I have both, the plastic and metal ones (7" RK2808).MY OPINION (and my devices exactly, no knowledge how good pieces I got from the batches) is that:- Metal one is even quieter at full volume (I use some Maxell "speaker box" connected to the 3.5mm jack when watching movies) The speakers (holes) are on the side of the pad, not on the bottom as with the plastic one, don't have an opinion which is better.- Touchscreen is less sensitive in the metal one (you have to push it harder, more difficult to scroll for instance)- Metal one is about 10x more carefully finished on the OUTSIDE, the button beside the touchscreen is very nicely on level with the display, where as the plastic one the button bulges out somewhat (and it was not put straight)- Have not noticed too much difference on the Wifi-range, practically thinking one might expect the metal one to be worse.. but can't say much to that.- Metal one has two buttons on "top", where the plastic one has a rocker-type of button, I like the metal one in this.- Metal one is slightly bigger in dimensions and probably heavierOverall I would say that the metal one looks very much better on the OUTSIDE (higher quality), if the touchscreen would be as sensitive as in the plastic one I would say that the metal one is the winner.BUT as I said, these are the induviduals I got. The metal one was from E-bay (very good transaction overall) and the plastic one from some web-store (was not satisfied how things went with them, tracking, shipping etc.).- Olli