Purchase History and Experience Using a Zenithink ZT-180 Tablet PC

I want to talk about the purchase and my experience using the device called Zenithink ZT-180. I will not repeat the technical specifications, since they can be viewed in another topic about this device. Before buying, I pretty much studied the tablet PC market on Android OS, even created a topic in Q & A on Habré. In the end, my choice fell on the Zenithink ZT-180. Why?
Immediately list the benefits I see before buying:

• Big screen
• Powerful processor
• The prevalence of the device, which is a big plus in view of the large number of Russian and English-speaking communities, ready at any time of the day or night to answer any question relating to this device.

Then I want to share my experience of buying and using this device.

Purchase

I will begin, perhaps, with the history of the purchase itself. In the aforementioned Q & A topic, I was advised to shop Pandawill. But the search for reviews about this store showed that recently people have come up with trimmed versions of devices, with a less capacious battery and a smaller screen resolution - 1024x576. If the resolution was not critical for me, then the small capacity of the battery, which lasts for 2 hours of active work of the device, is clearly not enough. Therefore, we had to continue the search, which ended with the fact that I found a trading platform for aliexpress . I will not talk about the site itself, since there is a lot of information about it on the Internet, I will only tell you how the purchase went. The most difficult was to choose the right seller, because there were so many of them. It seems the device is the same, but completely different prices and delivery conditions made us think. I wanted to order delivery of EMS, to be sure that the device will reach me, and not settle somewhere in the mail, and the presence of tracking keeps my nerves. Contacting the selected vendor, I clarified several important questions for myself - the screen resolution was 600px in height, and the battery was 2500mAH. In the description of the product was a camera at 1.3mpx, but the seller said that this is incorrect information and they will remove it. Still not removed :) So be sure to specify all the details important to you! Even if the seller sovret you, you can return a part of the money or even everything. I paid for the goods on the same day, ordering an additional cover and a memory card for 8gb, which increased the cost by $ 20.

Delivery

As it turned out a little later, the presence of tracking does not save you from unnecessary nerves. While my package was walking in China, it was noted in every city. But as soon as she flew out / left for the territory of China, everyone immediately began to “forget” to celebrate it. For 6 days from Guangzhou to Kiev the parcel was hanging in the air, which did not make me very happy. The next day after arriving in Kiev, the package was already in Dnepropetrovsk, and an obscure EMS employee gave it to me directly, bringing it to me at the agreed time.

Up to this point I was already well-read about various joys of delivery, so the process of unpacking the parcel was filmed. The box was almost not crumpled, the seller heeded my advice and packed it very well. The device was integer, and 30% charged, so I was immediately able to test the performance.
')

Using

Now about the convenience of use. By default, the device is installed ADW Launcher. I immediately demolished it and installed LauncherPro, which I use. It works faster and smoother. A little later, I found out that the new firmware 1030 was released, and I have a rather old 1012 firmware. The firmware process is very simple, but the problem was that the stable version of the flasher is only under Windows. Without thinking twice, I flashed my device and it earned noticeably faster. This was especially evident when surfing the Internet. Of course, due to the fact that there is not enough free RAM (compared to my other Android device, HTC Legend), we have to use software to kill unnecessary applications, because they slow down the system a lot. Finding and installing the Russian keyboard was not a problem, and indeed the presence of a market already in the firmware simplifies the task of finding software. RealPlayer is quite suitable for video. Lost so far all the videos and movies that I dropped on the device.

An interesting fact - the correct position of the device is when the round button (back) is at the top, and not like the iPad - at the bottom. And if the software does not know how to respond to changes in the position of the device in space, then this may cause some inconvenience, since you have to keep it upside down.

About the advantages of the device, after some experience of its use:

• Big screen - it's really big! My HTC Legend seems to be tiny compared to it.
• A powerful processor - it is really powerful, it can be seen in some applications that it suffices for more complex tasks, but it is noticeable that the firmware is still far from ideal, because even with such a processor the GUI manages to slow down in many places.
• The prevalence of the device is really great, in the process of setting up and firmware, I had several problems that were solved in 5 minutes by different communities.
• The ability to connect to the USB port of flash drives, keyboards, 3g modems, other joys allows you to instantly expand the already modest functionality of the device.
• Opportunity to soon see on the device Android 2.2 with all the accompanying buns. If not the official firmware, so the craftsmen have almost finished their firmware with blackjack and whores.
• Plays almost any video format without brakes.
• Work without recharging up to 7 hours.

And without cons:

• Lack of GPS.
• Battery life during active operation and just lying on the table of the device do not differ much, so you have to turn it off when not in use.
• The back panel is slightly heated.
• Lack of a normal Flash player (for now).
• The impression is that a thick piece of paper is glued to the front panel of the device, because under it there are often some kind of void on each side of the screen.
• Very easily soiled screen that is very easy to scratch. And the film on it needs to be ordered only far beyond the borders of the Motherland.
• Due to the size of the screen, almost all games work incorrectly, Android software is more or less optimized for any screens.

Conclusion

Before buying a device, it was not completely clear to me, why do I still buy it, how will I use it? After all, I already have a smartphone on the Android OS, and it is quite enough to “read the bashor / twitter / habr / RSS on the couch”. Now I can say with confidence that this device is much more convenient for such purposes than any phone. The large touchscreen is no match for ease of use, neither with a laptop, nor with a phone, or with anything else. I also wanted to try to code something under Android, I became interested in geocoding, but it was not convenient to work on emulators, and constantly torment the phone too. And now - hooked up the keyboard and go! Very comfortably. In general, ask your questions, if anyone is interested, I will be glad to answer!

I apologize for the quality of the photos, I photographed what I have and how I could.