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Feb 14, 2012

JXD S7100 - Overview (Android gaming tablet)


Gear: JXD S7100, JXD5000, Dingoo Digital A320, JXD F3000.

The JXD S7100 is an Android powered gaming tablet. Many of today's tablets will do many touch games and the whole "gaming tablet" thing is becoming more popular. The difference of the JXD S7100 is the dedicated gaming buttons. In a way I feel like "real games require real buttons".

These dedicated buttons make the JXD S7100 look a lot like Nintendo's upcoming WiiU controller. These integrated buttons make a lot more sense than some of the concepts like Team Razer's Project Fiona concept, and WikiPad.

Hardware & software
- details on Box Contents And Images post.

Build quality
Overall the system feels fairly solid. Based on other JXD devices I was expecting a much cheaper quality product, but it does feel very solid.

Screen
The screen is nice, it's bright and colorful. Like many screens there are different viewing angle quality, full frontal being the best angle. There's support for up to five touch points and they work well.

Specs
The system comes with an ARM Cortex A9 at 800 Mhz CPU, ARM Mali 400 GPU, and 512MB DDR2. This means that it can play most Android games and apps, and will run 3D. The CPU is not as powerful as Nvidia, Omap, A5 chips, etcs.

Battery
They advertise a 3800 mAh lithium-polymer battery, which should give around 5 hours of battery life. You can increase/decrease the battery life by adjusting brightness and disabling/enabling wifi. If you lower the brightness and turn off the wifi I can see it hitting the 5 houts, with the features enabled expect less.

Unlike the previous handheld gaming emulators this system requires the AC adapter to charge. This is rather annoying because I would prefer to charge through USB.

Buttons
The gaming buttons could be better. The one thing were JXD messed up is the lack of shoulder buttons, which are needed for N64 and PSX/PS1 games. Through Android you can add these missing buttons onto the screen and that makes it into another regular tablet. The buttons can be remapped through software.

Speakers
The speakers are fine and do get loud, but they are not BlackBerry PlayBook quality speakers. Don't expect any amount of bass.

User Interface
The system ships with Android 2.2.1 which is easy to navigate. It does feel like it could use some optimization because it's slow.  Most of the apps are in Mandarin and therefore unreadable for the Western English speaking world.

Games and apps can be downloaded through included "app stores", an alternative is to download them to PC and then transfer them to the JXD S7100.

Gaming
Arcade, GBA, NES games work well.  The games are smooth and the control buttons suit these types of games.

N64 games work ok.  The games seem to have reduced resolutions, or at least removed polygons.  Because of the lack of shoulder buttons a lot of games become harder (if not impossible) to play.

PS1/PSX games don't work that well.  When I managed to get a game working they were ok, but there would be lags and eventually freeze ups.  The shoulder button issue is also a problem that makes PSX gaming not enjoyable.

Video
It can play up to 1080p video which looks very crisp. If you add these types of videos you would need to add more storage through the "TF card slot".

Price
You can get this system for $162.99 at lettouch.com (price has gone up to $169.99) The tablet is fairly inexpensive and it makes a decent buy.

Overall
It has it's pros and cons. This is far from being the complete gaming package but it's a step forward. If it had shoulder buttons it would be closer to a "real" gaming tablet. The JXD S7100 is worth getting if the games only require a few buttons.

19 comments:

  1. by arcade games i would assume it has some kind of mame emulator?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes. I'll double check which specific emulators the system has and make a post about it later on. (-30s)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Does it work well as an e-reader and general tablet device? I would like one to replace me crappy emachines
    netbook, but also play games with.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well the viewing angles are classic of low screen quality (front good, left ok, right ok, bottom terrible and dark, top bright). Because of these viewing angles it's not a very good e-reader system. The screen is best when seen frontally, so as an e-reader no. As a general tablet it's not going to be anything stellar (ala Samsung Galaxy Tab, and iPad) because the CPU/GPU are not the fastest. If you are planning on running average apps then it will do fine, but with resource intensive apps then it may no be great.

      Systems with good viewing angles that I have seen are Lenovo ThinkPad W520 (laptop), Lenovo X201T, iPad 1/2, BlackBerry PlayBook.
      http://www.jessebandersen.com/2011/06/many-systems-lenovo-thinkpad-w520-x220t.html

      Amazon and their Kindle Fire doesn't have the great quality screen I have seen either.
      http://www.jessebandersen.com/2011/11/amazon-kindle-fire-images-and-some.html

      (-8m)

      Delete
  4. Thanks Jesse..So maybe I should wait on the Sony Vita...??

    I want a Tablet Websurfing (browsing, facebook, a bit of skype and msn chat) wifi touch device that can also play games really well and is cheap (under $200)..What do you recommend?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Vita will be a more exceptional gaming system, but it's not a tablet. Compared to the JXD S7100 the PlayBook is the superior system. RIM wanted to add Android app support which would open a lot of games and apps for the PlayBook (I'm not sure if they released this support).

      There are a lot of Tablets out right now. Sub $200 there are a lot of lower quality Android tablets. The one thing that I think is absolutely essential is decent specs, screen and speaker quality, and battery life.

      Screen quality - http://www.jessebandersen.com/2011/05/htc-flyer-vs-blackberry-playbook-screen.html
      Audio - http://www.jessebandersen.com/2011/05/htc-flyer-vs-blackberry-playbook_31.html
      Battery - http://www.jessebandersen.com/2011/05/htc-flyer-vs-blackberry-playbook.html

      If you don't spend any money for a few months the market will continue to get cluttered and the prices will continue to drop. When the PlayBook began selling it was $500 for 16GB, and now it's less than $225.

      For Android in a PSP format JXD has a new system called the S601. This one does have shoulder buttons, but it would not be great for web browsing.
      http://jxd.hk/products.asp?id=605&selectclassid=009006

      In many regards the original iPad is still one of the best tablets and can do everything you mentioned. Personally I don't like some of the limitations, and would prefer a Windows tablet like the Samsung Series 7 Slate (which is over $1,000)

      The WiiU's controller would be "the tablet" that I would like to have for entertainment.

      So there's no definite recommendation on my part, but there are a few suggestions. You can also browse around on Amazon's Best Seller's to get some ideas. Good luck!
      http://goo.gl/1Q7Gu (no commission for me if purchases on this link)

      (-18m)

      Delete
  5. Hi Jesse what do you think about the Yinlips G18 and G16 android game consoles. Are these any better than the JXD s601?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I haven't tried any of those systems. Just a quick look shows me similar specs... they might be the same thing internally and only the exterior is different.

      http://jxd.hk/products.asp?id=605&selectclassid=009006
      http://www.pandawill.com/yinlips-ydpg18-game-tablet-pc-5-inch-amlogic-a9-8gb-hdmi-1080p-camera-black-p54352.html

      Delete
  6. Hey Man, I heard you say that the tablet isn't good for N64 because of the lack of L and R buttons, which I understand, but I was wondering if you could map them to the 2 unused buttons, seeing as N64 only has an A and B face button layout, is that possible on the emulator? I'm really looking at this for gaming, I have an iPad but I'm a hardcore N64 fan and I'd love to know if that's possible.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes you can remap keys. You have to remember that most N64 games did use a lot of buttons, so it will be hard to remap some games. You can also display some of the buttons on screen, which is a bit annoying. JXD did release another system that looks more like the PSP, has shoulder buttons, runs Android, and N64 emulator. (2m)

      Delete
    2. Thanks a ton for the reply, I'm looking for games like Zelda, so maybe putting the c buttons on the screen and mapping the L and R to the left D pad and Z to the right buttons may work? Also, one last question, does the GUI run in complete English? or "engrish"?

      Delete
    3. The DPad works the same as the Joystick... and you need that for movement. The JXD5000 did allow joystick and Dpad to separate inputs, but I find it very strange that it's not the case with the JXD S7100.

      The language is "engrish". :)

      Delete
    4. @Jesse So you're saying that when joystick is used on the system the character only goes up, right, left and down? The character won't turn a complete revolution?

      Delete
    5. Dpad = Joystick
      Joystick = Dpad
      Both do the same actions. If you pressed left on the Joystick it's the same as pressing left on the DPad. They are considered by the system as the same thing. (1m)

      Delete
    6. @Jesse Oh.. What a complete disappointment, I heard JXD is making another tablet, more like 2nd version of s7100 where they say it'll correct all of the current problems. Well, I think I'd better be waiting for it than this inferior one.

      Delete
    7. Well let's hope they take the user feedback and improve. JXD is bringing products quicker than bigger more established companies, and hopefully they deliver "the gaming tablet" that many are seeking.

      I want to try the Nintendo WiiU controller because it seems to have the right hardware that I'm seeking. (2m)

      Delete
  7. is this the fixed version .... http://www.willgoo.com/jxd-s7100b-retro-handheld-android-tablet-p-230.html?referrer=CNWR_771331638507

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hey Jesse B Andersen! is there a case or protection thing inside or do i need to buy one? and wich one should i take because this thing got a very long shape thanks

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You would have to buy a case yourself, and no I cannot recommend one. My suggestion would be to take the device to a local electronics store and checkout the 7 inch tablet cases/sleeves.

      Delete

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