Buying opinions wanted please

[lennyryan]

Hi Guys, great site ye have here. I've looking at buying this for my 10 year old, eBay - The UK's Online Marketplace
all he'll be doing with it is reading eBooks, playing some games, angry birds etc not the high end graphics games and browsing the internet. What are ye're thoughts on it? Is it a good price and what are the common faults to look out for? This has android 2.2 on it, can it be upgraded? Thanks for looking.

 

[lennyryan]

I contacted the seller and yes it is a Superpad III, is there a problem with these?

 

[lennyryan]

So buying a genuine Flytouch is obviously a better option though a bit dearer but worth it in the long term. Thanks for your help. I've had a look around the net for genuine sellers and came across this lad http://chinagrabber.com/10-2-flytou...-froyo-superpad-2-epad-apad---flytouch-3.aspx
It seems a good price would you agree? I have about $200 to spend so is there a better tablet I might get for that money or a little more?
The reason I was looking at ebay.co.uk was in case I had a problem and had to post it back postage to the UK would be the cheapest option from Ireland but a genuine Flytouch shouldn't give too much trouble I'm guessing so buying from China or the US would be cheaper.

 

[Rabid1]

So buying a genuine Flytouch is obviously a better option though a bit dearer but worth it in the long term. Thanks for your help. I've had a look around the net for genuine sellers and came across this lad Froyo Flytouch3 - 10" Android 2.2 Superpad 2 Epad - 3G Flytouch3
It seems a good price would you agree? I have about $200 to spend so is there a better tablet I might get for that money or a little more?
The reason I was looking at ebay.co.uk was in case I had a problem and had to post it back postage to the UK would be the cheapest option from Ireland but a genuine Flytouch shouldn't give too much trouble I'm guessing so buying from China or the US would be cheaper.

Dealing direct with Chinagrabber be aware of one thing. There is no refund, ever. You pay the shipping for warranty service and if they determine it is not faulty, or is your fault, you have to pay again to get it back. This is the same dealing with any direct China deals.

Going through Ebay or Amazon you at least get their buyer protection, so if you get shipped a faulty unit or not what you ordered you have a resource for getting your money back.

Research the seller for his rep and customer reviews. Do they have a refund/return policy. A good reseller will give 7 to 14 days. Contact the seller in you first link and ask if the pad is 9 volt or 5 volt. If it is 9 volt the battery is fine. If you decide you want to go Ibex, which the only guaranteed difference is battery size, find a reseller instead of going direct. Also I am not sure what is directly available in the UK but look for Cortex A8 processors in the pads. There are several comparable in price to the one in your first link available and they make the Flytouch 3 look like an old 5 button calculator in performance.

I did a quick search on

Ebay UK for you. There are some nice 7, 8, and 9 inch on the first page. Some with capacitive screens.

 

[dart16]

Contact the seller in you first link and ask if the pad is 9 volt or 5 volt. If it is 9 volt the battery is fine.

I can't agree with you here, having a 9 volt charger means it will have two 3.6 volt lipo cells inside that are wired in series (making it a 7.2volt battery). Having a 5volt charger means the FT will have two cells wired in parallel inside, making a 3.6volt battery but with twice the capacity of the '9 volt' version.

What is important is the capacity of the cells and the current drawn from those cells. Let me introduce you to a little, but very important formula..

V=IR

This is basically Ohm's law. V=IR tells us that for a given load (R) if you double the voltage then you use half the current, so your '9 volt' FT3 actually draws half the current from the battery as your '5 volt' FT3 (all other things being equal, which they never are but basically it holds true). So as the '5volt' FT3 has two cells in parallel, the capacity of the battery is twice that of the 9volt FT3 (providing they use the same capacity cells) but the current drawn is also twice that of the '9volt' FT3....ergo....the duration of the batteries remain broadly the same.

The correct capacity specs for a 9 volt FT3 will be around 3200mAh and the capacity specs for a 5 volt one will be 6400mAh. In the CG supplied FT3 they claim 8000mAh, so the cells used are 4000mAh each and, if you believe the figures, MUST be slightly physically larger than the 3200mAh cells of all the other manufacturers. Personally, I doubt there is any difference between the 3000, the 3200 and the 4000mAh claimed by these Chinese manufacturers.. it just depends on how they measure the performance, and the Chinese are not exactly known for their honesty at claimed performance specs!

Modern electronic switch mode voltage regulators are so efficient that the manufacturers can use either 3.6 or 7.2volts to power the regulators without suffering heat issues, and they all output 3 volts to power all the logic circuitry inside.

Anybody else know of a reason why the manufacturers choose 7.2volt over 3.6volt? Maybe different screen requirements?

So ...IMHO.. the 5volt - 9volt question is largely immaterial in the 'what is best' stakes, providing the charger matches the cells inside......5 volt is more convenient as USB is 5 volts and there is the possibility of using some USB equipment to power a 5 volt FT3.

 

[Rabid1]

So ...IMHO.. the 5volt - 9volt question is largely immaterial in the 'what is best' stakes, providing the charger matches the cells inside......5 volt is more convenient as USB is 5 volts and there is the possibility of using some USB equipment to power a 5 volt FT3.

I was going by the two 9V pads that were listed as 3800mAh I have worked on. Both lasted equal to my own 5V 6800mAh older Flytouch 3, although not as closely when using WiFI, about 45 minutes to an hour less. Now granted I didn't crack those cases to verify the actual battery md I will defer to those more knowledgeable.

 

[dart16]

I was going by the two 9V pads that were listed as 3800mAh I have worked on. Both lasted equal to my own 5V 6800mAh older Flytouch 3, although not as closely when using WiFI, about 45 minutes to an hour less. Now granted I didn't crack those cases to verify the actual battery md I will defer to those more knowledgeable.

I would think the variations in duration you are seeing would be down to cell quality more than anything else. These tablets are cheap, that means the manufacturers are constantly looking for cheaper components, and a consignment of cells that have failed batch testing would be too tempting to pass up!

 

[Rabid1]

I would think the variations in duration you are seeing would be down to cell quality more than anything else. These tablets are cheap, that means the manufacturers are constantly looking for cheaper components, and a consignment of cells that have failed batch testing would be too tempting to pass up!

And I have cracked pads listed as 3200 that get 4.5 to 5 hours with wifi on only to find a 6400 or higher. Again they can label them anything they want.

 

[dart16]

And I have cracked pads listed as 3200 that get 4.5 to 5 hours with wifi on only to find a 6400 or higher. Again they can label them anything they want.

Indeed they can!! They will use the cheapest they can lay their hands on, I have seen examples of laptop batteries that have been cracked open to reveal used cells welded into a pack and even dummy spacers welded in to save on the cost of the battery....of course, these dont quite have the duration of a 'proper' pack!!

 

[lennyryan]

I went and bought the one from the ebay link above http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GENUINE-iBex-Flytouch-3-Android-2-2-Tablet-PC-4GB-GPS-32gb-transcend-/270840280890?pt=UK_iPad_Tablets_eReaders&hash=item3f0f56b73a and it arrived today.
Going by the box it seems to be a genuine Flytouch but what other checks can I do to be sure? Is there an app to check battery size or would I have to take it apart to see? It says it running Disco10 but I've heard of people just renaming P041 to Disco10.

 

[Rabid1]

I went and bought the one from the ebay link above

If it came in an Ibex box you shouldn't have any problems. Not many people are reboxing to cover a different pad. The only way to really tell without opening the pad is to charge the pad fully while off, run the battery to dead, and repeat this a couple of times, then run the pad like normal and see how much time you get. Internally the DISCO10 are all the same except the battery and a couple of motherboard revisions. But a battery can be remarked, performance is the real tell.