What we have here folks is one cheap 7-inch Android 4.0 tablet, the Ainol Novo 7 Paladin and yes, it runs on Ice Cream Sandwich. It says so on the box and I also checked the UI and the system settings. I first heard of Ainol when I saw their stall at SM Megamall (near Cyberzone) and I got curious about their cheap tablets which aren’t shabby-looking at all.
Fortunately, our friends over at Widget City sent one for us to try out. I’ll post my review soon but first, let’s see what’s inside the box.
Who wouldn’t love a 7-inch tablet with a flaming horse on its box. And there’s also the Marvel logo which would make comic geeks curious.
Fancy looking box inside the box.
And here are the contents of the box.
You’ll get the Paladin 7-inch tablet that comes with a rather cheap-looking faux-leather folio case. Basic earphones. And a miniUSB (not microUSB) cable for data and charging. No USB adapter for power outlet charging so you’ll have to get your own. At least you don’t need a special cable for charging.
The Paladin has a soft matte finish at the back and the bezel makes it look like a digital picture frame. It’s not slim, but it’s more compact than the older Ainol Novo 7 Advanced. All the physical buttons are on the side and this includes the Back and Menu buttons which is a bit weird since they can just use the onscreen Android buttons.
Turning on the unit, I was greeted by its 800 x 480 resolution display. A bit of a letdown when I just came from using the Huawei MediaPad. But I guess that’s what its price is capable of. If you’re picky with graphics, you’ll be irritated with the obvious pixels you would see on the Paladin’s display. However, the target audience of this tablet won’t care much about the display.
Anyway, Ice Cream Sandwich works fine on the Novo 7 Paladin. I saw a lot of Chinese apps which you might want to uninstall pronto. Transitions and switching apps are not as smooth as I want it to be but they’re not that slow either. Tried playing the pre-installed Spider-man (that’s what the Marvel logo is all about) and touch response and animation is snappy most of the time unless a lot of action is going on the screen at the same time.
So that’s it for now. Will play with it some more to give you a more detailed review and see if it’s worth the Php5,800 price Widget City is selling it for. Showed it to my friends at work and they said that they’re willing to buy such tablet at that price. Better than Kingcom’s. Hehehe.
UPDATE: We got word from Widget City that ordinarily, the package does not come with the leather case (Php150). But for you, PTB readers, just print this page and you get the leather case for free as well as a 4GB microSD when you buy the Ainol Novo 7 Paladin.
Ainol Novo 7 Paladin Specs: |
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MIPS-Based XBurst 1.0GHz processor |
Vivante GC860 444MH GPU |
Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich |
7-inch capacitive touchscreen display (840 x 480 resolution) |
8GB internal storage, support for microSD up to 32GB |
8GB internal storage, support for microSD up to 32GB |
512M RAM |
1GB ROM |
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n |
No cameras (front/rear) |
4000 mAh battery |
Colors: Black / White |
Php5,800 |