quick review of zatab

Lloyd Kvam lkvam at venix.com
Mon Oct 1 16:56:15 EDT 2012


On Fri, 2012-09-28 at 16:22 -0400, Lloyd Kvam wrote:
> On Mon, 2012-09-03 at 10:44 -0400, Lloyd Kvam wrote:
> > http://zareason.com/shop/zatab.html
> > 
> > I bought a tablet from zareason and have had it for a week now.  This is
> > my first Android device and I'm still learning how to use it.  I had not
> > realized that it is missing:
> >       * GPS
> >       * Bluetooth
> > 
> > That's not critical for me, but those are useful components.
> > 
> > Battery life does not extrapolate to 14 hours, but the indicator could
> > be wrong and my settings might need some adjustment.  The battery has
> > not run out on me.

I have not attempted a Mossberg style battery test, but I completed a
day of use playing music and stuff.  The battery is certainly adequate.
 
> > It seems fairly comparable to the original iPad, but with two cameras
> > and ports (USB, HDMI).  So far I'm happy with it.  I like the bigger
> > screen as compared to the Nexus.
> 
> Just a bit more info:
> 
> 	https://github.com/zareason/android_local_manifest
> 	#zareason IRC channel on freenode.net
> 
> were provided as contact references for developer news.  There is not
> much visible activity, and the getting started instructions did not work
> for me.  I'm not looking for help!  This was just idle curiosity.
> 
> The screen is lightly scuffed.  I did not buy a case and did not realize
> the screen would suffer in my back pack.  I now keep it in the original
> wrapper.  The scuffs are not visible when the screen is lit and they
> have not caused me any difficulties.

^^THAT^^ is what you get when a software guy reports on hardware.
Zareason informs me:

        Your tablet comes with two screen protectors. The second one is
        a bit harder to see but can be carefully removed with your
        fingernails. The surface revealed is much more scratch
        resistant.

Indeed that second protector is in place.  The real screen surface is
pristine.

> cpuinfo:
> Processor	: ARMv7 Processor rev 2 (v7l)
> BogoMIPS	: 1001.88
> Features	: swp half thumb fastmult vfp edsp neon vfpv3 
> CPU implementer	: 0x41
> CPU architecture: 7
> CPU variant	: 0x3
> CPU part	: 0xc08
> CPU revision	: 2
> 
> Hardware	: sun4i
> Revision	: 0000
> Serial	 : 05c2e4b1575748488071825016236752
> 
> 
> meminfo:
> MemTotal:         833812 kB
> MemFree:          405988 kB
> Buffers:           21720 kB
> Cached:           208056 kB
> SwapCached:            0 kB
> Active:           190816 kB
> Inactive:         192612 kB
> Active(anon):     153652 kB
> Inactive(anon):      328 kB
> Active(file):      37164 kB
> Inactive(file):   192284 kB
> Unevictable:           0 kB
> Mlocked:               0 kB
> HighTotal:        393216 kB
> HighFree:          16752 kB
> LowTotal:         440596 kB
> LowFree:          389236 kB
> SwapTotal:             0 kB
> SwapFree:              0 kB
> Dirty:                 8 kB
> Writeback:             0 kB
> AnonPages:        153656 kB
> Mapped:            62932 kB
> Shmem:               348 kB
> Slab:              13220 kB
> SReclaimable:       7212 kB
> SUnreclaim:         6008 kB
> KernelStack:        4424 kB
> PageTables:         6652 kB
> NFS_Unstable:          0 kB
> Bounce:                0 kB
> WritebackTmp:          0 kB
> CommitLimit:      416904 kB
> Committed_AS:    4722152 kB
> VmallocTotal:     122880 kB
> VmallocUsed:       29840 kB
> VmallocChunk:      74100 kB

Zareason explained that the HOST USB port could be used as a boot
device.  So that could be quite handy if I wanted to try out an
alternative Android or Arm based Linux.

-- 
Lloyd Kvam
Venix Corp.
1 Court Street, Suite 378
Lebanon, NH 03766-1358

voice:  802-448-0836
fax:    320-210-3409



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