Jun 29, 2011
Creative ZiiO 7" Entertainment Tablet - Reviews
Creative is not the music player giant that was a few years ago (my first MP3 player was a Creative Nomad Jukebox), eclipsed all competitors were on Apple iPod devices. Shelves market in full development, however, presents a new opportunity to be creative, well, creative. The Creative ZiiO 7 "($ 249.99) is a tablet designed for music fans in mind, and has a number of improvements over other tablets Android. The price is right, but many questions the ZiiO make it difficult to recommend a tablet or as a music device.
Show ZiiO Tablet is available in two models, a 7-inch screen (white) or 10-inch monitor (black), each of which is to select 8 or 16 GB of space on board. My test unit had a 7-inch, the 8GB model, and to 8.16 from 5.24 by 0.54 inches (HWD) and 14.4 ounces, it is much bigger than some of the other 7-inch tablet, such as Galaxy Tab ($ 399.99) or Dell Streak 7 ($ 199.99) Lots of extra dimensions is due to a large enough ZiiO frame around the screen, which really makes the display appear smaller than other devices of the size of the screen.
In addition, this screen: This is an LCD screen 800 x 480, and is resistive and capacitive. The display makes images and video are weak, and is more prone to glare than any pill I've used. In fact, it makes use of ZiiO difficult at times. No chance of a pinch zoom and multi-touch, and often had to press a button two or three times to get it to register. The screen is the most important feature of any tablet, and while displaying the ZiiO was probably sacrificed to keep costs low, not worth the commitment.
Only a hotkey ZiiO there is a power switch, volume keys, so close the box to the upper right corner of the device. Moreover, on top of the headphone jack, microphone, mini-USB port on your computer and ZiiO mini-HDMI port (more on that a little '). Not a microSD card slot on the left side of the tablet, which can take cards up to 32GB. The bottom two speakers and a gateway to the power source. ZiiO front is all screen and frame-frame tilted slightly upward toward the center, so the screen is a bit 'over the limit, if not in VGA resolution, front-facing camera. The camera is fine, but it is a very low resolution, and video chat is not great. It also calls for the application Fring that most of the Android devices to use the video chat, which rarely seems to work well. Apple iPhone 2 ($ 499) is not a particularly good camera, but you are aboard App FaceTime functional and fun to use. The only tablets we've seen the Android, which does not have a video chat Motorola Xoom ($ 799), and Android applications
The ZiiO Fun Tablet Android 2.2 (after the last update), a version of Android is not optimized for the tablet version 3.0, honeycomb, is already available and works well on Motorola Xoom, 2.2 feels old and stale. But it's not a terrible operating system for a tablet. But, unfortunately, is ZiiO not have access to the most convincing of the Android platform: Android Market, and thousands of programs. Creative replaces it with its own App Store ZiiO within a browser-based collection of programs you can download and Amazon Marketplace, an organized collection of applications created for Android seems tablets without market access. There are many applications out there, Facebook bird angry, but the number of applications and the method to find them can not compare with the Android Market. All the applications I downloaded worked well, and thanks to the display 800 by 480, the applications in full screen and then ok.
In addition, this screen: This is an LCD screen 800 x 480, and is resistive and capacitive. The display makes images and video are weak, and is more prone to glare than any pill I've used. In fact, it makes use of ZiiO difficult at times. No chance of a pinch zoom and multi-touch, and often had to press a button two or three times to get it to register. The screen is the most important feature of any tablet, and while displaying the ZiiO was probably sacrificed to keep costs low, not worth the commitment.
Only a hotkey ZiiO there is a power switch, volume keys, so close the box to the upper right corner of the device. Moreover, on top of the headphone jack, microphone, mini-USB port on your computer and ZiiO mini-HDMI port (more on that a little '). Not a microSD card slot on the left side of the tablet, which can take cards up to 32GB. The bottom two speakers and a gateway to the power source. ZiiO front is all screen and frame-frame tilted slightly upward toward the center, so the screen is a bit 'over the limit, if not in VGA resolution, front-facing camera. The camera is fine, but it is a very low resolution, and video chat is not great. It also calls for the application Fring that most of the Android devices to use the video chat, which rarely seems to work well. Apple iPhone 2 ($ 499) is not a particularly good camera, but you are aboard App FaceTime functional and fun to use. The only tablets we've seen the Android, which does not have a video chat Motorola Xoom ($ 799), and Android applications
The ZiiO Fun Tablet Android 2.2 (after the last update), a version of Android is not optimized for the tablet version 3.0, honeycomb, is already available and works well on Motorola Xoom, 2.2 feels old and stale. But it's not a terrible operating system for a tablet. But, unfortunately, is ZiiO not have access to the most convincing of the Android platform: Android Market, and thousands of programs. Creative replaces it with its own App Store ZiiO within a browser-based collection of programs you can download and Amazon Marketplace, an organized collection of applications created for Android seems tablets without market access. There are many applications out there, Facebook bird angry, but the number of applications and the method to find them can not compare with the Android Market. All the applications I downloaded worked well, and thanks to the display 800 by 480, the applications in full screen and then ok.
In fact, the tablet ZiiO is creative only in the sense that the color Nook ($ 249.99) is a tablet. Of course, both of which run Android and the Web browser, but they are both designed for other purposes in mind. Nook because color is a reading ebooks, and ZiiO media consumption. Refurbished Creative Music and video applications, allowing both easier and easier to use than Android applications store. ZiiMusic App is particularly well designed, using a variety of opinions, so you can scroll through the music. Insert a microSD card, and the application will automatically sort the contents and add music to the App-This is a fast process seamless. Creative also built ZiiExplorer File Manager application, image management ZiiPhoto, and several other applications to optimize what is probably the most important functions ZiiO. You can download third party applications, but does not seem to make sense of this tablet.
Performance
Terms of a pure tablet, Tablet ZiiO show is not so. Resistive screen makes even the simplest tasks, like opening the application or the keyboard, hard. Four buttons on most devices, Android, Home, Search, Menu and Back do not light, it is difficult to find in the dark, and even if the pressure is very indifferent. Creative ZMS-08 ZiiLabs HD multimedia applications processor that powers the tablet works better, in my tests, most of the applications and Web pages loaded quickly. The screen is really what keeps ZiiO return to work as it should.
As I said, watching and listening to both creative ZiiO want to take the tablet. As such, the file support is a strong point: the ZiiO supports MP3, AAC, WMA9, FLAC, OGG, MIDI, WAV and Audible audio files, H.264, MPEG4, WMV9, MOV, MKV to AVI video, and JPG, BMP and PNG for photos.
Creative uses the apt-X codec, with its X-Fi, to improve the sound of music, videos and even games. X-Fi effects are impressive, in fact, and improved both the stereo effect and the overall clarity of almost everything I tried to listen. The effect is visible through the internal speakers, but even more so if you plug a pair of decent headphones. The speakers are fully functional, but does not sound as sharp or as clear that even the internal speaker IPAD, which itself is nothing special.
Creative, oddly enough, seems to be very aware of the flaws in the ZiiO and take steps to alleviate some of the worst of them. For example, wireless audio is an important focus for ZiiO. The tablet has a Wi-Fi and Bluetooth integrated with Creative own "wireless pure entertainment" system. Connect speakers or a wireless headset ZiiO is easy, thanks to a device built called Pure Creative Audio Android. It allows one-touch management of wireless devices (and classifies all nearby devices that are not audio, a nice touch), and do to speed up the connection with wireless speakers than any other unit I tested.
Creative also offers two options to solve the problem of low quality screen. There is a stylus included in the box, press the buttons for more precise and keys. Mini-HDMI port on the top of the unit is a better solution, so you can display video and photos to your HDTV with the push of a button. It's very simple to use and works reliably, but it only supports video up to 720p.
Performance
Terms of a pure tablet, Tablet ZiiO show is not so. Resistive screen makes even the simplest tasks, like opening the application or the keyboard, hard. Four buttons on most devices, Android, Home, Search, Menu and Back do not light, it is difficult to find in the dark, and even if the pressure is very indifferent. Creative ZMS-08 ZiiLabs HD multimedia applications processor that powers the tablet works better, in my tests, most of the applications and Web pages loaded quickly. The screen is really what keeps ZiiO return to work as it should.
As I said, watching and listening to both creative ZiiO want to take the tablet. As such, the file support is a strong point: the ZiiO supports MP3, AAC, WMA9, FLAC, OGG, MIDI, WAV and Audible audio files, H.264, MPEG4, WMV9, MOV, MKV to AVI video, and JPG, BMP and PNG for photos.
Creative uses the apt-X codec, with its X-Fi, to improve the sound of music, videos and even games. X-Fi effects are impressive, in fact, and improved both the stereo effect and the overall clarity of almost everything I tried to listen. The effect is visible through the internal speakers, but even more so if you plug a pair of decent headphones. The speakers are fully functional, but does not sound as sharp or as clear that even the internal speaker IPAD, which itself is nothing special.
Creative, oddly enough, seems to be very aware of the flaws in the ZiiO and take steps to alleviate some of the worst of them. For example, wireless audio is an important focus for ZiiO. The tablet has a Wi-Fi and Bluetooth integrated with Creative own "wireless pure entertainment" system. Connect speakers or a wireless headset ZiiO is easy, thanks to a device built called Pure Creative Audio Android. It allows one-touch management of wireless devices (and classifies all nearby devices that are not audio, a nice touch), and do to speed up the connection with wireless speakers than any other unit I tested.
Creative also offers two options to solve the problem of low quality screen. There is a stylus included in the box, press the buttons for more precise and keys. Mini-HDMI port on the top of the unit is a better solution, so you can display video and photos to your HDTV with the push of a button. It's very simple to use and works reliably, but it only supports video up to 720p.
There's nothing broken to show the creative ZiiO Tablet, but does nothing particularly well with the audio quality is good but not better than other tablets, the screen is one of the worst I've tried, and the user experience leaves much to be desired. If you want music center, with a large display, supports wireless voice and it's cheap, it will definitely work as advertised. But it is difficult to recommend ZiiO: iPod Touch ($ 229, 5 stars) is much better music (and is almost self-compressed). Creative July 1 inch tablet is not yet ready for prime time, so it is better to save or spend elsewhere.
Specifications:
Specifications:
Operating System Google Android 2.3 or earlier
Screen Resolution 800 x 400 pixels
Screen Size 7 inches
Storage Capacity (as Tested) 8 GB
Dimensions 8.16 x 5.24 x 0.54 inches
Weight 14.4 oz
Email Access Dedicated email app
Web Browser Yes
Flash support Yes
GPS No
Camera(s) 1 front-facing
Video Chat Yes
Music Playback Formats AAC, Audible, FLAC, MP3, OGG, WAV, WMA
Photo Formats BMP, JPEG, PNG
Video Formats AVI, H.264
Price: $219.99 - $249.99
Screen Resolution 800 x 400 pixels
Screen Size 7 inches
Storage Capacity (as Tested) 8 GB
Dimensions 8.16 x 5.24 x 0.54 inches
Weight 14.4 oz
Email Access Dedicated email app
Web Browser Yes
Flash support Yes
GPS No
Camera(s) 1 front-facing
Video Chat Yes
Music Playback Formats AAC, Audible, FLAC, MP3, OGG, WAV, WMA
Photo Formats BMP, JPEG, PNG
Video Formats AVI, H.264
Price: $219.99 - $249.99
