Baulking at the cost of a recent iPad Mini and not happy about the aspect ratio of any modern smartphone, I paid $250 (Australian) for an Alldocube X1. It has an 8.4inch (16:10) screen, 4gB RAM, 64gB memory, 4G LTE, built-in GPS and compass and runs Android 7.1. Downloaded Autel Explorer today and will try it out tomorrow.
NEW TABLET
- Thread starter Nightbat2
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Jagerbomb52
Well-Known Member
Looks like it is 54% off at Gearbest right now. Let us know how the brightness of the screen is in bright sunshine. Also do you know if it can be upgraded past Android 7.1?
Will check it out tomorrow. Doubt that the company would put out an upgrade at that price, though I believe it has the specs to handle at least 8.0. There are people who know how to do such things, but I’m not one of them.
Jagerbomb52
Well-Known Member
LOL
Ya I hear ya. I have in the past used custom Roms but not something I like doing. Reason I asked is some Apps are now requiring at least Android 7 which this has but who knows down the road the newer Apps might require Android 8 or higher. Just don't want to buy a new tablet every couple of years.
Ya I hear ya. I have in the past used custom Roms but not something I like doing. Reason I asked is some Apps are now requiring at least Android 7 which this has but who knows down the road the newer Apps might require Android 8 or higher. Just don't want to buy a new tablet every couple of years.
Android is a totally new experience for me. Been an Apple man for years, but their prices are becoming insane. I want this tablet for one purpose only—as a large screen for the Evo. If it works properly for a couple of years I’ll be happy, particularly given the price.LOL
Ya I hear ya. I have in the past used custom Roms but not something I like doing. Reason I asked is some Apps are now requiring at least Android 7 which this has but who knows down the road the newer Apps might require Android 8 or higher. Just don't want to buy a new tablet every couple of years.
Jagerbomb52
Well-Known Member
Yup totally agree. Here is a really good review of the tablet I found researching it.
forum.xda-developers.com
Alldocube X1 Tablet Hands-on Review: A Solid 4G Tablet, yet it’s still Android
The good: Fine crafted design and nice build quality. Crystal clear display. Decent performance. Solid battery life. The bad: The display is too dim for outdoor use. The operating system isn’t the most up-to-date. Charging is extremely slow. It...
forum.xda-developers.com
One thing about mine—which came from an Australian distributor—was that on starting up, all the menus were in Chinese. I managed to find an instructive video that got me through to install English. No problem now. However, it had some unidentifiable browser which was rubbish. No Chrome or Play store, though I have both installed now. That shouldn’t be the case with a unit purchased from Gear Best.Yup totally agree. Here is a really good review of the tablet I found researching it.
Alldocube X1 Tablet Hands-on Review: A Solid 4G Tablet, yet it’s still Android
The good: Fine crafted design and nice build quality. Crystal clear display. Decent performance. Solid battery life. The bad: The display is too dim for outdoor use. The operating system isn’t the most up-to-date. Charging is extremely slow. It...
It is pretty quick and the screen, at least indoors, is gorgeous. If it is hard to see in bright sunlight, the old black art cardboard trick should work in most situations.
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Normex
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I bought a refurbished Apple 9.7" 6th generation, going to receive it tomorrow. From ebay.ca and paid $350 cad tax incl. Silver color. 32 MB which I think is enough to run The Evo App. Will see.
Warranty till 2020
Had a Nvidia Shield tablet but was almost unusable outside.
Ideally, I would have bought a refurbished Mac Mini 4, but the prices down here are ridiculous—nearly twice the price of the Alldocube. I don’t have those kind of bucks for a tablet just to use for droning. My main computer these days—since my desktop died—is a 2nd generation, 12.9 inch iPad Pro, but it’s too big and heavy for using regularly as a flyer. Can play and edit 4k video effortlessly, though.
Just when I’m preparing to test the new tablet/Evo combo, the weather comes in. Showers and windy weather predicted for the next day or so...
Still too wet and windy here to test fly the new combo, but I took a couple of pics of the Alldocube tablet connected to the Evo during a break in showers this morning. It certainly works thus far. Changing parameters, screens, telemetry etc all work fine. Still need to see how it goes when Evo is in flight.
Couple of early observations, though:
1.While it is a fairly light tablet, I’m not sure I would want to use it regularly with the standard phone mount plus extension (3D printed for me by a friend). Tilting it backwards and forwards might damage the antennae. The balance is also top heavy. Something like a Thor Liftor would solve both problems.
2.The screen is easy to see except in direct sunlight. I reckon a piece of black art cardboard—available at any craft store—will solve that.
And the thing is also a very nice if somewhat monster (8.4 inch diagonal screen) 4G phone!
Couple of early observations, though:
1.While it is a fairly light tablet, I’m not sure I would want to use it regularly with the standard phone mount plus extension (3D printed for me by a friend). Tilting it backwards and forwards might damage the antennae. The balance is also top heavy. Something like a Thor Liftor would solve both problems.
2.The screen is easy to see except in direct sunlight. I reckon a piece of black art cardboard—available at any craft store—will solve that.
And the thing is also a very nice if somewhat monster (8.4 inch diagonal screen) 4G phone!
For a cheap tablet, I found a refurbished Lenevo Tab 8 or whatever it's called... the newest version of it... 2gb ram and it recently updated to the latest version of Android. Got it for something like $89 off of Ebay. Works very well, might get another one just to use for my daily tablet use!
Yes, the Lenovo has a good rep. The Plus version has had several ‘best’ reviews for a budget to mid priced tablet.
After buying two other 8” Android tablets, I discovered that only the cellular Android tablets actually have a compass for determining orientation of the tablet/controller to the aircraft, to keep the antennas facing the aircraft at all times when out of sight. Can you confirm that? Is your Android tablet also missing a compass? One advantage of iPads is they all contain a compass, but the iPad Explorer app still doesn't retain the directional setting on the mini map, even though that was supposed to have been fixed in the last update. The Android version does, but it can't be used without a compass in the Android tablet.Yup totally agree. Here is a really good review of the tablet I found researching it.
Alldocube X1 Tablet Hands-on Review: A Solid 4G Tablet, yet it’s still Android
The good: Fine crafted design and nice build quality. Crystal clear display. Decent performance. Solid battery life. The bad: The display is too dim for outdoor use. The operating system isn’t the most up-to-date. Charging is extremely slow. It...
Despite connection testing, I still haven’t been able to fly with it because of wet and windy weather—more than two weeks now! Hopefully it will clear tomorrow. The Alldocube does have 3G and 4G LTE. Whether or not it has the bands suitable for your area I don’t know (I’m in Oz). Certainly it does pick up my position on the maps with GPS on either WiFi or cellular. I have been able to set a waypoint course offline and that stays in the app’s memory. Whether or not it will fly it remains to be seen...
iPad Mini 4 cellular would have been my first choice, but too expensive down here to devote just to flying (I already have an iPad Pro 12.9, but that’s too big and heavy for flying unless I use a tripod or something like the Thor Liftor mount).
BTW, I never fly “out of sight” as it’s illegal down here—even those of us with a licence need a special waiver to do so.
As long as the Android device has cellular capability of any kind, even without a contract or cellular connection, it should have a compass, and the compass is usable. Oddly, on iOS, the cellular capability is the prerequisite for iPad GPS, but not the compass, as all iPads have compasses. With Android tablets, it seems almost all have GPS, but only the cellular versions have the compass, and it is not well documented that the noncellular Android tablets have no compass. Autel never intended for anything other than a cell phone to be used as the attached device, so these compass problems are of our own making for wanting a larger display device.
Even if you never fly out of sight, it is easy to lose the aircraft in the sky while looking down at the FPV composing your video, and the compass can be a very useful tool for finding it again, especially if you are traveling laterally across the area in front of you, and the FPV is lost, or not helpful, because of disorientation, or unfamiliarity with the location. Sadly, the controller itself has no internal compass (it's a $1 component), which means the problem is unsolvable when flying without any device.
Strobes help. I’ve fitted two Firehouse Technology 4-lamp Crede strobes on the rear arms (so that the flashes don’t show up on camera). Even in broad daylight they can be seen at several hundred metres. In less than ideal light, especially against a treeline, they are fantastic. They are mounted in Aerial Pixel EVO mounts which are easy to remove for charging.
The real answer, if you have the money and know how to do it, is to sideloade Autel Explorer onto a pair of Epson Movario FP glasses. Using them keeps you within the law and solves the problem of needing any additional screen. I have neither the cash nor the expertise, but as I recall one member of this forum has done it.
The app compass, if it works properly, has always been the best solution, especially when BVLOS, but the landing lights, that can be remotely turned on and off at will from the RC on the Mavic 2 are another cool, built-in, often overlooked feature to quickly find the aircraft for landing purposes in the sky from below. Once found, you turn them off, so you don't get blinded, while reaching up for the hand catch!
