crapped out, and I have been listening to some audiobooks and I wanted a way to combine the 2. I also plan on maybe watching some movies from my Plex server, some Netflix, and that's probably it...oh and some comics as well....
I had some general questions for those of you who have had a Pixel C for some time.
1. I know there are some screen issues, and I believe based on the serial (i'll confirm when it arrives in two days) mine seems to be made in 2016 sometime, and even though I am in the US, it's a EU version.... Do the problems seem to be on all C's or just a specific run of them?
2. If you were me, and only wanted a tablet for ebooks/audio books and of course some media, but no apps that are super intensive, would you just upgrade from the 6.0 to the 8.0 that's official (or 7.0 if it's good?) , or install a custom rom. If the latter, any recommendations from personal experience?
3. Since it's 2020 and this tablet is coming up on almost 5 years....do you feel I overpaid? This is a completely irrelevant question, I just REALLY REALLY wanted one, I hate Samsung and wanted something with as close to a pure google experience like my Pixel phone. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. I have seen them selling used in good shape in the upper 100's range, and most are 32GB.....
4. Anything else I should know that I don't see jumping out at me in the forums that you would pass along to a new C owner?
Thanks everyone in advance!
Hank
Hank_Rearden said:
Hey Everyone,
I recently purchased a brand new sealed 64GB Pixel C for $275. I have ALWAYS wanted one but never really needed a tablet until recently. My kindle crapped out, and I have been listening to some audiobooks and I wanted a way to combine the 2. I also plan on maybe watching some movies from my Plex server, some Netflix, and that's probably it...oh and some comics as well....
I had some general questions for those of you who have had a Pixel C for some time.
1. I know there are some screen issues, and I believe based on the serial (i'll confirm when it arrives in two days) mine seems to be made in 2016 sometime, and even though I am in the US, it's a EU version.... Do the problems seem to be on all C's or just a specific run of them?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am not aware of better or worse serial numbers. I assume later is better? Mine has image retention / ghosting & a purple shift in white balance but I never got the half screen failure or other issues.
2. If you were me, and only wanted a tablet for ebooks/audio books and of course some media, but no apps that are super intensive, would you just upgrade from the 6.0 to the 8.0 that's official (or 7.0 if it's good?) , or install a custom rom. If the latter, any recommendations from personal experience?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I recommend either Pixel Experience 10 or LineageOS 17 if you are at all comfortable with flashing. ROMs are little more work. But they offer the latest patches, some new features, some specific fixes for our aging hardware, and because you have to install TWRP first you have that safety net for when things go wrong. I also happen to really like Android 10 for what that's worth. You might have to use Magisk Hide to get some apps working, and you probably have to sideload Netflix from APKmirror but it should work just fine.
If you don't mind how it works out of the box, and you don't care for fiddling with it, and you aren't concerned with the screen lock bug, then stock is perfectly fine. Some people say 7 was better than 8 because of some video driver bug that broke a few Unity based games. I have zero idea if this was fixed in any of the ROMs.
3. Since it's 2020 and this tablet is coming up on almost 5 years....do you feel I overpaid? This is a completely irrelevant question, I just REALLY REALLY wanted one, I hate Samsung and wanted something with as close to a pure google experience like my Pixel phone. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. I have seen them selling used in good shape in the upper 100's range, and most are 32GB.....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am considering selling my Galaxy Tab S6, even though it is nicer in so many ways, because I just disagree with so many Samsung UX decisions. So I continue to use the Pixel C and I hope you like yours. I am a little envious you found a good condition 64GB one! There are countless little touches where the Pixel C does what I expect and my Samsung devices do not. Using an USB audio device? Pixel C can use it for music and also to make VoIP calls. Believe it or not many Samsungs cannot route 'phone' type audio over USB. Music only! Using a mouse? Open Chrome, right-click on a link. Notice that beautiful options menu that pops up? Try the same thing on a Samsung and notice it is just Android back function. Back to the Pixel C, try to middle-click on a link and notice it opens in a new tab in the background. Just like on desktop Chrome! Then, try with a Samsung and notice middle-click is the same as Android home function. Samsung just decided to break mousing and I hate it. Even things like display scaling work well on the Pixel C and badly on Samsung devices. Want everything to be very small? That's easy to do, and basically everything scales (except the nav bar, but there is a fix for that). On my Samsungs some parts of the UI scale and other parts don't. You end with comically unmatched icons and other elements like the notification shade. I really thought DeX could fix these issues for me and it didn't, but that is a different story. I like Samsung features but by golly they suck at the basics IMO.
4. Anything else I should know that I don't see jumping out at me in the forums that you would pass along to a new C owner?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not everything in Google-land is good. The Pixel C was never trouble free and still isn't with even the best ROMs. 3GB of RAM was too little for a 'productivity device' in 2015 and obviously still isn't enough (your use-case should be fine however). The storage speed is slow, it is prone to occassional jank (probably combination slow storage & low RAM), and if the battery isn't perfectly healthy you will experience bad CPU throttling (this is fixed in ROMs and in my case was a night and day difference). You are already aware of the screen problems. The headphone jack quality is not good, and the bluetooth range for headsets is about 5 ft (I am not joking, it's astonishingly bad!). There used to be many WiFi reception complaints but I think it was fixed long ago. Reception is on the weak end however. The touch screen is sensitive to interference and you can get ghost touches when using a low quality charger (YMMV on that one, my hardware might be faulty). Last thing that comes to mind is that occassionally, and seemingly randomly, your lock screen PIN will just... stop working. If you are on stock software with a locked bootloader then all you can do is factory reset!! This alone is a great reason to go with ROMs.
Thanks everyone in advance!
Hank
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good luck and welcome to the community!
locuturus said:
I am not aware of better or worse serial numbers. I assume later is better? Mine has image retention / ghosting & a purple shift in white balance but I never got the half screen failure or other issues.
I recommend either Pixel Experience 10 or LineageOS 17 if you are at all comfortable with flashing. ROMs are little more work. But they offer the latest patches, some new features, some specific fixes for our aging hardware, and because you have to install TWRP first you have that safety net for when things go wrong. I also happen to really like Android 10 for what that's worth. You might have to use Magisk Hide to get some apps working, and you probably have to sideload Netflix from APKmirror but it should work just fine.
If you don't mind how it works out of the box, and you don't care for fiddling with it, and you aren't concerned with the screen lock bug, then stock is perfectly fine. Some people say 7 was better than 8 because of some video driver bug that broke a few Unity based games. I have zero idea if this was fixed in any of the ROMs.
I am considering selling my Galaxy Tab S6, even though it is nicer in so many ways, because I just disagree with so many Samsung UX decisions. So I continue to use the Pixel C and I hope you like yours. I am a little envious you found a good condition 64GB one! There are countless little touches where the Pixel C does what I expect and my Samsung devices do not. Using an USB audio device? Pixel C can use it for music and also to make VoIP calls. Believe it or not many Samsungs cannot route 'phone' type audio over USB. Music only! Using a mouse? Open Chrome, right-click on a link. Notice that beautiful options menu that pops up? Try the same thing on a Samsung and notice it is just Android back function. Back to the Pixel C, try to middle-click on a link and notice it opens in a new tab in the background. Just like on desktop Chrome! Then, try with a Samsung and notice middle-click is the same as Android home function. Samsung just decided to break mousing and I hate it. Even things like display scaling work well on the Pixel C and badly on Samsung devices. Want everything to be very small? That's easy to do, and basically everything scales (except the nav bar, but there is a fix for that). On my Samsungs some parts of the UI scale and other parts don't. You end with comically unmatched icons and other elements like the notification shade. I really thought DeX could fix these issues for me and it didn't, but that is a different story. I like Samsung features but by golly they suck at the basics IMO.
Not everything in Google-land is good. The Pixel C was never trouble free and still isn't with even the best ROMs. 3GB of RAM was too little for a 'productivity device' in 2015 and obviously still isn't enough (your use-case should be fine however). The storage speed is slow, it is prone to occassional jank (probably combination slow storage & low RAM), and if the battery isn't perfectly healthy you will experience bad CPU throttling (this is fixed in ROMs and in my case was a night and day difference). You are already aware of the screen problems. The headphone jack quality is not good, and the bluetooth range for headsets is about 5 ft (I am not joking, it's astonishingly bad!). There used to be many WiFi reception complaints but I think it was fixed long ago. Reception is on the weak end however. The touch screen is sensitive to interference and you can get ghost touches when using a low quality charger (YMMV on that one, my hardware might be faulty). Last thing that comes to mind is that occassionally, and seemingly randomly, your lock screen PIN will just... stop working. If you are on stock software with a locked bootloader then all you can do is factory reset!! This alone is a great reason to go with ROMs.
Good luck and welcome to the community!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you so much for the detailed response. I am glad I am not the only one who feels that way about the Samsung tablets. I ALMOST bought an S4, then I ALMOST bought an S5E, but just don't like the way they do Android. I checked my tracking and the tablet comes today! So I think what I will do is just upgrade to the most recent official, leave the device lock off for now as I don't plan on going anywhere with the C, and see how it goes. I have dabbled in ROMS in the past for a lot of phones I have had through the years, so I assume this is not too far different as far as the process. The Lineage ROM seems to be a little better for the C from reading some of the known issues, but I will take a look at them after I assess the performance of the C. I really don't want to have the unit hit 70% then completely crap the bed on the performance side....
The Bluetooth range is sad to hear considering i JUST ordered the Sony WH-1000XM3 headphones. They will be here either Friday or Saturday. If i need to hear something beyond the range of it sitting close to me I'll just use my phone.
I'll report how things are going once I receive it, and thanks again for the detailed response. It has put me at ease!
Cheers
Hank
It came and was exactly as described. Did the update and now it's charging. Updated some apps and it's moving pretty well. We shall see what happens when I get more stuff loaded on there, but I will say it's better than I expected. Such beautiful hardware.....
1. I know there are some screen issues, and I believe based on the serial (i'll confirm when it arrives in two days) mine seems to be made in 2016 sometime, and even though I am in the US, it's a EU version.... Do the problems seem to be on all C's or just a specific run of them?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I bought an used Pixel C with its keyboard and a pouch and its screen seems still fine. A Youtube video pointed the issue for its cable in the middle behind the screen panel being pressed so I thought keyboard&pouch may have prevented it.
2. If you were me, and only wanted a tablet for ebooks/audio books and of course some media, but no apps that are super intensive, would you just upgrade from the 6.0 to the 8.0 that's official (or 7.0 if it's good?) , or install a custom rom. If the latter, any recommendations from personal experience?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mine was on stock 8..1 and now is LineageOS 17 based on Android 10. Stock 8.1 seemed to work fine. I preferred some Android 10's swiping features such as swiping from left or right to go back and swiping up to go to homescreen or other running apps to buttons and black bottom bar previous versions. Netflix HD still works.
On the other hand, unlocking bootloader caused additional 30 seconds to boot with caution message and weird beep noise in boot sequence. As you might know, even when locked in setting, in recovery mode, someone could physically connect your device to another and steal files in the device. Some error messages with security warning pops up in notification so the rom might not fully support Android security features. (I have little knowledge on this.)
When its brightness set close to lowest level, screen seemed to be turned off or brightness seems a bit unstable. (Being able to set close to the mininum is still good.) BTW some of gamepad buttons mapped incorrectly (not sure it was due to LineageOS).
3. Since it's 2020 and this tablet is coming up on almost 5 years....do you feel I overpaid? This is a completely irrelevant question, I just REALLY REALLY wanted one, I hate Samsung and wanted something with as close to a pure google experience like my Pixel phone. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. I have seen them selling used in good shape in the upper 100's range, and most are 32GB.....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's display ratio is better than 16:10 from other android tablets for e-books, pdf files, comics. Someone wrote its ratio fits for two pages side by side. Among Android tablets as far as I know, there are not many with 3:2 or 4:3. Nexus 9's screen could be great but it has only 2GB ram and other flaws. Xiaomi MiPad doesn't support Netflix HD. iPads would match the need but it seems you didn't want one. What I looked for was an Android tablet which is not Samsung or Huawei and supports Netflix HD. Of course, newer APs have advantages in power consumption, better game support, weight etc. Galaxy Tab S6 lite supports S-pen which is good for pdf notetaking. I tried to write in pdf files with Xodo PDF app and Bamboo Tip stylus and it wasn't so successful. Still, I like mine.
4. Anything else I should know that I don't see jumping out at me in the forums that you would pass along to a new C owner?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its PCB is on the left side so it gets hot when running intensive apps or charging. (The bottom of the display turned a bit yellowish. Because of keyboard attached?)
USB PD laptop chargers works but the left side feels hotter compared to charging with 5V 3A chargers.
With its keyboard is good to use on lap or as a stand but it would be pricey to buy a new one.