A friend told me that Neuros technology (neurostechnology.com) was ordering a bunch of these tablets from China, trying them out as a wireless controller for their LINK product. I don't actually own the LINK, I just wanted an Android tablet to play with. Given the good price due to the quantity, I thought I'd still get a good bargain even if I include the shipping cost to Finland from the US (where Neuros is).
Neuros ordered the tablets July 24th, received them Aug 3rd from China, and shipped my unit out on the 5th towards Finland (kudos for the quick turnaround). On the 10th, I saw from the USPS tracking site that "Your item cleared customs in FINLAND". I thought, SWEET, the Finnish customs didn't give me any trouble. I eagerly awaited the final delivery, and saw the tracking update on the evening of the 11th as "delivered". I hopped to work happily on the 12th (I had it shipped to my work address), but instead of a big fat box, all I saw in my mailbox was a piece of paper. Well, ok, 2 pieces - the delivery note and a nice statement from Tulli (customs) saying something to the effect of "we have your package, better come here and pay up or else we'll feed it to the crocs".
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| Seen on my way to Tampere Tulli (customs) office. "If you don't pay up, your tablet goes to feed the crocs!" |
The Tampere tulli office closes too early so I had to wait one more day. Thus on this Friday the 13th, I got up especially early (sacrificing sleep! only for new gadgets and vacations!) and took two buses there (not really that far in terms of distance but no convenient way to get there from my place). I had to pay 23% customs for the price of the tablet, the shipping to US, as well as the shipping to Finland. The customs officer also made me open up the box and show her what's inside. When all's said and done, here's what I paid:
Unit price of tablet: 60€
Shipping to US & US customs: 11€
Shipping to Finland: 27€
Finnish customs: 23€
Total....121€ !!
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| After paying Finnish Customs 23€ + bus fare + 2.5 hrs of my time, I finally get my tablet. |
Ok ok, I know that's not what you want to read about, you want to hear more about tablet Twilight itself. Hehe. (but i just had to get that off my chest)
First impression: Love love love the size!
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| First pic of the actual device before I get my paws and prints all over it. |
I think it's a great size for casual browsing and reading ebooks, which is what I'm planning to use it for, besides some meddling around with the OS and try out Android apps. It gets hot rather quickly, just after 5-10 minutes of usage. Not uncomfortably hot though, and will be nice as a hand-warmer in winter :)
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| Booting up... taking a while... |
The package included the tablet, power adapter (US plug), USB cable and a user guide in English and Chinese (yay, I can read both!). The tablet had some charge in it so I just powered it on and started playing. Boot up wasn't too fast, but I'm an Android newbie so I'm not sure what's normally accepted speed. It took me a while (still ongoing) to get used to the Android interface as well as the not-so-stellar resistive touchscreen. I find that the best way is to use my nails rather than fingertips. Kinda wished it came with a stylus.
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| Loaded http://cybette.com in the browser. The resistive screen isn't too impressive. |
Web browsing over wlan works fine, although leaving wi-fi on seems to drain the battery quite a bit. I've figured out how to pull up a list of running apps, but still have no clue how to close an app that I don't want running anymore. Can't find a terminal/console app. Is there one for Android? Hmm. Lots to learn.
Skype (beta) logged me in fine, although I haven't tried video chatting with the front-facing camera. Rotation between portrait and landscape takes about 3 seconds. I see myself typing more in portrait mode with two thumbs instead of touch typing in landscape, partly because the screen's response is probably too slow for normal touch typing, and partly due to the limited viewing angle.
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| Virtual/onscreen keyboard in portrait mode. More usable than in landscape. |
Other than that, I haven't played with it too much (I'm still at work, oops). I'll write more soon as I get to know it better, if the touch screen doesn't drive me nuts first. It's not the iPad that's for sure, but I get what I paid for (customs and all). I'm sure I'll have some fun with it. And the size! Lovely! Fits in my bag with my other gadgets and room to spare!
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Update 16/8/2010:
After playing with it over the weekend, i don't mind the screen so much as I first thought. the screen calibration probably helped :P Sure, it's not as sensitive as a capacitive screen but that's not necessarily a bad thing. and it's usable indoors at the lowest brightness settings, which is great (esp for battery life).
YouTube works after some fiddling, wifi connection has improved after a config change, colour depth is terrible for viewing most pictures and videos though. Will stick to using it for browsing, reading, emailing and chatting.
The only thing that really bugs me is the battery life. Only 2-3 hours of continuous usage, and maybe 5-6 hours standby? (haven't let it idle long enough though to verify this :)) Without a removable/replaceable battery, this might become a real issue very soon.
Have I mentioned already that I love its size???!! :D
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