[dkjab]

Originally I wanted a Rena3 dual core A9, but had my sale cancelled due to a dodgy EBay seller. So after having a look round and finding only Chinese sellers, I got an Ainol Novo 8 a few days ago from a UK seller. I must say, despite some negative reviews I have seen on the web regarding the single core A9, it is very good.

Build quality and materials are good, speed is very good, and the WiFi gets better reception than my iPod Touch 4th Gen at longer range.
All the video formats I have thrown at is so far have played fine, and the general performance of the tablet is pretty responsive.

Browsing with either Browser or Dolphin HD is quick, with pinch zoom working very nicely. Webpages look fantastic on the 1280x768 screen, and the capacitance touchscreen is responsive.

The device can play some Tegra2 games if Chainfire3D is installed, and does it very well. All the usual suspects like Angry Birds etc. work smoothly.

The only real negative issue is the battery life at 2-3 hours with WiFi and just over 5 without. Android 2.3 would be better than the 2.2 stock, but an update is promised (we shall see). An inconvenience is the 9 volt charger which means no USB charging facility.

Otherwise, a very nice device. I hope the community supports it with custom Firmwares, but if not, Ainol usually release bug fixes for their products (I have had several of their MP3/Video players which were well supported).

[dragon2knight]

Nice review! If you like,theres already a custom rom available for it from this source(I use it in my video review in this section).It has most of what you added on your own,and it has been stable for me in the week since I installed it.Not all sellers have the export rom installed that includes a marketplace,so this rom makes up for that by including it(ainol's official rom updates also dont include a marketplace,odd).Heres hoping for more custom roms in the future
CUSTOM ROM LINK

This post has been edited by dragon2knight: 18 July 2011 - 10:49 AM

[dkjab]

I thought I would give it a try as mine was the stock export 520 firmware.
However.....
1) I had Market before, but I get less apps showing up now (eg. cant see Dolphin HD or Mini anymore)
2) z4Root, ChainFire3D and many other apps are in Chinese....
3) Skype wont work anymore
I may need to find the original export firmware...

[dragon2knight]

dkjab, on 18 July 2011 - 01:31 PM, said:

I thought I would give it a try as mine was the stock export 520 firmware.
However.....
1) I had Market before, but I get less apps showing up now (eg. cant see Dolphin HD or Mini anymore)
2) z4Root, ChainFire3D and many other apps are in Chinese....
3) Skype wont work anymore
I may need to find the original export firmware...

For starters,even the factory firmware starts off in Chinese,so you have to convert it to english(I can show you how to do that in my guide on how to upgrade roms on the mp4nation website,I'll link to it below.)The only two apps that are in Chinese are z4root and Chainfire 3D.It dosent require any input from you to root your NOVO 8 with z4root,just remember to check off "usb debugging" in settings before you use it(its fully automated).Chainfire 3D has a pro version(which you should buy because it is sooo much better),all you have to do is open up the app,and the choice on the bottom takes you to the pro version in the marketplace(the pro version is in english).Yea you pay for it.Yea its worth it!Every other app that was on the rom is in english.As for the marketplace,all you have to do is clear the cache out(this is a known fix for bootleg marketplace installs).I will link to a guide on how to do this,it will take you around 5 minutes,and that should give you a full market.Easy fixes,for a good rom.Its not perfect,but then this is the first rom out for this tablet,fixes and updates should be coming down the line for it,and more roms should be available for it in the future.On to the needed links:
FIMWARE UPGRADE GUIDE WITH FULL INSTRUCTIONS TO GET IT IN ENGLISH,INCLUDING Z4ROOT
Screw the link,lol,I typed out how to fix the cache for you,its easier
1. Open the Market and press the home button to return
2. Go to Settings \ Applications \ Manage \ Running
3. Press "Market"
4. Press "Clear cache" (do not clear data)
5. Press "Force stop"
6. Return to "Settings \ Applications \ Manage \ Running"
7. Press "Google Services Framework"
8. Press "Clear Data"
9. Press "Force Stop"
10. Start Google Market, it must give an error
11. Reboot, once back Market should work, if it gives an error it could need another minute to work
12. Test the access, search Skype on the market, it should return 400+ results including the original Skype and google's apps like maps / streetview / docs and skype

Hope this helps!

EDIT: If you still cant get skype,try downloading it from this site,it has tons of free android apps!I've linked it directly to skype for you Oh,and Dolphin Browser HD is also there
SKYPE ON FREE ANDROID APP SITE

This post has been edited by dragon2knight: 18 July 2011 - 05:22 PM

[dkjab]

I understand how to change Locale, its just that some apps like z4root and Chainfire3D are chinese inside. Not much use to me....

I loaded up Merimobiles FW (0616+Market) and rooted it, added english Chainfire3D, removed crapware, and so on.
Skype 2.0.47 still wont work, regardless of which source I get it from.
What enables AC3 support? Is it just VideoPlayer.apk from the custom ROM?
Do you know if a GPS USB Dongle will work?

Interestingly, without Chainfire3D I get 950 on Quadrant, but with it I get 2600. Linpack gives 25 MFLOPS either way.

Whats in the custom ROM that would benefit me above what I have?

[dragon2knight]

dkjab, on 19 July 2011 - 06:58 AM, said:

I understand how to change Locale, its just that some apps like z4root and Chainfire3D are chinese inside. Not much use to me....

I loaded up Merimobiles FW (0616+Market) and rooted it, added english Chainfire3D, removed crapware, and so on.
Skype 2.0.47 still wont work, regardless of which source I get it from.
What enables AC3 support? Is it just VideoPlayer.apk from the custom ROM?
Do you know if a GPS USB Dongle will work?

Interestingly, without Chainfire3D I get 950 on Quadrant, but with it I get 2600. Linpack gives 25 MFLOPS either way.

Whats in the custom ROM that would benefit me above what I have?

I agree that the Chinese apps can be a pain,sorry I didnt mention it when I said you should try it,I really am.
As far as I know,this rom is the only one that fixes the AC3 codec problem,and I'm not sure how it does it.As for skype,I have that exact version working on my NOVO.I downloaded it from the free marketplace I linked to above.I dont know why you cant get it to work.I also dont need yet another gps unit(have one in my car,a seperate one,and one on my phone,lol),so I havent tried any gps usb dongles.I will try the merimobiles one you mention,though,looks like a decent one to start off with.There arent too many roms available for this yet,so we are limited as to what we can do for the time being.The Chinese one I use is currently the best one,flaws and all.Its the only one with AC3 support,and it opens up a bit more user space to allow more apps to be used.It alot more stable than the stock rom as well. Im going to ask on that forum where the app is if it can be done as a pure english version as well,cant hurt.Heres to looking forward to better in the future

[dkjab]

Thanks again for the prompt reply.
I will look into the custom ROM again. I noticed it had some quite worrying notes on Ainol's site about "not without risk" when updating, and also needing to use a tool to format it. The google translated info was more than a little misleading, especially when concerned with formatting things
Do you have a clear idea of what it means?

[dragon2knight]

dkjab, on 20 July 2011 - 02:15 AM, said:

Thanks again for the prompt reply.
I will look into the custom ROM again. I noticed it had some quite worrying notes on Ainol's site about "not without risk" when updating, and also needing to use a tool to format it. The google translated info was more than a little misleading, especially when concerned with formatting things
Do you have a clear idea of what it means?

If your talking about what ainol posts on their website regarding how to upgrade their roms,thats just standard warnings that most manufacturers put up on their sites.All they really meant was that you should format(to fat32)your sd card before putting the new rom on it,its good practice to do this.As for the custom rom,I just heard back from the site that hosts it,and just found out that he just copied and pasted it to his site...I asked if he could give me the source site and am waiting to hear back from him.Hopefully I can petition the original creator of the rom to make an all English version.In the meantime,Im going to see if I can remove the Chinese apps and replace them with English ones myself....I dont know if I can do it,but Im gonna try anyway,have nothing to lose

[kisamesama]

is recovery on ainol novo 8? something like clockmodwork? so that you can recover from bad rom flash

[dragon2knight]

kisamesama, on 20 July 2011 - 02:10 PM, said:

is recovery on ainol novo 8? something like clockmodwork? so that you can recover from bad rom flash

I just found out today that the BIOS has a built in backup feature that allows you to flash a custom .zip with a backup directly from the tablet itself(no sd card needed).That backup .zip is located in a separate "toolkit" that can be found directly below the update roms on ainol's firmware upgrade site.Whats cool is that there is a toolkit for each different rom ainol puts out,so the backup .zip is always up to date,nice!It isnt a very clear procedure on how to set up and do the backup,but if anyone wants,I could do a guide on how to do it.

This post has been edited by dragon2knight: 21 July 2011 - 10:56 PM

[wetterhoun]

I just busted my Dropad A8... I am looking for a new tablet and thiis NOVO 8 came into the picture because of the screen. Can anyone tell me that Pocket Legends and Gun Bros are working and fully playable? If so I think I am going to buy one.

Thanks in advance!

[kmarchi]

Very nice. But how realistic is the Windows claim? I've seen many sellers saying that it will "support Windows XP/Vista/7" (what, no ME?)
Anybody seen it do Windows? Given speed and storage capabilities, is it even possible?

[Nicho]

kmarchi, on 09 August 2011 - 09:26 AM, said:

Very nice. But how realistic is the Windows claim? I've seen many sellers saying that it will "support Windows XP/Vista/7" (what, no ME?)
Anybody seen it do Windows? Given speed and storage capabilities, is it even possible?

They mean that u can connect your tablet to a PC with Windows XP/Vista/7 and you will have a working driver for it to communicate and transer files between the device and your pc

[wetterhoun]

This is my review of the Ainol Novo 8 tablet PC, which I received about two weeks ago. I have been playing around with this tablet for the past two weeks. As you'll notice I mainly use my tablet for internet browsing and games.

It came shipped with a ROM that wouldn't boot without a charger and it didn't have the Android Market on it. So the first thing I did was flashing my Novo 8 with a current ROM. The ROM I flashed was the 0726 foreigner version, which can be found on the forum here: http://www.chinadigi...ainol-mid-f105/ As you undoubtedly figured out: the review is based on this ROM version.

The first thing I noticed when I took the Novo 8 out of box, was the screen. There is a fish bone like structure on the screen that caught my eye. In between the fish bone structure there is structure of all these very tiny squares. First I thought it was some kind of a screen protector, but I soon discovered it was lying underneath the screen... I didn't like it and I still don't. You'll probably only notice it in the blacks and really dark colours and it depends on what angle you look at the screen. I don't notice it during gaming, browsing the internet, etc.. So it is not really a big thing, but it is there.

The colours of the screen are good, but the viewing angles aren't to wide. This is something you may notice during games or other apps that use the g-sensor. As long as you keep the screen straight before your face, things are quite good.

The 8 inch screen has a high resolution of 1280x786, which is very nice for internet browsing. You can set the stock Android browser or Dolphin browser HD on “desktop mode” and have a nearly same internet experience as on your desktop PC or laptop. Adobe Flash is also supported. The tablet has a trackball which is great for placing the cursor on the right spot during texting. Personally I find internet browsing the best strong point of this tablet!

Gaming on this tablet can be a treat! Because of the high resolution and the rather small 8 inch screen, games can look very sharp – at least if they support the high resolution. For example: Angry Birds Rio, Zombie Ville USA, Guerrilla Bob all look brilliant! But also some Nvidia Tegra games – i.e. Samurai 2: vengeance and Pinball HD – run smooth and look crisp thanks to the screen and not to forget: the awesome app Chainfire3D!
But there is a downfall to this high resolution... Some 3d games have (major) FPS drops when things get very busy on the tiny screen. This is very noticeable in the three games I love the most: Pocket Legends, Star Legends Beta and Gun Bros. For these games the resolution of the screen is simply to high for the CPU/GPU when things get intense.

Normally the screen is very responsive to the touch of my fingers. But at times the screen seems to have a mind of his own. This is most noticeable in games like Pew Pew or Gun Bros, games with dual stick set-up. The screen loses track of my fingers, even when I am in the controllers zone. My avatar on the screen stops moving or shooting or both or goes the other way. This can be hair pulling frustrating at times, but you'll learn to deal with it or remove the game(s) in question.

I haven't been playing a lot of HD videos yet on the tablet, but the few 720p videos samples I played on the tablet, all played well. It's a feast to see films on this tablet! Again the resolution of the screen plays a big positive role! But also the sound quality has a positive role in this. I often listen to some 256 kb internet radio and the sound quality of the tablet is quite good on a pair of quality headphones.

Wifi reception on the other hand isn't good. In rooms where I normally have wifi reception on my phone, other tablet or laptops, I simply don't have reception on my Novo 8. The wifi signal often falls away and won't come up when the screen is off. I have to reboot the Novo to get online again.

Battery life is a hot item when you talk about the Novo 8. I never use full brightness on any device when I am on battery, because full brightness eats through the battery like a 30. cal through its rounds! I get about 3,5 to 4,5 hours of juice out of the battery, depending on what I do. It is not impressive, but it isn't a big deal to me.

It is time for me to come to a conclusion. The tablet just recently was released... And it shows. A lot of things I noticed or bumped into, I relate to immaturity of the current ROMS. If these things are ironed out, this is a great tablet! Certainly for it's pricepoint.

This post has been edited by wetterhoun: 13 August 2011 - 05:55 AM

[kisamesama]

wetterhoun, on 13 August 2011 - 05:51 AM, said:

But there is a downfall to this high resolution... Some 3d games have (major) FPS drops when things get very busy on the tiny screen. This is very noticeable in the three games I love the most: Pocket Legends, Star Legends Beta and Gun Bros. For these games the resolution of the screen is simply to high for the CPU/GPU when things get intense.

that's what i feared! it has a a powerful GPU like the samsung galaxy s2 but the processor way too weak imo for such a high resolution (anyway to decrease the resolution at least for some games?)

wetterhoun, on 13 August 2011 - 05:51 AM, said:

Normally the screen is very responsive to the touch of my fingers. But at times the screen seems to have a mind of his own. This is most noticeable in games like Pew Pew or Gun Bros, games with dual stick set-up. The screen loses track of my fingers, even when I am in the controllers zone. My avatar on the screen stops moving or shooting or both or goes the other way. This can be hair pulling frustrating at times, but you'll learn to deal with it or remove the game(s) in question.

seems there are issues with multitouch! happens a lot on my htc desire known to have a crappy cleartouch screen... hope for novo8 it's software related and not the hardware like the htc desire... can you try a fps game? you will notice more about this problem in fps games

[WAI]

FW v0726 is unofficial Firmware as it claims to be by some users so try v0629 which was released July, 19 2011 Link

This post has been edited by WAI: 14 August 2011 - 07:42 PM

[dkjab]

I am now running the 0726 "Foreign Version" which has Market and so on installed, and starts up in Portuguese (easier to fix than Chinese).
After rooting with z4root, I removed the few China apps and installed all the APKs I prefer.

Observations so far are:

Reports itself as Genesis GT8220 tablet in Bootup and About Device screens.
Runs smoother in the menus.
Seems more stable.
Touchscreen more responsive.
Full 360 degree rotation (last version was only 270 for me)
Less crapware as standard.
Bigger Icons (LCD Density setting in Settings/Display can now be changed)
Battery life seems improved (longer run times with WiFi on - old 1800mAh batteries in my tablet)

Whether this is unofficial or not, it is quite an improvement for my device. I was also able to apply the AC3 license file too which is great as my AVIs with AC3 now play perfectly using the built-in VideoPlayer app.

As a sidenote, my 2 year old son got hold of the tablet and dropped it.... Luckily the screen and case were not damaged, but it would not run without AC. So I opened it to find the negative (black) wire from the battery had come off the motherboard. After resoldering, it worked perfectly again. I resoldered the positive side too as the solder joint looked dry. Perhaps these dry joints contribute to poor runtimes from the battery? Who knows, but after resoldering and upgrading the firmware, my tablet runs much longer (almost an hour more), still with the old 1800mAh batteries.

All things considered, I am really pleased with the device. Android 2.3 or 3.0 would be nicer, but despite that, a great device.

[wetterhoun]

kisamesama, on 14 August 2011 - 05:05 AM, said:

that's what i feared! it has a a powerful GPU like the samsung galaxy s2 but the processor way too weak imo for such a high resolution (anyway to decrease the resolution at least for some games?)

seems there are issues with multitouch! happens a lot on my htc desire known to have a crappy cleartouch screen... hope for novo8 it's software related and not the hardware like the htc desire... can you try a fps game? you will notice more about this problem in fps games

Don't know a way to reduce the resolution. But I will try to find one.

I tried Nova today. It seems to work fine. Though I don't like FPS on a tablet. So the multi touch problems could be software related.

[kisamesama]

if it's software related, that's good news

[kisamesama]

wetterhoun, on 15 August 2011 - 01:10 PM, said:

Don't know a way to reduce the resolution. But I will try to find one.

I tried Nova today. It seems to work fine. Though I don't like FPS on a tablet. So the multi touch problems could be software related.

so you don't have sudden movement looking to top of bottom on nova? You can decrease lcd density, it's not really resolution and unfortuantely won't have better performance with it.