Aakash
April-11-2011, 04:17 AM
Got my adam (piQi 3G, new delhi india) this afternoon, and the first feelings are -
* The display is alright. Good, rather. Pretty usable. Nothing like the idea you get when you hear half the world crying themselves out why they're cancelling because of that.
* At the same time, its not a replacement of e-Ink (which was my intention of buying PiQi). Still, its not so bad for me living here in Delhi, right on the top of the equator. I tried with the ambient light of my room at around 3 PM, and could use it with the backlight off if I sit close to the door (where I get more direct light from the outside).
* It reflects like a mirror! And you cannot swipe your finger smoothly - it keeps sticking. So a screenguard is needed. Haven't tried the supplied guard yet, though. But I guess I'll keep that on unless it totally messes things up.
* Haven't tried sound yet. Also, I connected up the HDMI with my monitor and expected it to magically detect everything. It didn't. Then I had to come back to work, so I'll go back home and find out how.
* The camera is more than a little defective. It doesn't go all the way down and lock there. Rather, it stops around 3 mm short of its full range. And if i push it down, it bounces back to its 3-mm-from-the-max home position. But I had planned to take apart the unit anyway, so I'm not very much worried. Will fix the camera while I'm there. Given what people say of the NI support, I'm not too inclined to keep the warranty anyway. Picture-quality wise, its okay. The stock camera app shows my face elongated. But I guess that's a software thing.
* The bezel is WIDE!!! But you immediately find yourself okay with it once it powers up. With the screen on, the overall proportions don't look ugly at all.
* And the thing is heavy! And for this one point, I'll have to confess nothing fixes that! It remains heavy! Guess my original intention of using it as a ebook reader stands defeated. Well, (maintaining the optimism) unless I decide to hit the gym and train my body to be okay with weights much heavier that this :) ... jokes apart, its not unusable, but its on the heavier side. I can't read a 100 page book lying down and holding the unit up.
My general feeling confirms other people's opinion that you should be/get into hacking if you wish to get real juice out of it. So it's a device for the hacking type. Out of the box, well, I don't think it really flies.
To put the review in perspective, here's a bit about myself - I'm an electronics engineer, code linux kernel modules for a living, and generally am interested in taking things apart, and innovating. And the first looks make me 70% happy. I know it'll shoot up to 100% once I go back home and hack the thing to my heart's content. I plan to put edenX, and a truckload of apps which I've downloaded while I was waiting for adam to arrive.
Will keep you posted!
* The display is alright. Good, rather. Pretty usable. Nothing like the idea you get when you hear half the world crying themselves out why they're cancelling because of that.
* At the same time, its not a replacement of e-Ink (which was my intention of buying PiQi). Still, its not so bad for me living here in Delhi, right on the top of the equator. I tried with the ambient light of my room at around 3 PM, and could use it with the backlight off if I sit close to the door (where I get more direct light from the outside).
* It reflects like a mirror! And you cannot swipe your finger smoothly - it keeps sticking. So a screenguard is needed. Haven't tried the supplied guard yet, though. But I guess I'll keep that on unless it totally messes things up.
* Haven't tried sound yet. Also, I connected up the HDMI with my monitor and expected it to magically detect everything. It didn't. Then I had to come back to work, so I'll go back home and find out how.
* The camera is more than a little defective. It doesn't go all the way down and lock there. Rather, it stops around 3 mm short of its full range. And if i push it down, it bounces back to its 3-mm-from-the-max home position. But I had planned to take apart the unit anyway, so I'm not very much worried. Will fix the camera while I'm there. Given what people say of the NI support, I'm not too inclined to keep the warranty anyway. Picture-quality wise, its okay. The stock camera app shows my face elongated. But I guess that's a software thing.
* The bezel is WIDE!!! But you immediately find yourself okay with it once it powers up. With the screen on, the overall proportions don't look ugly at all.
* And the thing is heavy! And for this one point, I'll have to confess nothing fixes that! It remains heavy! Guess my original intention of using it as a ebook reader stands defeated. Well, (maintaining the optimism) unless I decide to hit the gym and train my body to be okay with weights much heavier that this :) ... jokes apart, its not unusable, but its on the heavier side. I can't read a 100 page book lying down and holding the unit up.
My general feeling confirms other people's opinion that you should be/get into hacking if you wish to get real juice out of it. So it's a device for the hacking type. Out of the box, well, I don't think it really flies.
To put the review in perspective, here's a bit about myself - I'm an electronics engineer, code linux kernel modules for a living, and generally am interested in taking things apart, and innovating. And the first looks make me 70% happy. I know it'll shoot up to 100% once I go back home and hack the thing to my heart's content. I plan to put edenX, and a truckload of apps which I've downloaded while I was waiting for adam to arrive.
Will keep you posted!