My Scroll Extreme was delivered today. I pre-ordered it from ebuyer.com and they delivered it next day, even though I only went for the free shipping. This is my first tablet but I’ve used Android for a couple of years having a HTC Desire running CyanogenMod 7.1 (Gingerbread).
The Scroll Extreme is a 9.7″ tablet and runs Android 4.0 – Ice Cream Sandwich.
Hardware
The battery took a few hours to fully charge from shipping. It has a separate charging port, rather than just charging via the micro-usb port. The manual says you can charge via the micro-usb port although it will ‘trickle charge’ so I’m not sure how long that would take. It’s got a pretty large 7,800mAH battery (11,666mAH in the New iPad!).
It’s got a matte silver finish on the back and feels pretty secure to hold. It’s fairly heavy to support with one hand. I couldn’t find the weight listed on the website but I make it around 650g. That compares to the ‘New iPad’ which is 652g (WiFi version).
Screen
The screen is pretty nice with a good viewing angle. With the brightness turned up the screen is bright. I’m sure it doesn’t compare with the screen on the New iPad but it’s certainly usable. I image only when holding the 2 side by side would you be disappointed with the Extreme’s screen. It’s going to be more than adequate for web browsing, e-mail, video …
Wifi
As expected these days there was no issue connecting to my WiFi, which uses WPA2 PSK.
Sound
Sound it tinny on full volume but I guess that’s to be expected. It’s not overly loud either, but there is a 3.5in audio jack for headphones.
Speed
Switching between applications is quick and so far (after only around an hours use!) the tablet feels responsive. Youtube loaded quickly and web browsing with the built in browser was pretty good.
Apps – Google Play
I read a lot before I purchased the Extreme about not being able to access the Google Store (Google Play now). This was a bit of a disappointment but I just figured I’d use the SlideMe store that was recommended. However, after signing in to my Google account it seems my Extreme DOES have Google Play installed, and the screenshots are below to prove it. The only weird thing seems that sometimes it does appear in the list of installed apps, and sometimes it doesn’t! I’m not really sure why this is so far but will post more if I find out.
Conclusion
I’m glad I went for the Extreme. I didn’t want to spend £400 on a tablet I might not use much. The Extreme seems fast enough, and well built enough for what I need. Being able to get on the Google store is definitely an added bonus.
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Received mine today. I agree fully with your findings. Certainly worth the money. For some reason I get a time out error when trying to add my google account. Did you add yours to get access to Google Play?
Actually I use Google Authenticator (2 factor authentication) and when I tried to add my Google account it said I had to do it via a browser, and took me to the website. After I logged in it set that account up on the tablet. Google Play did work after that, although it doesn’t always appear in the list of installed Apps (but you can run it using the File Manager)
Sounds like a reasonable device. How does it compare to the older iPads? It would be useful if you could post your impressions of using the device in the past three weeks.
I haven’t spent much time with the older iPads, but I will do another write-up soon.
Overall, compared to an iPad 1, I don’t find the performance quite as snappy, but we are talking about a tablet that costs about half as much. My only real complaint with my Scroll seems to be the dire wifi performance. When browsing, pages take an average of 2 minutes to load completely and a 6mb update for the facebook just took about 15 minutes to complete. Has anyone else experienced the same and possibly found a fix? 🙂
I had WiFi issues over the past few days, with pages taking ages to load. Deleting the Wifi association and reattaching had fixed it for me so far.
My Scroll keeps freezing whilst playing apps from google play. Do others have problems.
No bluetooth! which is a major disappointment, I would much have have bluetooth than a rear camera!
I agree, I would have rather had bluetooth too. The camera seems pretty pointless.