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Welcome to the official Good e-Reader hands on Review of the most eagerly anticipated Tablet PC of 2011, the Notion Ink Adam. We have the highest end version you can possibly get the 10.1 Inch Pixel-QI 3G WI-FI. Can this device live up to the viral hype that surrounded it during the entire development process? Or is it really everything it was billed to be?
The Hardware
The Notion Ink Adam features a 10.1 inch multi-touch screen with a resolution of 1024×600 pixels. It has a 1 GHz, Dual-core ARM Cortex – A9, Nvidia Tegra 250 processor and 1 GB of DDR2 RAM. You have a fair amount of internal memory to store your content via the 8GB of flash memory and can further increase it up to 32 GB via the MicroSD slot.
It has various input controls to interact with the device you have the ability to Multi-Touch with the keyboard and device giving you a better application, typing and gaming experience. You also have a 3 Axis Accelerometer to automatically rotate the Adam from portrait and landscape mode. The LCD screen also includes an Ambient Light Sensor to automatically dim the screen for night-time reading and to help with the Pixel-QI screen adjust to direct sunlight. Also, it has built in GPS and a Digital compass.
The screen itself is one of the main draws on the Notion Ink Adam, not only does it apply the lower power and vibrant high contrast Pixel QI, but also includes such enhancements as; Anti-Glare coating, Finger Print resistive and scratch resistant. All of these factors employed by the Adam greatly enhances the screen technology that no other competitor on the market uses.
The technology used in the display is actually very solid, we got a great interview at CES with the CFO of Pixel QI that gave us an overview of the technology. Suffice to say Pixel Qi’s technology means you can operate the display in two different modes: as full color LCD for use indoors or in a low-power reflective mode that actually gets brighter the more direct sunlight falls upon it. This latter mode is comparable to E Ink in its appearance, but Pixel Qi can still show smooth, responsive video (and slightly muted colors). Users will be able to manually switch the backlighting on or off, or leave it set to automatic and have the Adam toggle it itself.
The Adam includes many interface ports such as; 2 USB 2.0 ports, mini USB, MicroSD, SIM Card and a mini HDMI port to connect your Adam to your home network or television.
One of the great features on the Adam is the inclusion of a swivel camera that actually adjusts itself in an arc, unlike many netbook and tablet cameras that have a fixed position. It has a 185° swivel-camera is capable of facing the user during video chatting, at 90° to capture a live lecture or meeting while the Adam is on a table, or at 180° for snapping photographs.
For audio functionality it has stereo speakers, a 3.5 mm headphone/microphone jack and a built in microphone to take advantage of teleconferencing via the swivel camera.
Finally, it has a 3 Cell Removable Lithium-Polymer Battery that should give you 160 HOURS of HD video playback use! NVIDIA has stated that tablets with regular displays (consuming around 2W) using Tegra 2 will last for around 16 hours of Full HD video with a standard 3-cell battery. The Notion Ink Adam uses only 0.2W in its electrophoretic reflective mode. It is very impressive that the device will last 160 hours not just in the e-ink style mode that Pixel-QI or e-Ink offers but dynamic video playback and digital content reading in color.
Software
The Adam currently runs on the Google Android 2.2 operating system, although all signs pointed to it coming out of the gates with 2.3.
There are many heavily customized programs for your day to day tasks that are unlike any other tablet experience you may have found so far. Essential day to day apps are tremendously revised and allow for a more intuitive experience with the Adam. We found the Email client (Mail’d) File Browser (sniffer) Webkit browser, paint (Canvas) had the best experience so far.
As well, the Adam has many more modified applications right out of the box including; Office Suite, Calendar, Weather, Music player, E-Reading, Sound Recorder, Calculator and tons more!
When we had our Adam today, it’s a given that this is an early firmware version and many of the applications were unresponsive and did not work. We had a heck of a time configering the email client and Facebook application.
Although Notion Ink has claimed its Genesis Android market would be on this unit as it shipped it did not have a stand-alone application for it and the website itself has no content on it.
Our Thoughts
We will continue to review this unit as firmware updates come out, the Notion Ink Adam is a sturdy and sexy piece of hardware. The Speakers are very loud and the microphone input is very responsive. The 180 degree webcam is also a great hardware feature. Also the Pixel QI model we have allows for NO glare and the battery life is amazing. It has been running 1080 P video streaming to the television for 40 hours so far, and it is still at 65% battery life.
Upon our first review the Eden GUI is buggy and often you have to double or triple tap program icons to launch it. The Facebook application cannot connect and the email program as well is not working.
The project launched too quickly in our mind, but it is nothing that a few firmware factory updates will solve. Speaking of updates, people who received their Adam the first day had their units bricked due to a falty firmware update, although Notion Ink did provide a solution a few hours later.
Finally the Adam design wise, is very solid, it is light and easy to carry around and came with a free screen protector and static proof wipe.
Stay tuned for review videos and hands on an hour after received it.
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Originally Posted by mada
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