Once bitten, still not shy: I want another (but good) tablet

[HappyChris]

Hi.

I'm now truly pi**ed off with the resistive screened CKO that I bought via eBay. It had no scroll action when at the bottom of the screen so couldn't shut the Notifications and all (well, both) of its buttons were tiny and stuck on the side of the case and vile to use. The notification bar would get hidden by some apps and was then difficult to access. Etc., etc., moan, moan. I can't be bothered with it now .

In spite of this I still think that a tablet is for me... but which one? eBook reading is a definite wish (Kindle is v. nice but locked in), a reasonably smooth and responsive screen and access to the Play vital, while (is it possible?) a reasonable battery life would be appreciated. Obviously dud WiFi and a tendency to FC are no-nos.

I looked at the SO Excel as it had a UK presence of some kind, is currently quite cheap (I assume I can hack the Market?) and seemed quite balanced... Is this so? It is hard to find reasonable reviews of the el cheapo end of the tablet market. What would you, dear readers, advise I get, please?

[Trashcooky]

Hi HappyChris, as this is predominantly a Scroll based forum you won't be surprised if we support the Scroll tablets.

As you say the Excel is currently very cheap and represents quite a lot of tech for your money.
You are also right in guessing that Google Play store can be persuaded to be more co-operative despite the fact that Google
will not (as yet) license any of the Scroll tablets.

Scroll have released some new tablets recently which are larger than the 7" Excel being 9.7" these are the Extreme and the Elite both of which have very mixed reviews on this forum.
So as far as they are concerned you pays your money and takes your chances you get a good one.

The latest Excel comes with ICS 4.0.3 installed although most people have updated to Suggsy's RC1 4.0.4 which definitely seems to perfom better than the stock rom. I myself have an Excel which came with GB 2.0.3
which I now run ICS 4.0.4 on and I am very happy with it.

If you decide to buy an Excel be careful where you buy it from as there are still some old stock 2.3's turning up. Also be aware that Storage Options who are the main UK re-sellers of Scroll tablets seem to change the firmware and hardware quite frequently.
This sometimes causes issues for people when they try to update.

Lastly, it seems that all early Scroll tablets came rooted straight out of the box, but as new models
are released this is now being questioned. Happy hunting.

[HappyChris]

Thanks for the quick response, Trashcooky!

I was reignited when I saw the £89.99 price via CCL - a good shop to shop at, I have found - for the v4 Excel. My first post to yourselves was going to be 'OK, Scroll fans, tell me what's bad about an Excel' but I didn't want to embarrass anyone although some negatives from owners would provide some balance to my over-keen reading of the specs and the advertisers' splab.

Any comments from users re using it as an ereader? Page turning? brightness? smudgy type, maybe?

HC

[Trashcooky]

Thanks for the quick response, Trashcooky!

I was reignited when I saw the £89.99 price via CCL - a good shop to shop at, I have found - for the v4 Excel. My first post to yourselves was going to be 'OK, Scroll fans, tell me what's bad about an Excel' but I didn't want to embarrass anyone although some negatives from owners would provide some balance to my over-keen reading of the specs and the advertisers' splab.

Any comments from users re using it as an ereader? Page turning? brightness? smudgy type, maybe?

HC

You will have to do some work for yourself - lol - by searching the forum, but to my knowledge you will find very few negative comments about the Excel - unkike the newer models.

[Piers]

It really does come down to firmware since the most recent models of the Essential, Excel, Extreme and Elite are all use the same CPU, GPU etc. The main difference is the screens and RAM. The screen on the Extreme and Elite is amazing, you really can't beat it.

I started off by being unhappy with my Extreme tablet, it crashed and had issues with most things, however since installing custom firmware I can say that it is great value for money. I have even compared it to an iPad 2 in terms of power at loading certain things etc and the Extreme wins (they are more or less the same specification).

I also have an Essential (latest gen) with firmware by suggsy and that's great as well. The weight of the 7" tablet combined with the power and impressive WIFI range make it a good all rounder, but once you have tried a glass/aluminium tablet you don't really want to use the plastic ones any more.

Plastic: Essential, Excel
Aluminium/Glass: Extreme, Elite