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First Impressions of the 10″ WonderMedia wm8650 Android Tablet

Daily Steals had a generic Android tablet on sale last week. I of course cannot resist cheap tablets, so I bought one. It arrived today, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that in some ways it was better than I expected.

I bought this tablet expecting it to be junk, and it turns to be from WonderMedia and running on a common chipset from VIA. That’s good, because there’s a support forum over at AndroidTablets.net, and it looks to cover a number of related tablets.

Here’s the spec page, in case you’re interested. Don’t read too much into it; my tablet is better than the specs suggest.

What I really like about this tablet is the firmware. It’s surprisingly complete, and it includes subtle touches like  custom home screen, lock screen, web browser, as well as support for 3G dongles and most of the basic apps you might need. My home screen looks  lot like this (only bigger):

The software is good, but the hardware is another matter. This tablet feels cheap – very cheap. The seam between the shell and the front isn’t well sealed and I could easily get  fingernail under the front. The button to the right of the screen also feels cheap and it doesn’t fit the space quite right. And I have the feeling that the screen is slightly crooked in the frame.

Update: It’s dead. The hardware turned out to be crappier than I expected.

But aside from that, the specs and performance are okay. I haven’t instilled any apps yet, but it was okay at browsing the web. Youtube worked fine. And the camera was only VGA, but the image quality was decent.

All in all, it’s not the worst tablet I’ve seen. If you come cross this tablet on sale for less than $100, go for it.

I should be able to post a real review in a couple weeks.

Specs

  • 800MHz WM8650 CPU
  • 400MHz GPU
  • Android v2.2
  • 10″ (1024×600) resistive touchscreen
  • VGA webcam (decent quality images)
  • 4GB Flash storage
  • microSD card slot
  • ethernet
  • Wifi
  • 3 USB ports (2 host, 1 client)
  • speakers, mike
  • g-sensor

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Comments


Today’s Top Tablet News – The Tab Farm February 8, 2012 um 9:38 am

[…] This $100 Tablet May Be Worth the Price […]


Ken Skier February 8, 2012 um 9:55 am

This budget tablet has USB hosting? (And apparently not just one, but TWO USB host ports?) If so, that’s very impressive!

Have you tried plugging in a USB drive (or a digital camera via its USB cable)? Can you access the files on the drive (or the photos on the camera)?

Have you tried plugging in a USB keyboard and/or mouse? Can you type from the keyboard? Can you interact with the screen via the mouse?

If this tablet really can connect properly to USB drives, cameras, keyboards and mice, it is MIGHTY appealing.

Thanks for this initial post. I look forward to your further reports on this tablet!

Nate Hoffelder February 8, 2012 um 10:14 am

I did test a KB and thumb drive, yes. They were recognized right away. I don’t have a spare mouse to test, but I would expect that to work too.


On the Perils of Buying a Generic Android Tablet – The Digital Reader February 15, 2012 um 11:53 pm

[…] 15th, 2012 by Nate Hoffelder · No Comments · opinionLast week I took possession of a truly generic Android Tablet. It had no brand, model name, nor even any identifiable features. And now it’s dead.The […]


gurmail singh May 22, 2012 um 12:07 pm

i could not run the sim card . it has ben locked. how can i unlock the sim and use internet through my sim. kindly solved it. Thanks


subhash patidar November 10, 2012 um 6:03 am

i could not run the sim card . it has been locked. how can i unlock the sim and use internet through my sim


Ritik §íñGH November 26, 2013 um 11:10 am

Well i have only 3 problems,
1.) it have vry vry slow processor(600 Mhtz)
2.) middle button doesnt work, its strucked inside
3.) bad touch


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