EDIT: My Korean friend helped me update my tablet on TriGem's Korean website. While this update obviously isn't available to American products, I'm certain that it will come automatically setup in the American ones. Anyway, I don't have problems with the lock screen anymore, so no worries. It stays on now. ^^. Also, in case you were wondering, it doesn't run Honeycomb. It runs Froyo.
So there's a new tablet out on the marketplace. Only thing I've found is that there is NO info on it that I can find.
TriGem is a Korean computer/laptop/netbook brand. Personally, I had never heard of the company before. I found out after I bought the product.
Anyway, I'm living in Korea right now and I've been wanting an Android tablet for quite some time, what, being in a country where the Galaxy Tab reigns supreme. However, I don't like the small size of the first Galaxy tab so I was waiting for the Galaxy tab II to come out. But, Korea decided to delay its release (they released it in the states which seems a bit backwards to me...to open in another country first) to decide weather or not to add some television capacities on it or not.
Well, I was impatient so I bought the TriGem, the first large Android tablet out to the Korean public. I nabbed it, thinking I had duped everyone.
On the contrary, I'm a tad disappointed in it. I can't complain though, it IS an Android tablet, but there's just some things that urk me about it.
Let's begin. Okay, I've owned it for about a week and about every time I turn it on it takes about 3 minutes. 3. That's so long to wait for something to turn on. That's like waiting for my computer. It bores me. Also, while yes, you can lock the screen, but if you leave it locked for too long the device turns off by itself. I assume (because there are no English versions of a user manual that I've found because NO ONE who speaks English owns one yet...it's not out in the states. Also, the lock is difficult to get to. You have to hold the power button down and hit a button on the screen called suspend, instead of lock). As I said, I think the makers did this as a favor...like everyone wants their tablet to turn off when they forget to do it themselves. Personally, I'd rather let it die on accident then have to turn it on and wait 3 minutes again to do a quick music or wifi search or even listen to some tunes.
There's a rotate lock on the top right of the device, right between the power button and the back button. I really LOVE the position of these buttons, but I'd rather have a screen lock button (and one that doesn't shut off my tablet) than a rotate screen one.
There have been times where I turned on the tablet and it had trouble just opening a couple of generic apps like settings, sometimes even freezing and forcing me to turn off the tablet again to make it work.
The native music app annoyed me (though maybe not everyone) because it tried to organize my music...but I organized it already in its folder so I didn't want to mess with it. Luckily, I downloaded an app that lets me play music straight from a folder. Nice.
Alright, other than some starting-up hiccups, the tablet does what you need to do. Now, if you're running too many apps it's going to freeze up again. I had a few apps running in the back and tried to play angry birds but it froze mid shot. However, I'm really anal about my devices and I don't run many apps together at the same time because I'm worried my device will explode. O.o
The sound that comes out of the headset isn't as rich as I'd like. Perhaps a twinge of metallicness and the volume control kind of blows too. The volume buttons are located to the right side of the device on the side. But it's annoying because the click either makes it too loud or too soft. I can't get a good volume while listening to music.
I haven't watched anything on it yet. Perhaps I'll add that later when I've tried.
I've read e-books on it and it's really good for that. The big screen is great for it. The tablet is kind of heavy, but it's not like I'm some Grandpa...I'll survive.
What does it look like? It's quite square, kind of thick, with audio jack, charger jack, usb slot, sd card slot, hdmi slot, on the right side and a jack at the bottom too (I asked my Korean friend right here to read the manual for me and tell me what it's for but he said it's not anything. Just for show. I kind of doubt it but I don't know. It's small, thin and looks kind of like an iPhone jack). It's (the tablet) about as thick as a pen...maybe an inch or a very slight amount more.
All added information is added straight onto the sd card. The device has a very small amount of memory, used primarily for its native apps, widgets and personal information. Oh, and the usb drive only works for syncing. All of the other reviews are going to tell you it has a usb drive, but don't get all excited. It can't read an external hard drive. That's one of the biggest reasons I grabbed it up so fast. I was going to watch all of my videos off of a flash drive. That dream was squashed very quickly when I shoved in my usb drive.
Wait, I can't forget the camera. It's a like...1.3 (I think. My friend can't find it in the manual. Anyway, it's bad, trust me) megapixel camera and there's only one, facing your direction, on the same side as the screen. It sort of makes the bar code scanner app a little difficult, but I've tried it and it works. You definitely aren't going to be taking great pictures with this camera. It also takes video but I haven't even tried and nor am I going to. We all KNOW how that will turn out.
It was cheap though. Comparably about 360 usd. It was about 400,000 won.
All in all, this would be a great tablet for a kid. One that doesn't have the expectations of an adult. It's not a powerhouse and it definitely cannot compare to the iPad, but I'd rather suffer with it than buy Apple. However, I'm already saving up for my next Droid tablet...and I don't think it will be a TriGem/Averatec product.
2 out of 5 stars.
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