A detailed review of the tablet Ainol Novo 7 Fire

Ainol Novo 7 Fire is a tablet from a fairly well-known Chinese manufacturer of tablets Ainol. I had the opportunity to get acquainted with one of their first brainchild - Ainol Novo 7 Advanced, the configuration of which now causes only a smile - Cortex A8 1GHZ, 512MB RAM, screen 840x480 (not IPS, of course). Then there was the acquaintance with not quite successful budget tablet called Ainol Novo 7 Tornados. We can say that the previous generation in the form of models Tornados, Mars, Elf II and Aurora II was launched with great difficulty. The start date of sales was constantly postponed, and the first installments had many problems.

Let's see if Ainol was able to draw the appropriate conclusions and work on the bugs in the new Ainol Fire tablet.



The start of sales of Ainol Fire has also been postponed several times, and even now the issue with supplies is not entirely transparent. The second incident occurred with the name. First, the tablet was called Ainol Burning, then Ainol Flame, and finally settled on the name Ainol Fire.

There is an opinion that the “English” version of the tablet will be called Ainol Novo 7 Flame. But how it will be different, except for the inscriptions in English on the box, at the moment it is not known.

Specifications

Model: Ainol Novo 7 Fire

CPU: Amlogic 8726-MX, 1.5GHz, Cortex-A9, 2 cores

GPU: Mali-400MP2, 2 cores

RAM: 1GB DDR3

ROM: 16GB

Body material: plastic, the rear insert is made of metal

Screen: 7-inch, IPS, 1280x800 , multitouch by 5 points

Bluetooth: Bluetooth 2.1

GPS: no

WiFi: 802.11 b / g / n

Battery Capacity: 5000mAh



You can roughly compare this configuration with Googe Nexus 7, lacking only the built-in GPS-module. Toward the end of the review, we will try to eliminate this injustice.

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Singapore post + Ukrposhta = DHL?

Singapore Post and Ukrposhta continue to amaze - 5 days from dispatch to delivery!

On Thursday I arrived at the post office, Friday - export, Monday - import, Tuesday - already in my post office!

Delivery speed surpassed my previous record for Window N70, which was 6 days from dispatch to delivery.

Packing and packaging

The tablet comes in a white cardboard box:





Sticker "For sale only in the territory of China, Hong Kong and Macau":







Ainol has made a bet on the domestic market of China. But, like us, there will always be people willing to share their “happiness” for a few $ benefits.



Behind the specifications and possible modifications of the internal memory:







At the moment, only the 16GB version of the tablet is on sale.



The design of the box is slightly changed compared to the boxes in previous models. Now it opens “up”, but does not move forward:











Under the compartment with the tablet are:

Bright instruction in Chinese:







Headphones of doubtful quality:







USB cable:







Charger 5V 2A with adapter for European plug:







OTG cable is not supplied as standard. Usually it is put as a gift, but in my case they forgot to make it.

General view and build quality

The dimensions of the tablet are 186.6 x 126.9 x 10.6mm.

Weight 342 grams:





Despite the seemingly large thickness of 10.6mm, the tablet does not seem thick at all:





In front is the corporate Ainol logo:





Back view:







The back is a combination of plastic and metal. The gray part is a metal insert, the light part is plastic. Because of this design, when squeezing the tablet on the plastic edge, a slight crunch is issued.



Interfaces: 5v charger input, microUSB, microSD memory card slot, miniHDMI, 3.5mm headphone input, microphone:







With the help of OTG, you can connect a flash drive, keyboard, mouse, 3g-modem.



Power, volume and home buttons:

Cameras

The tablet has a front camera with a resolution of 2MP and a rear camera with a built-in flash and an autofocus resolution of 5MP (!).

Next to the front camera is a light sensor:







The light sensor is designed to save battery power by automatically adjusting the brightness of the screen. It works more or less correctly, but sometimes in a dark room it can set the brightness to 0.



Rear 5MP camera and flash:







In my memory, this is the first Chinese tablet with a 5MP camera and autofocus.

Example of a photo front camera 2MP:





Sample photo of the rear 5MP camera:





Autofocus works, but the quality of the pictures is not the best. The flash in dark scenes does not greatly save the situation, but as a flashlight it works very well.

Screen

In AInol Fire installed IPS-screen with a resolution of 1280x800. Pixel density is 216ppi.

The screen is really impressive, although at first glance the differences from 1024x600 are not noticeable. But if you take a closer look at the tablet, you can see that the pixels are almost indistinguishable.

According to the manufacturer, the tablet screen is covered with glass, which I can’t confirm 100%. But inclined to believe that this is true.











Viewing angles:









Screenshots were taken on the firmware of August 15, 2012. In the feiyu_mod firmware, the maximum brightness is even higher.

Sound

The speaker is at the back. The volume is not bad, but sometimes the speaker can "wheeze" at high volume. If you put the tablet on the table, it greatly reduces the sound volume

Wifi

With distance from the router, the signal level drops, but remains stable.

3 meters to the router (DSL-2640U) without obstacles:







5 meters to the router, as obstacles 2 walls:

Browse pages

Pages open quickly, scrolling smoothly:

Video

Playing Full HD video is smooth:







Using an HDMI cable, you can connect your tablet to a TV and enjoy watching it on a wide screen.

HDMI connection setup:

Bluetooth

The tablet has Bluetooth 2.1 installed, which works fine:

Android 4.04

The operating system is Android 4.04. An update to Android 4.1 is expected soon.







Home page with widgets and icons:

Games

On this screen, playing games is a pleasure!

Max Payne, GTA III, Dead Trigger and other hard games work without problems.





You can play games on TV using a tablet by connecting it via an HDMI cable:







But this is not very convenient, because You have to keep the tablet turned on so that you can interact with the buttons on the touchscreen. It is much more convenient to connect the gamepad from PS3 via Bluetooth.

In the feiyu_mod custom firmware, a driver is included to support PS3 gamepads.

To do this, you need to download the Sixaxis Controller and SixaxisPairTool.



Then:

1. Run the SixaxisPairTool on the computer and connect the controller to the computer using a USB cable. After installing the driver, the MAC address of the gamepad will be available in the format xx: xx: xx: xx: xx: xx

2. Run the Sixaxis Controller on the tablet, not forgetting to turn on Bluetooth. Click Start. The program will ask for root rights and at the bottom you will see the Local Bluetooth Address, also in the format xx: xx: xx: xx: xx: xx - enter it in the SixaxisPairTool on your computer,

Change Master field and click Update. Then disconnect the controller from the computer.

3. Turn on the controller with the PS button. If one light is on the controller, everything worked out! If you write Connection Failed - your device is not supported.

4. Now it remains only to click the Change Input Method in the program and select Sixaxis Controller.



To check whether the gamepad can be connected to the tablet, you can use the Sixaxis Compatibility Checker program:

Performance

It should be immediately noted that all the results of synthetic tests by themselves do not carry information. The point of testing is a comparison of indicators with other models, the results of which can be used to draw conclusions about performance.

Each benchmark will be accompanied by a brief description. In all tests of tests, a higher result means higher performance.



Amlogic 8726-MX can work in 3 modes: “Normal”, “Performance”, “Power saving”.







Each mode has its own maximum frequency range.





Although Antutu CPU Master determines that the performance mode is selected, test suites still consider that the tablet operates at a maximum frequency of up to 1.5 GHz. As confirmed by the results of tests in various performance modes. After a reboot, the state is always reset to “Normal”. Bug only software.

All tests are given in the "Performance" mode with a maximum processor frequency of 1.5 GHz.



Antutu Benchmark allows comparison based on several parameters:

- Memory performance

- CPU performance in floating point / integer operations

- 2D / 3D performance - graphics

- Read / write speed

- Performance when working with databases

After the end of the test, you can see on the graph which line your device occupies among the rest.

You can also view information about the system.





As you can see, there is a slight drop in performance compared to the versions with a 1024x600 screen (for example, Aurora II shows more than 8000 points).



Quadrant Benchmark allows you to test the device on the following parameters:

CPU (processor) - 8 tests (int, float, double, short int, long int, branching logic, byte, checksum)

Memory (memory) - 1 test

I / O (input / output system) - 4 tests (filesystem reads / writes, database reads / writes)

2D graphics (2D graphics) - 1 test

3D graphics (3D graphics) - 3 tests (corridor, planet, dna)



Quadrant exists in 3 different versions:

Standard - free version with ads, without an internet connection, there is no possibility to view the final test score.

Advanced - paid version, no ads, test results can be viewed without connecting to the Internet.

Professiional - the same as Advanced, but with the ability to use for commercial purposes.

After the end of the test, you can compare the results with other devices. Like Antutu, Quadrant can provide detailed system information.





Linpack is a test of processor performance. Counts in millions of floating point operations per second (Millions of FLoating-point Operations Per Second - MFLOPS)

It can work in 2 modes - Single Thread and Multi Thread.





CF-Bench is a tool for testing (mainly) CPU and memory, specially designed for working with multi-core devices.





Antutu 3DRating

This is a pretty new benchmark from the creators of Antutu Benchmark. Currently, there is only one 3D performance test of video accelerators supporting OpenGL ES 2.0.







Nenamark 2 is an OpenGL ES 2.0 benchmark for video accelerators.

Uses the following effects:



- Skeletal Animation (bones matrix animation), trees.

- Morph Target Animation (blend vertex sets), sun flowers along house wall.

- Bump Mapping (using normal map), stone walls on house.

- Water (reflections, normal animation, fresnel effect), the lake.

- Cloud System (advanced particle system), clouds.

- Cube Map Reflections (w / dynamic cube map generation), windows on house.

- Smoke (advanced particle system), smoke from chimney.

- Shadow Mapping (dynamic shadow mapping), terrain.

- Texture Channel Animation, sparkling sun.

- Smooth Gradient Animation, sky hemisphere.

- Dynamic lighting (per vertex diffuse lighting), entire scene.

- Lens flare, lens flare from sun at low altitude.







The result is not very high. Perhaps this drop is due to the high resolution of the screen.



Vellamo Mobile Web Benchmark is a benchmark from Qualcomm, which allows you to measure performance when working with Internet content. Tests include such categories - rendering, JavaScript, network bandwidth.





Javascript processing speed with the built-in browser allows Ainol Fire to rise very high compared to other devices.

Running time and heating

Antutu Tester scored 488 points:





From 4% to 100% of the tablet is charged in 3 hours. When the charger is connected, phantom clicks do not occur.

Charging via USB cable is also possible.

A 5000 mAh battery gives Ainol Fire a distinct advantage over its competitors.

In the video viewing mode, with Wifi off, the tablet can work up to 8 hours.



With prolonged operation, the tablet heats up from behind, near the interfaces. The degree of heating at a moderate load (surfing, games) can be described as “warm”. I managed to achieve the degree of “hot” with the constant launch of certain benchmarks. The metal back panel allows the tablet to cool quickly when the load is reduced.

It is possible that this problem will be partially solved by lowering the maximum frequency from 1.5 GHz to a lower value.

Autopsy

When opening it is necessary to be extremely careful not to damage the screen and touch screen plumes. I will give a few photos of the autopsy, taken on one of the resources:



In the photo you can see the basis of plastic and gray metal insert.



The tablet has a Chimei Innolux N070ICG-LD1 screen, which is also installed in the Huawei Mediapad.

Making a budget Google Nexus 7

The main difference between Ainol Fire and Google Nexus 7 is the lack of GPS. See what you can do about it.

At first I tried to connect the GPS using the instructions peeped here . The value of gps.enable = true I successfully installed using the ® Build Prop Editor , but

The TetherGPS program stubbornly crashed with an error on both the smartphone and the tablet.

I managed to make friends with a tablet with GPS from a smartphone using the free GPS over BT program.

Make it easy - download the program and run on your smartphone, create a BT connection with the tablet and that's it!

Now the tablet successfully sees the coordinates in Google Maps.



You can also use an external Bluetooth GPS receiver, then you will not need to install additional software. You will only need to set the parameter gps.enable = true in the tablet and create a pairing with Bluetooth GPS.

Some time ago I used this Bluetooth GPS logger for about $ 35:

Firmware

The firmware update contains the strengths of the Ainol tablets. There are many custom versions, and the most popular is feiyu_mod.

After Ainol has opened the source code of Amlogic 8726-MX, custom firmware will be released frequently.



I stopped at feiyu_mod firmware dated August 27, 2012 ( download )



Change Log:

Firmware compiled from source

Reduced CPU voltage

Updated touchscreen driver

Improved maximum and minimum brightness

Added selection of the gravity sensor coordinate system

Changed the behavior of the button "Home", a short press - "Back", a long - "Home"

Support init.d

Full market

Optimized bootloader version

Support for pl2303, cp210x, usb-gamepad drivers, ps device drivers

Correction of the gravity sensor

Support rt8150, dm9601usb NIC, tun module, pppoe



Firmware update is very simple from the Recovery-menu. To enter the Recovery menu, you must simultaneously press the "Volume -" and "Power" buttons, wait for the robot to appear and release it.



Step-by-step instruction:

1. Download the firmware file (official firmware can sometimes consist of 2 parts - firmware without pre-installed Google applications and a patch with Google applications. Download both. In the custom Google firmware, applications are already embedded)

2. We reset the firmware (.zip file) to the microSD card and insert it into the tablet.

3. Turn on the tablet by simultaneously pressing the “Volume -” and “Power” buttons, wait for the robot to appear and release it.

If the firmware was in the root of the card - the firmware update will occur automatically. But it does not suit us if we want to install the official firmware and a separate patch with applications. Therefore, it is more convenient to copy the file with the firmware to a separate folder.





4. Select the apply update from sdcard item .



5. Select the firmware file and confirm the selection with the “Power” button. Attention! When updating the firmware, the internal memory is fully formatted.

6. If you install the official firmware, then repeat step 5 for the .zip file with the patch.

7. Select the reboot system now option and press the Power button.

After the reboot, the interface will be in Chinese, to change the language to Russian - select the “Settings” icon -> item with icon A -> first item -> scroll through the list of languages ​​and select the desired one.

useful links

Topic on w3bsit3-dns.com

Section on slatedroid

findings

pros

• excellent IPS-screen with a resolution of 1280x800
• high-performance chip Amlogic 8726-MX
• Bluetooth
• third-party firmware support
• Price!

Minuses

• The body is a bit "crunches"
• The tablet can warm up to temperatures that are not comfortable in sensations.

5MP rear camera is difficult to attribute to both pluses and minuses. It is, it works, but you should not expect miracles from it.

Verdict

Definitely recommend! Tablet on a powerful chip Amlogic 8726-MX, 1GB of RAM, a great IPS-screen with a resolution of 1280x800, and of course such a necessary microSD memory card slot!

The price at the moment ranges from $ 155 - $ 165 with free shipping.