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Post by Slinger on Mar 21, 2019 16:06:45 GMT
I've just taken delivery of my new Huawei MediaPad T3 8 and first indications are that it's a great little (8") tablet. Rather too much "bloatware" preinstalled, but I shall be attending to that. What's confusing is that nothing, whilst researching this tablet (including visiting the manufacturer's own website), prepared me for the fact that it would arrive with a Vodafone SIM already inside. I hadn't even realised that it could be used as a phone. I obviously misunderstood and believed there to be two versions of the tablet, and I'd bought the "basic" model rather than the posher phablet. I've got no wish to use it as a phone, but I suppose it's nice to know I could if I wanted to. The SIM has been removed and a spare 32gb card installed for no other reason than that I could really. Other than that, it comes with Android 7.0 out of the box, there are no silly frills, and it looks like it's exactly what I wanted, which is something just to host and centralise, the apps and software controlling my Amazon Dots and Alexa-controlled devices. And no, it wasn't delivered by a bloke in a trenchcoat with the collar turned up and his hat pulled down over his eyes.  |
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Post by MartinT on Mar 22, 2019 6:37:45 GMT
For a similar purpose (controlling my music using the Volumio app), I was looking at a Neocore 10" Android tablet. The N1-G has a 10 hour battery life and decent specs - it doesn't need to be a hot rod. The old Dell Windows tablet I'm using (with Android installed) does the job well but the battery barely lasts 4 hours which means it can't sustain an all-day session.  I meant to add - the confusing bit - in the comparison table for wi-fi they claim "Dual band 5G/2G". Say what? |
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seanm
Rank: Trio
Posts: 162 
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Post by seanm on Mar 22, 2019 7:00:28 GMT
Dual band 5G/2G"
G for GHz
The two chunks of spectrum used by different flavours of WiFi
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Post by MartinT on Mar 22, 2019 7:07:27 GMT
I know, but it sounds like mobile specs, but missing 3G and 4G!
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Post by pre65 on Mar 22, 2019 10:25:05 GMT
The SIM has been removed
If so do you have a use for it, and what size SIM card is it.
Sorry if my lack of techno knowledge makes the questions seem silly.  |
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Post by Slinger on Mar 22, 2019 14:28:35 GMT
The SIM has been removed
If so do you have a use for it, and what size SIM card is it.
Sorry if my lack of techno knowledge makes the questions seem silly. To be honest, I didn't go much further than discovering that there was a SIM in the tablet and removing it. Since then I've found out that Vodafone offers this tablet model as part and parcel of one of their "plans" so (again, just guesswork) I think that the reason that it was an "open box" deal is that the box was opened to insert the SIM. How it got to the company that sold it on, I don't know. There were a few fingerprints on the screen, but otherwise, everything in the box was absolutely pristine, which sort of adds weight to my guess. That being the case, the SIM would be one of Vodafone's "full-fat" SIMs rather than a " Pay-As-You-Go" type card. I probably will, eventually, confirm or deny that, and if by some strange offchance it turns out to be a PAYG SIM I might even put a tenner onto it as a "last resort" option, but I can see no reason why it should be as they only seem to offer it on a " Pay Monthly" contract. To answer your last question, it's a bog-standard Micro-SIM size. There's no such thing as a silly question, by the way, if it's asked seriously. N.B. I am the exception that constantly strives to prove this rule. |
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Post by MartinT on Jun 11, 2019 13:19:45 GMT
I've ended up ordering a Neocore E1 tablet - in grey, of course!
Looks like a lot of tablet for the money and around 12 hours battery life.
This will be my music controller for the hi-fi system.
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Post by Slinger on Jun 11, 2019 15:29:01 GMT
It looks to be better specced than the N1 you were considering originally, if only for the added dual-band wi-fi. Amazon?
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Post by MartinT on Jun 11, 2019 15:56:26 GMT
No, just over £100 direct.
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Post by MartinT on Jun 14, 2019 10:46:11 GMT
The Neocore E1 has arrived and looks nicely made and is reassuringly weighty.
I'll set it up tonight with Volumio, Qobuz and Spotify apps for controlling my music.
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Post by Slinger on Jun 14, 2019 10:52:40 GMT
I still don't know why you didn't buy a Huawei, like I did.  |
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Post by MartinT on Jun 14, 2019 11:59:55 GMT
I could just send the Chinese a synopsis of my activities manually? |
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Post by scotty38 on Jun 14, 2019 12:02:00 GMT
The Neocore E1 has arrived and looks nicely made and is reassuringly weighty. I'll set it up tonight with Volumio, Qobuz and Spotify apps for controlling my music.
I have followed your lead and just ordered one too. Coming tomorrow...
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Post by MartinT on Jun 14, 2019 19:57:41 GMT
The E1 proves to be very nice indeed while still remaining a budget tablet. The screen is good once I removed the (two) screen protectors - I hate the bloody things. The glass surface proves to be silky smooth to the touch. Performance is pretty good and certainly fine for what I need. Because lighting is low in my music room, I have the brightness set one notch from lowest and consequently battery life is amazing. I had it on for hours configuring it and only the top of the battery icon had disappeared with a claimed 12 hours left. Everything is Android standard with no bloatware. Volumio, Qobuz, Spotify work well with the Microsoft Launcher and I have Outlook and OneDrive working, too. I've not put Office 365 on it only because I don't want to do work on it. I shall also put the spectrum analyser and seismic apps on it sometime.
For the price, I have no complaints.
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Post by Slinger on Jun 14, 2019 20:21:51 GMT
It's always good to hear about decent alternatives to the Samsungs and the iPads, Martin.
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Post by MartinT on Jun 15, 2019 14:50:32 GMT
Using it now with Opera Touch (a relatively new discovery that's excellent for browsing with Android tablets). Ad blocking on, dark theme on and TAS is responsive and looks great. Also have Edge installed as a standby.
Meant to add, it goes into a deep sleep just with the power off button, no need to shutdown. The battery life reports 3 days left. It's still on its initial charge!
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Post by scotty38 on Jun 15, 2019 16:49:03 GMT
Well ain't that just peachy, the tablet has arrived but the one thing I wanted if it for doesn't work.... I wanted it to control my Bluesound Node 2 but for some reason the app just won't see it... Worked first time on my phone and my wife's iPad.... just great.....
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Post by scotty38 on Jun 15, 2019 17:15:50 GMT
All working now.... 3 reboots of the node, 3 installs of the app and still nothing. For a laugh I enabled bluetooth and thta seemed to break things and nothing worked. Rebooted the node again and hey presto...
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Post by Clive on Jun 15, 2019 17:26:32 GMT
Using it now with Opera Touch (a relatively new discovery that's excellent for browsing with Android tablets). Ad blocking on, dark theme on and TAS is responsive and looks great. Also have Edge installed as a standby. Meant to add, it goes into a deep sleep just with the power off button, no need to shutdown. The battery life reports 3 days left. It's still on its initial charge! How are you getting on with 2GB RAM? A lack of bloatware helps a lot and if you just have a music app installed again it helps muchly. Interested as it does look interesting. |
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Post by MartinT on Jun 15, 2019 17:31:27 GMT
2GB RAM is absolutely fine. With Volumio, Opera and Qobuz running it takes less than 1GB.
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