Guest Dyonas Posted February 16, 2011 Report Posted February 16, 2011 I'm looking at getting a tablet and while I'd like to wait for things like the HTC Flyer or the new Galaxy Tab 10.1 I fear the prices will be more ludicrous than the original Galaxy Tab when it was first released. With that in mind I've been looking at either the Galaxy Tab or the Advent Vega. I'm pretty sure I know what I'd get with the Galaxy Tab but the Vega is an unknown entity to me. On paper it looks pretty impressive with the Tegra 2 processor and larger screen but I'm hoping people here can tell me what they think after owning one and using it for a while. Specifically I'm wondering how responsive the screen is, what the battery life is like and how it feels to use in general.
Guest rferrett Posted February 16, 2011 Report Posted February 16, 2011 Well I have not had mine for a week whilst it has been with DSG and I have missed it like crazy. Ultimately though you get what you pay for. The Vega costs half what the iPad does, and what the Xoom et al are going to retail for. Compromises have been made for sure. What are you principally hoping to use it for? If it is just something to piss around on the internet with and play some silly games then I am sure the Vega is fine. However I think some of its limitations will come to the fore depending on different ways people want to use it. Just my tuppence worth.
Guest trevor432990 Posted February 16, 2011 Report Posted February 16, 2011 Have a read through the forum and you will see lots of reviews from users but from my point of view I think the Vega represents excellent value for money and for what I use it for mostly which is viewing media using apps like BBC iPlayer, You Tube, LoveFilm, etc and general browsing it is brilliant and the battery lasts for ages (if you use headphones especially). Don't expect a laptop that you can hammer out your latest novel on the train cos the screen keyboard like any tablet can never replace the feel of the real thing. Think of it as a Leggo computer because with all the ROMs & Kernels coming out on Android you can tweak it in so many ways to do new things and it makes an iPad look like its more of a slab than a tablet. Sermon over. :D
Guest HunteronX Posted February 16, 2011 Report Posted February 16, 2011 I'm looking at getting a tablet and while I'd like to wait for things like the HTC Flyer or the new Galaxy Tab 10.1 I fear the prices will be more ludicrous than the original Galaxy Tab when it was first released. With that in mind I've been looking at either the Galaxy Tab or the Advent Vega. I'm pretty sure I know what I'd get with the Galaxy Tab but the Vega is an unknown entity to me. On paper it looks pretty impressive with the Tegra 2 processor and larger screen but I'm hoping people here can tell me what they think after owning one and using it for a while. Specifically I'm wondering how responsive the screen is, what the battery life is like and how it feels to use in general. Well, the screen is very responsive, don't worry about that. The screen's resolution is fine for me, although other people may think that is slightly low. But the viewing angles are not brilliant - although you can decide for yourself from here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NHeRrEXh68 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Yx566kBm4M There is also one multitouch problem. If you move your fingers about 1cm apart, but slowly, the touch points jump together. It's not like the Nexus One or HTC Desire problem, though. The battery life is very good. I don't know the specific amount of hours, but I've not had to worry about it once. It would be good if someone could tell you though (Hint to other forum members... :D). With the newest update 1.09, or even 1.08 (and its custom roms), the Vega is very speedy in just about everything, and flash playback is now very good on 1.09 too, as the flash player has been certified now. Most games run well now - including Dungeon Defenders, or Jet Car Stunts (which I play a lot!), so you should be fine with that. The HDMI capability works well too, as you are able to display whatever is on the tablet's screen on the connected display, in a mirroring effect. This resolution is lower than when you play videos, because when videos are played, the are played at 720p, 1080p etc. Whatever the TV can handle. But the Vega doesn't have much built in flash memory at all compared to the Galaxy tab (only 512MB...), but you can add a micro sd card up to 32GB if you want. The camera really is quite bad, as there is a lot of noise in the background, so this may affect your decision. But it depends on how much you will use the camera. The speakers' sound quality and volume are very good as well, and the codec support is good as well, although a few people have had problems with videos encoded with the AC3 codec. I'm not sure if the Galaxy Tab would have the issue, but as (i think) it is a proprietary codec, open-source alternatives aren't really around. Although with either tablet you could install a 3rd-party player, like 'Rock Player', 'QQPlayer' etc, from the market. Speaking of the android market, it doesn't come installed by default on the Vega, but it is very easy and quick to install all google apps (including the market, Gmail, Maps etc.) onto the device. Now onto future-proofing... Since the Vega has a Tegra 2 chip inside it, which many honeycomb tablets are using, a honeycomb port shouldn't be too difficult - easier than with the Galaxy Tab, I would think. And it would run more smoothly. The lack of flash memory could be overcome with other methods, like copying data to the sdcard, different (flash memory) partitioning layouts and so on... Thanks for reading this, as it's really quite a lot to get through, but I hope it helps! :D
Guest racingclub Posted February 16, 2011 Report Posted February 16, 2011 just chipping in, I was in the same boat, thinking about getting iPad, Tab, Vega etc.. I do like the Android platform (I'm on my fifth Android handset), so I've gone for the Vega. Price helps too... Hopefully receive it soon..! Honeycomb would be really amazing...!
Guest Dyonas Posted February 17, 2011 Report Posted February 17, 2011 Thanks for all the posts so far, lots of information to digest and mostly favourable it seems. A few things like the viewing angle I knew about already but for what I want it wouldn't really be an issue. I'm mainly thinking of using it as what I imagine the iPad is best for, media consumption, a little browsing and maybe some light e-mail and IM. The iPad might have been an option if it had anything like the widgets and notification system that Android does but it doesn't, so it isn't. The screen responsiveness is good news but I have one more question about it that I forgot about earlier. When I had my G1 one of the big annoyances was that near the edge of the screen there was a small area that had no responsiveness no matter what you did. Given that the screen was only 3.2" it was a big deal but with the Vega that might not be an issue if the area is equally as small. Is there any such problem? The frustrating thing is that the Honeycomb tablets that will be coming out are either priced as high as a decent gaming desktop computer or the manufacturers haven't released pricing information yet. If I knew the Galaxy Tab would get Honeycomb I'd wait for the price to come down a little and then get one because while the Vega has a Tegra 2 I get the impression that they're about equal in terms of usability but the Tab wins in terms of build quality. It'd be far easier if I could learn this patience I've heard so much about :D
Guest warriorscot Posted February 17, 2011 Report Posted February 17, 2011 If you were being patient a notion ink adam would be best they will hit the market before the other high spec tablets and have about the same features or better. The vega itself is a nice machine but you can occasionally tell it has been made as cheaply as possible. But at £250 or less if you shop around some or get it at a duty free it doesn't need to last forever as replacing something at that price isn't quite so big a deal as replacing something at £600-1000. And its got most of the same internals as the tablets that are coming out so someone will get honeycomb on it if it doesn't get official support which it might. It's ok for watching videos it's not going to win any prizes but it does the job and it's a fantastic way of untethering yourself from a PC. I use mine as a terminal to access my home PC a lot and it's actually perfect for that using teamviewer of VNC. Overall its a great tablet with a few expectable negative points. If you can wait an adam is specced better and the price should be within £150 probably more like £75-100 depending on factors like the tax man on import.
Guest Dyonas Posted February 17, 2011 Report Posted February 17, 2011 Oddly enough there's only one thing that really puts me off the Vega now and it's apparently not something that can be changed with new ROMs. WiFi turning off when the screen goes to sleep. I was considering this as a sort of replacement for my laptop since I mostly watch online streams with it but if the screen turns off that will stop that straight away :/
Guest trevor432990 Posted February 17, 2011 Report Posted February 17, 2011 Oddly enough there's only one thing that really puts me off the Vega now and it's apparently not something that can be changed with new ROMs. WiFi turning off when the screen goes to sleep. I was considering this as a sort of replacement for my laptop since I mostly watch online streams with it but if the screen turns off that will stop that straight away :/ Not aware of any Vega time-out problems whilst watching online streams and I do use it for that all the time and even if there was I'm sure someone would have written an app to circumvent it by now :D
Guest elvch01 Posted February 17, 2011 Report Posted February 17, 2011 Not aware of any Vega time-out problems whilst watching online streams and I do use it for that all the time and even if there was I'm sure someone would have written an app to circumvent it by now :D Somebody has written the app - its called back light killer & it works a treat
Guest Dyonas Posted February 17, 2011 Report Posted February 17, 2011 Not aware of any Vega time-out problems whilst watching online streams and I do use it for that all the time and even if there was I'm sure someone would have written an app to circumvent it by now :D I was watching a video review and the guy doing the review mentioned that when the screen turns off due to the display timeout it also had the effect of killing the WiFi connection. It meant that he couldn't start Spotify, let the screen go off and have it playing music in the background. That's where I got the information from and got a general idea of the Vega before I posted. Somebody has written the app - its called back light killer & it works a treat In simple terms can you tell me what this app does? From a very vague guess I'm thinking that it probably kills the backlight while the tablet still thinks that it's turned on to prevent it killing the WiFi connection.
Guest jegupi Posted February 17, 2011 Report Posted February 17, 2011 Oddly enough there's only one thing that really puts me off the Vega now and it's apparently not something that can be changed with new ROMs. WiFi turning off when the screen goes to sleep. I was considering this as a sort of replacement for my laptop since I mostly watch online streams with it but if the screen turns off that will stop that straight away :/ I use my Vega for watching online series and tv shows and it never goes to sleep, using R8 rom with 1.08 and flash from the market.
Guest rferrett Posted February 17, 2011 Report Posted February 17, 2011 InferredI was watching a video review and the guy doing the review mentioned that when the screen turns off due to the display timeout it also had the effect of killing the WiFi connection. It meant that he couldn't start Spotify, let the screen go off and have it playing music in the background. That's where I got the information from and got a general idea of the Vega before I posted. In simple terms can you tell me what this app does? From a very vague guess I'm thinking that it probably kills the backlight while the tablet still thinks that it's turned on to prevent it killing the WiFi connection. Indeed that is exactly what out does and it is great.
Guest debs626 Posted February 17, 2011 Report Posted February 17, 2011 (edited) In simple terms can you tell me what this app does? From a very vague guess I'm thinking that it probably kills the backlight while the tablet still thinks that it's turned on to prevent it killing the WiFi connection. Your exactly right ... it turns down the backlight to 1% edit : - oops sorry, ralph got in first while I grabbed a coffee :D Edited February 17, 2011 by debs626
Guest premieral Posted February 17, 2011 Report Posted February 17, 2011 If you were being patient a notion ink adam would be best they will hit the market before the other high spec tablets and have about the same features or better. The vega itself is a nice machine but you can occasionally tell it has been made as cheaply as possible. But at £250 or less if you shop around some or get it at a duty free it doesn't need to last forever as replacing something at that price isn't quite so big a deal as replacing something at £600-1000. And its got most of the same internals as the tablets that are coming out so someone will get honeycomb on it if it doesn't get official support which it might. It's ok for watching videos it's not going to win any prizes but it does the job and it's a fantastic way of untethering yourself from a PC. I use mine as a terminal to access my home PC a lot and it's actually perfect for that using teamviewer of VNC. Overall its a great tablet with a few expectable negative points. If you can wait an adam is specced better and the price should be within £150 probably more like £75-100 depending on factors like the tax man on import. the adam is released and getting very bad press , initial release models were sent out with glitches and cheap build quality, basically not as promised also a few items that were promised as standard on the machine have not transpired, so although on paper it looks a great piece of kit i think i would let it get to market for a while before i invested in this
Guest warriorscot Posted February 18, 2011 Report Posted February 18, 2011 The first batch of adams got recalled mostly before sale so while it's officially released it's not actually available yet because of the damaged parts that were apparently on the wrong end of a shipping accident. And the quality isn't going to be miles better than the vega in fact given that the adam has a better screen and more memory it really is pretty much the same price in terms of manufacturing costs. In terms of the backlight it only goes off if you aren't using it and if you plug it in you can set it to stay on all the time. Mostly if you aren't going to use it you want the wireless off which is why the settings are like they are but as people mentioned lots of ways around it.
Guest Dyonas Posted February 25, 2011 Report Posted February 25, 2011 I'm going to take the plunge and have ordered a Vega. Oddly there are two options on the PC World website. One is £249.99 with Flash pre-installed, the other is £244.99 without Flash installed but as a download. I don't know why they're making it look like installing Flash is a £5 affair but given the plans of installing custom ROMs on mine I picked the cheaper version anyway. I figure if I don't like it I can return it as per the T&Cs although I'm seeing myself as liking it unless the screen responsiveness is an issue. The only reason I bring that up is that some seem to have no problems and others I've seen elsewhere say the screen isn't responsive at all, maybe a quality control or luck issue. No stores near me have it so I have to wait until Wednesday for it to be delivered. Can you tell me the exact name of the backlight killer program? I couldn't find it on the market but I suspect it's from these forums, I just need to know what to search for or where to find it :huh:
Guest HunteronX Posted February 25, 2011 Report Posted February 25, 2011 I'm going to take the plunge and have ordered a Vega. Oddly there are two options on the PC World website. One is £249.99 with Flash pre-installed, the other is £244.99 without Flash installed but as a download. I don't know why they're making it look like installing Flash is a £5 affair but given the plans of installing custom ROMs on mine I picked the cheaper version anyway. I figure if I don't like it I can return it as per the T&Cs although I'm seeing myself as liking it unless the screen responsiveness is an issue. The only reason I bring that up is that some seem to have no problems and others I've seen elsewhere say the screen isn't responsive at all, maybe a quality control or luck issue. No stores near me have it so I have to wait until Wednesday for it to be delivered. Can you tell me the exact name of the backlight killer program? I couldn't find it on the market but I suspect it's from these forums, I just need to know what to search for or where to find it :huh: Here you go - it's a apk file from here: http://android.modaco.com/content/advent-v...-7-29-jan-2011/ Also, the screen is VERY responsive for me. I have a feeling that people with problems haven't used the calibration app. It isn't needed, but some people have needed to use it once or twice, to correct screen touch problems. It is included in the latest 1.09 firmware.
Guest Dyonas Posted February 25, 2011 Report Posted February 25, 2011 Here you go - it's a apk file from here: http://android.modaco.com/content/advent-v...-7-29-jan-2011/ Also, the screen is VERY responsive for me. I have a feeling that people with problems haven't used the calibration app. It isn't needed, but some people have needed to use it once or twice, to correct screen touch problems. It is included in the latest 1.09 firmware. Much appreciated, thanks :) now I just have to wait until Wednesday... is it Wednesday yet? How about now? :huh:
Guest dragon2611 Posted February 27, 2011 Report Posted February 27, 2011 (edited) Was planning on getting one when they launched last year but then decided against it as I didn't think I'd use it enough Was in Reading yesterday and saw one on display in the Pcworld in the oracle shopping centre, had a quick play around with it tried to escape but ended up going back in there before heading home and buying one. Stock config is rather Naff as there didn't seem to be any market at all on it when i got it, but needless to say it soon ended up with the MCR on it. Loving it so far, glad I didn't go for one of the cheaper 7" android 2.1 tablets that have been floating around at various places. 10" is a nice size for viewing webpages.etc Only problem i've had with mine is I can't install roadsync on it for some reason, it just Force Closes at the registration part although the native exchange support seems to work well enough (But lacks tasks). I'm hoping that more app developers will soon start supporting tablets soon as there are a few apps that could easily get more information on the display if they were aware of the fact they are running on a tablet, I guess if the vega gets honeycomb thats when we'll see things start to change. Edited February 27, 2011 by dragon2611
Guest Dyonas Posted March 2, 2011 Report Posted March 2, 2011 I got my Vega, finally, but the happiness was short lived. First there was a small scratch on the bezel, I could possibly have lived with that, and then as soon as I had a white background on the screen I noticed three small marks in the top right corner. It wasn't dirt on the screen or dead pixels, it was dirt under the screen >_< called and asked what to do, they suggested taking to local PC World so I did that. Unfortunately they had none in stock and as such couldn't exchange and also wouldn't refund. Next door there is a Currys, guy at PC World checked the system and said they had none either as the computer checks the local area and covers all stores. What to do..... I figured I had nothing to lose and went next door to ask if they had any in stock, they did, so I explained the situation and after a few checks to see if they could see the order on their system (yay, they could!) they replaced it. I asked to check it before I left, no marks under the screen or scratches. Now to get on with the fun of making it more usable!
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