Review: Ainol Novo 9 Spark II / Firewire II Android Tablet
The Ainol Novo 9 Spark II (also known as the Ainol Novo 9 Firewire II) is of course the successor to the popular Ainol Novo 9 Spark. I gave the original Novo 9 Spark a very respectable score of 4 out of 5 stars. Looks wise, the Spark II looks very much like the original Spark which also means that its looks are “inspired” by the Apple iPad. However, the buttons placement has changed. It is available in both white and black versions. The main difference between the 2 versions of the Spark are in its internals, specifically the SoC. The original Ainol Novo 9 Spark features the Allwinner A31 SoC while its successor comes with the brand new ATM7039 quad-core SoC from Actions. In fact, the Spark II is the first tablet PC to feature the new ATM7039. Actions is better known for its low cost and low powered chips. Unfortunately, their line of chipsets perform poorly when compared to similar chipsets from other Chinese manufacturers like Rockchip and Allwinner. The ATM7039 is Action’s latest quad-core chip and its fastest yet but how does it compare to Rockchip’s highly popular RK3188 and Allwinner’s A31? This and other questions will be answered in my review of the Ainol Novo 9 Spark II. DinoDirect AliExpress Merimobiles Buy Ainol Novo 9 Spark II from Dino Direct DinoDirect.com is a world’s leading cross-border online store with millions of active customers from more than 200 countries. DinoDirect is committed to becoming the best reliable marketplace on the net by offering high quality products with the widest selections, reasonable price, worldwide free shipping and superior 7×24 customer service. Buy from DinoDirect Buy Ainol Novo 9 Spark II from AliExpress AliExpress has numerous retailers that are offering the Ainol Novo 9 Spark II at a great price and some even have free international shipping thrown in. Buy from AliExpress Buy Ainol Novo 9 Spark II from Merimobiles Ainol NOVO 9 II 9.7 Inch 2048*1536P ATM7039 Quad Core 1.6GHZ Android 4.2 Tablet PC Merimobiles.com is a Canadian company with over 7 years’ experience in the telecommunication industry as well as customer service. Buy from Merimobiles First Impressions Build quality wise, the Ainol Novo 9 Spark II is well built and the use of a metal shell enhances this. For some reason, Ainol has decided to switch the button placement around a bit. However, in my opinion, the new button layout isn’t much of an improvement over the old layout. The Home and Power buttons are now located on the left and right ends of the bottom edge, with the ports in between them. The volume rocker button...
Review: Ainol Novo 8 Discovery Android Tablet
The proper model name of the Ainol Novo 8 Discovery is actually the Ainol Novo 8 Discover. However, the Discovery name seems to be the more popular name for it. Therefore both retailers and users generally refer to this Android tablet as such. Therefore I have decided to use the more popular Discovery name to reference this tablet as well. The Ainol Novo 8 Discovery is also officially known as the Ainol Novo 8 Find as well. The Ainol Novo 8 Discovery Android Tablet is an 8 inch quad-core tablet from tablet manufacturer, Ainol. Ainol has a very wider range of tablets and the Novo 8 Discovery is their version of the iPad Mini clone. The screen size is advertised as 8 inch instead of the usual 7.9 inch as used by other iPad Mini clones. The rest of the design and styling of the Ainol Novo 8 Discovery leaves no doubt that this is indeed an iPad Mini clone. It has the same brushed metal aluminum back cover with the slight tapering around the edges of the tablet. The rear camera is located at the top center instead of at the top corner of the iPad Mini and of course there is no Apple logo. The front bezel is white and except for the missing Home button and a front facing camera that is slightly off centered, the Ainol Novo 8 Discovery is a very good imitation of the Apple Mini. Besides the looks, comparing the Discovery with the Apple Mini will be like comparing apples to oranges (pun not intended) because of the difference in OS. However, if you like the iPad Mini’s form factor and design without paying Apple’s premium pricing, the Android clones are a good alternative. The clones are much cheaper but there are notable differences in hardware specifications and quality. The secret to saving money with clones is knowing which features you need and paying for those while compromising on those which you don’t. In this review of the Ainol Novo 8 Discovery, we shall look at how the Android tablet performs as an iPad Mini clone as well as an Android tablet. The Ainol Novo 8 Discovery is also an updated version of the Ainol Novo 8 Dream. Improvements include a higher resolution display, double the RAM and a slightly smaller form factor. DinoDirect Amazon.com Amazon.co.uk AliExpress Buy Ainol Novo 8 Discovery from Dino Direct DinoDirect.com is a world’s leading cross-border online store with millions of active customers from more than 200 countries. DinoDirect is committed to becoming the best reliable marketplace on the net by offering high quality products with the widest selections, reasonable...
Review: Ainol Novo 7 Venus Android Tablet
There are so many different versions of the Ainol Novo 7, it is getting a little confusing. The Ainol Novo 7 Venus in this review is quite similar to the Ainol Novo 7 Crystal 2. It has the same Actions ATM7029 quad-core processor with 7″ display and 1GB of RAM. However, the display on the Ainol Novo 7 Venus has a higher resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels. The storage space has also been doubled from 8GB to 16GB. The price of the Venus is also slightly higher but it is at the very low end of our mid-range budget. From the specification and design, it is obvious that Ainol has aimed the Ainol Novo 7 Venus as a cheaper alternative to the older (2012 version) Google Nexus 7. Like the Nexus 7, the Venus has a quad-core chipset plus a 7″ 1280 x 800 WXGA display. Design wise, it even mimics the Nexus 7’s rubbery textured plastic material at the back of the tablet. The Venus even one ups on the Nexus 7 by offering a 2 MP rear camera. The Nexus 7 has no rear camera. Other additional features that the Venus offers include a microSD slot for up to an additional 32 GB of storage and a HDMI port. With a price tag that is lower than the Nexus 7, the Ainol Novo 7 Venus seems to be a great but, at least on paper. Dino Direct Amazon.com Amazon.co.uk AliExpress Buy Ainol Novo 7 Venus from Dino Direct DinoDirect.com is a world’s leading cross-border online store with millions of active customers from more than 200 countries. DinoDirect is committed to becoming the best reliable marketplace on the net by offering high quality products with the widest selections, reasonable price, worldwide free shipping and superior 7×24 customer service. Buy from DinoDirect Buy Ainol Novo 7 Venus from Amazon.com Ainol Novo7 Venus 16gb Quad Core DDR3 1GB 7inch Capacitive Android 4.1 Dual Camera Hdmi Tablet Pc - Black. Click Here for Pricing, Pictures and Reviews on Amazon.com Buy from Amazon.com Buy Ainol Novo 7 Venus from Amazon.co.uk Ainol Tab Novo7 Venus - 7 Inch (1280*800) IPS HD 10 point multi touch Screen Quad Core 1.5GHz CPU Tablet PC Android 4.1 Jelly Bean 16GB 2MP dual Camera Black. Click Here for Pricing, Pictures and Reviews on Amazon.co.uk Buy from Amazon.co.uk Buy Ainol Novo 7 Venus from AliExpress AliExpress has numerous retailers that are offering the Ainol Novo 7 Venus at a great price and some even have free international shipping thrown in. Buy from AliExpress First Impressions First impressions of the Ainol Novo 7 Venus are good. The tablet is a...
Ainol Novo 7 Crystal II Android Tablet Review
The Ainol brand is quite well known especially for their lower-end Android tablet products. The Ainol Novo 7 Crystal II Android tablet is a sub-$100 tablet that provides quite a bit of bang for the buck. Not everyone requires a big screen, state-of-the-art tablet with all the latest hardware features. For some, all they need is a small and portable device that is primarily used for web browsing, e-mail, reading and posting the latest Facebook posts or Twitter tweet, and maybe a little Plants vs Zombies. There are also those who do not want to bring their high-end tablet along with them when going for a business trip or vacation for fear of losing their precious tablet. What they need instead is a cheap tablet for checking email and social media while traveling. At the same time, if the tablet gets misplaced or stolen, the financial loss is minimal (data is all saved to the cloud). Last but not least, a budget tablet like the Ainol Novo 7 Crystal II is also ideal as your child’s first Android tablet. Install a child friendly user interface that only allows your child to access certain apps and to block purchasing and downloading of apps, and you have a great kid tablet. Since it is cheap, it won’t burn such a big hole in your wallet should it get damaged. If you fit into any of the 3 categories above, the Crystal II can be an ideal Android tablet for you. However, the budget price also means that the tablet cannot meet some of the “minimum” specs that I have listed in my “How to select a tablet” guide on the main page. For example, the screen resolution is only 1024 x 600 although I recommended at least a 1280 x 800 screen. Since the Crystal II only has a 7″ screen, this compromise is acceptable. The quad-core ATM7029 can be a little misleading. The ATM7029 has four ARM Cortex-A5 CPUs compared to the Cortex-A9 on the RK3188. The Cortex-A5 is designed to be a low cost chip with low power requirements. This makes the ATM7029 better than the RK3188 at prolonging battery life but at the expense of processing power. In certain cases, the ATM7029 can even lose out to the dual-core RK3066. However for simple tasks, the ATM7029 is ideal for providing processing power while saving on battery. If you can stretch your budget a bit more, you may also want to consider the Ainol Novo 7 Flame. For a full review of the Ainol Novo 7 Crystal II, please go to our companion site, Androydz.com. How does the Ainol...