Reader ‘Genghis Khent’ got his Viliv X70 EX yesterday (nice pic Rosa!) and has been busy. He’s been optimising the build in preparation for an upgrade to XP Tablet Edition and looking for a set of drivers to use. Yes Genghis, they’re missing from the Viliv site. I contacted Viliv though and they’ve told me that they will be available in 1-2 weeks. Strange that they’re not ready when the device is shipping already but maybe Viliv want to wait until they are sure there are no issues before putting them live.
If you’ve just recieved your X70, let us know what you think so far and send some pics!
On the subject of the Viliv S7, I’ve had confirmation that Hong Kong will be first for the launch and that it will be ‘soon.’ Viliv may publicise the launch schedule too. We’re looking forward to it!
New article: X70 EX Reaches US Customers. Drivers available soon. S7 close behind. http://cli.gs/MAbe7
@chippy FYI LInk to X70 EX Reaches US Customers. Drivers available soon. S7 close behind http://cli.gs/MAbe7 doesn’t seem to work
New article: X70 EX reaches US customers. Drivers available soon. S7 close behind. http://cli.gs/MAbe7
@genghiskhent Thanks. Link to Viliv X70 EX article looks OK now. Article went to ‘draft’ status for no good reason! http://cli.gs/MAbe7
I got mine yesterday, Awesome device! I’m using it to post this message. Trying to optimize to my usage. I do have a few gripes (manual had no info on tbe hotkey assignments, keyboard could be laid out better) but with some tweaking it should be fine.
Congratulations DTrain. I’ve seen a few versions of the keyboard on the samples i’ve had. The latest (I assume the same as you have) seems quite good but it would be nice to be able to tailor it.
What kind of day-to-day use are the on-screen keyboards usable with? My needs would cover typing somewhat often, but on terminals and IRC (some forum posts as well), not in writing up documents. I have trouble figuring out if the OSK covering the screen would make the interaction hard or not.
I also have no way of knowing beforehand whether or not they stay reliably on top of everything else, including appearing drop-downs and dialogs that pop up. The S5 would probably be the device in question, being smaller.
If Viliv would allow resizing or gave more choices on lay out that would have been great. Maybe in an update?
Do you know what the i-viliv program is for? I tried it and it seem to crash.
i just received the x70. but does it come with with any vga/s-video/composite out cables? mine didn’t come with any. is this normal? thanks.
It doesn’t come with any AV cables. Those are sold separately.
I can hardly wait, mine arrives Tuesday according to FedEx.
Likewise, I cannot wait for all of my X70’s to arrive to the UK before 12pm on Monday – according to the Fedex tracking.
say speaks4me could you tell me how much import tax is charged to the UK? Im in brum wanting the viliv x7 when its avalibale, but unsure of how much the tax will hike up the price.
Hi Richie
Assume VAT + handling charge of about 20 quid.
Sometimes you can get lucky though and get it without extra charges.
VAT @ 15.5% + customs charge (can’t remember how much) & Fedex handling charge. Last time I had something sent from USA declared value was US$350 & I was charged total of 45 pounds.
Thanks for the answers guys. So not as much as i feared!
btw i mean the viliv s7!
So i guess i should begin by clearing up the matter of video quality, really there is no problem. The x70 is good at many tasks. The odd thing is a noise that seems to be the processor, very ugly sound every once in a while. Good speeds on everything, but the sound controls are hard to use and the manual is not clear on many things. I am happy with the device, but its not as light as i imagined, holding it is pretty difficult. Typing also inconvenient. keyboard does not adjust when the screen is rotated, which is not good for browsing. I do want to make it into a tablet in order to eliminate typing. The last thing is the battery claims are inaccurate and exaggerated, however i can live with about the three hours it provides. Still i am just learning so i have to wait and see how i feel later, might sell here in Miami.
Thanks to all for your initial impressions of the x70. I should receive mine from dynamism in the near future. I understand the unit has no fan so does the x70 get very warm?
I am not sure what everyone is talking about. At 40% screen brightness I have been getting 5 hours which is great. The device is definitly for techs since the manual is poor.But I think most people already understand that.
I am using the device with Windows 7 and the new GMA 500 drivers. So far use has been pleasant. I just posted my tutorial to get Windows 7 on the device here: http://www.umpcportal.com/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=5634&viewmode=flat&order=ASC&start=24
Viliv needs to hurry up and release those drivers. That would have made the installation much easier. Enjoy everyone!
I received my X70 w/3G version this past Friday. Unfortunately, I’m a bit disappointed with the device based on my expectations of the performance of the S5 I already have. The wifi connection gets dropped when I’m a few meters away from my wireless router – it’ll eventually not even see any wifi routers nearby. I even did a side-by-side comparison with the S5 at various spots around the house and the S5 performed like a champ while the X70 performed like a chump – wasn’t seeing my router or any of my neighbors’ routers at all – I even used the built-in 3G antenna to see if that helped!
Also, I noticed that Viliv changed the audio chipset to IDT which I find inferior to the Realtek chipset they had in the S5 which sounds “brighter” and “noise-free” – On the IDT audio chipset you can hear noise crosstalk when the “drive” is accessing files. You can also hear clicking noises when changing the settings in the audio graphic equalizer. I’ll have to talk to Dynamism tech support on these issues, if they can’t get these resolved then this unit is next to useless to me for “mobile” use just in the house!!!
Anyone else run into these issues? I think I may just have a bad/poor quality unit. I did a search on the net and found there have been similar issues with other mids using the same hardware.
I don’t seem to have these problems. The wireless works anywhere in my house and out in my small yard. It might be a little weaker than my laptop, but it is acceptable.
Also, I haven’t heard the drive noise you are talking about when I am listening to music and accessing files.
If your reception is that poor, maybe the antenna didn’t get plugged into your wifi jack during assembly. Unfortunately from the looks of things on jkkmobile, it might be tough to check. I am guessing that the wifi antenna is the flat strip at the bottomof the picture with the jack connected to the pc board at the bottom right side.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ZKlSQm2j7TI/Sk5ut5EuGwI/AAAAAAAAGnA/O9vM3djTPrE/s1600-h/x70d2.jpg
After more use I am seeing more or less five hours on a fully charged battery and screen brightness is high, so its turning out to be pretty good. I got to admit the device is growing on me.
Hi Brooke,
Just out of curiosity did you happen to do the following:
1. Turn up the volume and go into Control Panel and double-click on the IDT Audio Control Panel
2. Start playing a music file in Media Player – use oe of the sample music files in your “My Music” folder
3. On the IDT Audio Control Panel app click on the graphical icon bars on the left-hand side
4. Now slide the 8KHz and 16KHz bars up and down fluidly. It should be “ok” at this point.
5. Next, select another preset setting and repeat step 4 again. You may have to select a few different settings, after a while you’ll hear clicking noises as you move the sliders (at least for 8KHz and 16KHz) fairly fast on screen.
Let me know what results you get.
Also, on the wifi issue I’m using a Netgear wireless router with 128-bit WEP encryption. I find that the X70 has trouble maintaining a connection while I’m streaming HQ video say from youtube after a while. Eventually, it’ll drop the connection and not see the router at all. As long as I am very close to the router everything is fine, but walk some distance away and that’s when the “fun” begins. ;<)
Cheers!
mAGIC,
I do get the clicking noises when I use the 8 Mhz and 16 Mhz sliders on the presets I selected.
I also hear some faint static when I am wearing headsets and my wireless connection is downloading a page, as some other people have noted. However, it is very faint and can’t be heard over music.
Thanks for checking Brooke. That’s exactly how I’m getting the noise too except I’m able to hear it on the speakers without the need of the headphones. Either I’m very nit-picky about these things or I have very sensitive hearing.
Anyways, I was just expecting the same hardware was going to be used in the X70 as was used in the S5 since I was impressed with its quality of sound and DSP effects that were available.
Well that is interesting I have a similar problem at work with a cisco aironet running 128 bit encryption. I thought it was a bad signal. At home on 64 bit I have no problem
Just got my X70 fedex in the UK.
I’ve been waiting for this device for a while now
Hi all,
getting mine this eve. FEDEX has it already here in Germany :-)
Hope not to have any of ths issues. anyone tried ritepen? Is then still a need to change to XP-tablet (have it at home). Dunno, what has xp-tablet more than the normal?
so far
I stay tuned
Stefan
started off lovely, now ive got some massive issues with fuzzy graphics. any1 got any ideas
Got mine (in the UK) on Friday. Generally very good. Not so good are…wifi drops out if more than 15 feet from router, does a checkdisk when booted, manual useless eg. how do I add items to the GUI, how do I connect GPS to an application. The XP interface isn’t perfect for finger / touchscreen use, would be interested in XP tablet or Windows 7 but worried about installing without a standard ‘build’ from viliv or someone reputable.
Local FedEx (in Latvia) received it on Sat but put it for customs clearance just today (Monday). Sure…weeked. Waiting for a call from FedEx tomorrow. Desperate to see it soon… my hands are ‘itching’ to hold it.
discovered the fuzzy graphics disappear when the battery is installed. is that a hardware or software issue. ummmmm
I can confirm some of the issues other people are listing here (see http://www.umpcportal.com/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=5860&forum=36 for a full list).
My wifi frequently cuts out as well, even when meters away from the access point. At one point it froze up and I didn’t have connectivity until I rebooted the unit.
Audio noise interference observed as well.
What about Win7? It is a thousand times better on a netbook, and I would want to use it instead of XP on a Viliv. Will Viliv need to provide separate drivers for it? Any word on expected availability?
Another update for MaXKiLLz on the UMPCPort.com forum: I have confirmed that using a Western Digital external USB drive on the X70 does not work even on a fully charged battery – I repeat it does NOT work!!! The light comes on the drive – but as far as the X70 is concerned nobody’s home!!!
I suspect that other USB drives probably won’t work on the X70 as well.
Another major disappointment!!!
Can anyone else confirm this?
My SanDisk 4 GB thumb drive works…but when I first plugged it in, I got a message suggesting I use a higher speed USB port.
My Toshiba 320 GB external drive does not work, and it requires a USB 2.0 port.
So…is the issue that the standard USB port on the X70 is a USB 1.0 port? And if so, WHY?
Perhaps someone who knows more about USB can chime in.
Brooke,
Courtesy of Slodge from another UMPCPortal.com forum he managed to figure out how to get into the BIOS by pressing the keyboard and FN key together when the Viliv logo shows on screen while booting. I looked into the Advanced settings and found the USB 2.0 Controller mode set to FullSpeed which according to resources on the net states that this setting does not support the 480Mbs/s it’s actually closer to the speed of USB 1.1. To support higher speeds of USB 2.0 (480Mbs/s) it would need to be set to HiSpeed which the BIOS does support.
So in short, the X70 does support USB 2.0 and to get higher speeds you can change your BIOS USB controller setting from FullSpeed (Default) to HiSpeed. At least this should in theory get rid of your message for plugging in your SanDisk 4 GB thumb drive. But it still doesn’t solve the problem of using external usb hard drives on the X70’s USB port.
You can use the jog key to move around in the BIOS and press it to select your choice. After making your change you can press the ‘C’ key to save your changes and exit the BIOS screen.
Unless Viliv has some magic driver update available, I hope it doesn’t turn out to be a hardware problem. This issue alone should be considered a showstopper preventing the X70 from be released for public consumption.
What gives Viliv? You were doing so well with the construction on the S5 and for some reason you got really sloppy on the X70. Are you going to address these major issues?
Update: I can use an external USB drive that has its own power supply on the X70. This leads me to believe that the USB port on the X70 cannot provide enough current to power an external USB drive that uses the USB port for it’s power supply only.
That’s a bummer. The S5 can power an external USB drive such as the Maxtor passport drive without a problem.
Do I hear a product recall, anyone?
Just an observation: While sitting in a quiet room I noticed how irritating it is to keep hearing the noise crosstalk coming from speakers – especially when web surfing. So I turned the master volume all the way down and was still able to hear the noise. I even muted the audio through Window volume mixer panel and was still able to hear the noise clearly.
Next, I put the X70 speakers next to my ear and can clearly hear constant “white” noise on the speaker output no matter what the volume setting was set to in the audio mixer panel. This leads me to believe that the noise crosstalk is happening with the output amplifier stage to the speakers and may not necessarily be in the audio chipset itself.
Can anyone else confirm my observation?