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First Impressions of the Innovatek InnoSoul Android Tablet

My latest endeavor in plumbing the depths of budget tablets is a 7″ Android 4.0 tablet that my competition found on Amazon last week. It’s from a company that I’ve never heard of (though I do see that Innovatek does offer some consumer electronics).

This tablet piqued my interest because it fell into the $99 price range and shipped with specs that appeared to be better than either the Polaroid PMID701 or the IdolPad.

I cannot say for sure yet whether this is the better tablet, but after fiddling with it for an hour I do think it’s work a closer look.

The InnoSoul is a 7″ budget Android  tablet, but the specs are somewhat better than I expected. It’s running the latest version of Android on a 1.5GHz CPU. The screen is the usual 800×480 with a 5 point capacitive touchscreen. My model is the $109 one with 8GB Flash, not 4GB, and it also has an excess of ports and slots, including USB Host, HDMI out, speaker/mike, as well as a 1.3MP webcam.

It doesn’t appear to have come with the necessary cable, but the specs boast that this tablet can support 2160p video playback for all formats. It also reportedly supports 3D Android games, though I’m not sure how I’m going to test that. One detail I can confirm is that this tablet ships with Android Market installed. As soon as I got it set up (a bumpy process), it updated itself to Google Play, which was nice.

At first glance the build quality is decent. It falls somewhere in between the PMID701 and the IdolPad, and I don’t see any obvious shortcomings. The touchscreen works slightly better than on the PMID701  and it is attached better than the one on the  IdolPad.

But I have noticed a quirk which might put some users off. It looks like the developers forgot to hide or remove one of their dev tools. This tablet tracks your use of the touchscreen with a line. It also reports the (x,y) screen coordinates in a row across the top of the screen. It’s strange, and I don’t know that I want to put up with it.

Update: Scroll down to the comments for instructions on how to turn this off.

I’ve installed a couple apps (Aldiko and Angry Birds). Aldiko works fine and Angry Birds performed slightly better than it did on either of its competition.

All in all, this is not a bad tablet. It cost a little more but I have the feeling that the performance might justify it. I’m looking forward to posting a review on the weekend.

Amazon

Specs

  • Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich
  • CPU: A10 1.0GHz
  • RAM Memory: 512MB
  • 7″ screen, Resolution: 800×480
  • 5 points capacitive touchscreen
  • 8GB Flash storage
  • microSD Card
  • speaker, mike
  • Mini USB and USB port
  • HDMI out
  • g-sensor
  • Wifi
  • 1.3MP webcam
  • Dimensions: 195mm x 120mm x 14mm
  • Weight: 0.7lbs

Specs

  • Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich
  • CPU: A10 1.0GHz
  • RAM Memory: 512MB
  • 7″ screen, Resolution: 800×480
  • 5 points capacitive touchscreen
  • 8GB Flash storage
  • microSD Card
  • speaker, mike
  • Mini USB and USB port
  • HDMI out
  • g-sensor
  • Wifi
  • 1.3MP webcam
  • Dimensions: 195mm x 120mm x 14mm
  • Weight: 0.7lbs

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Comments


cookie April 23, 2012 um 5:33 pm

How the F does this budget tablet come with the Google Market but better known brands with Android 4.0 (like Coby) don’t.

cookie April 23, 2012 um 5:40 pm

a follow-up question would be did they develop their own hack or did they get official approval.


Ravi April 23, 2012 um 9:07 pm

Did you look under Settings > Developer Options? Two of the checkboxes there involve touchscreen feedback that looks a lot like what you’re talking about. If they’re on, turning them off should fix the issue.

Nate Hoffelder April 23, 2012 um 9:12 pm

Thanks! I didn’t know that was something I could turn off.

Hehehe. Now I can’t wait to do it to someone else’s tablet just to mess with them.


heather April 25, 2012 um 3:31 pm

In addition to Amazon you can also get one from their eBay store that comes with a wireless keyboard for an extra $20, or go for their 10.1 in version (also bundled with keyboard).

http://www.ebay.com/sch/innovatekonline/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p3686


Sam April 25, 2012 um 10:06 pm

Do did the device come rooted or was it easy to root?

Nate Hoffelder April 25, 2012 um 10:16 pm

It’s been reported elsewhere that it came prerooted. I don’t care; my only interest was installing apps.

Phil May 22, 2012 um 10:20 pm

I had this for awhile now. Is it truly “Pre-rooted”? It don’t think mine is… Can anybody clarify/verify this? Also, can not download most apps. I have been side-loading apps with APK files. Otherwise I think it has been a pretty good tablet for the price.


Jeff May 8, 2012 um 8:30 am

Have you benchmarked yours? I just got one, and all the benchmarks are showing it as a 1.0GHz CPU. The CPU performance is on par with other 1.0GHz devices too (Samsung Nexus S0.

Thomas May 12, 2012 um 4:39 pm

It uses the same Allwinner A10 processor as the Polaroid 701 and many other tablets in this price range. Some of them list it as 1.5GHz because it can be overclocked to that speed, but I don’t think anyone has seen one running reliably faster that 1 GHz or a little over.

Jeff May 14, 2012 um 9:23 pm

Advertising it as a 1.5GHz processor, when it’s factory set to run at 1.0GHz, is obviously false.

Tried to overclock mine to 1.2GHz. Instant crashes.


Juan May 10, 2012 um 2:14 am

Hi, Nate
I just got a Inno Soul (Innovatek), and so far, I have been unable to connect to the WiFi; I just don’t know what the problem is. I have WiFi on, and even the connection is excellent, it just doesn’t happen, yet. Did you have to do anything special?
Thanks,
Juan


Erik May 12, 2012 um 11:29 pm

Anyone else having issues with video playback? I bought the 10″ with 4.0 ICS – It will not load any videos from espn.com, youtube, Netflix only has audio playback, google movie app says cannot play video from their rental store since device is rooted. I just got it, Help would be great.

innosoul owner June 28, 2012 um 9:47 am

Check if the Flash Player app is installed. If it isn’t, install it. If it is (which it probably is), then uninstall and reinstall it. It should work. I had to do the same with mine


Dutch Startup Tabbled Launches 99 Euro Academic Tablet – The Digital Reader May 21, 2012 um 6:05 am

[…] I’ve seen the PupilTab before. It bears a striking resemblance to the Innosoul tablet that I got a few weeks back. In fact, I think both Innovatek and Tabbled are using the same product renders to promote their […]


Phil May 22, 2012 um 10:15 pm

I had this for awhile now. Is it truly "Pre-rooted"? It don’t think mine is… Can anybody clarify/verify this? Also, can not download most apps. I have been side-loading apps with APK files. Otherwise I think it has been a pretty good tablet for the price.

Jeff May 23, 2012 um 9:58 pm

Does yours run at 1.5GHz or 1.0GHz? You can check with AnTuTu or Quadrant benchmarks, or CPU Spy.


Review: Innovatek InnoSoul Android Tablet – The Digital Reader May 27, 2012 um 3:33 pm

[…] past month as my main reading device and general distraction.On a sidenote, you might want to read my first impressions post. It covers different details.So what did I think? Well, it’s an okay tablet, but I’m […]


John August 15, 2012 um 1:56 pm

Awesome Tablet! I have had it for one day and it is very sensitive to the touch. The very edges where most shortcuts are like the back button are a bit hard to touch but I have gotten used to it. Mine came with a free leather case (fake leather) and a screen protector(there was a sticker on it and I tore it off and it left part of the sticker behind 🙁 I like the speaker on it….very loud but not much bass to it but what do you expect… I like the layout and how everything works on the android 4.0 ice cream sandwich. It has a USB and mini usb hookup charging cable and a mini usb cord for hookup to computers 😀 It is even external 3g compatible and a HotSpot (WPA2) which I like to have at school for my friends to use. Also lets you know you data usage and you can set a peak so you dont go over your limit. Has a pattern lock, pin, Face Unlock ( i personally dont like how this works), slide (slide the lock to a shortcut of a recent app used). Tells you how long your battery will last and a list of things that is sucking up your battery and the percentage of it, e.g. out of everything running my screen is taking up 43% and that is on full brightness. All in All this tablet is a good buy for the price. I bought it off of mp3playerstore.com and searched for the tablet (but I first saw it on amazon). Hope this helps on your tablet choice.


pierre December 4, 2012 um 8:02 am

I just purchased inno soul 7inches 4.04.
where can i find the user guide .
tks


Michel August 11, 2013 um 11:30 pm

i have Innovatek Inno Android4.1 10jch it went off and will not start back, anyone can help how it will restart

Normand August 16, 2013 um 3:41 pm

Same problem here since yesterday!


Nancy Ramlakan November 25, 2013 um 7:46 am

Please i need desperate help to set up by tablet.


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