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DMcCunney · 01-26-2018, 04:43 PM

I've been swimming in the Android pool for a while. US computer retailer Micro Center opened a location in Brooklyn, NYC, a hop skip and jump by subway from where I live. A Grand Opening card popped up in my mailbox, with a 7" Android tablet for $20 as a promotion item. Sure. My use case was eBook viewer, and a 7" form factor was perfect. If that was all it did, it would be more than worth $20. It was low end with puny specs, but did what I needed, and rather more once rooted. The device was from Azpen, Yet Another Chinese Consumer Electronics Manufacturer you've never heard of, but they are a Micro Center partner and MC offers nice deals on them.

I've had several more Azpen units since, and just got a new one - an A1050, which is a 10" model. The intend is something that can replace a laptop while traveling, used with an external keyboard. Uses when traveling are email, access to Google drive, and office productivity stuff. Email is Gmail, and there's a good Gmail client app for Android. Likewise access to Google Drive. Office productivity is handled by WPS Office, a freeware suite from Chinese developers that handles Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and PDF files. (I despise Powerpoint, and use other things for PDFs, but the Word and Excel support is decent.)

I'm beating it into shape, er, getting it configured. It's promising thus far, but there are bumps in the road.

The specs are decent:
1.3 ghz quad-core A33 ARM Cortex CPU
10.1" 1280x800 HD LCD IPS screen
Mali graphics
1GB RAM
16GB internal storage (of which 12GB is available to the user)
MicroSD USB slot
Full sized USB slot
Front and rear facing 2MP cameras
WiFi
Bluetooth 4.0
Up to 32GB external storage via MicroSD card

The price was $80, which is quite decent for those specs.

The full sized USB slot was a present surprise. I have a Logitech Portable USB keyboard, and I can plug it in directly instead of requiring an OTG adapter.

Another pleasant surprise is that the published specs are inaccurate. "Up to 32GB" external storage is accurate for other Azpen models. It's a hardware limitation. The MicroSD card slot is SDHC, and the maximum volume size supported is 32GB. But I had a 64GC MicroSD card purchased for a different device that turned out no to support it. On a whim, I popped it into the A1050. It saw the card, and offered the choice of making it internal storage or external storage. Azpen apparently used an SDXC slot that supports larger volumes in this model.

Internal storage would mean formatting it as ext4, the file system used by Android, which would simply mount it as an internal file system, but the card could not be used in something else. External storage would format it as FAT32 or exFAT, and have a card which could be ejected and read by something else.

I chose the latter, and the tablet now thinks it has 64GB of external storage.

Bluetooth was not present in my other Azpen tablets, as a "design to cost" measure. I't nice to have it here, but has no current use. I have nothing that connects via BT to attach to the tablet, and BT is a power drain.

WiFi is normally off too. The tablet goes online only to get app updates and check mail, and is used in local mode most of the time, with data stored locally.

The speed bumps lie elsewhere. One is that Azpen is a vendor who pre-loads the device with sponsored bloatware. On this model, that includes the Blio eBookstore app, the Wild Tangent Games store app, the ZAPP store app, a trial version of OfficeSuite Pro, and the Google Play Music app. I wanted none of them, but they are installed as System apps, and cannot be removed by normal uninstall. The device must be rooted to be able to remove them. All I could do was Disable them in Settings, and I did so.

The bigger speed bump is that I haven't been able to root it. In other Azpen models, a one-click-root solution called Kingo Root has done the job. I turn on Debugging on the tablet, connect it to my desktop via USB cable, and run the Kingo app from Windows. It connects to the tablet, and attempts to push exploits that can root the device to the tablet. Kingo just bounces off this model and reports Root Failed, but leaves half a dozen shell processes running on the tablet, dragging down performance, and I have to reboot the tablet to get rid of them. A different one-click-root program called King Root, from a different vendor, also bounced off, but didn't leave stuff still running on the tablet when it gave up.

I can still use it for the intended purpose without rooting, but I'll be much happier when I can root it and clean out crap.

It works for my use case, but may not work for others. For instance, the 10'1" screen in 1280x800 is decent, but video performance is mediocre. If what someone wants to do it stream Netflix to it, they won't be happy. I use an Android port of VLC as my video player (and use it under Windows as well.) Unless I use lowest common denominator 16 bit RGB playback, I see artifacts and stuttering playing videos. (I haven't tried YouTube yet, but expect similar issues.)

Since I didn't get it to watch video, I'm not all that perturbed.

Thus far, I'd give it 3.5 to 4 stars out of 5. If I get it rooted, that will become 4 - 4.5 stars. But it's worth what I paid for it, and looks like it will do what I want.

______
Dennis

01-26-2018, 04:43 PM	#218
DMcCunney New York Editor Posts: 6,384 Karma: 16540415 Join Date: Aug 2007 Device: PalmTX, Pocket eDGe, Alcatel Fierce 4, RCA Viking Pro 10, Nexus 7	Fun with your new Android I've been swimming in the Android pool for a while. US computer retailer Micro Center opened a location in Brooklyn, NYC, a hop skip and jump by subway from where I live. A Grand Opening card popped up in my mailbox, with a 7" Android tablet for $20 as a promotion item. Sure. My use case was eBook viewer, and a 7" form factor was perfect. If that was all it did, it would be more than worth $20. It was low end with puny specs, but did what I needed, and rather more once rooted. The device was from Azpen, Yet Another Chinese Consumer Electronics Manufacturer you've never heard of, but they are a Micro Center partner and MC offers nice deals on them. I've had several more Azpen units since, and just got a new one - an A1050, which is a 10" model. The intend is something that can replace a laptop while traveling, used with an external keyboard. Uses when traveling are email, access to Google drive, and office productivity stuff. Email is Gmail, and there's a good Gmail client app for Android. Likewise access to Google Drive. Office productivity is handled by WPS Office, a freeware suite from Chinese developers that handles Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and PDF files. (I despise Powerpoint, and use other things for PDFs, but the Word and Excel support is decent.) I'm beating it into shape, er, getting it configured. It's promising thus far, but there are bumps in the road. The specs are decent: 1.3 ghz quad-core A33 ARM Cortex CPU 10.1" 1280x800 HD LCD IPS screen Mali graphics 1GB RAM 16GB internal storage (of which 12GB is available to the user) MicroSD USB slot Full sized USB slot Front and rear facing 2MP cameras WiFi Bluetooth 4.0 Up to 32GB external storage via MicroSD card The price was $80, which is quite decent for those specs. The full sized USB slot was a present surprise. I have a Logitech Portable USB keyboard, and I can plug it in directly instead of requiring an OTG adapter. Another pleasant surprise is that the published specs are inaccurate. "Up to 32GB" external storage is accurate for other Azpen models. It's a hardware limitation. The MicroSD card slot is SDHC, and the maximum volume size supported is 32GB. But I had a 64GC MicroSD card purchased for a different device that turned out no to support it. On a whim, I popped it into the A1050. It saw the card, and offered the choice of making it internal storage or external storage. Azpen apparently used an SDXC slot that supports larger volumes in this model. Internal storage would mean formatting it as ext4, the file system used by Android, which would simply mount it as an internal file system, but the card could not be used in something else. External storage would format it as FAT32 or exFAT, and have a card which could be ejected and read by something else. I chose the latter, and the tablet now thinks it has 64GB of external storage. Bluetooth was not present in my other Azpen tablets, as a "design to cost" measure. I't nice to have it here, but has no current use. I have nothing that connects via BT to attach to the tablet, and BT is a power drain. WiFi is normally off too. The tablet goes online only to get app updates and check mail, and is used in local mode most of the time, with data stored locally. The speed bumps lie elsewhere. One is that Azpen is a vendor who pre-loads the device with sponsored bloatware. On this model, that includes the Blio eBookstore app, the Wild Tangent Games store app, the ZAPP store app, a trial version of OfficeSuite Pro, and the Google Play Music app. I wanted none of them, but they are installed as System apps, and cannot be removed by normal uninstall. The device must be rooted to be able to remove them. All I could do was Disable them in Settings, and I did so. The bigger speed bump is that I haven't been able to root it. In other Azpen models, a one-click-root solution called Kingo Root has done the job. I turn on Debugging on the tablet, connect it to my desktop via USB cable, and run the Kingo app from Windows. It connects to the tablet, and attempts to push exploits that can root the device to the tablet. Kingo just bounces off this model and reports Root Failed, but leaves half a dozen shell processes running on the tablet, dragging down performance, and I have to reboot the tablet to get rid of them. A different one-click-root program called King Root, from a different vendor, also bounced off, but didn't leave stuff still running on the tablet when it gave up. I can still use it for the intended purpose without rooting, but I'll be much happier when I can root it and clean out crap. It works for my use case, but may not work for others. For instance, the 10'1" screen in 1280x800 is decent, but video performance is mediocre. If what someone wants to do it stream Netflix to it, they won't be happy. I use an Android port of VLC as my video player (and use it under Windows as well.) Unless I use lowest common denominator 16 bit RGB playback, I see artifacts and stuttering playing videos. (I haven't tried YouTube yet, but expect similar issues.) Since I didn't get it to watch video, I'm not all that perturbed. Thus far, I'd give it 3.5 to 4 stars out of 5. If I get it rooted, that will become 4 - 4.5 stars. But it's worth what I paid for it, and looks like it will do what I want. ______ Dennis Last edited by DMcCunney; 01-27-2018 at 03:09 PM.