Tablets are kind of a big deal these days, but they can also be more money than you want to spend on that kind of device. Thankfully, there are more affordable options out there for you to consider. One such possibility is the MID M8003W Android tablet, which was graciously provided to us for review by Geeks.com. It borrows much of its styling cues from a certain iProduct, but this tablet costs about a quarter of the price and it comes powered by Google Android. Sounds good, right?
Features at a Glance
Take a look at the Apple iPad, BlackBerry PlayBook, Motorola Xoom, and countless other possibilities from the major players. What do they have in common? They are all priced in the $500+ range. This has opened up the market for cheap tablets and the MID M80003W is an example of this.
As far as features are concerned, you get a rather unconventional eight-inch touchscreen display with a 800×480 pixel resolution. Power comes by way of a VIA 8650 800MHz processor, backed with 2GB internal memory, 256MB RAM, microSDHC expansion, Android 2.2, 3MP camera, 3G wireless, 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, G-sensor, and a 2500mAh battery.
This doesn’t quite stand up to the 1GHz processors (and dual core processors) that are making their way into other Android tablets, but it’s also priced accordingly at just $149.99. We hope that it’s adequate for some basic tablet needs.
What’s In the Box?
Strangely enough, the retail box carries next to no branding whatsoever. You get a clear mention that this is an 8″ tablet PC and “Andy” the Android guy is prominently displayed on the side, but there’s nothing that says it’s a MID, nor is there anything that says the model number is M80003. It is only when you open the box and take a look at the brief instruction manual that you get the model number. Clearly, they’re not selling this device based on brand recognition.
Along with the tablet itself, you get an AC power adapter, the aforementioned user manual, and an accessory dongle. The dongle gives you some additional ports that I’ll describe a little later in this review.
Initial Impressions and Build Quality
I’m going to be honest. I didn’t have the highest of expectations for this device, given its price relative to big brand alternatives, and the MID M80003W tablet stood up to that level of expectations. It feels cheap and it very much looks like a knockoff.
Remember when the first iPod knockoffs starting hitting the market, being sold as no name “MP4 players” with Apple-like designs? This tablet is much the same. It tries to mimic the look of the more expensive Cupertino offering, but comes up way short in build quality, design, and performance. It doesn’t really feel like it’s going to fall apart, per se, but it doesn’t feel all that solid either. But it costs a quarter of the price. And we will always come back to that huge pricing advantage until better quality, lower-priced alternatives start showing up.
Even if you choose to root a Nook Color, that’s still $250, which is almost double the price of this tablet. They’ve clearly cut some corners to get down to this price level and it shows.
This Is Android 2.2 Froyo?
“But it’s got Android!”
That was going to be the one saving graces of this device. Given the generic branding, I was hoping that they’d install a vanilla build of Android 2.2 Froyo and call it a day, eschewing the custom UIs that companies like HTC, Samsung, and Motorola have developed. Sadly, that’s not the case. Not only is there is a skin, but the Android-ness is almost lost completely.
That’s the home screen that you see above. The other thing you’ll notice is that the iPad-esque home button is really the Android back button. The other three buttons, which are usually implemented in Android devices as touch-sensitive portions in the bezel, are non-existent. They’ve been relegated to virtual buttons in the taskbar. This becomes an issue in apps that take up the whole screen, since you basically lose access to their functions altogether.
The one good thing? The app listing can be automatically organized into categories like “game” and “network” for easier access. At least that would be a good thing, except…
Where Is Android Market?
It doesn’t have access to Android Market. Want Angry Birds? You can’t have it. Want Hootsuite? Nope, that’s not there either. Pretty much all of the great apps that help to make Android such a compelling platform aren’t available to you.
Instead, you get some oddball third-party “Android App Market” to get your apps. We’ve seen other (larger) companies take this approach too. I don’t like it there and I like it even less here. The generic “made in China” vibe of this device gets carried right through to the lesser app store. There are fewer apps and the ones that are there are of lesser quality. I guess you could call it a “CRAPP” store.
Using the Resistive Touchscreen
Resistive. Seriously. In 2011. That can’t possibly be right.
Sadly, it’s true. Resistive touchscreen technology is typically a fair bit cheaper than the capacitive touchscreen technology you see in just about every consumer-geared touchscreen device on the market, including most smartphones and tablets. To make matters even worse, this resistive touchscreen is worse than many others that I have used.
There’s no stylus included, so you’d assume that a fingernail should work reasonably well. Unfortunately, accuracy is anything but perfect and responsiveness isn’t much better. It’s almost like you’re trying to tap through fifteen layers of plastic to get any kind of response. And because it’s resistive, you don’t get any of the multitouch gestures that you’ve come to expect from tablets either.
Missing and Bonus Features
On paper, the MID M30003W sounds like it could be a reasonably promising device. Then, you start using it and realize why it’s priced the way that it is. There’s only a front-facing camera, rendering this tablet useless for taking pictures of anything but yourself. The lack of access to the real Android Market is pretty depressing too.
On the flip side, there’s that bonus dongle that connects via what looks like an iPod connector (except that it’s not). This dongle gives you an Ethernet port if you want a wired Internet connection, as well as two real USB 2.0 ports for accessories, flash drives, and so forth. That’s actually pretty useful, considering this tablet has a real file manager too.
General Performance Concerns
It was some time ago that I reviewed a debranded HP monitor from Geeks.com. I knew that, given the lower price point and refurbished nature, I would get a diminished level of quality. Even so, that monitor was perfectly usable and represented a half-decent value.
I’m not sure I can quite say the same about this tablet. The performance is remarkably sluggish. If you expect to do almost anything on this tablet, you might start wanting to rip your own arms out while you watch it lag and falter. It eventually gets the job done, but the scrolling is nowhere near as smooth as it should be. Video can be choppy too.
Remember that the first iPad only had 256MB of RAM, just like this tablet. Remember that the HTC Desire Z only has an 800MHz processor, just like this tablet. There’s no real reason why it should struggle so badly with just about anything. Could it be that custom skin job? We don’t know. But whatever it is is really hurting this product.
Camera and Picture Quality
Smartphone cameras are getting better by the day. I’m increasingly impressed by pictures taken by such devices as the Nokia N8, iPhone 4, and Nexus S. They’re pretty great… but that’s not the case here.
The picture shown above is an unedited photo taken with the front-facing 3MP camera on this tablet. This was with a decent amount of natural light in an indoor setting. The details are lacking and you can notice some barrel distortion too. I guess it does the job when you really need a picture, but it’s not really any better than a shot from a Moto RAZR.
Why Is It Upside Down?
The good news is that this tablet is equipped with an orientation sensor. That means that you can hold it in any position and it’ll automatically orient the display accordingly for each of the four cardinal directions. The transition isn’t the fastest thing in the world, but at least it works.
Strangely, though, there seems to be a severe lack of attention to detail. Remember that bonus dongle thing that I mentioned earlier? It plugs into what looks like the iPod/iPad dock of the tablet, but it does so upside down. Why on Earth would they do that? How hard would it have been to flip one or the other around?
Closing Thoughts
You get what you pay for. That’s usually the take-home lesson when applied to so many consumer situations. Even so, I was able to find decent deals on refurbished netbooks and cheap cameras through Geeks.com in the past. I tried to stay hopeful about this tablet, mostly because I want an Android tablet but can’t justify the typical $500+ price tag, but my hope has run out.
Performance is very sluggish, the resistive touchscreen is annoying, and the lack of regular Android goodness (like Android Market) is the negative icing on this undesirable cake. I’m not even sure if rooting and side-loading a vanilla build of Android can save it. There’s a market for a cheap utility tablet that can sit in the garage to help with car repairs or in the kitchen for recipes. This just isn’t it.
At $149.99 US from the Geeks, it just wasn’t a good enough value for us to consider spending even $100 US for it. There are just too many things wrong with for us to recommend anyone buy it. But we do applaud Etailers like Geeks.com for offering these sorts of products to satisfy our curiosity to explore these “Shanzai” style products.
Pros
- Cheap price point
- Real file manager
- App grouping in app list
Cons
- Terrible resistive touchscreen
- Remarkably sluggish performance
- No access to Android Market
- Very much looks like a knockoff
Overall Rating: 4.0/10
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