Tired of Waiting for iPad? Don’t Fret, aPad is Here!
Watch out Apple. The iPad knockoffs keep rolling out in China, and this time they’re not afraid to hide it. With the name aPad, the makers know exactly what they’re doing (remember when the Great Long Brother Industrial Co., makers of the P88, tried to sue Apple for allegedly stealing the “iPad” concept?). Unlike most Chinese clones of Apple products, the aPad may actually be worthwhile, especially given the iPad still hasn’t been officially released in mainland China. Not that we condone the purchase of knock-offs.
Despite the tacky and blatant name copying, the Shenzhen produced, feature-packed aPad definitely gives the iPad a run for its money – at least on paper.
Unlike the P88, which featured a run of the mill Chinese operating system, the aPad features Google’s Android operating system, one of the iPhone’s chief competitors. It also features a webcam, and a USB port, both items that the iPad lacks. And while it only features 1GB of memory with the option of adding a memory card, with a $169 price tag compared with Apple’s starting price of $499, it might be worth considering.
In addition, Apple’s image has been somewhat tarnished recently by the rash of suicides at the Foxconn factory in Shenzhen that produces parts for Apple’s products. Staff have been jumping off buildings like lemmings – 14 to 16 by the end of last week, depending on which report you believe.
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latino
Submitted by Guest on Sat, 06/26/2010 - 13:48 Permalink
Re: Tired of Waiting for iPad? Don’t Fret, aPad is Here!
i bought this thing a few days ago. Im not sure if im happy with it or not. I guess i am rather satisfied. i bought a seperate 16g micro sd for under 200rmb. so the total cost with shipping was 1200rmb on taobao.cons: too small ram 126mb is just too little. many applications force close.
build quality is not good. frame has some spots were light shines through.
ac adapter sucks, you have to find a certain spot so the ac plugs keeps on working while you use the tabled or leave it on the desk while charging
runs a little hot
battery doesnt last very long. under constant use with everything on (wireless, screen with brightness turned to highest) it lasts a little under 2 hours
video playback sucks. there are some video clips on the internet showing the apad playing avatar at nice resolution. apad should play 720p. i didnt try that yet. but playing avi and wmv it sucks. picture gets cropped and if you enlarge it pixelation kills you. what is the reason to have such a big screen if the video only uses a fraction of it....??
sound is incomprehensible, with earphones sound is good
doesnt play back youtube and therefor flv format
dont think it supports flash
pros: ANDROID
ANDROID, though its only 1.5 but still, one major improvement to previous chinese fakes is that this thing has a proper OS.
operating speed during normal usage (internet, mail, chat) is good and fluent.
internet is ok, but not great to use. sometimes pages dont open right. only pages which have a version for mobile browser work fine.
screen works fine for typing though it doesnt have multitouch.
the preinstalled hanyu pin yin is great. also the virtual keyboard it uses is in my opinion better than the android keyboard (bigger keys)
typing is really good due to the big keys offered by the big screen
email (gmail) without having to go online (though i guess this is thanks to android again)
music playback is good. sound with headphones is good when equalizer is on (no changeable eq though)
it has 2 micro usb slots with adapter cables. i couldnt yet plug in a portable harddrive or usb stick. dont know if it works. it should also be recognized as storage medium if u plug it into a pc.
wireless works fine
reading books is ok though it gets hot
comes with "camera"?! 0.3mp???
all in all:
considering the price. this thing is ok. but it remains a toy you can browse the internet with and chat and check email. also install a lot of "useful" aps. listening to music is ok. watching videos rather not... maybe better if u convert all your videos into 720p it works better? reading stuff on it works good due to big screen....but somehow i feel a htc desire/legend or htc hd2/mini could replace this thing entirely and have a phone and people would actually use it because its small and portable... but then the display is small.... lets see i get my htc hd mini in the next days
Very good review! I'm not buying it
thanks
germanchinese
Submitted by Guest on Thu, 06/10/2010 - 13:34 Permalink
Re: Tired of Waiting for iPad? Don’t Fret, aPad is Here!
i bought this thing a few days ago. Im not sure if im happy with it or not. I guess i am rather satisfied. i bought a seperate 16g micro sd for under 200rmb. so the total cost with shipping was 1200rmb on taobao.
cons: too small ram 126mb is just too little. many applications force close.
build quality is not good. frame has some spots were light shines through.
ac adapter sucks, you have to find a certain spot so the ac plugs keeps on working while you use the tabled or leave it on the desk while charging
runs a little hot
battery doesnt last very long. under constant use with everything on (wireless, screen with brightness turned to highest) it lasts a little under 2 hours
video playback sucks. there are some video clips on the internet showing the apad playing avatar at nice resolution. apad should play 720p. i didnt try that yet. but playing avi and wmv it sucks. picture gets cropped and if you enlarge it pixelation kills you. what is the reason to have such a big screen if the video only uses a fraction of it....??
sound is incomprehensible, with earphones sound is good
doesnt play back youtube and therefor flv format
dont think it supports flash
pros: ANDROID
ANDROID, though its only 1.5 but still, one major improvement to previous chinese fakes is that this thing has a proper OS.
operating speed during normal usage (internet, mail, chat) is good and fluent.
internet is ok, but not great to use. sometimes pages dont open right. only pages which have a version for mobile browser work fine.
screen works fine for typing though it doesnt have multitouch.
the preinstalled hanyu pin yin is great. also the virtual keyboard it uses is in my opinion better than the android keyboard (bigger keys)
typing is really good due to the big keys offered by the big screen
email (gmail) without having to go online (though i guess this is thanks to android again)
music playback is good. sound with headphones is good when equalizer is on (no changeable eq though)
it has 2 micro usb slots with adapter cables. i couldnt yet plug in a portable harddrive or usb stick. dont know if it works. it should also be recognized as storage medium if u plug it into a pc.
wireless works fine
reading books is ok though it gets hot
comes with "camera"?! 0.3mp???
all in all:
considering the price. this thing is ok. but it remains a toy you can browse the internet with and chat and check email. also install a lot of "useful" aps. listening to music is ok. watching videos rather not... maybe better if u convert all your videos into 720p it works better? reading stuff on it works good due to big screen....
but somehow i feel a htc desire/legend or htc hd2/mini could replace this thing entirely and have a phone and people would actually use it because its small and portable... but then the display is small.... lets see i get my htc hd mini in the next days
steeplejake
Submitted by Guest on Wed, 06/09/2010 - 21:30 Permalink
Re: Tired of Waiting for iPad? Don’t Fret, aPad is Here!
if the person knew anything about specs and technology, they would never ever compare the two.
could you elaborate? i'm curious to check out the apad, but don't know anything about the specs other than that it has android.
also, i've only heard of it in shenzhen. coming soon to zhongguancun, perhaps?
Isis
Submitted by Guest on Thu, 06/03/2010 - 13:47 Permalink
Re: Tired of Waiting for iPad? Don’t Fret, aPad is Here!
You got to hand it to the Chinese when it comes to duplicating they're number one!
Jerry
Submitted by Guest on Thu, 06/03/2010 - 09:49 Permalink
Re: Tired of Waiting for iPad? Don’t Fret, aPad is Here!
Thanks man!
BTW - hat tip to Lost Laowai for his earlier post about this, which brought it to our attention.
badr
Submitted by Guest on Thu, 06/03/2010 - 08:21 Permalink
Re: Tired of Waiting for iPad? Don’t Fret, aPad is Here!
congrats on being the only one that got the name of the machine right: Apad as opposed to iPed! even the big boys of tech messed that one up!
that said, huge blanket statement here:
Despite the tacky and blatant name copying, the Shenzhen produced, feature-packed aPad definitely gives the iPad a run for its money – at least on paper.
if the person knew anything about specs and technology, they would never ever compare the two.
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