K1: Opinion about the tab

[henry74]

Hello.

Before asking few questions I will introduce myself. I am 38 (OMG!), I work from home (Ebay seller), and I love technology. My computer is a MacBook Pro because I think that OSX is still amazing, easy and reliable to work with. However, I am not anymore an Apple Fan extremist. My First Tab was the Motorola Xoom and I loved it. Especially when they upgraded to 3.2 Honeycomb. However after few months I sold it, and bought the HP touchpad on Ebay. Personally I loved the HP touchpad and WEBOS. Probably the best OS unfortunately the app store is like shopping in an empty shop. I bought 3 HP Touchpad and sold them. I bought the Ipad 2 but was not very convinced. I don't like the design of the Ipad. Also I thought that the camera was awful and sound quality not good at all (The touchpad is much better). Then I bought the New Ipad. I just sold it last week. I loved the screen, but still not convinced about all the IPAD thing.

I always liked the design of the K1. It is unusual and unique. I have seen a good offer for the K1(Black) with the Keyboard/dock and it looks a a good bargain. I have seen that the reviews on tech website are not good but I remember reviews about Xoom or Touchpad were not great either..and I loved both tablets. Also I think Tech reviews are too Apple extremist and not enough open minded.

So here are the questions:

1/ Once you get all the latest updates 3.2.1 (?), is the K1 very reliable? Does App crashes? Does the web browser crash?

2/ Is there still issue with the lock as I have read on few forum?

3/ Is the sound quality Good? Bad? Average?

4/ If somebody has the keyboard/dock, is that a good option?

5/ Pro and cons with the K1?

6/ Is it easy to sync with Macbook Pro?

7/ Is the Black version a nice option?

[henry74]

Any help? any answer? Thanks

[fredsmith219]

This is just my experience, but I hope you find them helpful:

1/ Once you get all the latest updates 3.2.1 (?), is the K1 very reliable? Does App crashes? Does the web browser crash?

The tablet is very stable. The browser will occasionally crash if it's loading  a very complex page. 

2/ Is there still issue with the lock as I have read on few forum?

Yes, the K1 will occasionally wake up for no apparent reason

3/ Is the sound quality Good? Bad? Average?

Sound quality is OK. I hook up external speakers if I'm watching a video and walking around the house, cleaning, etc.

4/ If somebody has the keyboard/dock, is that a good option?

I have the Logitech BT Keyboard. It is a great accessory. I also have a Kensington BT mouse. It works great with the K1

5/ Pro and cons with the K1?

Pros: this is a very good tablet at a great price. ICS is coming out soon, which should make it even better. I really love the K1. 

Cons: Why the heck is the headphone port on the bottom? You can't use it with a folio-style cover/stand because the bottom rests on where the headset would go. To hook up external speakers, I have to turn it "upside down" and plug in the headphones. Not a big problem at all, just a "Why the heck did they do that?"

6/ Is it easy to sync with Macbook Pro?

I don't know. I have a System 76 laptop running Ubuntu. It works great with that to copy over files/music/movies. 

7/ Is the Black version a nice option?

If you like black, then yes

The camra is OK. The FFC camera is OK for video chats. Right now I can't get Skype Video to work with it, though. Google Talk works fine. 

Overall, I recommend the tablet. My wife has an iPad, and we have couple of Android phones, so I'm no stranger to tech. I think that the K1 is very functional and a good value for the price. 

Hope this helps.

[henry74]

Thank you for your answers. It helps! Anymore comments are much appreciated as I will order the tablet Monday! Thanks

[gallahad2000]

1/ Once you get all the latest updates 3.2.1 (?), is the K1 very reliable? Does App crashes? Does the web browser crash?

The tablet is very stable. I get occasional app crashes but nothing serious.

2/ Is there still issue with the lock as I have read on few forum?

Yes, the K1 will occasionally wake up for no apparent reason

3/ Is the sound quality Good? Bad? Average?

Sound quality is OK.  The speakers point away from you so it can be difficult to hear at times (especially on a flat surface).

4/ If somebody has the keyboard/dock, is that a good option?

I have a motorola bluetooth keyboard and a logitech bluetooth mouse/kb combo and both work perfectly with the K1.

5/ Pro and cons with the K1?

Pros: this is a very good tablet for the $250 that I paid in December. ICS is coming out soon, which should make it even better. It has a SD card slot, supports USB host (once you get the adapter) and has been rooted.  Tegra2 is also a very capable SoC. 

Cons: Tegra3 is much more powerful than Tegra2. And the Tegra3 tablets are already <$400.  The headphone port is in the worst possible position.  I got a set of headphones with 90 degree jack but I still don't like the tablet resting on it.  The tablet is a bit thick/heavy, it's got last generation's hardware, a locked boot loader, no USB (without a hard to get adapter), microHDMI port is a bit tempermental (I have to plug it in a couple of times before it'll work/ it loses connection fairly frequently) and the button on the face has a very sensitive motion sensor that will send you to the home screen if you move your finger within a 1/2 inch of it.

The camera is OK. The FF camera is OK for video chats. I have Skype working on mine and it's great.

Overall, I recommend the K1 at $250 or less.  The K1 is a nice tegra2 tablet but the new Google tablet will have a tegra3 at $200 (though it will be 7")  and the new transformer already has it in a 10"  package for <$400.

[henry74]

Thanks for your help. It looks that once the K1 get all the latest updates it is much more reliable than it appears on a lot of reviews that I read.

I have found the K1 with Keyboard dock at good price. I understand the Keyboard dock is also a charger for the tablet.

About Tegra 2: It looks for exemple that the new IOS 6 won't work with the IPAD1, so my question do you think that soon apps won't work with Tegra 2? 

I really like the Xoom 2 Media edition but without SD card and only 16gb I think the 64GB K1 with SD card is a better option. The Xoom 2 speakers sounds very good and for me speakers is always important  for a tablet!

[gallahad2000]

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@henry74 wrote:

About Tegra 2: It looks for exemple that the new IOS 6 won't work with the IPAD1, so my question do you think that soon apps won't work with Tegra 2? 

---

The K1 will get ICS in a few days from Lenovo but it is not likely to get Jellybean (unless a developer in the K1 community puts one together and even then it would likely have bugs).  That being said apps don't just stop working because you have an old OS.  Almost all of the android phones (even ones released in 2012) run gingerbread (android 2.3) and those phones are still able to get plenty of apps from the play store.

Tegra2 is much less powerful than tegra3 and there will be a few games that are not available on it (Dark Meadows, for instance) but there are still plenty of games that will run on it.  The difference, other than just gaming, is that tegra3 will give you a more responsive device and has better power management.  So your device will feel faster when your switching apps and it will run longer due to a low power fifth core.  Tegra2 is great but it's over 2 years old and mobile technology has come a long way since then.

[henry74]

Well that's it! I have finally ordered the 64Gb K1 (Black) with Keyboard dock.

After the Xoom, The Ipad 2, 1 Touchpad with Android, 2 Touchpad webOS only, and the new Ipad, I decided to buy the K1.

Why? First I really like the look. It is different and not as borring as other tabs. I use a lot Google. Even If my computer is a MacBook Pro I am not an extremist IFAN and I never liked the design and performance of the IPAD. So that's it.

I will receive it next week and maybe I will be able to update to ICS

[henry74]

hello.

I just received my Black K1 64Gb with Keyboard. First impression: Very nice tab. Good sounds, nice screen and responsive.

I don't know why all the reviews were so bad!

OK, now one questions. I check my system update and it download an update (which I thought would be 3.2.1 android). I finished the update, and when I check in settings it still shows Android 3.1?

Any idea?

Thanks

[Burger]

You need to do the update several times til@ there is no more update to dl. Updates comes as incremental updates and not as a cummulative one. So keep on relaunching the system update till there is non to dl.