[Tablet_Collector]

MrTurtle, on 12 January 2013 - 05:38 AM, said:

Hi Tablet_Collector,

I assume I am in HD mode and the menus/pages slide across very smoothly. Sometimes the screen moves too quickly, especially when moving icons.
I have no idea how to switch to non HD mode or check to see what mode I am in. The only related option in the settings is screen adaption and this hasn't made any difference yet.

Maybe it only has the HD display option available as they think the A31 SoC is able to handle it smoothly without the need for a low res option. For example on the Chuwi V99 which I have on loan (configuring it for a friend) it has a "display mode" option under the "display" menu which allows you to choose normal (1600 x 1200) or HD (2048 x 1536).

Quote

Spent the morning playing with PDFs. The best so far (for me at least) is Adobe's Reader in single page display. A tap at the edge of the page brings in the next page - this is very similar to how I read on the iPad and means no page scrolling. The PDF viewer in WPS office is OK if you take your time with scrolling the pages. If you flick too fast the screen jumps a bit.

Have tried and don't like the following:
Solo PDF Reader
Fumiko
qPDF Viwer
PDF Reader

Don't have Quick Office so I can't comment on this.

Yes I find Adobe reader pretty good these days too and use it instead of QO Pro HD. I only mentioned QO Pro HD because you asked for paid as well as unpaid apps. Of course it does a lot more than just PDF reading as well.

Quote

I have started noticing some quirks/issues:

The power button is in the wrong place. When in landscape orientation I keep pressing it with the heel of my hand by mistake .
Unlock screen & Home screen is landscape only and I can't find a way of rotating them.
Battery seems to drain very quickly. Based on today's moderate use I get about 4 hours from a full charge. Installed Juice Defender to see if it helps. Some of the other battery saver apps aren't compatible.

Advice on extending the battery would be appreciated.

Some of these issues may be fixed by new firmware (I see v 1.1 has been released - see post above thanks dehicka). When I get a new tablet I always let it discharge fully when new then fully charge it (usually overnight). The battery will usually settle down after a few charges/discharges and give a true indication of how long it will last. You can also use battery calibration app from Play Store which resets the OS information on battery charge status - you fully charge the battery and then hit the calibrate button to reset the stored information.

Jez

This post has been edited by Tablet_Collector: 12 January 2013 - 07:49 AM

[MrTurtle]

Thanks for the link.
Will let you know what the differences are after I download and install.

[MrTurtle]

RE PDF app.

I don't mind paying but I like freebies if they are available and I don't mind spending some time trying them out.

I may end up with QO Pro HD but it probably does a lot more than I will need and its quiet expensive at HK$116. I hope I can I get a good PDF reader for less.

[MrTurtle]

Just found the official download page on the onda website:

http://onda.cn/Table...x?ProductId=239 click the centre tab.
 ONDA_FW.jpg (71.83K)
Number of downloads: 51

[Tablet_Collector]

MrTurtle, on 12 January 2013 - 07:56 AM, said:

RE PDF app.

I don't mind paying but I like freebies if they are available and I don't mind spending some time trying them out.

I may end up with QO Pro HD but it probably does a lot more than I will need and its quiet expensive at HK$116. I hope I can I get a good PDF reader for less.

Well I notice that they don't seem to have a free demo version of QO Pro HD so I don't blame you for not wanting to shell out that much for it!
I got it free with one of my previous tablets so it was a no-brainer for me. I also bought ezPDF when it was on sale and it is good but I still find Adobe reader better for large magazine PDFs. I think there is a Lite version for around 1 dollar if you want to give it a go. People also swear by Repligo but I'm not sure how good it is for large PDFs.

MrTurtle, on 12 January 2013 - 08:01 AM, said:

Just found the official download page on the onda website:

http://onda.cn/Table...x?ProductId=239 click the centre tab.
ONDA_FW.jpg

This link is much slower for me than DeHickA's but I guess you are in Hong Kong so it will be fast for you.

By the way, have you run any benchmarks? Maybe wait until you have installed v1.1 firmware and then try running Antutu benchmark, Quadrant standard, GLBenchmark 2.5 and Vellamo mobile. Would be interested in the results, thanks.

Jez

This post has been edited by Tablet_Collector: 12 January 2013 - 08:24 AM

[Padam]

I cant update the firmware. I installed the software (chinese language only...) and after i installed the driver, but after this i get an error massage, but i cant translate...

I tried start with recovery mode, but cant use the img file what have in the rar...

[DEHiCKA]

MrTurtle, on 11 January 2013 - 11:28 PM, said:

This may get annoying because it is the main thing I wanted it for.

I'm very interested in your PDF research with Onda, couse I need a retina tablet primarily for reading technical PDFs.
Onda v972 or Chuwi v99 A31 Quad version, both looks promising. Chuwi has speakers on both sides and 9000mAh battery, but no real owners so far.
http://www.banggood....et-p-61257.html

MrTurtle said:

Just found the official download page on the onda website:

http://onda.cn/Table...x?ProductId=239 click the centre tab.

That's where I got my link from. The page itself is loading very slow from europe.


UPD:
MrTurtle, did you try Radaee PDF Reader?
https://play.google....s?id=radaee.pdf

I've asked a guy from our local Russian forum to try a couple of heavy PDFs with Onda v972 he's just recieved.

He did this little video:

Looks not so bad in both scroll and page modes, considering the first PDF has lot of bitmap graphics and the second one has lots of vector.

Here is the actual PDFs:
http://www.st.com/in.../DM00031020.pdf
http://www.rm.com/_R...O_Catalogue.pdf

This post has been edited by DEHiCKA: 12 January 2013 - 09:36 AM

[MrTurtle]

Hi,

trying Radaee PDF Reader. It renders pretty quickly and scrolls quite smoothly.
I also like to fact you can scroll sideways.



Just tried to update the firmware. Downloaded V972Core4_v1.1.rar and unpacked it. Installed PheonixSuite on the Windows 7 system.
PheonixSuite runs but cannot find the V972.

I run PheonixSuite and plug in the USB cable. The device confirms USB is connected and asks if I want to Turn on USB storage.
PheonixSuite does not connect; whether USB is on or off.

Turn USB on and AutoPlay pops up as normal and I can copy files so the connection is working OK.

This post has been edited by MrTurtle: 12 January 2013 - 09:58 AM

[janesh]

Did you enable 'usb debugging', i updated my V812 a few days agoo without problems with the PheonixSuite.

Driver installing is going automatically, much easier as the RK3066 chipset, which causes for some great problems.

This post has been edited by janesh: 12 January 2013 - 10:14 AM

[MrTurtle]

janesh, on 12 January 2013 - 10:09 AM, said:

Did you enable 'usb debugging', i updated my V812 a few days agoo without problems with the PheonixSuite.

Driver installing is going automatically, much easier as the RK3066 chipset, which causes for some great problems.

Worked like a charm. Many thanks.

I really wish I knew what I was doing...

[MrTurtle]

One last question before I hit the sack.

Is there a way to redownload/sync all the apps from my account in the play store at one time?

[pseudox]

Mr Turtle,

Could you play a 1080p Video file and comment on how the visual quality of the video is and if you can tell a difference between it and maybe an ipad? Thanks

[MrTurtle]

Haven't done much with the tablet since the firmware upgrade but it does feel "nicer". The screen scrolling seems to be even smoother.

I am impressed with web surfing on the default browser. Pages look as you would expect and they scroll really well. Pages that crash Safari load without any problems.

I had a quick play with some video and they all played well in the 4K VideoPlayer.
1080 looks really good and plays with a problem.

Also tried vlc beta which had problems on the higher bitrate files - lots of stuttering and blocking.


For PDFs think I am settled on Adobe, Radaee and EbookDroid.
And something which may not be a big deal to the Android experienced people but will make a big difference to me is that you can see the same documents in different reader apps. On the iPad you need to load the same document separately for each app.

The glass is not stuck 100% completely to the screen and there are little (very little) areas at the edge where it is coming away (or more likely not stuck properly in production). It looks like the bubbles you get when you've made a mess of applying a screen protector. This is not a problem for me but my wife thinks it is.


All in all I am very happy with it. Especially for the price.

[Drazzil]

Hello MrTurtle,

Have you tested the battery life once more? Does it still just last for 4 hours? And how's the wifi-reception?

[danana]

Hi Guys,
FYI
It is typical for Lion cells that they reach their complete capacity after 4-6 times charging and discharging.
It seems that the batteries are new, so please charge them 4-6 times then do the runtime test.

Thank You
Best Regards
didi

[mml78]

Drazzil, on 13 January 2013 - 03:07 AM, said:

Hello MrTurtle,

Have you tested the battery life once more? Does it still just last for 4 hours? And how's the wifi-reception?

Only 4 hours is bad, i expect my unit next week and if i only get 4 hours i will sell this thing
right away.

[Nickos-V]

mml78, on 13 January 2013 - 12:41 PM, said:

Only 4 hours is bad, i expect my unit next week and if i only get 4 hours i will sell this thing
right away.

I have seen 1 or 2 other people say 4 hours but that is for V812 with 4400 mAh battery. =) The V972 will have bigger battery and should last about 7 hours.

All Chinese 9.7" & 10.1" last for at least 6 hours with many doing 7 up to 10 hours.

Though it will be good for someone to test out the actual battery life on one of these.


PS, someone with V812 said the reason battery life is not great with it is because the CPU clock speed is pretty much kept at 1 GHz. No Frills CPU Control has frequency stats to verify if that is true or not. If true, this can be fixed someday with newer firmware but AllWinner would have to fix the issue in their kernel code first.

Edit:
Can also try a different governor to see which works best. RK3066 has 7 different governors available to choose from. Not sure how many for A31.

This post has been edited by Nickos-V: 13 January 2013 - 03:53 PM

[arctablet]

pseudox, on 05 January 2013 - 12:49 AM, said:

When someone gets this and makes a review, please try playing a 1080p mkv and see if its choppy and how well it looks.

1080p MKV plays smooth. I've tried 4K2K videos (2160p) and they plays quite well

[MrTurtle]

Drazzil, on 13 January 2013 - 03:07 AM, said:

Hello MrTurtle,

Have you tested the battery life once more? Does it still just last for 4 hours? And how's the wifi-reception?

Just been away for a couple of days so haven't had chance to try anything.

Left the tablet on charge while away hoping this would make a difference to the battery. Per danana's recommendation, I will let it drain/charge for a few times and report back.

The wif-fi is very good. However, I have only used it in close proximity to routers. I will try moving around and let you know.


Sorry, I don't have any 1080 mkv files so cannot try. If anybody can let me know where to download sample files / trailers I will try.

This post has been edited by MrTurtle: 14 January 2013 - 08:05 AM

[mml78]

MrTurtle, on 14 January 2013 - 08:04 AM, said:

Just been away for a couple of days so haven't had chance to try anything.

Left the tablet on charge while away hoping this would make a difference to the battery. Per danana's recommendation, I will let it drain/charge for a few times and report back.

The wif-fi is very good. However, I have only used it in close proximity to routers. I will try moving around and let you know.


Sorry, I don't have any 1080 mkv files so cannot try. If anybody can let me know where to download sample files / trailers I will try.

You can try from here: http://www.bigbuckbu...x.php/download/
You can try diferent formats (1080p, 720p...)