Our good friends from Nowsupplier sent us another Android Tablet to check out and see what we thought. The Tablet is model number IS001592 and is based on the Rockchip 2818 chipset. Running Android 2.1, this 7 inch Tablet is fairly responsive and works as an excellent e-reader, emailer, browser and media viewer.  It’s starting to get hard to differentiate between the tablets sneaking out from China.  Many of the latest batch of entry level tablets are using the Rockchip chipset and they all perform pretty well, but none of them excel or stand out.  Nowsupplier does have an enormous selection of tablets that should fit into most people’s requirements and budgets.

The RockChip Chipset is very popular in cheaper Android tablets coming from China and the devices generally work great for everything except games.  They all seem to fail on my Angry Birds tests, but they do play movies very well and are good for your music and photos.  The immediate downside is the lack of the Android Market or Google applications on the device so you’ll have to hunt around for the APK files of any applications and side load them.

What’s inside the tablet:

• Brilliant touch screen. Sensitive and quickly responds to any gentle pressing; excellent USB, no need for any drive, different from most Android tablets which need drive or other actions.
• CPU: Rockchip2818  ARM600MHz+DSP550MHz
• OS: Android 2.1
• Display: 7’’ touch screen with 800*480 resolution
• Storage: 2GB to 8GB internal flash memory, expandable up to 16GB with TF card
• RAM: DDRII 265 MB
• Ports: mini USB, USB Host, TF card slot, HDMI output, earphone jacket, charger pole
• Battery: built-in 4000 MAh/3.7v lithium battery
• Support G-sensor
• Video playback: support for 720p MKV, AVI, RM, RMVB, MP4, MOV, VOB, DAT, FLV, 3GP and max 1280*720 output
• Audio playback: support for MP3, VMA, OGG, APE, FLAC, AAC, WAV and many other audio files,various EQ modes, LRC synchronizing function and whole page lyrics display
• Picture display: support for JPG, JPEG, BMP, GIF
• E-Book Reader: support for TXT, LRC, PDF, Html, Htm, EPUB, etc.automatic browsing and scaling
• USB-Host: support for playback of memory device, like external USB disk, MP3, MP4,mobile hard disk
• Wifi: 802.11b/g

This device is housed in a completely black composite material with the main connectors and slots on the right hand side, including: a MicroSD Card slot, mini HDMI connector, headphone socket, power connector, mini USB connector and a USB host connector.

Nowsupplier Rockchip 2818 Tablet Side Buttons

On the top of the device is a reset hole, power button, menu and and escape button, known to us as the back button.

Nowsupplier Rockchip 2818 Tablet Top Buttons

On the front bezel is a trackball for navigation which works pretty well and also illuminates when the tablet is turned on.  The trackball also illuminates to indicate that the tablet is connected to main power.

I’m not sure if I like the front bezel of the device as it’s raised above the actual screen itself making it harder to get your finger into the edges and corners of the touch screen.  It’s probably only raised about 1/8 of an inch, but it’s enough to get in the way.  I much prefer the tablets that have a flat front and allow you to easily touch and drag things over the edge of the screen.

The screen is resistive, but you can tell it’s one of the newer resistive screens and the response is pretty good. There is also a stylus nicely hidden in the top of the bezel that can be removed anytime you want a bit more accuracy.

Overall this is a nice tablet for the $136 advertised price and can be purchased directly from Nowsupplier.com.  If you feel like buying larger quantities, they do have higher discount levels shown on the site.

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About the Author

Simon Walker

I was an IT consultant for 20 years and ran my own web design and development company for an additional 3 years. I have been involved with technology from birth. OK, that maybe an exaggeration, but it sure is a long time. I'm also an avid Home Theater geek and self appointed installer for friends and relatives. My first serious modding of Smart-Phones started with my T-Mobile WING and now Android devices. I'm also a bit of a photographer, although Android has kind of taken over my life and photography has taken a back seat.

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