My brief encounter with the Scroll Excel III
Posted: June 8th, 2013, 7:52 pmThose of you who read my rants will be aware of the short affair I had with what is loosely described by manufacturer's as "TV on a stick". The one I tried -strike that - the two I tried as I sent the first one back were based on the dual core Rockchip 3066 processor with quad core mali graphics running a customised version of JellyBean and when they worked were very impressive. Problem was they simply quickly overheated and crashed as there was no appropriate way the CPU could keep cool sealed away in a narrow plastic case.
I decided to give the Scroll Excel III a try which has approximately the same hardware but I thought would benefit from a better build design and a CPU heat sinc. The specs of the Excel III are thus:
Specifications
Software
AndroidTM 4.1.1
Hardware
Processor Rockchip Dual Core ARM Cortex A9 1.6GHz, Quad-Core Mali-400 MP Graphics Processor
Display 7“ High Resolution 1024x600 Capacitive Screen
Memory 1GB DDR3 RAM
Internal Memory 8GB Memory Built-in, Micro SD Card Expandable Up to 32GB
Battery 3000 mAh Lithium Ion Rechargeable Battery
Camera Front Facing 0.3 Megapixel, Rear Facing 2.0 Megapixel
G-Sensor 16 bit G-sensor, Monitors / Rotates Screen Through 360°
Speakers Built-in Speaker
Headphones 3.5mm Earphone Jack
Connectivity
Wireless Networking Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n
Bluetooth Version 3.0
TV Output HDMI TV-Output (Mini HDMI)
Mini USB Host Port For Peripheral Connection (e.g. Keyboard, Flash Drive)
Power 5V DC
Multimedia
Video Support Full HD 1080P Supports AVI, H.264, MPEG2, MPEG4, MKV, MP4
E-Book Support PDF, EPUB, MOBI
Features
Music, Photos, Movies, E-mail, 3D Games, 1080P 3D Video Output!
Case
Slim Plastic Casing
Dimensions
213mm x 143mm x 13mm
Price: £109.99
Well it arrived this morning and I unpacked it and put it on charge and when it reported battery 100% I powered up in eager anticipation of a fast and moderately well built android tablet but I was to be very disappointed.
Being a member of this forum for some considerable time now I really should not have been surprised as there are literally 10's if not 100's of posts on here complaining about Scroll tablet faults from new and multiple returns and replacements which have infuriated their owners.
This history has also generated some very negative past feedback on Storage Options FaceBook page:
I desperately wanted this purchase to be OK so I persevered with it despite first finding that Auto rotate was virtually non functional unless you shook the tablet to death and then I discovered that the G sensor/s were only working in 3 out of four dimensions. Added to that the lower parts of the touchscreen were very unresponsive but could be forced if you turned the tablet and shook the hell out of it to achieve auto rotate to change the orientation of the screen so the icon etc you needed touch was no longer at the extreme edges.
Still optimistic, I carried out a manufacturers option of a hard reset through the pinhole on the back of the tablet - but as you have probably guessed this achieved nothing. I then carried out a manufacturers Factory reset doing a soft reset through the settings menu........ again this achieved nothing other than the fact that I had to re-enter WIFI and Google account details.
Then the tablet decided to blank screen and I could not get it to respond unless I plugged the charger in - although battery stats reported 82% charge available. This was followed by a couple of odd reboots which I have no idea of the cause of.
However, during the short time I had it basically operational I also discovered rather like "Spooky's post" that many apps I have on my first gen Scroll Excel reported as incompatible with your device
These errant apps included:
Sky WiFi
Speed Test
ITV Player
however, I am almost 100% confident that if I had side-loaded these particular apps they would have worked.
I also suspect that some of Spooky's apps that failed compatibility would probably have worked had they been side-loaded.
Final comments are that the Scroll Excel III is not rooted straight out of the box like its first generation model.
Storage Options are now sending out registration cards which require the tablet's serial number for product registration.
This is not something I have seen before - a little serial number sticker on the back of the tablet.
Another point which surprised me is that
is pre-installed and can be used straight away without jumping through any hoops.
Anyway, it arrived at 10.00 a.m. this morning and I dropped if off for collection back to Amazon at 18.25 tonight so for me at least this is unfortunately a new record.
I decided to give the Scroll Excel III a try which has approximately the same hardware but I thought would benefit from a better build design and a CPU heat sinc. The specs of the Excel III are thus:
Specifications
Software
AndroidTM 4.1.1
Hardware
Processor Rockchip Dual Core ARM Cortex A9 1.6GHz, Quad-Core Mali-400 MP Graphics Processor
Display 7“ High Resolution 1024x600 Capacitive Screen
Memory 1GB DDR3 RAM
Internal Memory 8GB Memory Built-in, Micro SD Card Expandable Up to 32GB
Battery 3000 mAh Lithium Ion Rechargeable Battery
Camera Front Facing 0.3 Megapixel, Rear Facing 2.0 Megapixel
G-Sensor 16 bit G-sensor, Monitors / Rotates Screen Through 360°
Speakers Built-in Speaker
Headphones 3.5mm Earphone Jack
Connectivity
Wireless Networking Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n
Bluetooth Version 3.0
TV Output HDMI TV-Output (Mini HDMI)
Mini USB Host Port For Peripheral Connection (e.g. Keyboard, Flash Drive)
Power 5V DC
Multimedia
Video Support Full HD 1080P Supports AVI, H.264, MPEG2, MPEG4, MKV, MP4
E-Book Support PDF, EPUB, MOBI
Features
Music, Photos, Movies, E-mail, 3D Games, 1080P 3D Video Output!
Case
Slim Plastic Casing
Dimensions
213mm x 143mm x 13mm
Price: £109.99
Well it arrived this morning and I unpacked it and put it on charge and when it reported battery 100% I powered up in eager anticipation of a fast and moderately well built android tablet but I was to be very disappointed.
Being a member of this forum for some considerable time now I really should not have been surprised as there are literally 10's if not 100's of posts on here complaining about Scroll tablet faults from new and multiple returns and replacements which have infuriated their owners.
This history has also generated some very negative past feedback on Storage Options FaceBook page:
I desperately wanted this purchase to be OK so I persevered with it despite first finding that Auto rotate was virtually non functional unless you shook the tablet to death and then I discovered that the G sensor/s were only working in 3 out of four dimensions. Added to that the lower parts of the touchscreen were very unresponsive but could be forced if you turned the tablet and shook the hell out of it to achieve auto rotate to change the orientation of the screen so the icon etc you needed touch was no longer at the extreme edges.
Still optimistic, I carried out a manufacturers option of a hard reset through the pinhole on the back of the tablet - but as you have probably guessed this achieved nothing. I then carried out a manufacturers Factory reset doing a soft reset through the settings menu........ again this achieved nothing other than the fact that I had to re-enter WIFI and Google account details.
Then the tablet decided to blank screen and I could not get it to respond unless I plugged the charger in - although battery stats reported 82% charge available. This was followed by a couple of odd reboots which I have no idea of the cause of.
However, during the short time I had it basically operational I also discovered rather like "Spooky's post" that many apps I have on my first gen Scroll Excel reported as incompatible with your device
These errant apps included:
Sky WiFi
Speed Test
ITV Player
however, I am almost 100% confident that if I had side-loaded these particular apps they would have worked.
I also suspect that some of Spooky's apps that failed compatibility would probably have worked had they been side-loaded.
Final comments are that the Scroll Excel III is not rooted straight out of the box like its first generation model.
Storage Options are now sending out registration cards which require the tablet's serial number for product registration.
This is not something I have seen before - a little serial number sticker on the back of the tablet.
Another point which surprised me is that
is pre-installed and can be used straight away without jumping through any hoops.Anyway, it arrived at 10.00 a.m. this morning and I dropped if off for collection back to Amazon at 18.25 tonight so for me at least this is unfortunately a new record.