Ainol Aurora Tablet. 7" ICS IPS screen

kearneybobs

Just thought I'd start a thread out one of the most sought after budget tablets around.
Here's the spec sheet
Main Features
-> High Resolution IPS Screen 1024x600
-> Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich
-> 3D Gaming
-> 1080p Full HD Video Playback
-> TV-OUT via HDMI
-> Gravity Sensor / Accelerometer
-> Front Camera 2.0MP
-> USB Charging



Manufacturers Specification
- Processor: Allwinner A10 (Cortex-A8) @ 1GHz
- GPU: Mali 400
- Operating System: Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich
- Display: 7.0 inch IPS / 16:9 ratio / 1024x600 pixels
- Input: Capacitive Multi-Touch Screen
- RAM: 1GB DDR III
- Internal Memory: 8GB
- Expandable Memory: Supports up to 32GB Micro SD
- Audio Input: Microphone
- Audio Output: 3.5 mm Jack and Integrated Speakers
- Wifi Connectivity: 802.11 Wireless b/g/n
- Peripheral Support: USB HOST (mouse, keyboard, memory stick, etc)
- Camera: Front 2.0MP
- HDMI: Mini HDMI for full 1080p HD Video Playback & TV Out
- Gravity Sensor: Integrated Gravity Sensor for Gaming and Screen Rotation
- Battery: 3.7v / 3700mAh (Approx 5-7hrs)
- Video formats: AVI, MPEG2, MPEG4, WMV, H.264 and others
- Audio formats: MP3, WMA. WAV, AAC, AAC+ and others
- Image formats: JPEG, PNG, BMP, GIF and others
- Weight:
- Dimensions: (H) **mm x (W) **mm x (D) **mm
- Warranty: 1 Year
Here's a video of the IPS screen in all it's glory.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spW2WYdLgYU

It's effectively the same tablet as the Novo 7 Elf with the only difference being the IPS screen, something which I though warranted the extra €20 for. You'll see fromt he above video that it's definitely worth it for the Aurora v's the Elf.

The one I ordered is currently sitting in the UK waiting for me to pick it up on Monday. Cant wait. They are very hard to find in stock and most places are sold out of them. There's some people on the net who have been waiting over a month for them to come into stock from a certain retailer (i.e Pandawill). I ordered mine via Amazon from a china retailer. and it dispatched after 3 days. Didn't pay customs either which was nice.

That said, there seems to have been problems with the supply of them related to the build quality with reports of dead pixels, not quite perfect fitting screens and squeeky casing.

It's doesn't seem to come with Android Market support out of the box since it's designed for the Chinese market but there is developer support out there currently, with a relatively big following over on slatedroid.com. They've added support for the market in some of the latest ROMs and a few other bells and whistles.

It seems to be a really good spec tablet and easily worth the asking price of around €120-€150 (depending on where you bought it from). Here's a UK retailer that gets them in every-so-often.
Plenty of reviews out there on youtube too if you want a looksee.


Anyone else get one of these? How are you finding it?

Cormic

Just as a note.

Be careful as some of the models (not the Aurora or Elf as mentioned by kearneybobs) use a MIPS processor instead of the usual ARM one.

The MIPS processor will not have the same level of application support in Market as ARM based processors.

Stavro Mueller

I just got one and am playing around with it here. The one quibble I do have is that Netflix isn't working properly. I get sound but no picture.

kearneybobs

cymbaline wrote: »

I just got one and am playing around with it here. The one quibble I do have is that Netflix isn't working properly. I get sound but no picture.

Have you installed a custom ROM onto it or just playing with it out of the box? Is flash running on it? It might be related to that but then again, I have no idea if Netflix is flash based.

One of the first things I'll be doing is install a rom with the android marketplace on it.

Stavro Mueller

No, I'm playing with it out of the box. I'm a bit nervous of going down the road of custom roms. I had enough trouble trying to install one on my ZTE Blade phone :eek: I got mine from gadgetfreakz and I've a suspicion it has been rooted because of some of the apps on there.

kearneybobs

cymbaline wrote: »

No, I'm playing with it out of the box. I'm a bit nervous of going down the road of custom roms. I had enough trouble trying to install one on my ZTE Blade phone :eek: I got mine from gadgetfreakz and I've a suspicion it has been rooted because of some of the apps on there.

Yeah. I'm not sure if gadget freaks have already gone and rooted it for you and installed the custom Rom. Think I read somewhere in the slatedroid forums that I linked to above that gadgetfreaks were doing that for their customers, but I cant be sure. Might be worth sending them an email to find out or maybe do a bit of digging over there in the slatedroid forums.

Stavro Mueller

I'm barely hanging on to what these guys are talking about on Slatedroid. I'm keeping an eye on this thread but it looks like Netflix is dead in the water for now