Scroll Excel - Review & Mini Blog

[Charlie]

Spot on conclusion and completely agree.

Thanks for the feedback

It does feel like a crying shame as the Excel can do more, whereas the 1st gen Scroll was good, it did have its limits but it was pushed to the max.

[Trashcooky]

Hello Charlie,
Thoroughly enjoyed your review and felt your excitement right from the start.
I purchased a Scroll Essential just before Christmas - as a Silver Surfer - I didn't mind risking £70.00.
Unfortunately, it had a faulty USB feed so I got a refund and purchased an Excel - but I did have the Essential long enough to get some idea of comparison between the two and I must say the Excel is well worth the additional £60.00.

Like you, I am disappointed with the sync issues on streaming media such as BBC News and BBCi player.
However, it does not make the device unuseable for this important function.
I have played some MKV video files from the SD card and these show no sync problems at all.
I have tried Asphalt 5 on the Excel and the response is very good but in my case the sound drops out and come back occasionally.
I have updated Flash to V11 and unless I am mistaken this has very slightly helped with the BBCi sync issue. Apparently "Storage Options" are well aware of this sync issue and are quite adamant that it is not a hardware issue but a Flash issue - they say they are looking for a fix and will blog when they have something.

Like you I agree that if the Scroll Excel were a student then "Could try harder" would be a fitting report, but having said that this is still an impressive device and incredible value.

One odd thing I have noticed - which is following on from when I connected the Excel to my PC for USB files transfer is that even after following the instructions on the Tablet to turn OFF USB, if I do not re-boot the Scroll following a PC-Tablet file transfer it will not function correctly? (It insists that ES file Explorer is not installed on the device [IT IS] until I reboot.)

Love to hear more updates from your experience and perhaps I can tell you a bit more about mine.

[Charlie]

Hi Trashcooky,

Thanks for your post, I agree with what you have said. I have not experienced the issue with ES file explorer, this could be an app issue or an OS issue, not sure at the mo', as I use Root Explorer.

Yes, the Excel is a damn good tablet for the money and it can do more, it has the hardware to do so. The issues I mentioned in my review, really are not to do with apps (yes some apps are badly developed, so no fault from SO there) but their version of Android 2.3.4 that was complied for the Excel needs fixing. It has been done on similar tablets with the same hardware specs (i.e. CPU & GPU) - so it is very possible for the Excel.

None of us get things right all the time, (that includes me too, for sure) - but it's admitting you made a mistake and stepping up to the mark and trying to correct it - this is what really counts. I have faith in SO, that they will come through with this and sort it, it might take time, but hopefully not too long as none of us can wait forever.

[Trashcooky]

Hi again Charlie,
I have now had a week to play with my Excel and remain very pleased with it.
I am interested (but not yet bold enough) to explore rooting the Excel but I am a little confused.
I read on one post that the Excel comes already rooted?
I have discovered that when I connect the Excel to my PC I see 2 Devices, the 32gb sdhc card I installed in the Excel and what appears to be the Excel RAM itself with what appears to something akin to what you find when you explore the "Windows" folder on a PC. I am usure if I am seeing just RAM or perhaps even ROM?
I have also heard about locked and unlocked bootloggers but am a bit unsure what dangers are involved in following the rooting path - or what the benefits may be.
I understand that a rooted device can have the OS updated (i.e Honeycomb or Ice Cream Sandwich) but many Forums say that Gingerbread rules at the moment?
If when you have the time (and/or inclination) if you don't mind, I would love to hear your thoughts as you appear to be very Scroll knowledgeable.

Regards. Trashcooky.

[Charlie]

The Excel is rooted, you are right, just go to market and get the free 'Superuser' app, this will give you control over what apps can have root access. Also bear in mind that even if a device is rooted not all file explorers will be able to access system files - The 'ES file explorer' that comes pre-loaded on the Excel can, if you tick the box in setting (need 'Superuser' app to do that tho'). My favourite file explorer is is 'Root Explorer'.

The 2 drives that show up in Windows when you connect the tab via usb and mount it, are the external SD card and internal Nand (which is just on board fixed storage space) but this is shown as SDcard in apps.

Paths to them on the tab are:

/mnt/sdcard/ = Internal storage (A.K.A. -SDcard)
/mnt/extern_sd/ = External SD card

Gingerbread is good on this tab, also there is an unofficial ICS for it too, which seems to work well, but no flash and battery drains quicker - so basically ICS is not quite there yet for this tab.

[Charlie]

Score updated in review/blog: Due to using a different firmware.

[Trashcooky]

Thanks for your help Charlie I really appreciate it.

[Charlie]

Not used my 1st gen Scroll for a few months now, just been setting it up today for the misses to use. I liked that Scroll very much, but since having the Excel the 1st gen tab seems very slow and tedious. I was at 1st reluctant to let the misses have my old tab, but after using it again, she can keep it!

[Charlie]

UPDATE:

Hi all,

My last score for the Excel was 8 out of 10 - Now that a very good ICS version (thanks to the hard work and talent of certain forum members - you all know who you are ) has been available for this tablet for a while now and is still being made even better. I think that score for the Excel should go up.

Does it now deserve a score of:

9 out of 10?

Or

9.5 out of 10?

What do you all think?

[suggsy89]

Depends on which firmware lol

I will call it a 9 because its not "Perfect"