ANNOUNCEMENT: Live VIDEO Q&A session on Carrypad.com/live tonight at 2200 Berlin time
(1600 New York, see other locations)
Just in! The SmartQ T7 3G from Smartdevices (and sent for testing by HOTMID.com, formerly Eletroworld.cn – changeover happening this week.) is a 7 inch touchscreen tablet running Android 2.1 and offering an 800×600 resolution, Wifi, 3G/BT option, SDHC Card slot, USB OTG in a sub 500gm package. It’s not the highest spec device out there but when you consider the price – $249 (exclusive shipping and possible import taxes) or with CDMA/EVDO (no BT) just $289, you’ve got yourself quite the bargain. We’re testing a WCDMA (UMTS/HSDPA) version here which could be a big seller considering pay-as-you-go 3G in Europe is easy and cheap to get hold of.
Full specifications, links to gallery, news and related products available on the SmartQ T7 tracking page
We’ve unboxed, turned it on and taken a look around and we’re quite impressed. GPS is something we would pay another $20 for if available (turning this into a great Google Navigation device) but overall, the 3G version is turning out to be quite the bargain. Well built, light, matt (resistive) screen and a suite of applications that, on this buid, include the Google suite. Yes, Market is there. The device also appears to be rooted so beware, this could be a late development version of the firmware. If the final version doesn’t include the Google suite you’ll be looking at alternative app stores and sideloading as your route to apps like Kindle (600-wide screen is going to work well for that) Acast,Listen, Last.FM (excellent quality mono speaker) and your favorite twitter application. We’re testing out some video apps to see how it copes too. We expect to see a few issues (browser speed is certainly one to flag straight away) as we continue testing so stay tuned for more review and testing articles over the next weeks. (Note, due to IFA and IDF commitments and a Toshiba AC100 that was despatched to us today, time is very very tight right now. We’re going to do our best to get the important info out to you ASAP)
ANNOUNCEMENT: Live VIDEO Q&A session on Carrypad.com/live tonight at 220 Berlin time (1600 New York, see other locations)
There are several Videos on YouTube by a guy named FamasHK testing the device against a 1GHZ snapdragon phone. Unfortunatly they are in cantonese. He achieved much smoother surfing and scrolling with the xspope-browser instaed of the standard one. He really put the device to work in those tests.
I hope we get to put the device to work tonight in the live session too!
im not sure why you think $300 is such a good price, id rather pay $200 more & get an iPad-equivalent Android based tablet thats 5x’s better. maybe something like the upcoming Samsung Galaxy?
its not always about money, just because something is cheap doesnt mean it should be bought. sometimes i would rather pay a bit more if i get a significantly better device that i would actually be happy with.
of course i dont mean you specifically Chippy, everybody knows youre rich anyways & care about more than just a price point. im just speaking generally. i hope people dont support these devices & wait to spend their money on the upcoming GOOD tablets.
u mean to say tht u only believe a more expensive item wil definietly be a better one? and from the way u mentioned, u only believe in branding instead of finding out more on the specs.
with your limited knowledge, then i think it is quite irrelevent of u to urge ithers not to buy this product. dont make a fool of yourself over her with your…no knowledge.
It’s a price-point. Comparing a Chinese brand tablet to a non-existent more expensive tablet is strange. Not everyone is happy to spend $500 for a secondary device.
You know, I saw the video released today at Engadget of the Samsung galaxy tablet and the web performance is even below the Zenithink zt180 which is sub $200 tablet at nearly twice the pixels. So brand isn’t always going to tick all your boxes.