PiPO W3 3G Tablet: 10.1" 1920x1200px Intel Z3775D 2GB/64GB - Windows 8.1 - Windows 8 General

I just received my PiPO W3 tablet. Even though this tablet is a few months old I decided to go with it compared to the Teclast X10HD which didn't offer great reviews and seem to suffer from minor hardware and software issues. I liked the PiPO W3 because PiPO seem to make good solid tablets. They are in a rare class like Onda who I feel also make very good quality tablets. One of the big draws for me was the add-on keyboard case. Since PiPO actually have their own branded one, that means they have probably done some testing to see it all works out quite well, compared to the likes of Teclast who may have been offering a more generic keyboard. I really like the Microsoft Surface element of both the tablet and the keyboard. The other big draw for this tablet is of course the full size USB 3.0 port. This means we don't have to mess around with USB hubs or specialist OTG hubs in order to use this device. With the addition Micro USB OTG adapter you end up getting 2 full size USB ports. You only need a hub if you're planning to add even more devices so already this tablet beats out many other Chinese tablets.
PiPO have actually made a newer updated model called the W3F which is available in a WiFi only or WiFi & 3G model. This newer tablet is about $100 less than the older W3. The W3 and newer W3F actually look identical because PiPO are still using the same external casing. So why didn't I go with the newer W3F model? Well simply because it offers only 32GB of internal space. With Windows and Office installed, 12GB is already used up which doesn't leave much space to install anything else. I always feel that 64GB is the bare minimum these tablets should come with. Also the processor in the newer W3F is actually lower than in the W3 model. The W3F has an Intel Z3735F Quad Core (Max 1.8GHz) while the older W3 model actually has a Intel Z3775D Quad Core (Max 2.4GHz). Many sellers are also stating that the W3F has a smaller battery capacity of 4000mAh compared to the W3 which has a 8000mAh battery. There is some discrepancy about this as we don't know what the real value actually is but I personally wouldn't order and take that risk. So while the W3F may be the newer model, in specs it is certainly inferior compared to the W3. Apart from these details, both tablets are pretty much the same. All other specs remain the same.
Screen Size: 10.1“
Screen Resolution: 1920*1200 Full HD
Screen Ratio: 16:10
Touch Panel: Capacitive 10 point touch
System CPU: Intel Baytrail T, Quad-core, Z3775D
CPU speed: Clock 1.5Ghz, burst up to 2.4Ghz
Storage: 64GB (Samsung MCG8GC)
RAM: 2GB DDR3
Operation System: Windows 8.1 32 bit with Bing
Productivity Suite: Microsoft Office 365 (1 year subscription)
Camera: Front 2MP, back 5MP auto focus
I/O ports : 1x Micro SD slot
USB port: 1x micro USB, 1x Full size USB 3.0
HDMI output: 1x mini HDMI port
Earphone jack: 1x 3.5mm
DC-IN jack: 1x
Microphone: 1x
Speaker: 2x Stereo
Communication: Wifi 802.11b/g/n
GPS module: No
3G: Huawei E1220-2 3G UltraStick
Bluetooth: Yes
Power: AC adapter 9V 2.5A
Battery capacity: 29.2Wh
Weight w/o keyboard: 570grams
Dimensions: 257*172*10.3mm
Accessories: 1x AC adapter
USB cable: NO
OTG cable: 1x
Keyboard: 1x (optional)
Some photos I took:
Unboxing: Contains Tablet, Keyboard, USB OTG Cable, DC Power supply. An adapter for my home country was also included (not shown). There is no Office 365 card included with a serial number anymore. Office prompts you to auto-install it and then activates itself after the installation, without requiring a serial number.
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Keyboard:The PiPo branded keyboard that comes with the tablet. The back cover can be flipped in 2 different ways to hold up the tablet. The keyboard is good. Keys are responsive. The trackpad is also good. No issues at the moment. The magnets are very strong as they can hold the tablet upside down if you hold up the keyboard! The 3 lights in the lower right corner are CAPS, SCROLL and NUM LOCK.
Back Of The Tablet: Has a nice poly carbon/metal like effect and finish. Build quality is pretty solid. No creaks or plastic being depressed or anything.
Ports: These are all the ports the tablet has. The big plus on this device is of course the full size USB 3.0 port.
3G Module:The side panel can be opened (the none port side) and you can remove the Huawei 3G UltraStick. Handy when a 4G module becomes available, it can easily be replaced without having to buy a new tablet. You can see where the SIM card slots into on the bottom.
Comparison: The keyboard and tablet attached. I've placed my old iPhone 5 next to it so you can roughly gauge the overall size. I would have used my iPhone 6 Plus but I had to use that to take the photos!
Wrapped Up: This is what it looks like with the keyboard cover fully closed around the tablet. Pretty good fit.
I just got this tablet so i'm still exploring it. If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment below.
Drivers:
http://pan.baidu.com/s/1eQlDJdK (154MB - official link)
Windows system Image:
http://pan.baidu.com/s/1sjO61RJ (4.6GB - Chinese language image - for tablets built after 20th August 2014)
http://pan.baidu.com/s/1mg3bO8K (4.6GB - Chinese language image - for tablets built before 20th August 2014)
There is no English language image (or any other language image) that I know of. The best case is to restore using the Chinese image and then change the language to English. If you recently bought this tablet then it is safe to say that it was built after the 20th of August 2014. I believe that the models before that date actually had a different case where the back cover is completely flat, from images I have seen.
How to PROPERLY remove the original language (Chinese, Mandarin) and choose your own system wide language.
What's the story?
Since the PiPO W3 is considered a "cheap" tablet, it comes with Windows 8 SINGLE LANGUAGE edition. Notably, all our tablets by default have Chinese (Mandarin) set in them by default. When we purchase the tablets, the seller goes in and adds a en-US (English United States) language pack that then gives us a way to actually use the tablet.
What is the issue?
Even though a language pack can be added and therefore used, it doesn't fully convert the system to that new language. There are still parts of the old language left. The original language cannot be removed. This issue highlighted itself when i recently went to update the tablet to Windows 10. The default language was Chinese (Mandarin) and I wanted to upgrade the tablet via a USB installation of Windows 10. The copy of Windows 10 I downloaded using their creation tool was English (United States). The problem however was that when you go to upgrade Windows 8.1 to 10, you are given 3 choices - keep all your apps, settings, etc or just keep your settings or fresh install that keeps nothing. As I was pressed for time and about to go on a trip, I wanted it to keep all my apps, settings etc. The problem however was that the installer was seeing that the original language of the device was Chinese (Mandarin) and my Windows 10 upgrade was English (United States) and therefore prevented me from doing an upgrade that kept all my installed software etc. I was only given the last 2 choices - keep a few settings, or fresh install that wipes everything.
What didn't work?
Messing around with language packs and keyboards etc does not fully solve this issue. Changing any other options in settings etc didn't work either. There are a bunch of videos and instructions on the net about how to change the language from the default to one that you want, but NONE of those actually solve the issue. A method was needed that actually REMOVES the default Chinese language and then allows you to make a new system wide default language. The instructions below show you how to do this. After I completed these very steps, the Windows 10 installer then allowed me to choose the first option which meant I could keep all my installed programs, apps and settings.
1. Download the appropriate (for your version of Windows 8.1) language pack listed further down in this post.
2. Rename the cab file to lp.cab
3. Put the lp.cab in some folder on your hard drive. Let's put it in C:\lp\
4. Open command prompt in elevated mode and type:
DISM /Online /Add-Package /PackagePath:C:\lp\lp.cab
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Windows 8.1 may recommend restarting after successfully adding the package. If returning from a reboot - go into elevated prompt again.
5. Now we need to remove the reference to the old language pack. To do that we need to find out the exact identifier of the language pack installed. For this we need to type:
DISM /Online /Get-Packages > C:\pack.txt
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6. Because the list of installed packages is long, the command sends it to a file called "pack.txt" located in the root of the C: partition. Open the file and look for:
Package Identity : Microsoft-Windows-Client-LanguagePack-Package........
Status: Installed
Release Type : Language Pack
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7. Make sure you find the identifier for your old language pack, so if we're getting rid of the Chinese language - the identifier will have "zh-cn" in the name. For example a Chinese language pack that comes with your system will be something like:
Package Identity : Microsoft-Windows-Client-LanguagePack-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~zh-cn~6.1.7601.17514
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Note the zh-cn in the name.
8. Now let's run a command to remove the old language pack (listed in the above example):
DISM /Online /Remove-Package /PackageName:Microsoft-Windows-Client-LanguagePack-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~zh-cn~6.1.7601.17514
TIP: Since the package name is very long and manually typing it may cause errors, you can actually highlight the name from the txt file and right click and paste it into the command line window.
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9. After the removal procedure is done, you will be prompted to reboot the computer. After the reboot you should be faced with the new language interface.
NOTE: Check the output txt file carefully. If you have already installed your desired language pack, it may be listed there alongside the Chinese one. In this case you can avoid getting the language cab file and start the above instructions from step 5.
Windows 8.1 32-bit (x86) MUI Language Packs
Arabic
Bulgarian
Chinese - Simplified
Chinese - Traditional
English - United Kingdom
English - United States
French
German
Italian
Korean
Portuguese - Brazilian
Portuguese - Portugal
Russian
Spanish
Thanks to Irina Likhter & Serge Argaman for this!
Videos: (Not mine)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QhCYTCiPdQ (Unboxing)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mi2zGPiroCs (Review)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvuXxiixXBY (Game: Need For Speed Carbon - In Russian)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pck-JerYSTw (Photoshop Demo - In Russian. It's long but you get the idea!)

Kindly request.
How awesome ! Congrats for the new acquisition !
Just today I start looking whether to buy this tablet or not,so i am lucky you showed up.I really need some insights from an actual person than owns the device.
So i have some questions for you if you're kind enough to answer :
1). How's battery life ? especially on video playback..how much do you think this baby can run while playing HD ( 1080p or 720p) videos ? (with WiFi of) because i travel a lot with train (for quite long distances) and i need a tablet that can run some more hours .
2). Does it get warm? like really warm ? for eg on intensive Chrome sessions
3). Does it have a proprietary charging port and cable ? because that's what i saw on some videos.
4.) How's the speakers and headphone jack sound quality?
And if you could tell me some cons of this tablet...or things that you don't like about it ,I would very much appreciate it .
Thanks a lot,and I hope you can answer me when you get the time.

recond9 said:
How awesome ! Congrats for the new acquisition !
Just today I start looking whether to buy this tablet or not,so i am lucky you showed up.I really need some insights from an actual person than owns the device.
So i have some questions for you if you're kind enough to answer :
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! Since I just got this tablet, please give me a few days to try it out so that I can answer all your questions. Here are some answers, and more will follow.
1). How's battery life ? especially on video playback..how much do you think this baby can run while playing HD ( 1080p or 720p) videos ? (with WiFi of) because i travel a lot with train (for quite long distances) and i need a tablet that can run some more hours .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. So far the battery life is ok. I have only really tested it by the standby function which I can tell you lasts quite a while. I haven't tried to see how long it could last with a 720/1080p movie yet but I will do that and get back to you.
2). Does it get warm? like really warm ? for eg on intensive Chrome sessions
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2. I haven't pushed the CPU/GPU to any level that would make it hot but so far from normal usage (surfing etc) there is no heat anywhere, It's actually cool to touch.
3). Does it have a proprietary charging port and cable ? because that's what i saw on some videos.
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3. Yes it has a proprietary charging port and charger. You will see the charger in the first photo on the right and you will see the port in the 4th picture on the left. Some people may not like this as they prefer to charge via USB but I actually like this because it means that while the device charges, you are free to still use the USB port. I have heard that it can actually be charged via the Micro USB port however that charge is very slow unless you use a powerful charger. As I don't have a Micro USB cable I wasn't able to test this.
4.) How's the speakers and headphone jack sound quality?
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4. The speakers are loud. 2 people watching a movie can easily hear it. Also the viewing angles are good so the screen can be viewed by more than one person. I tested with some mp3s and also some TV shows and the sound through the speakers was very good. Of course these are tablet speakers and so like other tablets and even laptops - the audio range isn't great. Don't expect any bass or anything wow. At a basic level if you just want to watch something or listen to music, it will not disappoint. The headphone experience was surprisingly good. I used Windows Media Player and messed with the EQ for movies and then for mp3s I used Winamp (also adjusting the EQ) and in both cases the sound was pretty good - a good audio range and lots of bass. You definitely get a better experience through the headphones and I had a pair of Sennheiser headphones connected so I definitely enjoyed the sound much better through those than the speakers.
And if you could tell me some cons of this tablet...or things that you don't like about it ,I would very much appreciate it .
Thanks a lot,and I hope you can answer me when you get the time.
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I will get back to the first 2 questions later on and also any cons about it when I have done more testing

OMGitsShan said:
Thanks! Since I just got this tablet, please give me a few days to try it out so that I can answer all your questions. Here are some answers, and more will follow.
1. So far the battery life is ok. I have only really tested it by the standby function which I can tell you lasts quite a while. I haven't tried to see how long it could last with a 720/1080p movie yet but I will do that and get back to you.
2. I haven't pushed the CPU/GPU to any level that would make it hot but so far from normal usage (surfing etc) there is no heat anywhere, It's actually cool to touch.
3. Yes it has a proprietary charging port and charger. You will see the charger in the first photo on the right and you will see the port in the 4th picture on the left. Some people may not like this as they prefer to charge via USB but I actually like this because it means that while the device charges, you are free to still use the USB port. I have heard that it can actually be charged via the Micro USB port however that charge is very slow unless you use a powerful charger. As I don't have a Micro USB cable I wasn't able to test this.
4. The speakers are loud. 2 people watching a movie can easily hear it. Also the viewing angles are good so the screen can be viewed by more than one person. I tested with some mp3s and also some TV shows and the sound through the speakers was very good. Of course these are tablet speakers and so like other tablets and even laptops - the audio range isn't great. Don't expect any bass or anything wow. At a basic level if you just want to watch something or listen to music, it will not disappoint. The headphone experience was surprisingly good. I used Windows Media Player and messed with the EQ for movies and then for mp3s I used Winamp (also adjusting the EQ) and in both cases the sound was pretty good - a good audio range and lots of bass. You definitely get a better experience through the headphones and I had a pair of Sennheiser headphones connected so I definitely enjoyed the sound much better through those than the speakers.
I will get back to the first 2 questions later on and also any cons about it when I have done more testing
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Click to collapse
Thanks for the answers so far.
Sure,I was a little quick with so many questions at once.
The main nasty thing about the proprietary charger is the fact that it can't be replaced easily replaced like lets say a normal USB charger.It would be a pain to wait a couple of weeks for a new one to be delivered all the way from China(some 2 good weeks for an packet to get here in Europe).But I guess you'll have to be careful with it.
As I can see from your sayings,is this tablet has almost no cons ,just pros..Chinese makers sure leveled up their game.
Well,I will check here in few days for your other answers,after you test it out.
Thanks.

Hey, glad to see you got yours and thanks for the writeup. Still waiting on mine, but will report here when I get it.

There are some good videos of an apparent W3 clone (actually it's probably a W3F clone as it has the slower CPU), the Kruger&Matz Edge 1081. In this video (others are linked there) he tests charging. Apparently the microUSB ports will charge it, but does not take advantage of more powerful chargers = around 10 hours for a full charge:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt1kJupVWPk
---------- Post added at 02:21 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:15 PM ----------
Here's an interesting questions - if you plug a powered USB3.0 hub into the 3.0 port, and then plug one of its inputs into the microUSB port, will that charge the tablet? Or will the universe collapse into itself from the bizarre USB loop?
I need to power the tablet and 2 USB3.0 devices from a 12V battery. That voltage doesn't work with the native charger port (9V) nor typical USB power (5V). But some USB3.0 hubs actually take 12V, so I could power a hub, and (assuming the tablet won't charge directly from a powered USB3.0 hub being connected to it) power the tablet from it -> microUSB. That way I'd need no voltage converters at all (if it doesn't destroy the known universe).
---------- Post added at 02:54 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:21 PM ----------
actually re. my power question, that USB loop should work. The hub->microUSB path doesn't need to be a data connection, a power-only USB cable should work without causing complications. Now I just have to find the right 12V taking 3.0 hub ...

recond9 said:
Thanks for the answers so far.
The main nasty thing about the proprietary charger is the fact that it can't be replaced easily replaced like lets say a normal USB charger.It would be a pain to wait a couple of weeks for a new one to be delivered all the way from China(some 2 good weeks for an packet to get here in Europe).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can always use a standard USB charger (with a microUSB cable) if the 9V charger ever goes down, it will just be slower. And I don't think it's proprietary in the sense that it's just a thin version of the typical 2.1mm DC jack, you can probably find an adapter for a generic 9V supply (just needs to be the correct polarity and >= the amps the tablet needs).
As I can see from your sayings,is this tablet has almost no cons ,just pros..Chinese makers sure leveled up their game.
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Click to collapse
Main cons I'm aware of are no GPS, and screen is not optically bonded. It will be interesting to see how much of the sRGB colour space it covers, and what the black levels are like (I can measure that with my colorimeter when I get it). 4GB would have been nice. And even though it's a higher-end Baytrail CPU, Core M tabs will be faster (but also look like they're going to be super-expensive).
But the full-size USB 3.0 is very handy (main reason I bought mine), looking forward to getting it in my grubby paws .

Great pics and write-up.
I have also received my W2 a couple weeks ago.
Glad to know that this thing can be charged via the micro usb port so that I can put my 10000ma portable battery to good use with this tablet.
One annoying thing about this tablet (or maybe windows8.1) is that when I press the power button to put it to sleep and then close the cover, either the keyboard hit the windows touch button below the main screen or the touch screen hit the windows key on the keyboard and that would wake the tablet and turn on the screen draining battery while not being used.
Same thing happen when I plug in my charger, it will be awaken and screen turned on.
So to sort of temporary solve this problem, I created hibernation shortcuts on taskbar, desktop, start menu, and start screen. So I just hibernate it whenever I don't use it. Lucky that it just takes about 10 to 12 seconds for this thing to wake from hibernation.
Hope there is some ways to disable the keyboard, touch start button, and charger from waking the tablet up when I press the power button.
---------- Post added at 01:21 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:16 PM ----------
BTW, since Onda is mentioned here, I wanna let you guys know Onda have just released a 11 inch tablet with full HD screen, 2gb ram, 64gb storage, but have dual OS with both Windows 8.1 and Android4.4 installed and can be switched instantly.
It is getting a lot of praise in Hong Kong.
I am quite interested in this thing.

OMGitsShan, thank you so much for the review. I was thinking about buying this wonder, mainly because the keyboard and the case. With those pics, I almost have no doubts right now.
Just a silly question: You mentioned it comes with a 1-year subscription to Office365. What about OneDrive? Iw ould be great to have anything attached with that subscription.
Thanks again.

Hey, I've got similar tablet (it's the same just named and sold by local firm in Poland - Kruger&Matz EDGE 1081 - with current currency exchange rate it's 214$ and that's already with taxes for WiFi only 32gb). I've got an issue - sometimes Windows button (touch sensor) bugs out and act as if it was pressed all the time and it doesn't respond at all, meaning pressing power/screen lock button leads to CTRL+ALT+DEL screen and Volume UP button launches up narrator. Problem appears randomly, though very often when tablet is docked into keyboard cover.

Got mine yesterday. First impressions - overall pretty good. IPS screen is nice and sharp, black levels are decent. Not quite as saturated (colourful) and super-black as the best, but not bad. Wifi reception is good, using my iPhone with 3G as the gateway via Wifi it has no problems getting a good signal one floor up (my old Gadmei E8-3D tablet would loose the signal about 5m away already). Battery seems decent, but need more time with it (and it may improve a little after a few full charges).
CPU speed isn't bad for a tablet, I'm not sure I'd want to use the slower Baytrails though (eg. W3F) so I'm glad I paid for the 2.4GHz boost. It does seem to throttle it down though if all 4 cores are maxxed. This is most likely thermal management, when total core utilisation < 75% or so (TBC) if does get up to ~2.33 GHz (it doesn't seem to be a true 2.4, if so then kinda sneaky rounding up like that), but then it drops down as a cores get v. busy. On the plus side, tablet only gets warm, never hot, even when running 3D Mark (though I didn't try running a 3D app over a long time yet). Thermal management seems good. There might be scope to push it a little via the BIOS temp. settings, but I'm not messing with those for now.
Tablet feels nice in hand and considering the size isn't too heavy or thick imo. But it has a small ridge all around the edge - this protects the buttons and ports a little by recessing them, but also slightly digs into your hands slightly. Not loving that, it's not painful but slightly uncomfortable. They should change that on the next model.
Keyboard is pretty good actually, thin but fairly rigid, as is the touch pad and button response. Feels decent quality, surprising how much travel there is in the buttons/keys considering how thin it is. Touchpad mouse tracking is good for general use, though if you try to do pixel-accurate scrolling it does sometimes jitter a bit. But you don't notice it for normal use. For more accurate mousing it's definitely handy, the touch screen will struggle for fine control sometimes, especially with apps that aren't DPI scaling aware. The magnet that holds the tab to the keyboard is very strong, no danger of it falling off (even upside down I think). But the soft and thin cover provides zero protection from dropping, so I'll look into getting a better case when it goes out the door.
I'm still setting it up - have calibrated the screen (max brightness is around 220mcd, contrast ratio around 930:1, good for an IPS screen). USB 3.0 seems to work though I still need to test the max bandwidth. It also does not work with my Seagate portable USB 3 HD - it briefly detects it, then disconnects it. Suspect it cannot supply enough power, so a powered USB hub may be necessary (will try that later, I can measure the USB current too).
Office trial is there, haven't activated mine as I don't intend to pay for it, so won't use it anyway (lots of free alternatives available, eg. OpenOffice). You have to activate it before August 2015 though or it expires. OneDrive app is there, but I haven't looked at it yet (probably won't use it either).
3G Huawai stick is there, but seems to take a full-size SIM cards and I only have a microSim, so will buy an adapter. There's a mobile-something app that seems to do text messaging, maybe even phone calls?
Anyway, so far overall seems a pretty good package, I'd recommend getting the keyboard unless you definitely won't need it. It's a well thought-out solution and pretty compact, and no wires to worry about or wireless batteries to run out.

Oh btw, first thing I did was download 70+ Windows updates. Maybe a freak occurrance, but they took forever to discover and then wouldn't download (always stuck at 0%). One time they finally did, but on a reboot didn't seem to be applied + "TiWorker.exe" was taking massive CPU even after a reboot. Turns out the update database got corrupted somehow - fix: Control Panel -> Trouble Shooting -> Windows Update. Repairs the DB + reboot (may need to dl' the updates again to get them to stick).

@Marrond, I think I've seen what you describe. For me it very occasionally goes a little nuts, eg. it registers presses all over the tablet when I press in a spot, and think I've seen it trigger the start button once. In my case it seems to be interference with other gadgets on my desk (I'm still setting it up, copying files etc). For one I have a Wacom tablet that probably radiates stuff as part of what it does. I noticed that if I moved the tablet elsewhere on my desk, it's all fine again. I'll keep an eye on it.
One thing, be careful updating the Intel HD graphics driver. I used their auto-driver update tool, found & installed an updated HD driver. Worked fine, except every time the screen went to sleep, it would then wake up all black. Backlight still on and tablet still running fine, but nothing on screen and no way to fix it except hard reboot! Thanks to @OMGitsShan's link to the driver package I just put the old one back on and fine again. Google suggests it's a long-running problem with Intel drivers, but couldn't find the exact cause. Never seen this on my desktop (with HD4000).
---------- Post added at 11:10 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:03 PM ----------
Apparently most Win 8 devices (even 'with Bing') have device encryption enabled by default (so if someone steals your tab they can't then pull the files off from another OS etc). But it doesn't seem activated on the W3. This might be the reason & workaround, scary though in case it bricks it.
If anyone is brave enough to try, please report.
---------- Post added at 11:14 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:10 PM ----------
BTW @Marrond, your tab might be a clone of the W3F (it's a cut-down version of the W3 with a slower Baytrail CPU).
---------- Post added at 11:17 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:14 PM ----------
BTW if anyone needs a driver let me know (takes FOREVER to dl from China).

OK I took a gamble on enabling the security stuff in the BIOS, and sure enough it worked (note I didn't bother to create a password). You then have to create/sign into an online MS account (I did that inadvertently by trying to download a free app from the store). This changes your login into an online login. And seems to enable Device Encryption silently & also automatically uploads your encryption key to MS as a 'backup'. You can also make or print your own copy for safe keeping. I can now see Device Encryption is enabled (with option to disable) on the PC Info screen - but this is only shown on the Metro version, not the desktop one. But yeah, seems to have worked. You can then also choose to go back to a local login (Account Settings) if you don't want to be signed into MS permanently. You can also choose to use or disable OneDrive.
The touchscreen weirdness came back quite badly, fake touch events all over the place, but recalibration seems to have fixed it (Start Menu -> Search for 'Calibration'). That should fix the Start button too as that's likely just using the touch screen.
The USB3 Seagate HD also works if I plug a USB power monitor between it and the tab, so it does have enough juice to power it, but perhaps a firmware glitch makes it disconnect, maybe a short power drop that doesn't happen when the monitor is also plugged in. But it works fine with my powered usb3 hub. And all other USB devices I've tried so far work directly on the tab.

recond9 said:
Thanks for the answers so far.
Sure,I was a little quick with so many questions at once.
The main nasty thing about the proprietary charger is the fact that it can't be replaced easily replaced like lets say a normal USB charger.It would be a pain to wait a couple of weeks for a new one to be delivered all the way from China(some 2 good weeks for an packet to get here in Europe).But I guess you'll have to be careful with it.
As I can see from your sayings,is this tablet has almost no cons ,just pros..Chinese makers sure leveled up their game.
Well,I will check here in few days for your other answers,after you test it out.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey sorry for the delay in getting back to you. Last Friday my main PC decided to die on me. So its been an exhausting week of recovering data from the hard drive then buying a new drive, reinstalling windows and software (we all know what a pain that is!) and so I am slowly back to where I was. I did keep a text file that I noted all the problems I had with the W3 just for you but I sadly lost that when the PC died. So I will hopefully try to remember the points I wrote about and so if I remember something at a later time, I may edit this post with the additional information.
As far as HD video play back is concerned. I play a 1080p movie that was an MKV file with a bitrate of 8000kbps - the movie was 2hrs:02mins long. I managed to play the movie 2.5 times before the device went to around 3% battery.
For a 720p mkv movie that had a bitrate of 4000kbps - movie length was 2hrs:10mins. I managed to get the movie to play 3 times fully and then it played an additional 12 minutes before the battery died.
In terms of heat - it gets hot when playing games (I installed Asphalt 8, a car racing game from the App store) and when charging. Not hot where you cant hold it though. And if you place your fingers behind like holding it with the screen in front of you, only the fingers on your left hand will feel any heat.
CONS:
1. The windows button/logo on the bottom of the screen on the front bezel causes the vibration motor to go off every time you press it. I don't really understand why we need a physical and audible indicator that we have pressed it. I just want to press it and get to the Metro interface so I'm not sure why PiPO bothered to add the vibration to it. Just one of those little things that's annoying. I hope I can find a way to disable it.
2. Chrome runs ever so slow on this device. I'm not sure why Google haven't adapted it to be more streamlined on a tablet, but scrolling on it is jerky. In contrary, Internet Explorer is way smoother. I prefer using Chrome as my browser but I've had to put IE as default just to make things easier.
3. Keyboard is slightly flimsy - even on a flat surface like a table. It is not very bendy or anything but when you press down on a key the board gets depressed as well. You can still easily use it and it wont affect your typing just wish it was more solid. Therefore typing on your lap might take a bit of effort.
4. The battery seems to give 2 different values based on whether you are in the Metro interface or the regular desktop.
5. You can charge it and use it, the battery does charge reasonably fast. I know some people were worried that if they charge and use it, the charge would be slow but I never experienced that.
6. I have a small portable 2.5" USB 3.0 hard drive, for some reason that drive does not get detected when connected to the USB 3.0 port. USB pen/flash drives work fine and powered larger desktop drives such as my Seagate Expansion drives show up fine, but the smaller unpowered drive does not get detected. The weirdest thing though? My girlfriend has an unpowered USB 2.0 hub. When I connect this hub to the USB 3.0 port and then connect my portable hard drive to the hub, it shows up fine in Windows. So how does a slower hub (USB 2.0 and one that is unpowered "kick start" windows into seeing my portable drive? Confused!
7. Screen glare. The screen is very reflective. It's a little shinier than I would like.
Well that's what I can think of at the top of my head. If I get more I will add to this!

_gl said:
Hey, glad to see you got yours and thanks for the writeup.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks and you're welcome! I'm happy to see you got yours! We'll be able to bounce ideas and suggestions now and hopefully figure things out.
misbehave said:
Great pics and write-up. BTW, since Onda is mentioned here, I wanna let you guys know Onda have just released a 11 inch tablet with full HD screen, 2gb ram, 64gb storage, but have dual OS with both Windows 8.1 and Android4.4 installed and can be switched instantly. It is getting a lot of praise in Hong Kong. I am quite interested in this thing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! I haven't experienced the problems you have but if I do i'll let you know. I actually heard about the Onda v116w a few days after I had ordered my W3, and initially I thought OMG I want that instead but looking at it now, I'm kind of glad I didn't go with it and here's why. Most people buying the 8 and 9 inch models of these Chinese tablets only want to use them to consume media. Yeah sure full Windows is a bonus of course. However with a 10 inch tablet not only is it as good for media consumption but you finally get a device that you can do work with. So in the case of the PiPO W3, the keyboard is a big draw and because PiPO include their own, it feels safer than picking some random magnetic keyboard or even using a bluetooth one. With the Onda being 11 inches - that would be a perfect companion for work (and great for media too!) however Onda have not released or even mentioned a keyboard case with the device. In my opinion, that was a huge loss to them. Without a keyboard option, the need for the tablet is limited. Also on an 11 inch screen - Onda could only offer a 1080p resolution?! What is this - 2011? Such a large screen deserves a high resolution to turn a great screen into a gorgeous one. I really don't understand Onda. Its like they never push hard enough. Every tablet of theirs always has some major limit. Previously they never offered HDMI out. So with such a low resolution for an 11 inch screen, the PPI (Pixels per inch) will be pretty low. Also they offer the same processor as the current crop of tablets. With a slightly bigger screen, it would be nice to put a more powerful CPU in to help games etc work better. So for me Onda always do something to screw up their upcoming tablets.
EQLucky said:
OMGitsShan, thank you so much for the review. Just a silly question: You mentioned it comes with a 1-year subscription to Office365. What about OneDrive? I would be great to have anything attached with that subscription. Thanks again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're welcome! OneDrive is included with Office 365. You get 1TB of space online to store your documents. Your Microsoft ID would get you 15GB of OneDrive space outside of this Office 365 subscription however. Hope that answers your question.

Quick update on the external USB 3.0 HD issues we're both having. We're not alone, it's also happening on Surface.
As I wrote there, mine actually works unpowered on the (2.0) micro-USB port, so it's not a power issue. And my USB power monitor (that makes it work on the 3.0 port) drops the connection to 2.0, so that explains why that works too. So the issue is only with the true 3.0 connection. It seems very unlikely this is a hard drive firmware bug, as people are reporting the same thing with all kinds of HDs. So either the Intel USB 3.0 driver or some Windows USB 3.0 part (maybe from a bad update) must have a bug, or maybe it's a bug in Baytrail itself (but the driver could probably work around that). I've not been able to find any Intel USB 3.0 drivers for Baytrail (updated or otherwise), anyone?
Also @OMGitsShan, when you had the HD problem did you already download all the Windows updates, or was it clean? I already got the updates so I don't know if it would work clean. I guess I could uninstall them all again, but if someone has a clean install to test...
BTW I hear you having to reinstall Windows, it sucks! My (power-user) desktop system takes WEEKS to rebuild from scratch - no exaggeration! Word of advice, set it all up, and then image the OS partition. I do these days because I'm never going back to a full rebuild (just catching up the few months between the last backup takes long enough ).
---------- Post added at 06:29 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:18 PM ----------
@OMGitsShan, check you System even log for "disk <x> has been surprise removed" messages. That's what I get when it briefly detects and then disconnects the drive when I plug it in (about 50% of the time, the rest it doesn't see it at all).
---------- Post added at 07:08 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:29 PM ----------
I got my micro-> full SIM adapter, and tested the 3G stick at home. I'm near a mast so get a v. good signal - the stick gave me the same as I get on my iPhone 4s. Haven't tried in a weak signal area yet, but looks promising. There's no voice call facility in the supplied Mobile Partner software, but it seems to be able to send/receive texts (that probably explains the vibrate motor - which I don't mind firing on the Start button, but there's probably a tweak to turn it off).

_gl said:
Quick update on the external USB 3.0 HD issues we're both having. We're not alone, it's also happening on Surface.
As I wrote there, mine actually works unpowered on the (2.0) micro-USB port, so it's not a power issue. And my USB power monitor (that makes it work on the 3.0 port) drops the connection to 2.0, so that explains why that works too. So the issue is only with the true 3.0 connection. It seems very unlikely this is a hard drive firmware bug, as people are reporting the same thing with all kinds of HDs. So either the Intel USB 3.0 driver or some Windows USB 3.0 part (maybe from a bad update) must have a bug, or maybe it's a bug in Baytrail itself (but the driver could probably work around that). I've not been able to find any Intel USB 3.0 drivers for Baytrail (updated or otherwise), anyone?
Also @OMGitsShan, when you had the HD problem did you already download all the Windows updates, or was it clean? I already got the updates so I don't know if it would work clean. I guess I could uninstall them all again, but if someone has a clean install to test...
BTW I hear you having to reinstall Windows, it sucks! My (power-user) desktop system takes WEEKS to rebuild from scratch - no exaggeration! Word of advice, set it all up, and then image the OS partition. I do these days because I'm never going back to a full rebuild (just catching up the few months between the last backup takes long enough ).
---------- Post added at 06:29 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:18 PM ----------
@OMGitsShan, check you System even log for "disk <x> has been surprise removed" messages. That's what I get when it briefly detects and then disconnects the drive when I plug it in (about 50% of the time, the rest it doesn't see it at all).
---------- Post added at 07:08 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:29 PM ----------
I got my micro-> full SIM adapter, and tested the 3G stick at home. I'm near a mast so get a v. good signal - the stick gave me the same as I get on my iPhone 4s. Haven't tried in a weak signal area yet, but looks promising. There's no voice call facility in the supplied Mobile Partner software, but it seems to be able to send/receive texts (that probably explains the vibrate motor - which I don't mind firing on the Start button, but there's probably a tweak to turn it off).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which carrier sim card are you trying with?

misbehave said:
Which carrier sim card are you trying with?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
3 (UK).

I also agree that the W3 is more of a work horse - if you're not planning to use the desktop much, it's probably overkill unless you want the faster CPU just because. But to me it's a poor man's Surface Pro (in a good way).
Gotta say I'm also really impressed with what MS has done with the mobile part of the OS. I run 8.1 on my desktop, but never use Metro at all. It's horrible to navigate with a mouse (or my Wacom graphics tablet, which doesn't react like the touchscreen even though that makes more sense). But it's great on this - I love IE in Metro mode, super slick, all the touch gestures in general finally make sense and are intuitive. I especially like swiping in from left to switch between desktop & metro screens, very slick.
And I'm very impressed with what they have achieved with the power usage. I'm a programmer and I know how much they would have had to gut the OS and rewrite massive parts of it, including the drivers, to get that to happen. It even seems to boot a little faster from cold than my (admittedly old) iPhone 4S. Sweet.
---------- Post added at 01:13 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:09 AM ----------
Anybody know how we can replace the Pipo boot logo?
---------- Post added at 01:24 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:13 AM ----------
... simple.

Related

Jasjar II wish list (maybe they'll hear this time)

New owners, what would you guys like to se on the next generation Jasjar (maybe in six month or a year from now)?
I am not tallking about the OS (thas MS part and can be rectified with updates), I mean hardware wise.
On my part:
1.) Built in FM reciever would be nice. (if the technolory is there, then why not?
2.) At least 512Mb built in mem (making it ~$20-35 more expensive, still I belive everyone that bougth it now would still do so). This in not a serious issue.
3.) Edge
4.) Full handsfree profile support (maybe this is more with software, you tell me)
5.) External LCD display for: caller id (I belive this is critical), battery level, network strenght, etc. even if its just monochrome it would be a great help.
6.) Wlan 80.11g an obvious plus
7.) I could live with 1-2cm wider but have a psion/notebook type keyboard...
...
P.S: to be correct (persay) only things that you wouldn't mind paying a little extra for, if it was included...
How about having Navigation like Mouse which we have in Nokia Communicators... which will save the time of pulling stylus and using it one hand while we hold the device in other hand.
mniko said:
How about having Navigation like Mouse which we have in Nokia Communicators... which will save the time of pulling stylus and using it one hand while we hold the device in other hand.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree, that would realy help things like scrolling, which right now can only be done with stylus.
What I want the most is built in GPS. It's a pest having to charge up an external unit and remembering to bring all the right car adapters etc. so a built in unit would be awesome.
It would also be nice to see some of the new thin and flexible OLED type displays added which would reduce power consumption and make the displays less likely to break when dropped.
I'd also like to have a little hole on the corner of the device! I know it's not very techie, but I'd like some way of attaching a chain or cord to my device which attaches to my belt, so that if (or when!) you drop your device it wont hit the ground!
How about building in a virtual laser keyboard into the device:
www.virtual-laser-keyboard.com
On the graphics front, I'd like hardware acceleration of H.264 encoded videos (the format that's going to replace MPEG-2, MPEG-4 etc.). It would be nice if the built in camera could save in this format as well, because it would be a big space saver.
As for batteries, I wish they'd hurry up and release some of the new technology they've been talking about for years - better battery life, super fast charge times etc.
Well, you might think the Universal is the ultimate device, but there's so much more to add before I'll be happy!
-no1
my wishes
My wish list:
1. Extra rom storage like 4GB (palm now does it!)
2. A backup system like the one in Blue Angel
3. full USB hosting functionality, so we can use a usb mouse or external usb keyboard or usb mem sticks
4. vga out support so we can project on wide screen
5. firewire support
- After all if this is to be a mini laptop, let us have the full monty then instead of baby face gizmos
Me out :wink:
I really wish the following 4 most wanted and easily possible features add to JasJar. I am definitely waiting for successor of Jasjarl with follwoing and currently I'm happy with my XDAII. Current Jasjar is useless compare to my XDAII since there are only few programs works and still so many bugs/requirements in both hardware and OS.
1. FM Radio
2. 640x480 video recording with 2 or more MegaPixel Camera
3. Full Handsfree bluetooth audio(MP3 listening)
4. 800x480 screen for internet browsing.(a little longer 4.5" screen is acceptable like samsung Nexio XP30,Nokia 770).
Some other wish list
1.Video Output(RCA/S-Video/VGA)
2.Videos from Camera can transmit through wifi
3.USB hosting
4.mobile TV(DVB-H) receiver
It's interesting to revisit this thread nearly two years later as HTC release the Touch Pro that includes almost all the functionality you guys listed above. Perhaps HTC were listening after all.

LEGO Torrentbox powered by Raspberry Pi

I had the bright idea to build a "small" machine torrent, with a Raspberry, lots of LEGO and some electronic component.
What I present is a work built especially on spare time, still processing but working 24-hour a day!
What you see in the picture is the version that I called 3.0 for now I did the 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 and 3.5 (with Raspberry Pi B +)
The idea was born from a simple need: I could not keep the PC on all day to download torrents, or in other words, consuming energy and making some noise at night ... so I asked myself, what alternatives do I have? Internet answered me with "Raspberry Pi". I noticed some small projects that used the board as a machine used to download/upload torrents and my geeky addiction for those stuff made me immediately fell in love! I also noticed some projects that consisted of case for RPi made with LEGO, and I could not pull back in the face of challenge, partly because of the tons of bricks in the attic waiting to be exhumed after years ... at which point I thought, "Why i shouldn't build a case also for the hard disk?" and again: "Why do you not make a case that also contains all the cables?" and finally: "Ok, from the case there will be a single wire that goes to the wall outlet"
And so it was, that at the arrival of the mini-pc the work began!
The project had the following requirements:
- A case (preferably aestethically nice) made of LEGO
- No LEGO brick was to be mistreated (glue, holes, crimping), only removable housings with non-LEGO pieces
- A single wire for current input
- A cooling system
- The minimum number of non-LEGO parts visible from the outside
- A small display for any physical access to the machine
- A USB hub to connect USB drives, external hard drives, mouse + keyboard, etc.
- And above all, lots and lots and lots of patience and time!
A bit of schematics on paper, some boxes full of LEGO, and the site is now open!
Version 1.0
This is the case of the Raspberry only, easily removable from the rest of the building:
The hard-disk housing:
The fan! The tubes are taken from an old LEGO Mars base, and the air is pumped to the Raspberry (which has seen lowering its temperature of 40-45 Celsius degrees! This means that it works!) and all hard drives. The rear tubes instead are routing wires between the raspberry pi and the harddisk, and the central block. The fan is connected to a USB socket placed under the hub.
The gem of the goodies: fan control! The switch turns on and off the fan and set the red LED. The green LED is lit when the TorrentBox is attached to the current. The nice thing is that both lights are sticking perfectly LEGO holes!
The interiors of the beast (yes that it is a power strip down there!)
Whoops, i forgot the hub!
Overview:
Disco time!:
After a few days I realized how fragile the structure was, and in addition, I found the box with all the gray and dark LEGO, so i decided to do a more "professional" building and made it similar to a factory
Version 2.0
Designing the front writing
Spoiler
Internal...
...and external restructuring!
Final result:
At this point I said to myself: why not put some little LEGO man "at work" as it already seems like an industry? Said and done
After some time, with the arrival of the much coveted display (a vulgar 7" display with 800x480 resolution, the kind that you find in chinese car radios) i have began updating the now massive construction (20cm high and the base of the block was 25x15cm). In the project i also included a touchscreen with its USB adapter, but i accidentally broke the panel, and even though i have a spare one to grab from my old car radio, the configuration with raspbian was pretty mangy, and for now i left apart this addition: P
Version 3.0
Here is the housing for the screen (other 7cm in height!) The display has a hdmi connection that goes directly to the raspberry through the rear tubes:
Since my house, from time to time, is populated by various little cousins, I thought to give the beast a protective cover which, however, leaves a glimpse of the situation on the screen (incredibly 4 Droideka arms from Star Wars sets are strong enough to hold the lid firmly!)
Access to the display controls (which are connected via a flat cable to the display board)
Some cosmetic change here and there, to standardize everything
Here it is in function :
Version 3.5 has already the Raspberry Pi B + (the one with 4 usb ports) but is identical to the 3.0 for the moment. I will remove the hub (which is slow, and can only be used for a keyboard or a mouse), but to do this i should open everything but i am a little sick of putting hands into that mess (and i do not have so much time since I started working full-time)
However, sooner or later I'll put my hands into it, and of course I will post the results here!
Let me know what you liked, what you DO NOT liked and if you want to know something more about it (maybe I forgot to say something)... Bye!!
I also have a couple of videos that will upload soon!
P.S. Here are the links to the Imageshack and Tinypic album (they are identical), to see all the images:
Imageshack: https://imageshack.com/a/KfMq/1
Tinypic: http://it.tinypic.com/a/2v9ya/2
Wow this is amazing. Probably one of the best "cases" I have seen.
How is the daily performance of torrenting on the RPi? I always thought the USB ethernet driver would be slow, especially if buffering and spilling to external HDD. But maybe I am wrong and the RPi is a beast.
dyczone said:
Wow this is amazing. Probably one of the best "cases" I have seen.
How is the daily performance of torrenting on the RPi? I always thought the USB ethernet driver would be slow, especially if buffering and spilling to external HDD. But maybe I am wrong and the RPi is a beast.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As of now, with a wifi usb adapter, and an usb hdd attached, i have no problem downloading at 1MB/s
I used with ethernet in the past, and the performances were the same. I use an hdd with 2 partitions, one of 50GB, formatted as ext4 for incomplete downloads, once a download has completed, the rpi moves the file to the NTFS partition that has all the remaining space. This way i can view hdd contents directly with windows. The dual partition system has been made because downloading continuously onto a ntfs partition used too much cpu, but ext4 is natively supported by RPi, so no problem at all this way
FrankieDedo said:
As of now, with a wifi usb adapter, and an usb hdd attached, i have no problem downloading at 1MB/s
I used with ethernet in the past, and the performances were the same. I use an hdd with 2 partitions, one of 50GB, formatted as ext4 for incomplete downloads, once a download has completed, the rpi moves the file to the NTFS partition that has all the remaining space. This way i can view hdd contents directly with windows. The dual partition system has been made because downloading continuously onto a ntfs partition used too much cpu, but ext4 is natively supported by RPi, so no problem at all this way
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
8mbps isn't bad. That's solid if you are just going to leave it running all day everyday.
It's also pretty smart you are using 2 partitions. I would never have thought of that.
BTW what display did you use and can you use an car touchscreen as base too?
Sorry for refreshing but it's really great job here, I need to say that.
Wysłane z mojego SM-G850F przy użyciu Tapatalka

No.1 Sun S2 Review (+Update Guide)

The NO.1 Sun S2 is a budget smartwatch witha circular display, camera and heart rate monitor. We kindly received the silver version with a silver metal watch band from the Gearbest Online Shop. You can get the Sun S2 for about $52 → here from Gearbest with the code GBSS2 .
You can find the post also here with all pictures in higher quality :
http://klonom.com/no-1-sun-s2-review/
Let’s start with the “official” technical specifications.
Specifications:
-Chipset: MT6260
-Bluetooth 3.0
-240×240 Display
-300 KP Camera
-1.33″ IPS Display
-Heart rate monitor
-IP-67 (according to NO.1)
Items delivered:
The NO.1 Sun S2 is delivered in a white, nearly cubical box. Beside the actual watch a charging shell, a microUSB cable and a small manual (in English & Chinese) is included. The metal watch band is protected by a plastic foil against scratches, while also the screen is protected by scratches on the transport. An overview of the items delivered is shown in the next picture.
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
Items delivered with the NO.1 Sun S2
Unboxing Video:
First Impression:
While unpacking, the No.1 Sun S2 surprised me with its heavy watch body. It is made out of polished metal, no plastic like assumed partly before. You also notice that because of the weight (88 g in total) and the cool touch of the metal. Unfortunetaly the metal watch band at my silver version is quite light and does not have the same high quality impression as the watch body.
The top view of the No.1 Sun S2
The display is nearly completely dark in the powered off state, the transition between the display and bottom black border (more on that later) is just noticable at strong daylight. The dark black watchface while being in standby or powered off gives the watch a fancy look in my opinion.
Camera and Button
On the right side you can find the camera and the control button. The camera is hidden very unobtrusive in the “winder” of the watch. Friends just discovered the camera after being told where it actually sits – solved very discretly No.1!
The Microfone
The microfone can be found on the left side. The position does not seem to be chosen randomly: The speaker is placed at the opposite and is speaking in the opposide direction.
The Bottom
On the bottom 3 features are placed: The USB contacts, which can be accessed with a normal microUSB cable via the included charging adapter shell. Also the heart rate monitor is placed on the bottom. At last, the the speaker is placed there as well. The metal watch band is closed with a folding clasp. The watch band is unfortunetaly quite rattly and not made from solid metal. At least the watch band can be adjusted in the size. My personal small highlight is that the watch band can be exchanged with standard watch bands – finally a watch with this feature!
The charging Shell
The Sun S2 is connected and charged with the help of the included charging shell adapter. Comfortable: The shell is kept magnetic at the bottom of the No.1 Sun S2. It even has a hole for the speaker, so that the sound can be lead out to the side, in case you want to use it while charging.
OS/Launcher:
The No.1 Sun S2 does not run like on Android Wear but on a Nucleus OS variant from Mediatek. If the watch is in standby it can be turned on by pressing the button (or via a “look-at-watch-movement”). After that you will see one of three possible analog watch faces. With a swipe the mainscreen is entered.
The main screen
On the main screen a small notification bar is placed on the top, showing the battery status, BT connection and the active profile. Beside that, two shortcuts are available which can be configured with any app installed on the watch. An additional swipe opens the main menu.
The main menu
The main menu is controlled via swiping. You have to be quite careful partially, because of the size of the display.
All in all the system is intuitive and stable. I did not notice any freezes or similiar yet. The firmware can be updated via flash tool and a pc. No.1 already supplied a first update.
Display:
The display has its pros and cons. A huge improvement in comparison to older generations of China-Smartwatches is the IPS-display. Finally a display with stable viewing angles, the colors stay constant also at a very steep angles. And it is round. I also do not know why I like that fact so much . The probably most discussed drawback is the black bar at the bottom of the display (“flat tire look”). The connections are placed here. Anyhow, this is not something unusual – also way more expensive watches like the Moto 360 have the optical drawback (although smaller). The only possibility to bypass it would be a bigger bezel all around the display, which would contain the connection (like the LG Urbane).
While the black bar is not noticable a lot with dark backgrounds, with white backgrounds it can be noticed even more. If this is acceptable is a matter of taste. Personally, I do not a have a problem with it.
The resolution is average. A higher resolution would look nicer, but in general the display resolution is ok and not too low.
Functions:
The NO.1 Sun S2 offers several of functions. I could not fully test all of them completely, so I will add some more infos here in the future.
-Calling: Works flawlessly. You can search through your contacts and start calls via your smartwatch. The calling is done “via your wrist”. The best speaking quality is reached when you talk quite near to the microfone. Incoming calls are shown on the watch and you have the possibility to accept them directly on your watch. Alternatively you can also switch to the watch during ongoing calls started from your phone.
-Pushing Notifications: Also this is working fine. By default all popping up notifications in the notification bar of your Android are pushed to the watch. This can be filtered directly on the watch or in the app.
-Messaging: Reading and writing of messages are possible. Anyhow, the writing is quite difficult due to the alpha numeric keyboard which overlays roughly half of the display.
-Anti-Lost: If the BT connection is lost an alarm will start.
-Pedometer: Seems to be working quite well, although I will add some more experiences here since I will measure in parallel with the Mi Band. Unfortunetaly there is no possibility of syncing the data with the smartphone,
-Sleep Monitor: Same as for the pedometer.
-Sedentary Reminder: The watch reminds you after an adjustable interval to move.
-Audio-Player: The Sun S2 has a surprisingly good speaker for such a small device. Just in the upper quarter of the volume the speaker starts to distort. Obviously this is more or less a gimmick, but with a way better sound quality I expected.
-Heart Rate Monitor: On the bottom of the watch a heart rate monitor is placed, so it can be measured while wearing it. The accuracy is quite varying. It feels like around every second measurement delivers a kind of “plausible” value. Also here was unfortunetaly no feature included which can push the data to the phone.
-Thermometer: While measuring the temperature also the bottom LED is turned on. I haven’t figured out how you could measure the temperature with this or if it is fake.
-Calculator
-File manager
-Video-Player
-Gallery
-Sound-Recorder
-Stop-Watch
-“UV Measure”: A fake app, which returns an UV value ranging from low to high depending on the time.
Camera:
The camera is placed hidden in the “winder” of the watch. As expected, the quality is quite let’s call it humble. The stated resolution of 300 KP (640×480) seems to real. Inside the camera app some settings can be set: delay, anti-flicker-frequency, contrast, resolution and quality (low-medium-high). You have to get used to take pictures especially at the beginning, since you watch kind of 90 degrees rotated. Here are some sample pictures (take in the dusk):
Unfortunetaly the camera seems to be not perfectly placed in the middle at my device – you can see a circular black blur at the right side of the pictures, probably caused by the borders of the “winder”. The pictures can not be used for real pictures for obvious reasons, but for small James-Bond-like secret snapshots is funny (in my opinion).
Wearing Comfort:
I like the feel of the watch in general while wearing. The metal watch band can be adjusted well to my wrist size. It should fit small as well as bigger wrists. I personally have quite small wrists, so I directly removed four links. Anyhow, a new watch band is going to be inserted soon, not because the old broke, but because I want to try it .
The automatic light-on feature works very well. It does not need a special shaking movement to wake up, but just a simple “look-at-the-watch-movement”.
Battery:
According to the shop the No.1 Sun S2 has a built-in battery with a capacity of 350 mAh. I did not verify this yet, but I will measure it in the future. While automatic wake-up feature turned on and constant BT the battery the battery lasts about a day at my usage. Charging at night is mandatory.
Conclusion:
Despite several drawbacks, I like the the No.1 Sun S2 very much, especially because of its small price. Obviously you do not get a watch which can compete with brand smartwatches at every aspect. But it supports all major smartwatch functions which I use and it has a high quality look. Since the day of arrival it is placed on my wrist daily . Especially the high brightness if the display and the automatic light-on are convincing me.
How to update the Firmware of the No.1 Sun S2
The No.1 Sun S2 smartwatch has just been released and No.1 is already offering firmware upgrades to their first circular watch. In this post, I will explain step-by-step how to upgrade the firmware of your No.1 Sun S2.
For pictures in higher resolution, check the original blog post here:
http://klonom.com/how-to-update-the-firmware-of-the-no-1-sun-s2/
First of all, here’s a disclaimer: I am not responsible for any possible damages to your device while upgrading the firmware. Flashing a new firmware always contains the risk of breaking your device, making it unusable. Although unlikely, there can be always a small risk to brick your device, resulting in a permanent error. If you are not sure whether you want to take this risk or are completely unaware of flashing steps, I recommend you not to continue.
Read the above carefully? Still want to continue? Good . So let’s go. What do you need?
-No.1 Sun S2 Smartwatch
-The Sun S2 USB connector and a microUSB cable
-An USB Port
-Windows
1. First of all, download the latest firmware for your Sun S2. You can find it here.
2. After downloading, extract the .zip-file.
3. Open the “2502 firmware update tool” folder.
4. Open “Flash_tool.exe”.
5. Click on “Options” and make sure the “USB Download/ReadBack (Data Card)” is checked. Then click on “Format FAT (Auto)”.
6. Make sure the third option “Format FAT” is checked.
7. Back in the main menu, click on “Scatter/Config File” and navigate to the .cfg file of the downloaded fimware. It should be in “EXTRACTED_FOLDER/T2_S2_LANGX_XXXXX/T2PCB01_XXXXX/”. EXTRACTED_FOLDER represents the folder you extracted the .zip file in, while the X’s can be different numbers or letters. Afterwards, the Flash Tool should look similiar to this:
8. Power off your No.1 Sun S2. Put it on the USB connector. Don’t connect the USB connector the the PC yet.
9. Click on “Download” in the Flash Tool. Does it show an error similiar to e.g. “Can not connect to certain COM Port”? If yes, continue here, if not jump to step XX.
10. That means the drivers are not installed yet. Close the Flash Tool and go to the folder “drive” in the main folder and install the drivers by launching the “InstallDriver.exe”.
11. After successfully installing the drivers, make sure you closed the Flash Tool. Plug in the powered off smartwatch and after a short time your PC should recognize the watch and should see it in the explorer. Then unplug the watch again from the PC.
12. Start again the Flash Tool program, the settings should be saved. But to be sure, check steps 5 to 7 again.
13. Click on “Download”.
14. Make sure the USB connector sits tight on the Sun S2. Connect the powered off No.1 Sun S2 to the PC. Leave it in a stable position, since the USB connector can easily lose connection. Losing connection while flashing the preloader results in a broken device.
15. The Flash Tool starts flashing now. It takes around 2-5 min.
16. If it succeded, a window with a green circle should pop up. Congratulations, you just upgraded your smartwatch !
That was it, I hope it worked for you as well .
Was this tried on Windows 8 or 8.1? You need to add which OS you worked with in the description, thanks for doing this, it's appreciated
dragon2knight said:
Was this tried on Windows 8 or 8.1? You need to add which OS you worked with in the description, thanks for doing this, it's appreciated
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can not find official details from the No.1 page, for which exact Windows version it is suitable. I remember on other flash tool versions, you had to deactivate driver signature check in order to install the drivers on Win 8.
If it helps you, I am working currently under Windows 7, it works without any problems.
KloNom said:
I can not find official details from the No.1 page, for which exact Windows version it is suitable. I remember on other flash tool versions, you had to deactivate driver signature check in order to install the drivers on Win 8.
If it helps you, I am working currently under Windows 7, it works without any problems.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah, I kinda figured it was done under 7, most of these Chinese flash tools don't work well, or at all, under 8 or above. I personally wouldn't like to be the guinea pig on seeing if it works or not. ...thanks for responding
What about setting up a virtual machine ?
It keeps saying 0% everything is right followed all steps??
---------- Post added at 06:17 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:07 PM ----------
jwhood said:
It keeps saying 0% everything is right followed all steps??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its just hanging at 0%( waiting) its been at least 10 mins any idea what's going on,drivers are installed also
jwhood said:
It keeps saying 0% everything is right followed all steps??
---------- Post added at 06:17 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:07 PM ----------
Its just hanging at 0%( waiting) its been at least 10 mins any idea what's going on,drivers are installed also
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is your watch turned off? Otherwise I don't really know, try to unconnect the watch again, close the program, restart it, hit download and then reconnect..
I get an otp box at bottom does that need checked in box in flash tools and yes watched is turned off
---------- Post added at 06:50 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:45 PM ----------
Here is what I'm talking about...
Do you hit "download" then plug watch in???
No, you don't need to check that OTP checkbox. And yes, exactly. I clicked "Download" and then plugged in the turned off watch. Maybe try a different USB slot or run the Flash Tool as an administrator?
I got it klonom,thanks again for the review and tut!!!
KloNom said:
What about setting up a virtual machine ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmmm, good idea, will try that out, thanks
Would love to see that IP rating put to the test. I can say from personal experience, most IP67 rated Chinese smartwatches fail even a 24in submersion test.
Oh, in the video it's stated that it's the only round display Chinese smartwatch other than the DM360. This is incorrect. It's just one of the least expensive.
Lokifish Marz said:
Would love to see that IP rating put to the test. I can say from personal experience, most IP67 rated Chinese smartwatches fail even a 24in submersion test.
Oh, in the video it's stated that it's the only round display Chinese smartwatch other than the DM360. This is incorrect. It's just one of the least expensive.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I highly doubt that it sersiously has that given IP rating. It just sounds "better", I also don't think that they actually tested it. But first I want to test the watch in daily life, not that I test it and it's broken afterwards .
Thanks for the info , can you show me some other circular watchface chinese smartwatches? I thought that I kind of followed the upcoming products in the last times..
KloNom said:
Thanks for the info , can you show me some other circular watchface chinese smartwatches? I thought that I kind of followed the upcoming products in the last times..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A couple of other circular watches I've been thinking of are UWatch UO http://www.amazon.co.uk/Waterproof-Bluetooth-Smartwatch-Wristwatch-Smartphone/dp/B00XVC4A6E and ZGPAX S360 http://www.gearbest.com/smart-watches/pp_203904.html although I haven't decided to buy either of them and may well wait until Omate Roma/Racer are available.
Edited to add: there is also the RWatch R11 http://www.gearbest.com/smart-watches/pp_203002.html which looks good value.
KloNom said:
I highly doubt that it sersiously has that given IP rating. It just sounds "better", I also don't think that they actually tested it. But first I want to test the watch in daily life, not that I test it and it's broken afterwards .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Testing is how I killed a number of "IP67" smartwatches. BTW, it's illegal to market as IP67 unless it's actually IP67 certified.
Pseud O'Nym said:
A couple of other circular watches I've been thinking of are UWatch UO http://www.amazon.co.uk/Waterproof-Bluetooth-Smartwatch-Wristwatch-Smartphone/dp/B00XVC4A6E and ZGPAX S360 http://www.gearbest.com/smart-watches/pp_203904.html although I haven't decided to buy either of them and may well wait until Omate Roma/Racer are available.
Edited to add: there is also the RWatch R11 http://www.gearbest.com/smart-watches/pp_203002.html which looks good value.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have a Roma, it is almost the exact same size as the Panerai Radiomir 1940 Acciaio 42mm it was modeled after. And the transflective display that I suggested they use is readable even by the light of a TV. (1/12s f/2.0 3200ISO). It's only real flaw is , like other MT2502 smartwatches, it's BT connectivity is spotty. Which may be due to MTK no giving a crap. But no surprise there.
Lokifish Marz said:
I have a Roma, it is almost the exact same size as the Panerai Radiomir 1940 Acciaio 42mm it was modeled after. And the transflective display that I suggested they use is readable even by the light of a TV. (1/12s f/2.0 3200ISO). It's only real flaw is , like other MT2502 smartwatches, it's BT connectivity is spotty. Which may be due to MTK no giving a crap. But no surprise there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've been wearing a Mimi mi-w3 for the last five months and that's convinced me that I would't go back to a non-transflective screen, hence my interest in the Roma, plus I like the Panerai style case. I'm just not sure I can justify spending twice what the Mimi cost me, for much the same functionality, simply to have a circular alternative to wear.
I can't help thinking that there must be some big problems with MT25xx, with the number of cheap companion watches using them how come all the cheap standalones that have appeared since Aster was launched are still using the old feature phone chips?
Thanks @Pseud O'Nym and @Lokifish Marz for the hints, seems like I seriously missed a lot of the new circular smartwatches generation from china. Will try to have a closer look at them . About the IP certification: I guess especially NO.1 does not care about those western regulation .
About the July 7 update I noticed 3 more things:
-The shutter icon in the camera app is not anymore between Options and Back, but now placed on the middle right side. Way better, since before it was hard to aim and not hit Options or Back.
-Shutdown animation is now in a kind of Samsung style
-I found out how the UV-"Sensor" works: If you open the UV-App and click "Measure", it will state "Measuring..." for a few seconds and then show on a scale something like "Low", "Normal" or "High". Well, I found the UV-Sensor . The app is simply time depended. If you switch the time to noon and sync it, the UV-App will return a high level after "measuring". If you switch it then to midnight and sync it again, it will return "low" .
Can you try to receive a call using a Bluetooth earphone? Does s2 show the caller id?
Inviato dal mio A0001 utilizzando Tapatalk
KloNom said:
I highly doubt that it sersiously has that given IP rating. It just sounds "better", I also don't think that they actually tested it. But first I want to test the watch in daily life, not that I test it and it's broken afterwards .
Thanks for the info , can you show me some other circular watchface chinese smartwatches? I thought that I kind of followed the upcoming products in the last times..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is really waterproof

U11 phone watch

Has anyone obtained this apparently little-known watch?
I'm not sure it's made by UWatch, even though some places claim it is, and the model name follows their pattern.
But it has some interesting characteristics that blend the U8, U8 Pro and U10 together:
- it can act as a phone, with a SIM, but only through an additional (included) magnetic "SIM shell" that makes the watch a little thicker; without it, it's very thin, less than 9mm
- a detachable shell is also used for USB charging
- it has a compass like the U10, but maybe no barometer/altimeter like the U8 has, since a seller told me so, even though some specs listing suggest otherwise
- the screen is a whopping 320x320 resolution 1.56" IPS (the U8 is 128x128 TN and the U10 is 240x240)
- the battery is quite large, 360mAh, with a claimed life of 10 days (!)
- the CPU is a newer MTK2502C, though I'm not sure it runs Mediatek's Linkit like some other newer watches (there is no hint that you can install apps)
- of course, there are the usual stopwatch, step counter, sleep monitor, and so on
It is around €55, but it can only be obtained from China, I found no European reseller.
If anyone has it (or has found detailed reviews):
- does it run Linkit? Can Linkit apps be installed (through, for instance, the MediaTek SmartDevice app)?
- does it have motion gestures (for instance, does it turn on when you rotate your wrist towards you)?
- is the battery life up to promises?
- is the software solid or buggy?
- any other highlights?
I ordered one of these after I tried and was pleasantly surpised with an u8 clone(...).
There very basic if you compare them with say samsung gear s2 which runs Android and is over 330€ up here. I would rather use the word "robust". With sandby time of nearly 10 days! Thats standby offcours.
The u8 and u11 seem to use the same Nucleus os.
And though the u11 is better in every aspect it still lacks a animated and interactive notification system that Android smartwatches have.
Nonetheless one can do more with Nucleus devices then meets the eye. Its just not an open os where you can just install apps on the fly. Android devices seem to need more power especialy xburst which runs a fair amount higher in clock.
But Nucleus is also more capable then the current roms used on these smart watches.
I have yet to recieve the u11, but from what I have read it will suffice my needs for the moment.
Though I have to be honest that I do not like the U8's battery life at all. It's just ridiculously short when bluetooth is on all the time. The u11 does come with bt4.0 and the battery is bigger but it also has a faster cpu, uses gsm(if activated) and has a bigger(IPS)and higher res screen. Time will tell what the inpact is on battery life. Not much info is on the net right now.
Anyway, its a nice watch with an original design(..) an better build then the u8. Using metal alloy opossed to plastic for the case, better strap, tweaked interface with two themes, nicer clock faces etc.. and I realy like the modular design to keep the watch slim.
Hopefully someone will tweak and customize some U11 roms here at xda
Found this review(in spanish)
Does anyone have the u11 rom ? I corrupted something on mine by installing an app. Now it's stuck on the clock. Touchscreen works... it still connects to my paired phone but I can't navigate the menus.
Can't help you. I still have to recieve it but
what do you mean with you installed an app?
Benwayqb said:
Does anyone have the u11 rom ? I corrupted something on mine by installing an app. Now it's stuck on the clock. Touchscreen works... it still connects to my paired phone but I can't navigate the menus.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ebsbow said:
Can't help you. I still have to recieve it but
what do you mean with you installed an app?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Long story short, many notifications did not work. Facebook, Messenger, Gmail to name a few.
I tried different apps on my Galaxy S6 and ended up with a totally incompatible app that tried to install something on the watch and corrupted something.
Thats interresting. Maybe add what app so we dont make
the same mistake again.
Did you try to reset the watch?
I mean reset not restart. There should be small hole
( the one thats not the mic) which you can use to reset the
device by puching a needle gently in there. Just make sure
its not the mic!
Mediatek Smartdevice should work.. ?
It's actually Mediatek Smart Device that messed up my watch.
I didn't find a reset button. Disconnected the battery and reconnected it with still the same result. I left the battery disconnected and I'll try gain in a few days.
I dont think removing the battery will reset the device. Flash ram isn't power dependant.
Maybe the manual can tell where or if there is an reset button?
There is no reset button. I did reset the ram via the Flashtool and I still can't access the menus. The clock did revert back to the default one.
I will need somebody to make a backup of his u11 firmware and post it !
Got mine today. Sadly I ordered Black and gotten a Gray color item. :-/ (don't buy at banggood, they will send random color when there stocks are low) Not to happy.
Anyways.
First impression is good. Metal case, in my case, Gray silver..
Battery wasn' t charged so I could not test it right away
but after a small charge it booted, silently, into clock mode.
The screen is nice at 320p. Clockface is analog which I switched
to digital for no specific reasson. Theres two faces of each, all just fine.
Two themes for menu. Menu is nicely organized with features that
matter easy to access. Much better then the U8 if I may compare.
Notification system is also much better. with a preview of the
sms or other notification that arrives. Longer notifs are clear and cripst to
read on the 320p screen. Which pops on when an notif arrives or when you lift your arm in the right direction. Very usable indeed though shaking would be better.
Every app is nicely tweaked. And the added compass works fine.
Very nice watch and very slim. Obviously adding the gsm module will add a few milimeters. Still have to test this though.
If I get around a pc I will upload the rom for those who want it or just incase. But lets see for an update first.
Misses:
A notif has an menu when swiping from the right. When a large email arrives and you want to access the menu(open, delete, block) the watch may freez.
You dont really need the menu that badly but when it locks, just press the side button for approx. 12 sec. and reboot. No biggy but unfortinute. edit; A long press on an item in the list also pop's upp the menu which works fine.
The vibrator is somewhat to loud. It makes more noice then the alarm sound(in low volume). Sadly no way of turning it down. Turn it off at the cinema or you'll get popcorned!
No Calc! This is a smartwatch, right?
Screen could be a little less bright in the dark. Although a amoled would have been great its a nice ips screen. But a lower setting would be nice.
So did you find a way to make a copy of the firmware?
Thanks
No I have not. I dont have an pc availible. I did try
it on my W10 tablet but W10 isnt beeing very likable.
Can you share the program you used, with drivers, then
I will give it an other try. Also did you use the cable that
came in the box to flash the watch?
My table did not recognize the device. Could be the OTG,
the cable or just plain old W10
I used the cable provided. But I had to use an older laptop running Windows XP. Wouldn't work on my W10 laptop.
I am currently in a moving phaze, so I dont think I can help you right now.
All my stuff is tight up.
Maybe a virtual machine with xp on a w10 tablet/pc will work...
If somebody else can jump in here? I see what I can do here. No promises though.
Benwayqb said:
I used the cable provided. But I had to use an older laptop running Windows XP. Wouldn't work on my W10 laptop.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
have you found an issue ?
Benwayqb said:
Does anyone have the u11 rom ? I corrupted something on mine by installing an app. Now it's stuck on the clock. Touchscreen works... it still connects to my paired phone but I can't navigate the menus.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It seems i have a same issue, only clock menu. depending on chosen clock I can access to call and message fonctions.
Best regards

RK8 HDMI issue

I got an RK8 box and runs great with my 4k TV. Exception being HDMI. When I turn on the RK8, it will not display on my TV. I have to unplug the HDMI from the box and plug it back in and than it will work. Is there a setting that I'm missing?
It's plugged into my HDMI port on the LG for 2.0. The TV also recognizes it as an HDMI 2.0 devices and switches the tv to 10bit colour on that port. Only issue is unplugging and plugging back in the HDMI cable to it to show.
Hi Kevin. Have had the RK8 for a couple of months now, and after the first couple of weeks using it on my Samsung UE65JU6070, I can no longer switch it on with my remote (switching off works fine), thus I have gotten used to unplug/replug the power cord. Maybe it's the same issue you're experiencing? I'll check tonight if unplugging/replugging the HDMI cable does the same trick for me as the power cord.
Can I ask, what is your experience in playing 4K youtube video's? It seems mine is very reluctant to do so (doesn't work on the youtube app, and only sporadically using a webbrowser).
Otherwise I agree with you .... it is a great box which seems to run very stable without any overheating issues etc. ..... and having upgraded KODI to 15.2 means I no longer have any stability issues there either (NB: if you do this update, you need to uninstall the pre-installed KODI 14 first .... so remember to save your settings etc.).
Just a last comment. At 70 USD this seems to me to be great value ..... I'm surprised it's so difficult to find other people on the Internet who have experience with this box ....
Best regards Mogens
mogensberg said:
Hi Kevin. Have had the RK8 for a couple of months now, and after the first couple of weeks using it on my Samsung UE65JU6070, I can no longer switch it on with my remote (switching off works fine), thus I have gotten used to unplug/replug the power cord. Maybe it's the same issue you're experiencing? I'll check tonight if unplugging/replugging the HDMI cable does the same trick for me as the power cord.
Can I ask, what is your experience in playing 4K youtube video's? It seems mine is very reluctant to do so (doesn't work on the youtube app, and only sporadically using a webbrowser).
Otherwise I agree with you .... it is a great box which seems to run very stable without any overheating issues etc. ..... and having upgraded KODI to 15.2 means I no longer have any stability issues there either (NB: if you do this update, you need to uninstall the pre-installed KODI 14 first .... so remember to save your settings etc.).
Just a last comment. At 70 USD this seems to me to be great value ..... I'm surprised it's so difficult to find other people on the Internet who have experience with this box ....
Best regards Mogens
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have no remote/power issues. Just issue with it showing on my tv. It powers up and won't display. TV see's that HDMI3 has power but does not show unless I unplug/plug the HDMI cord in the box.
I don't use youtube on this box. Just Kodi.
kevink15 said:
I have no remote/power issues. Just issue with it showing on my tv. It powers up and won't display. TV see's that HDMI3 has power but does not show unless I unplug/plug the HDMI cord in the box.
I don't use youtube on this box. Just Kodi.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi again Kevin. Since my last post, it has happend 3 - 4 times that I've experienced your issue of "black screen", but for me it has come out of the blue. Picture comes back when unplugging and replugging the HDMI cable just as you say. I was wondering if you have gotten any closer to find a solution?
Pls be aware that I tried to update to Kodi Jarvis (16.0) release, but went back to 15.2 due to an issue with menu text being "corrupted", which required each time starting Kodi to go and change the font. Allegedly it's an issue related to HDMI as well, so I'm wondering if there is some "glitch" in the box' HDMI implementation (HW or FW).
I'm sure you have tried already, but if not, have you tried to move the HDMI cable to another input on the TV? Do you have some configuration possibilities with the HDMI inputs on the TV ... if yes, maybe play around with those.
Small quirks ... but I have to say that for USD 60, this is still an amazing box even if I still cannot power it on with any remote (but power off works fine with all remotes).
Best regards Mogens
mogensberg said:
Hi again Kevin. Since my last post, it has happend 3 - 4 times that I've experienced your issue of "black screen", but for me it has come out of the blue. Picture comes back when unplugging and replugging the HDMI cable just as you say. I was wondering if you have gotten any closer to find a solution?
Pls be aware that I tried to update to Kodi Jarvis (16.0) release, but went back to 15.2 due to an issue with menu text being "corrupted", which required each time starting Kodi to go and change the font. Allegedly it's an issue related to HDMI as well, so I'm wondering if there is some "glitch" in the box' HDMI implementation (HW or FW).
I'm sure you have tried already, but if not, have you tried to move the HDMI cable to another input on the TV? Do you have some configuration possibilities with the HDMI inputs on the TV ... if yes, maybe play around with those.
Small quirks ... but I have to say that for USD 60, this is still an amazing box even if I still cannot power it on with any remote (but power off works fine with all remotes).
Best regards Mogens
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't had time to work with it to be honest. I think its a poor HDMI 2.0 design on the box. I still have the issue and just yesterday, my Kodi updated to 16 and I get the same issue as you with the block lettering which I haven't tried to fix as yet. Thanks for sharing changing of the font.
Reason I suspect its the unit and not tv, is because sometimes when it does not display on my tv. The tv gives a pop up indicating "The device connected does not support 10 bit deep colour". Then I unplug and plug and it goes away.
Hopefully I can get sometime to fiddle with it more and see how it can be resolved.
Have you tried to see if there is a software update? The update option on my box does not even work. I wonder if we both got knock offs or just duds.
kevink15 said:
I haven't had time to work with it to be honest. I think its a poor HDMI 2.0 design on the box. I still have the issue and just yesterday, my Kodi updated to 16 and I get the same issue as you with the block lettering which I haven't tried to fix as yet. Thanks for sharing changing of the font.
Reason I suspect its the unit and not tv, is because sometimes when it does not display on my tv. The tv gives a pop up indicating "The device connected does not support 10 bit deep colour". Then I unplug and plug and it goes away.
Hopefully I can get sometime to fiddle with it more and see how it can be resolved.
Have you tried to see if there is a software update? The update option on my box does not even work. I wonder if we both got knock offs or just duds.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi Kevin,
The box is made by Acemax, and there is no FW update since the original (believe the one it's shipped with is dated 30. sep 2015 ...but that's from memory as I'm at work). I don't think it's a knock off, but I do think it's a "standard" board which is basically put into a plastic cabinet, where the only difference to identical spec products (like the Xidoo X6 Pro) is the location of the USB ports. It seems it uses exactly the same components as that one and others similar to it ... however, Acemax do seem to have FW updates for other products they've made on their homepage, so ... who knows. If somebody is brave and skillful enough, such person may even try at install a FW from f.ex. the Xidoo box ... but I'm afraid that's not me (not due to lack of bravery, but ... skill!!). With that being said, I believe my issue with having to unplug/replug the power cord once per day is something I can live with easily (and it has worked, so it may be a question of resetting the box, which I frankly am to lazy to do!!), so .... I guess looking at such small quirks and comparing them to the overall usability of the box, then the trade-off is not too bad.
A quick view on a couple of threads for similar boxes (f.ex. the Xidoo) would seem to indicate that some of their users are having issues that makes ours "luxury problems" in comparison.
Anyway, I'll keep you updated if I stumble over something useful .... and would appreciate if you do the same.
P.S. A "clever" streaming guy has told me that the best Kodi version in terms of stability for live TV streaming still is Helix .... although I'm quite happy with Isenguard (got too tired of the font changing thing on Jarvis, so I re-installed Isenguard). I'm more or less only using mine for streaming HD channels (mostly UK Sky / BT sports) for EPL, and it works fantastic.
I found a weird solution for the unplug issue! When I turn on the box and my tv is on the hdmi port. I turn the tv off and turn it back on and the box displays. Tried this a few times and it worked.
mogensberg said:
Hi Kevin,
The box is made by Acemax, and there is no FW update since the original (believe the one it's shipped with is dated 30. sep 2015 ...but that's from memory as I'm at work). I don't think it's a knock off, but I do think it's a "standard" board which is basically put into a plastic cabinet, where the only difference to identical spec products (like the Xidoo X6 Pro) is the location of the USB ports. It seems it uses exactly the same components as that one and others similar to it ... however, Acemax do seem to have FW updates for other products they've made on their homepage, so ... who knows. If somebody is brave and skillful enough, such person may even try at install a FW from f.ex. the Xidoo box ... but I'm afraid that's not me (not due to lack of bravery, but ... skill!!). With that being said, I believe my issue with having to unplug/replug the power cord once per day is something I can live with easily (and it has worked, so it may be a question of resetting the box, which I frankly am to lazy to do!!), so .... I guess looking at such small quirks and comparing them to the overall usability of the box, then the trade-off is not too bad.
A quick view on a couple of threads for similar boxes (f.ex. the Xidoo) would seem to indicate that some of their users are having issues that makes ours "luxury problems" in comparison.
Anyway, I'll keep you updated if I stumble over something useful .... and would appreciate if you do the same.
P.S. A "clever" streaming guy has told me that the best Kodi version in terms of stability for live TV streaming still is Helix .... although I'm quite happy with Isenguard (got too tired of the font changing thing on Jarvis, so I re-installed Isenguard). I'm more or less only using mine for streaming HD channels (mostly UK Sky / BT sports) for EPL, and it works fantastic.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure if you saw my last note about the power. I've also figured out more about this box. It has a rockchip which is one of the worst to use. Kodi does not support that chip fully, hence the weird text when launched. We have to stick with the preload or, I've read some place to download the "X86" apk from the kodi site. Also, I tested my box on a regular 1080p tv with hdmi 1.4. And the issues of it not displaying right away, are eliminated which lead me to believe the hdmi 2.0 in this box is poorly designed.
I'm probably going to use this box in my room and get a box with an Amlogic chip for 4k as those are the better boxes to have and more support is offered.
kevink15 said:
Not sure if you saw my last note about the power. I've also figured out more about this box. It has a rockchip which is one of the worst to use. Kodi does not support that chip fully, hence the weird text when launched. We have to stick with the preload or, I've read some place to download the "X86" apk from the kodi site. Also, I tested my box on a regular 1080p tv with hdmi 1.4. And the issues of it not displaying right away, are eliminated which lead me to believe the hdmi 2.0 in this box is poorly designed.
I'm probably going to use this box in my room and get a box with an Amlogic chip for 4k as those are the better boxes to have and more support is offered.
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Click to collapse
Hi Kevin,
I just now saw your other post about the power .... I tried that myself, but to no avail.
I'm not sure you're right about the Rockchip being one of the worst technically, but in terms of support (official and un-official) you're right.
However, since I use my box for watching IP TV, I can live with using Kodi 15.2. I've tried the Kodi 17 dev version, and it has the same issue with garbled text as Kodi 16.
The Kodi x86.apk cannot be installed on our box .... I tried yesterday, but I guess it is for an Intel based android solution.
In terms of HDMI 2.0 implementation, I wouldn't be surprised if it's not perfectly implemented .... not sure if HDCP 2.2 also plays a role.
Anyway, at the end of the day you get what you pay for .... and since I paid USD 65 for my box, I have to say I feel I got a lot of value for money, despite it's few quirks .... and as a friend of mine always says; what kind of life would it be without complaints
Best regards Mogens
Hi again Kevin,
The family being out for Saturday shopping, I spent a little time with my afternoon coffee on the computer.
You are right, that KODI do not support the RK3368 SoC, as the manufacturer does not comply with Android standards, which necessitates that standard KODI is "hacked" to work perfectly with this chip .... something the KODI development community naturally does not want to do.
However, it seems the manufacturer Zidoo whose Z6 box is based on the same SoC, has showed some good customer service, and actually created a ZDMC app, which is basically KODI 16 with a few modifications for RK3368.
I downloaded their firmware for the Z6 box, and extracted the ZDMC apk from there and installed it on my RK8 box ..... and albeit I've only tested it shortly, it works beautifully with no issues so far. Apart from not having garbled menu text, it also seems like it's actually able to make 4K output (the standard KODI irrespective of versions only seemed to be able to show FHD, but would in turn show a refresh rate of twice the actual .... too techincal for me!).
Long story short, if you want to test it out, I've uploaded the above apk to Mega with the download link below.
https://mega.nz/#!TR1SEByC
Encryption key needed: !kN-15aGvZljVdKEus9LT7NxCYjqnthR8bbaYD_YfhiQ
Let me know if it works for you and/or if you find anything. Also let me know if the download link doesn't work.
Enjoy your weekend!
Best regards Mogens
kevink15 said:
Not sure if you saw my last note about the power. I've also figured out more about this box. It has a rockchip which is one of the worst to use. Kodi does not support that chip fully, hence the weird text when launched. We have to stick with the preload or, I've read some place to download the "X86" apk from the kodi site. Also, I tested my box on a regular 1080p tv with hdmi 1.4. And the issues of it not displaying right away, are eliminated which lead me to believe the hdmi 2.0 in this box is poorly designed.
I'm probably going to use this box in my room and get a box with an Amlogic chip for 4k as those are the better boxes to have and more support is offered.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi again Kevin,
Just a last comment this time around. I've now used the above mentioned RK3368 "modified" version of Kodi 16, and I have to say it is extremely stable and works better on the RK8 than Kodi 15.2.
If you have a chance, try it out. Given the very, very limited 4K material out there, I hope this box should be able to carry me through the next couple of years until availability of material as well as new compression methods become available.
Best regards Mogens

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