Nice $35 Android Tablet

erco

http://www.walmart.com/ip/45804399

I've bought several Android tablets lately and this one's my favorite. Fast Android 5.0, nice clear screen, good sound, good wifi range, decent battery life, does everything well so far. I must admit, I had very low expectations of RCA slapping their name on somebody else's tablet but all that's behind me. I went to order a second one today and the price dropped $5 since I bought. Prolly because the only colors left are blue and purple, but I wanted another blue one anyway. Booya and erco-approved!

Have it shipped free to a WM near you for pickup and try it out for 15 days.

Edit: That's an 8GB unit, here's the same one with 16GB for $40, available in black and purple: http://www.walmart.com/ip/RCA-7-Tablet-16GB-Quad-Core/45804400

Seairth

Wow, that's cheapinexpensive! Do you know if it supports USB Host mode?

erco

Hadn't tried that. So I just did a quick test, plugged a USB OTG cable into the tablet's micro USB/charging port, which provided me a full-sized USB female port. The tablet can auto-detect & read a USB flashdrive and my cellphone, so I guess the answer is yes.

Don M

Does it have Bluetooth? How well does the touchscreen respond?

erco

BT yes, touchscreen great IMHO

erco

Gyro sensor is accurate & repeatable to 0.2 degrees, using "Bubble level" app from Play Store & calibrating.

Publison

How much storage is left out of the 8/16GB?

erco

Not much. I only have the 8GB unit. Have not uninstalled any bloatware yet (and there's plenty), only installed about 10 apps. I'm using this as part of a project so it won't get loaded any more. Mine says 1.65GB free of 3.66GB. So if you're gonna load yours up with apps, nab the 16GB version. Supposedly my 8GB version supports up to a 32 GB uSD card.

localroger

Looks like the kissin' cousin hardware-wise of the HP Stream 7, which is a lot more useful to me (as well as more expensive) due to running 32-bit Windows 8.1.

koehler

Wow, that 16GB for $40 is insane.

All my projects are going to be including BT from here on out, and I'm going to use one of these as a remote terminal instead of bringing a laptop with USB-Serial.
Or, maybe a $1 ESP8266 so I don't have to get off the couch to mess with my pond pump.

GordonMcComb

Both this and the HP Stream 7 have just 1GB of RAM. I guess I can see this for Android, but how does that work with Windows?

I see 1GB is pretty common. Guess I never really looked at the specs before.

localroger

Gordon, the special thing about the 1 GB windows tablets is that they not only work OK if you aren't into big data type stuff, they are supplied with a special 32-bit version of windows 8 or 10 which actually runs all that older stuff that won't run on a 64-bit OS. I have used both the Stream 7 and the iCraig for general net browsing and work stuff in the field. You probably can't play HALO on them but they work just fine for surfing these forums and running that old development suite that will never be updated.

erco

BTW I loaded Win10 on the Craig today from an ISO image on a thumbdrive. I'll have to do a few more computers around the house before the July 29 cutoff. Easy upgrade, everything but the sound is working fine. No sound hardware detected... localroger, can you look in your device manager to see what hardware is listed? Maybe I just need to locate & download that driver and it will sort itself out.

Anybody else think NSA must be subsidizing the "free" Win10 upgrade in exchange for all the data they'll gain on private citizens? Surely all the keystroke logging bypasses discovered so early were red herrings and we're all trundling happily along with our delusions of privacy...

localroger

Erco, the iCraig sound driver is listed as "Intel SST Audio Device (WDM)." There is also a "Realtek I2S Audio Codec." I think that might have something to do with HDMI support. Have you tried turning your tablet on with it connected to a powered-up HDMI device to see if the sound comes through that way?

It appears that sound problems are common with Win 10. I couldn't get my wife's new Win 10 machine to see proper volume for incoming sound from any audio source until I installed a freeware third party graphic equalizer that somehow magically fixed the problem. And none of the solutions like that seem to be universal or consistent. There are many forum posts about similar problems which have gone unresolved for months.

GordonMcComb

So mine came in yesterday, and despite the many 1-star reviews, it booted right up, and is still working. We'll see for how long. Truthfully, it's quite nice, though I've found a couple of older apps I wanted to use won't run on 5.0.

I got a purple one, the only color left. Turns out apropos, given Prince's recent and untimely death.

erco

I bought a beautiful 9" NAXA Android tablet from Fry's on sale for $50 but the accelerometer is sideways in the apps I need, y is x and x is y. NAXA techs say there is no fix, so back it goes. The little RCA tablet works perfect.

Funny that some older apps won't work.

Yes, Prince will be missed. And more bad news today from Facebook:

erco

RCA's Android 6.0 tablet is at WM now. That same $35 buys 16 GB instead of 8. Ain't life grand!

https://www.walmart.com/ip/RCA-Voyager-with-WiFi-7-Touchscreen-Tablet-PC-Featuring-Android-6.0-Marshmallow-Operating-System/53990885

In stark contrast, North Korea's latest Android tablet is quite limited, and spies on you even more than Windows 10.

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/heres-north-koreas-totalitarian-android-tablet

tritonium

Hi
Wonder if the display itself can be hacked? I think 7 inch displays alone cost more than that!
Dave

Chris Savage

erco wrote: »

BTW RCA's Android 6.0 tablet is at WM now. The same $35 buys 16 GB instead of 8. Ain't life grand.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/RCA-Voyager-with-WiFi-7-Touchscreen-Tablet-PC-Featuring-Android-6.0-Marshmallow-Operating-System/53990885

Thanks erco! Ordered two for the grandkids. :nerd:

localroger

tritonium wrote: »

Hi
Wonder if the display itself can be hacked? I think 7 inch displays alone cost more than that!
Dave

A few years ago I hacked a Philips PET702 7-inch portable DVD player and an Ativa (Office Depot house brand) 7-inch picture frame to make them Propeller displays. The 8-inch photo frame I tried was totally out of realm, but both the 7-inch displays used an analog RGB signal that while weird was amenable to being played by the Propeller's video driver. I even presented the photo frame at the 2011 UPEW at Parallax, but I was the first volunteer and they didn't have the recording equipment up for my talk. The technique I developed did require that the original hardware generate all the timing signals for the LCD -- they're quite complex and timing sensitive -- but by hijacking the RGB lines and tapping a couple of other signals to sense the timing, I was able to generate stable high density text displays.

Not sure if an Android tablet would use the same scheme, but it is cheap enough to make a body curious; at $35 it's half the price of either the photo frame or the DVD player even on sale.

K2

I'm encouraged by the reviews of people using the RCA tablet for FPV. That use alone would justify the $35 for me.

erco

Slow FPV works fine. Be aware that over WiFi, there is up to a second of video lag. That's an eternity for a fast moving flying drone.

Publison

Picked one up at local WM today for $37 plus tax. Pretty quick, but it will not run my DJI App for the quadcopter. I was looking for a larger display while flying, but for $37 it's a great piece to just having lay on the coffee table when you need internet.

Chris Savage

Publison wrote: »

Picked one up at local WM today for $37 plus tax. Pretty quick, but it will not run my DJI App for the quadcopter. I was looking for a larger display while flying, but for $37 it's a great piece to just having lay on the coffee table when you need internet.

I got an email that the two I ordered are in, so I will pick them up after work today on my way home.

Publison

Publison wrote: »

Picked one up at local WM today for $37 plus tax. Pretty quick, but it will not run my DJI App for the quadcopter. I was looking for a larger display while flying, but for $37 it's a great piece to just having lay on the coffee table when you need internet.

It's a bummer DJI GO does not support Android 6.0.1. And DJI 4.0 does not support Phantom 3's. Have to stick with my MOTO G for DJI.

erco

My 6.0 unit works OK, but it sure seems like the older 5.0 tablet had finer touchscreen response. Maybe it just takes some getting used to.

Chris Savage

These are the tablets that erco made me order. Err, I mean, told us about, LOL. Too bad they didn't have any pink ones left. Granddaughter loves pink everything. So to tell them apart we're probably going to have to apply stickers or something. Maybe a pink case? erco, is there a pink case for these tablets? Cheap, of course!

erco

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Pink-Soft-Silicone-Cover-Case-for-7-inch-7-Android-Capacitive-PC-Tablet-/291516251666

Chris Savage

Thanks erco, that could work! :thumb:

K2

It's endemic. I picked up a Voyager, too. It was the Voyager Pro, with keyboard. Walmart was offering it at $43.88. Without erco's guidance in the matter, it was the best deal I could find.

It is the first keyboard equipped Android, ever, for me. Already the keyboard is making all the difference in the world. The plan was to give this tablet to my youngest daughter. The new plan is to order another tablet.

erco

I gotta find a way to get my 2% off all you suckers!

How does that keyboard attach, are there POGO pins?