Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

The Pandigital Planet 7" Android Tablet (R70A200) is a power-up version of the older Pandigital Novel (R70E200). It is very inexpensive (especially if you can wait for sales in department stores), yet it advertises an impressive list of functions on paper: eBook reader, Android internet tablet, video camera, multimedia player, etc. But how does it perform in real life? Let's examine it in details: - As an eBook reader: The Planet claims a 7" color display, similar to the B&N NOOK Color and the Amazon Kindle Fire. However, it is important to note that the Planet's display (resolution 800x600) has an aspect ratio of 1.33 to 1, while the other two displays have wider aspect ratio of 1.7 to 1. So although they all have the same diagonal length of 7 inches, the Planet's screen is actually 10% larger in area! As an eReader, this larger area is a big advantage. On the other hand, the wider screens on Nook Color and Kindle Fire are better for viewing movies. The Planet comes with Nook reader pre-installed. But you can easily install the Kindle reader app on it. That means you are able to purchase and read eBooks from both B&N and Amazon. Alternatively, you can also install free eBook readers such as FBReader, then go to 'Project Gutenberg' site and download free eBooks to your heart's content. - Android Internet Tablet: The Planet runs Android 2.2, so the majority of apps are compatible with it. In particular, Angry Birds Rio runs smoothly and looks great. Google Android Market is NOT pre-installed on the Planet. Instead it comes with a "SlideMe" market place, which has very limited selections. You should install the Amazon AppStore right away, so that you can enjoy the "free App of the day" deal. It is possible to use the Planet as an internet browser, but be warned that the experience is going to be painful (especially if you are already spoiled by iPad). It is simply too slow! - Video Camera: The Planet comes with two cameras. The front one is just 0.3MPixel (640x480) which is sufficient for video conference. The rear one is supposed to be 1.9MP (1600x1200), but the optic is very cheap, so you can only get acceptable pictures under bright daylight. Basically they are only good for games that can make use of camera (such as the Paper Camera app). - Media Player: Here the Planet did surprisingly well. There is a pre-installed 'VideoPlayer v1.73' that can replay every movie format that I have tested (AVI, MP4, MKV, etc). It even handles dual audio and subtitles without any problems. YouTube works great on the Planet, too. Other Hardware features worth mentioning: - The Planets uses a resistive touch screen with multi-touch capability. It is slower and less sensitive compared to capacitive touch screen, because you need to actually PRESS DOWN on the screen for it to register (instead of lightly tapping on it). The up-side is that it allows more precise selection when using a stylus. - You can insert an external micro-SDHC card, to add up to 32GB of storage. Just beware that the larger the storage, the longer it takes for the Planet's Gallery app to scan for multi-media contents on the card. - There is an accelerometer which can auto-rotate the screen. This feature is actually a nuisance when you just use the Planet as an eReader, because the screen often gets rotated accidentally. But for certain games (such as Doodle Jump) it works very well. - There is a mini-HDMI port that allows you to connect the video output to HDTV in 480/720/1080 mode. I have tested this function by playing HD movies stored on micro SDHC card, and it works reasonably well on my 1080p TV. Next, a long list of limitations: - The Planet has a single-core processor that is relatively slow at only 800MHz. - The touch screen is sluggish and takes about 0.5 second to register a 'click'. Same problem goes with menu buttons. - The advertised battery life is just 6 hours (in real life it is more like 3-4 hours)... and then it takes another 6 hours to recharge. - The built-in memory of 256MB RAM is inadequate for an Internet Tablet. Especially after running the machine for a long time, I can tell that the processor has run out of memory because it takes tens of seconds just to swap between apps. In which case, I have to either manually kill some apps that are hogging memory, or shutdown and restart from fresh. - In order to get smooth playback for HD video, you may have to kill off unnecessary processes such as firmware update, Weather service, Wireless, Market, etc. Bottom Line: The Pandigital Planet is a great value - if you can learn to live with its limitations. To me, just using the Planet as a eBook reader and portable media player already justified this purchase, especially since I got it for 30% off from the normal price.