Onda V818 mini - a fresh copy * well, you know what *

The company Onda has released a tablet V818, whose appearance is completely copied from the Apple iPad mini. A powerful processor, a screen just like a well-known tablet, a compact body and a good price - this is how you can characterize this model in a few words.

The dimensions of the Onda V818 also correspond to the iPad mini - the same relatively wide edges of the display, so the design can hardly be called an advantage of the V818. But at the cost of a new brainchild of Onda clearly wins a miniature "Aipad." Today we have the opportunity to get acquainted with this device in detail.

▌ TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

The tablet has the newest AllWinner A31s chip (four CPU Cortex-A7 cores and a Power VR SGX544 MP2 GPU), which differs from its older brother in the lack of support for high resolutions and cameras. In addition, Onda V818 mini has 1 GB of RAM and 16 GB of permanent memory. Expansion of memory is possible through the use of microSD cards up to 32 GB.
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Screen: 7.9 ", 1024x768 px, 162 dpi, IPS, 180 °

Processor: AllWinner A31s (Cortex-A7, 1.2 GHz, 4 cores)

Video accelerator: PowerVR SGX 544MP2

Operating system: Android 4.2.2 (Jelly Bean)

RAM: 1 GB DDR3

User Memory: 16 GB + MicroSD slot with card support up to 32 GB

Camera: front 0.3 megapixel, rear - 5 megapixel

Optional: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, OTG

Battery: 4000 mAh

Dimensions: 200 x 139 x 7.5 mm

Weight: 340 Grams

The new Allwinner A31S chip differs from the A31 with the ability to decode 2180p video (4096p from the A31) and the RAM only works in single-channel mode.

▌ PACKING

The box is rather thick, but compact. I liked that the power supply in it quietly fits. Many manufacturers report it separately, but I think this is not a very good solution. Because during transportation, the box in which the charger is stored is usually wrinkled.

On the side, there are specifications in English / Chinese and the icon is AllWinner A31s processor icon.

Inside the box is a standard set of flyers, a charger and a USB cable with a microUSB connector. But the headset, unfortunately, is not here. Apparently, they decided that since this is a tablet, it means that no headphones are needed. Or maybe they just decided to save money.

DELIVERY SET

Onda V818 mini tablet
Micro usb cable
Power Supply
Adapter for euro plug
Booklets and Papers

▌ DESIGN, DIMENSIONS, CONTROL ELEMENTS

The tablet is made in white and looks very good. The design traces the features of Apple iPad mini, the same shape, narrow frame on the left and right side of the screen, the location of the camera. But the button in the middle is missing.

The back cover is made of brushed aluminum, resistant to fingerprints. No Chinese characters. Only a modest company logo, serial number and country of manufacture.

Location of connectors and ports on top. Top left - Power button, top right - Home button and a 3.5 mm headphone jack. It would be better if they were swapped, and stretch their hands to the right side to lock the screen. Above, closer to the center, there is a hole in the built-in microphone, miniHDMI and microUSB ports. The thickness of the tablet is only 7.5 mm.

Connector microSD located on the right side of the tablet. The card is inserted completely and does not look out of the case.

On the bottom of the case - holes stereo speakers. The sound is clear, quite loud. You can adjust it through the touch panel on the tablet.

Rear 5 MP camera, no flash, but with autofocus.

It is convenient to hold the tablet with one hand, thanks to the thin frames around the screen and the small thickness of the case.

The assembled tablet is really excellent. There are no squeaks or crunches. There are no gaps between the glass and the edge of the case. And the aluminum back cover reduces the sensitivity of heating.

▌ DISPLAY

The screen resolution of the Onda V818 mini is 1024 × 768 - similar to iPad mini. The diagonal of the display is 7.9 inches.

Good margin of brightness, normal contrast, soft and deep color reproduction.

Excellent (as usual with IPS) viewing angles.

For the Internet and reading Onda V818 mini is quite suitable.

The display does not have any graininess or glare. The picture looks quite clear, the font of the text is readable. Multitouch supports up to 10 touches.

▌ CAMERAS

The resolution of the rear camera in the Onda V818 mini is identical to the resolution of the iPad mini camera: 5 MP. But the front camera has a resolution of 0.3 MP.

Sample photos from 5 MP camera.

There is autofocus, focusing on the object that you specify. The camera works quickly, there are no complaints. It seems to me that the pictures are not bad.

I tried to run the front camera in Skype. Sends decently, the quality is normal. The interlocutor is heard well and he also hears me perfectly.

Pictures and an example of the work of the front camera - I see no reason to talk about it. The camera shoots terribly, the quality of the pictures is very poor. And what can we expect from 0.3 MP ...

▌ SOFTWARE PLATFORM

Onda V818 mini runs under the familiar Android 4.2.2 operating system. It is more convenient to use the tablet in a vertical position, but for ease of display in the review, screenshots are made in landscape mode.

There are no Chinese applications. Changed a couple of icons and all. Well, one widget added.

But changed the background of the settings menu and, accordingly, the icons to it. As you can see, there really is the latest version of Android today.

In the synthetic test Onda V818 mini shows quite expected results.

The Geekbench 2 test gives out 1201 parrots here. For comparison, the iPad mini scores ~ 800 points.

Information about the system confirms the presence of a 4-core processor and a 2-core video accelerator.

Unfortunately, out of 1 GB of RAM, only 740 MB are available to us.

▌ GAMES

The tablet works smartly, and it concerns not only basic applications, but also games. On the screenshots you can see what toys I ran, none of them had problems. But in terms of launch speed, and the speed of the interface, it still seems to me that the tablet lags behind its direct competitor.

Launched all sorts of 3D games.

Cope well, no brakes are observed.

It looks good too, everywhere exhibited the maximum level of graphics.

Multitouch in games works responsively, there were no distortions or disappearances of touches.

If there are no problems with games, then Onda V818 mini also copes with simple tasks such as surfing the web, watching videos or reading.

▌ AUTONOMOUS WORK

The battery here is certainly not the largest capacity. Accordingly, the battery life is not very good.
In the video playback mode with 100% backlight and sound volume, the tablet lasted for almost 4 and a half hours.

Practice shows that the most capacious battery is not really installed, the benchmark Antutu Tester gives 443 points.

And so it is enough for a day of average use. If of course to play powerful games, the battery will sit much faster.

▌ FIRMWARE

All firmware are on the official website on the third tab.

So, here is a small instruction on how to flash Onda V818 mini for firmware v3.0:
1. Download V818mini_v3.0_v1.rar and unpack it on the C drive :
2. Download PhoenixSuitPacket_v1.0.6.zip and install PhoenixSuitPacket_v1.0.6.msi
3. Start PhoenixSuit , the shortcut is on the desktop
4. Click the Format button, select Image and open the .img file (downloaded and unpacked firmware image).
5. A couple of windows will appear, press YES , then OK
6. Turn off the tablet and disconnect from the USB cable
7. Press and hold the HOME key, connect the USB cable, without releasing the key
8. Then successively press the power button 5-10 times until the computer indicates that the device is connected.
9. The device will start to flash, at the end there will be a message that everything went well.
10. Can unplug from USB cable and use tablet

▌ CONCLUSION

In general, I like the tablet, I liked it. Easy, convenient, nice, but at the same time - with the sufficient size of the display for comfortable work. There is only one noticeable minus - a weak battery. And in general, you should not compare the iPad and Onda V818, because Android and iOS are very different operating systems with a different approach to users. Yes, and the optimization of iOS to their tablets is much better. It is unlikely that Chinese tablets on Android can compete with them, if only Nexus, but this is not quite China. Therefore, the choice is always yours.