Tablet 2-in-1 swivel soundlogic xt android Review

Summary as of August 6, 2014: Simple. Avoid this tablet. See updates at the bottom of this review.

I had my eye on a convertable android laptop on Ebay. To my dismay I couldn’t find any information on it. No reviews, no customer comments, no hands on video, nothing. I took a chance on buying the tablet, if for no other reason than to write a review. I’ve never written a review before so bear with me.

Specs

Android 2.2
800 Mhz single core
256 Ram
4GB storage
Touch screen (capacitive AND resistive)
Wifi b/g
3G dongle support
File viewer
Document viewer
Screenshot function

Ports

2 usb ports
SD card slot
Microphone
Headphone
Ethernet
Dc jack

I had an Acer 10 inch tablet and never left home with it because it was too big, this I can leave home with. Upon taking it out of the box I get instant impressions, cheap plastic, not upgradeable. I had to test its swivel hinge before anything else, it resisted converting into tablet mode, but not enough to concern me. The screen orientation must be changed manually. There are no sensors other than touch. I have yet to come across an Android device that does everything I want without adding apps. Time to customize… no google marketplace. It does have 2 other markets, thats something to work with, but I spent hundreds with Google and wanted my apps. No bluetooth to receive apps either. I’m a techie and I now have my Google Marketplace apps without the marketplace. It involved a micro sd card, sd adapter,a backup from my android phone to micro sd (see entry titled “Android Trick in 8 Steps”). I also did it from dropbox, but had to get dropbox on the device first. Charging from 15% to full battery took what felt like forever. By morning I discovered that it never turns off. Right out of the box some settings needed adjusting. No big deal. This thing charged all night. It’s 1.5 hrs after unplugging it and a half hour of use, half the battery icon is gone. It has a picture viewer but no camera, at least you can view pics from your sd card or usb storage. It’s screen is both capacitive and resistive, it does pinch to zoom which impressed me. It has an unimpressive voice recorder, but to be honest due to no camera and a mic jack, I was surprised that it has a microphone somewhere. I dont know where the mic is and yes, I looked for it, but the speakers are on the bottom which is the most idiotic place to put them. I suspect the hole on the bottom under another hole labeled “reset” is the microphone and that would explain the difficulty receiving sound. I’m impressed with the video player, it shows thumbnails of the videos and even plays .flv and .mov formats. Take note that the sd card goes in upside down, put it in wrong like me and you’ll have a hard time pulling it out. It has a file viewer and document viewer. I was impressed by that because the Acer Iconia has neither out of the box. There is no hardware for adjusting the volume. The volume and screen orientation icons are on the taskbar at the top of the screen along with another impressive feature, an icon for screen shots. My other devices can’t take screenshots. I may keep the device just for screenshots. I haven’t been able to get Netflix to play anything, but Crunchyroll plays smoothly. Youtube plays fine as well, but only from the Youtube app. The device claims to have 4GB storage and it does, just that its reserved most of it for itself, leaving 1.77GB for the user. That’s not a problem for me because I use a 16GB micro sd card with adapter. The mouse pad is very responsive. The flatness of the keyboard keys is annoying and makes it difficult to type. Dont get any ideas about touch typing with the onscreen keyboard either. Although the tablet is both capacitive and resistive, the resistive is dominant and compacitive requires a firm touch. I have preferred resistive screens because they allow me to use my fingernail and write with a pointed stylus like a pen, but capacitive is better for webpages and people without fingernails, with this device I dont have to choose. I am a mixture of disappointed and impressed by this device. Knowing what I know now I’m not sure what my purchasing decision would have been.

Update: Knowing what I know now I can’t recommend this tablet. I’m still impressed with it’s features, but it is very susceptible to being defective. My tablet was perfect until I charged it overnight and tried using it the next morning. I don’t remember which defect occurred first, but there were 2 issues. It could not detect any wireless networks and it dramatically lost calibration. Recalibrating was simple, but I could not resolve the wifi issue. I returned it to the Ebay seller for a refund. I then added more money to my refund and purchased a Asus Transformer Prime tablet, (My Prime was stolen and I replaced it with the Asus Transformer TF300). What I now feel is a good choice is for people with $125 or less to spend on a tablet is to go into any department store and get a touchscreen tablet with Android 4.0 and very likely a faster processor. I feel that ANY tablet would have less defects and the most important thing is that it works. If you need a keyboard then you can always get a bluetooth one.

For anyone with a tablet without Google Marketplace, see post titled “Android Trick in 8 Steps”. I have it all figured out, but it’s a secret. Shhhh…

Update#2:

I am no longer the slightest bit impreseed with this tablet. (Why is it still being sold?) Tablets have gotten better since this review and this may just be the worst tablet currently still being sold. It should be avoided at all costs. If you get it for free, give it back. There are much better tablets for as low as $69. Even the $30 prepaid Android phone I got for my kids is better than this tablet.  If you really need a keyboard you can invest in a bluetooth keyboard as 90-95% of tablets sold in the U.S. have Bluetooth. My android tv device that I purchased in a local department store doesn’t have bluetooth, it’s disappointing, but it has 2 usb ports for keyboard, mouse, or external storage. Still, I was surprised at the lack of Bluetooth on an Android. My current Android tablet is a Samsung Galaxy Note 8, and that I DO recommend.