MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - A Review of the SmartDevices V7 HD Mobile Internet Device

celtica96 · 11-27-2009, 12:22 PM

I left on Thanksgiving vacation after posting the above review and now have some time to respond the questions posted here.

@coldsun
I'm glad you liked the review. I'm not an Archos fan but perhaps the Archos 9 will change my mind when it finally ships.

@heron61
Without taking apart both the V7 and Q7, my opinion on the build quality is that they are equivalent. I think the build quality is acceptable, not exceptional. They use exactly the same form factor and the V7 housing is identical to the Q7 with the exception of the HDMI port and the change from mini-USB OTG port to full-size USB OTG port. See the photo above showing the V7 on top of the Q7.

Using the right USB cable, I have had no problems working with the V7 in USB OTG mode. It's fast and trouble free. The screenshots I've added were transferred using the USB OTG cable connection. I'm using a MicroCenter 16GB SDHC card on the V7 and Windows 7 on a Gateway P-6831FX laptop.

@pan.sapiens
I'm glad you found the review useful.

@moggler88
The V7 is at least as fast as the Q7 but not anywhere near a desktop/laptop PC experience.

For example, Midori loads Chippy's site, umpcportal.com, reasonably fast (under 30 seconds). Of course, Midori won't play Youtube/Flash video directly.

The V7 may be able to run OpenOffice but it ships with AbiWord, FBReader, Gnumeric, etc. It's the same as the Q7 software set. Again, the V7 is as fast or faster than the Q7 but not so much faster that timing them side by side with a stop watch is worthwhile.

@yodor
I'm sorry I didn't respond as fast as you would like. Remember, this is Thanksgiving week in the United States and some of us have family obligations....

At your suggestion, I tried a 262MB mp4 file today with a resolution of 320x180. It took about 5 minutes to transfer using the USB cable connection discussed above. It runs fine on the above laptop using VLC. VLC plays it about as well on the V7 with very slight jerkiness in high motion scenes. Higher resolution videos may run into greater problems. I had to crank up the audio to the maximum to hear the sound track well enough.

No, Firefox is not installed. Midori is the browser shipped with the V7. The Linux distribution is Ubuntu with the LXDE desktop.

@all
Thanks for reading and sharing your insights!

11-27-2009, 12:22 PM	#11
celtica96 Zealot Posts: 105 Karma: 24 Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Texas, USA Device: Nokia N800, Kindle 2, Kindle DX, SmartQ 5 & 7, Mirus CT9W7	Your Questions (Mostly) Answered I left on Thanksgiving vacation after posting the above review and now have some time to respond the questions posted here. @coldsun I'm glad you liked the review. I'm not an Archos fan but perhaps the Archos 9 will change my mind when it finally ships. @heron61 Without taking apart both the V7 and Q7, my opinion on the build quality is that they are equivalent. I think the build quality is acceptable, not exceptional. They use exactly the same form factor and the V7 housing is identical to the Q7 with the exception of the HDMI port and the change from mini-USB OTG port to full-size USB OTG port. See the photo above showing the V7 on top of the Q7. Using the right USB cable, I have had no problems working with the V7 in USB OTG mode. It's fast and trouble free. The screenshots I've added were transferred using the USB OTG cable connection. I'm using a MicroCenter 16GB SDHC card on the V7 and Windows 7 on a Gateway P-6831FX laptop. @pan.sapiens I'm glad you found the review useful. @moggler88 The V7 is at least as fast as the Q7 but not anywhere near a desktop/laptop PC experience. For example, Midori loads Chippy's site, umpcportal.com, reasonably fast (under 30 seconds). Of course, Midori won't play Youtube/Flash video directly. The V7 may be able to run OpenOffice but it ships with AbiWord, FBReader, Gnumeric, etc. It's the same as the Q7 software set. Again, the V7 is as fast or faster than the Q7 but not so much faster that timing them side by side with a stop watch is worthwhile. @yodor I'm sorry I didn't respond as fast as you would like. Remember, this is Thanksgiving week in the United States and some of us have family obligations.... At your suggestion, I tried a 262MB mp4 file today with a resolution of 320x180. It took about 5 minutes to transfer using the USB cable connection discussed above. It runs fine on the above laptop using VLC. VLC plays it about as well on the V7 with very slight jerkiness in high motion scenes. Higher resolution videos may run into greater problems. I had to crank up the audio to the maximum to hear the sound track well enough. No, Firefox is not installed. Midori is the browser shipped with the V7. The Linux distribution is Ubuntu with the LXDE desktop. @all Thanks for reading and sharing your insights!