Happily Engaged

[JCB]

Hi,
I've only just found the forum. It looks very useful. Although not a computing novice, I found some of the intoductory novice posts quite useful getting to grips with Android concepts.

I got a Scroll Engage in July after some heavy research. The time spent was well worth it as I am very happy with the Engage. It's not perfect but it's superb value for money and meets my needs very well. I started looking at the really cheap Android tablets, many on Chinese sites, and soon realised I would be disappointed with them. Eventually I homed in on two devices at Ebuyer, the Scroll Engage and a Sumvision 7 inch. Eventually I decided that an 8 inch 1024x768 screen would suit me best, and in use I realise that was a good decision. I prefer the 4:3 format, anything smaller would have been restrictive and anything bigger would have been too heavy. The Engage has good physical connectivity, unlike the Nexus 7, which I considered. I only need Wifi, as I am largely housebound, and I don't need GPS either. I might have used Bluetooth if the Engage had it, but the lack doesn't seem to be a problem.

Past experience taught me not to stint on memory, so the 1GB RAM seemed like a good idea. 16GB onboard flash would have been better, but the 8GB supplied has not been a limitation so far, and I have got a 16GB SD card in the slot.

I had a play with the USB port and used it with a hub connecting a keyboard and mouse and a 1 TB hard disc. I don't expect to do such things routinely, but it is nice to know it is possible. I have also verified that I can use the cordless mouse and keyboard set from my PC.

My main use of the Engage is for reading and I am using it several hours a day reaading The Times (Pressreader app), New Scientist (Zinio) and e-books (Kindle) and library books (Overdrive). I prefer using the PC for web browsing, but I can't take the PC to bed with me. I regularly use the Engage for reference (Wikipedia, Maps, dictionary, etc.). I had been reading The Times and New Scientist on the PC and I was happy with that, but the Engage is a major improvement even so, and it lets me read the digital titles in bed.

I don't use it for music and only occasionally use it for video. I have hooked it up to the TV with HDMI, no bother.

Within a week it became part of my daily life, and I cannot imagine living without a tablet now. The PC is staying, and I will be adding Windows 8 shortly and later on doing a mjor rebuild. It seems more natural to type this message on the PC.

The Android technology is moving fast, so I don't know how long it will be before I will be upgrading from the Engage. It is serving me very well for now and I am sure that it was the correct choice for me, but the options available come next July may be very different, competition is strong and prices seem to be dropping every day.

I felt pretty smug when the iPad Mini came out with the same form factor, but at 2 or 3 times the price. I have never wanted to use Apple products. Going back, I never fancied the Mac and I always preferred the openness of the PC environment. I feel the same way about Android versus iPad.

John

[Trashcooky]

Hello John and welcome to the forum.
Good luck with your Engage - nice tablet.

[JCB]

Thanks for the welcome. Thank you and the other mods for making the forum possible.

The Engage is the first tablet I have owned and I haven't really handled others much at all. I reckon I landed on my feet with the Engage and it seems to me very good value when I bought it for £120 posted. Sods law, of course, says that I have now seen it cheaper elsewhere, but I got the best deal I could at the time and I had some months use of it before I say it selling cheaper. That's modern consumer technology.

John