Last month PMN announced the beta release of their new “PhillyTablet”. It’s an Arnova 10 G2 10′ tablet that is being sold for a low budget loving cost of $99 along with a 2 year subscription of $9.99 for their apps package. I had been wanting to enter the tablet market, so after some research I decided to pull the trigger.
The specific spec sheet can be found here. The tablet runs on the Android 2.3 Gingerbread OS. It has a 1 ghz processor (ARM Cortex 8 ) with 512MB RAM which works quite well as does the 1080 Full HD Video playback. It comes with 4 gigs of internal memory but with an aftermarket micro SD card, you can increase the memory as high as you want to go with the card. I went with an additional 8 gig card for a total of 12 gigs.
It will run regular internet, but as with an Android phone, it will prefer the mobile version of sites if they are available. This can sometimes be an annoyance. There are certain functionalites that I prefer on a full site that I need to jump to my laptop for, but overall it’s not a biggie. As I mentioned previously, I bought the tablet for basic web surfing and social media sites. All of the social media sites that I use are accessible without an issue, except for Twitter. I am sure exactly why this is, but seeing as it’s a beta, I am not worried too much about it. Twitter is available, but only through the internet. All of the Twitter apps that were available on the AppsLib and Amazon App store, either did not install, or if they did install, they did not recognize my username and passwords. These include Hootsuite, Plume, Tweetcaster, Ubersocial to name a few.
So far the big complaint I have read in the forums has been with the applications and it’s lack of compatibility with the Android Market. However, with a little bit of searching, you should be able to find an app that suits your needs.
As far as available browsers go, I initially looked at the Opera Mobile browser. It worked very well, but I am a fan of Google Chrome‘s tabs, so I went with the Dolphin browser. I have had no real issues with it and I am able to have multiple tabs open at the same time.
The touch pad is sometimes a bit hinkey. While reading the digital version of the Philadelphia Inquirer, the screen is very sensitive when trying to turn the page with a swipe. It tends to enlarge/shirk the page you are on as opposed to turning the page. I use the arrows at the top of the screen to advance. Other times, such as when I try to change tabs on the browser I have to tap the screen a couple of times. Again, remember this a beta release of a $99 10′ tablet. An iPad it is not.
Here is a video from Arctablet.com showing the PhillyTablet is action. It’s about 10 1/2 minutes long, but it gives a good look at the speed and graphics. If you have an Android phone, you will be familiar with the user interface.
The tablet has a camera, but it is on the same side as the screen, and it’s quality is not the greatest. I don’t quite understand the placement of the camera since there is no external viewfinder. There is also video, but it doesn’t work for video calls on Skype. Although Skype voice calls do work. Neither of these features are that important to me for my needs.
Battery life has been good to very good so far. I haven’t kept a really close eye on it, but I haven’t found it to run dry very quickly.
Overall, I would give the PhillyTablet a B+. It is a basic entry level tablet that is good for kids to get introduced to the internet and applications as well as games of various types. It would also be great for a very casual internet user that wanted to catch up on current events and check email. Someone who is looking for super fast processing and lots of bells and whistles should save their pennies for an iPad. But for a budget minded family or individual that reads the Inquirer or Daily News regularly and wants to expand their digital horizons, I give it 2 thumbs up.
If you have a Philly Tablet or have questions for me about the one I have, please leave your questions or comments below.
