Does anyone here have any Moses SmartQ 7 experience?
I see that they are selling for around $275 or so and seem rather interesting.

If anyone have actual experience with them;

a) How is the quality (feel, sturdiness, etc)?

b) How well does regular Ubuntu run on them?

c) How well does Android run on them?

d) How well does movies play back on them?

e) Battery life?

And finally, would you recommend them?


And, a related question..does ANYONE know when the Ramos W7 will be release....? ( http://winarco.com/ramos-mobile-inte...ce-android-w7/ )

Then there is also the A700...Linux tablet... http://www.skytone.net.cn/en/product...27&show_type=1

Hi Tintin,

Yes, I bought a SmartQ7 because it was cheap (I'm wating for the Apple Tablet if ever or the eDge Dualscreen), and has a decent screen-size. I use it with a BT Apple Keyboard for writing articles (along my N810 wich I use for lyrical work) using a stable version of Abiword.

a) build quality is good, though plastic it doesn't feel that cheap
b) it runs well - I managed to do some firmwhere-updates and installe some programs. Actually, on discussion boards I read somewhere that it is the best so far - better then WinCE, Android or Mer.
c) no experience. Rumor has it that a descent android version for the SmartQ7 will arive soon (on the smartq5 it's there already but it gives a battery-life-drop)
d) I think you shouldn't buy it for that (no flash) - read the discussions
e) batterylife is very good, you can savely work a day on it without being afraid it will stop

I would recommend it because it is cheap, you can read excellent on it (with evince and fbreader), and if you have experience with the command-line structure of Linux/Ubuntu you can modify it aroudn (I can't ;-). I bought it as a inbetween-device and I'm very satisfied with it.

The A700 looks interesting. Anyone know what flavor of Linux it'll have?

If it had more RAM, and a faster CPU, it might be worth really considering.

My main sites for tablets, right now, are on the Entourage eDGe e-reader. If I was going to go with a 7" device, the 3 I'd consider would be the nook, Alex, and the A680 (same site as the A700). In fact, I'd love to see the A680 in a 9" or 10" screen size ... with Maemo. Or the A700, for that matter.

About d:

The ARM is not good enough to play full resolution screen, but the SoC includes a hardware decoder and a version of mplayer that can play 4Mbit/s 768x576 resolution divx/h264 files without skipping frames. We do not have source for this mplayer, so you can use it in the original firmware, or (with some hacks) in Mer. If you do not want to do this, or you have a file with encoding that is not supported by the hardware decoder, you are limited to using the 667MHz ARM11 core. We do have Xvideo driver for Q7, so at least scaling and colour space conversion are ofloaded from the CPU.

Thanks, great to get some first-hand replies.
With the battery lasting that long it's a rather tempting 'netbook alternative' with a bluetooth keyboard.

If you don't mind some follow-up questions:

a) how is the wifi? does it drop a lot? good strength?

b) can you use it for Skype calls?

c) i believe it has external speakers, if so how would you rate them compared to the N810, etc?

d) Are you still running the pre-installed Linux version or did you install 'regular' Ubuntu?

e) Is the screen bright? compared to say the NIT screens?

Thanks a LOT.

is that not a gpl violation?

It is.
----

Hi Tintin,

a) Wifi is ok, at home and in the cafe I usually work. Didn't notice any fall outs. Sometimes it takes two attempts to connect (just like my NIT)
b) I haven't tried it, but I guess so
c) Mono speaker, I guess headphone is stereo (didn't try yet)
d) I installed an unufficial update, wich runs much smoother and quicker (http://chronolytics.com/MID.html the 5.51)
e) the brightness of my N810 is better (adjusting itself at different light-surroundings), but as long you don't work outside in the sun there's no problem whatever

I use my N810 for the fun-part too: music, youtube and so on, the SmarQ7 I use only for typing and reading and surfing the web for information. Since it is rather hardcore Linux, that it uses typing commands I only (for now) dare to install updates and some apps. Notecase Manager works better than on the NIT and Abiword too. I installed the heavy Linux app Stellarium, but that runs too slow on a SmartQ.
With my NIT I'm not afraid of ruining things, with the SmartQ I am, however a bit less since I can easily re-install the firmware again if everything should go down.

@RvG - Thanks for the additional info.
The larger tablet screen would be welcome and I may just plunk out the $225 I can get the SmartQ7 for.

I guess if I hate it I could sell it for close to that anyway.

Thanks again.

Good luck and fun!