new section for Scroll Evoke

[gas]

Hi, there doesnt seem to be a section for the new Scroll Evoke 7" tablet.
Can you add one please?

[Trashcooky]

Hi, there doesnt seem to be a section for the new Scroll Evoke 7" tablet.
Can you add one please?

Hello gas,

You are probably the first member to have a Scroll Evoke which is why there is no section for it yet.
Perhaps you can start us off with a review of this tablet and if we get enough requests to justify giving the Evoke its own section perhaps we can carry that forward later in the New Year.

[gas]

Thanks Trashcooky.

Yes, the device has only been released this month I think, so as yet there is very little info out there except the launch reviews. I dont doubt there will be others interested soon since its a tasty piece of kit.

To put it into context, its my first android device. I've stayed with WP7 thus far on the handset side. Its also my first "tablet". The last "tablet" type thing I owned was a HP hx4700, also a very well spec'd machine for its day.

In Brief :
A very good specification for the asking price is what drew me. Running Jellybean 4.1.1 on a dual core Cortex A9 @ 1.6GHZ , featuring 1GB of DD3 for RAM and 8GB internal storage and a micro SD slot which I've populated to the max 32GB. Coupled with the Mali-400 quad-core graphics processor , 7" 5-point IPS capacitive 1024x600 display, its got some of the latest technology.
Bluetooth 3.0 IS included, as is WiFi 802.11b/g/n
So it promises to be quick and very capable. Quick over the WiFi , quick with 3D or HDMI graphics and quick overall.

The Specs:
CPU: RK3066 Dual Core ARM Cortex A9 @ 1.6GHz
GPU: Mali-400 2D/3D GPU (Quad-Core)
OS: Android Jellybean 4.1.1
RAM: 1GB DDR3
Built-in Storage : 8GB
Expansion : micro SD, up to 32GB
Display : 7" capacitive 5-point touch screen, with res of 1024x600
Cameras: 0.3MP front and 2MP rear cameras.
Battery : 3000mAH
USB-OTG
HDMI out , up to 1920x1080p

http://www.storageoptions.com/products/scroll/tablets/scroll-evoke

I parted with £120 for the unit plus £15 for the sleeve case, and also £20 for the mini-keyboard case.

Review:
I've had the Evoke for about a week now , so I've had some time to see what it can do. I have not been conducting benchmarking or comparing it side to side with its competition so bear that in mind.

Build quality seems fair, pretty nice overall. No real complaints with anything on that side, sockets and buttons are positioned fine, units looks and feels good in your hand.
Speed of the device is excellent, no problems with browsing menus, internet, video, music, and switching between all those.

Audio:
The device has a 1W speaker, but I cant describe it other than "tinny". It might be sufficient for watching eastenders but it wont do much for music at all. Thankfully plugging a quality set of headphones into the device works wonders. Also we are gifted with bluetooth so getting good audio playback out of the unit is possible in more ways than one.

Video :
Playback from local storage or over the WiFi is pretty much flawless.I've installed VLC, Netflix, YouTube, iPlayer, all look great and I cant see any problems with the decoding. The Mali processor seems to do a very good job of putting this onto the 7" screen. With the fast N WiFi streaming is quick and switching to HD stream also is effortless for the Evoke. Connecting it to the big screen over HDMI, I ran it up at 1920x1080p and played out a movie from the micro SD. Again I was looking for any artifacts which might tell me its struggling, but I have to say, it works slick. Im impressed.
I understand it can output 3D also but I didnt get a chance to try it yet. It will be interesting to see if it will display the 3D images captured with my Sony NEX-5.

Battery:
I ran a calibration with the Android Battery app. We can expect the following;
Stand-by : 32hrs 13min
Music Playback : 4hrs 33min
Video Playback : 6hrs 15min
Internet browsing over WiFi, 5hrs 33min

The battery capacity could have done with being a bit more, also the charging time seems to be quite long.
Since I left it on and accidentally drained it to 0% the other day, I still have the log, I can see it took 4-5 hours to recover to 100%. This charging is not linear btw, so going from 50% -> 100% thankfully takes only 1.5hrs

Overall:
Speaker could be better, battery could be larger.
Other than that and the fact there is little support on forums etc yet, I really have grown to like this device.
Its surprised me by being very slick to operate and very capable in what it can do. I've yet to try the Mali processor against 3D gaming or something but I dont doubt it will do a good job there also.
HDMI out on the TV was quite astonishing, Transformers HD looked awesome. Play store is present and working
and I've already installed some games, and other apps.
Overall Id say smashing value, a very capable device and worth considering!

BTW, Neither CoPilot W.Europe nor the just made available TomTom (21st Dec) W.Europe seem to work. They install in Play store just fine but TomTom locks with black screen and CoPilot declares it cant get GPS updates (Evoke doesnt have internal GPS so Im using bluetooth external GPS, though I dont think thats the cause of the issues).
I've yet to get to the bottom of whats happening there, otherwise Google maps, Navigate, and other GPS tools work very well indeed, fantastic on the "large" screen.

I've managed to get the unit installed and recognised with ADB usb driver , and also managed to ROOT it recently so, more fun to follow.

[shanere51]

How exactly did you root the tablet. i am thinking about purchasing one and wanted to be able to root it.

[gas]

Took quite a bit of digging (maybe more so since im new to android and rooting) but this method is what did it for me ;

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthr ... ?t=1886460

Also to update earlier information, the latest update to TomTom (couple days ago) fixed whatever the issue was before. It now loads in, works with the external BT GPS and looks fantastic on the big screen.

[shanere51]

its good to know that tablets like these can be rooted. in the end I decided to go for a samsung tab 2 7". it was a close decision

[gilvray]

I've noticed there are a couple of youtube clips of the Evoke in use...

One from Overclockers running GTA - looks very tidy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gi4_Pgvv0Sk

An unboxing/power on review - music's too loud and could have been better thought out as a review but fair do's to the bloke it's the first one I can find and shows the unit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNTsZwx7Y1E

I had a sumvision astro 7+ til it bricked and was returned under warranty, so a bit apprehensive about lower price devices not having the build quality - however the HDMI, Bluetooth and spec of the Evoke are very appealing, as is the price. Any comments or thoughts on the difference between Scroll and Sumvision?

Also - is the Google Play compatibility an issue on the Evoke? (as per the notes on StorageOptions site about Google licence and 'app stores')

[Charlie]

<snip> Any comments or thoughts on the difference between Scroll and Sumvision?
<snip>

As far as I am aware the tablets come from the same overseas manufacture and they are just re-branded E.g. The Sumvision Astro 7" is the same as the Scroll Excel 7" (just some differences in firmware, packing and branding) - There are many other brands that use the same manufacture like the Tabo 7" is an Astro/Excel.

[gas]

Yes, put basically, there are a huge number of tablets being made in china, folks like StorageOptions dont design their own thats for certain, they would have only commisioned some of the plastics and branding and had a ROM installed for them. The underlying HW itself is used on a few platforms Im aware.. Cube U30GT and several others.
you might find a slight difference in some particular spec but the base HW is the same.
RK3066 is a popular dual core cortex A9 implementation by a chinese semiconductor fab, and so while I've been looking for info on how to acheive particular things, its been useful to look at threads from other "very similar" device users and see what they have been up to.

Connecting ADB , android usb debug interface in fact the USB vendor and device ID's matched the "Cube U30GT" and a few others.

Play store arrived installed and working fully once Id logged in, used many times to get the latest apps etc.
I think because of that positon you read about, storage options cannot support you on this topic but for sure it is there and it works fine as far as I have used...

[gilvray]

Cheers!

Gas - How did you get on with the tablet keyboard and cover? I've seen them on Amazon and they have mixed ratings - from tablets that wont see the keyboard, can't power the keyboard, the retaining clips don't hold the tablet and or keys not working... http://www.storageoptions.com/products/ ... t-and-kb-2