New Gtab owner

[iastonish]

Just got the Gtab, flashed Vegan Gingerbread and Clemsyn Kernal. Here's my initial impression...

The tab is fast...screaming fast. Web browsing has been a pleasure, every site loads up very quick and the flash is a nice bonus. The menus are pretty user friendly, the entire interface is a lot better after flashing GB. Typing on the thumb keyboard is awesome and makes writing on the tablet a whole lot easier.

Aesthetically the tablet isn't all that great. The viewing angles are really bad and the tab feels heavy to hold. I wouldn't mind the extra weight on the tablet if it felt more solid, but it doesn't feel like a quality build. The screen is just a bit to big for my liking, especially with the poor angles for viewing.

That said, I paid less than $300 for the tab new and I'm happy about my purchase. This seems like a very underrated tablet, the specs you get for the price make it a steal. The aesthetics of it could be better, but when it comes down to it, the Gtab gets the job done and everything "under the hood" so to say makes up for the less than stellar exterior.

Any suggestions on apps, themes, accessories, are welcome!

 

[barakisbrown]

Excellent underrated tablet. Yes, the viewing angles are bad but for what your getting its a good trade off. Have you installed the kernel that you get it run 1.4ghz safely??

 

[garyray]

I just got mine a few days ago & installed Vegan Tab GE. It took me a few times because I wasn't reading the whole post on XDA. I skipped the nvflash section.
I paid less than $300 for it also. I have to say it is extremely fast & Vegan tab just makes awesome.
My only real complaints are the lack of a kick stand (all tablets should have them),the poor quality viewing angles & the hard keys don't light up but with the buttons on the status bar with Vegan it doesn't make it that much of an issue.
Rear facing camera would be nice but I doubt I would use it that often & that's the sacrifice for the price.
I haven't noticed any lag & the battery seems to last a long time even with gps, wifi & bluetooth always on. I'm really surprised it isn't more popular.

 

[iastonish]

Excellent underrated tablet. Yes, the viewing angles are bad but for what your getting its a good trade off. Have you installed the kernel that you get it run 1.4ghz safely??

Yea, I found a gingerbread based kernal that lets me overclock to 1.4ghz. It runs great and my quadrant scores went up a very good amount.

Stock kernal was around 1800
OC'd kernal hits 2500+

 

[iastonish]

I just got mine a few days ago & installed Vegan Tab GE. It took me a few times because I wasn't reading the whole post on XDA. I skipped the nvflash section.
I paid less than $300 for it also. I have to say it is extremely fast & Vegan tab just makes awesome.
My only real complaints are the lack of a kick stand (all tablets should have them),the poor quality viewing angles & the hard keys don't light up but with the buttons on the status bar with Vegan it doesn't make it that much of an issue.
Rear facing camera would be nice but I doubt I would use it that often & that's the sacrifice for the price.
I haven't noticed any lag & the battery seems to last a long time even with gps, wifi & bluetooth always on. I'm really surprised it isn't more popular.

Yea, I have the same complaints, as do most users. But like you said the gb soft keys are a nice addition and make up for the lack of a backlight on the hard keys. The viewing angle can be annoying, but for the most part it only bothers me when I'm feeling lazy and don't feel like picking up the tablet to use it lol

It's a great tab for the price. I paid $280 shipped for mine

 

[garyray]

Yea, I found a gingerbread based kernal that lets me overclock to 1.4ghz. It runs great and my quadrant scores went up a very good amount.

Stock kernal was around 1800
OC'd kernal hits 2500+

What did you use to score & overclock?

 

[iastonish]

What did you use to score & overclock?

You have to find an overclocked kernal that is compatible with your rom. After you install that download and run set cpu, when you first load it you will have the option to choose "custom" for your device and you should then be allowed to OC up to the maximum ability of your kernal. The one I'm using clocks a little over 1400

 

[garyray]

I didn't know that about the kernel. I've just got Vegan GE installed. Nice to know. What's a good place to find a list?
I had assumed a good rom would allow overclocking and/or firmware updates but not the kernel. Thanks

 

[iastonish]

I didn't know that about the kernel. I've just got Vegan GE installed. Nice to know. What's a good place to find a list?
I had assumed a good rom would allow overclocking and/or firmware updates but not the kernel. Thanks

It depends. Some roms have oc's kernals built in other don't.

I found the kernal via google, but will pot up the link if I can find it again for you.

 

[garyray]

Yea Vegan Tab GE has the the option to set min & max cpu but won't allow the selection.
I'll have to do some research as to why.

 

[iastonish]

Yea Vegan Tab GE has the the option to set min & max cpu but won't allow the selection.
I'll have to do some research as to why.

Here's a good starting point: http://androidforums.com/gtablet-all-things-root/265619-complete-list-roms-patches-kernels.html

 

[garyray]

seems to be what I was looking for
Did someone order some Overclocking goodness? - Android Forums

 

[dhayden]

Yea, I have the same complaints, as do most users. But like you said the gb soft keys are a nice addition and make up for the lack of a backlight on the hard keys. The viewing angle can be annoying, but for the most part it only bothers me when I'm feeling lazy and don't feel like picking up the tablet to use it lol

It's a great tab for the price. I paid $280 shipped for mine

Me too. A coworker saw mine and bought 2 from woot at work. Just rooted hers to tnt 4.2.3.

My question is vegan better than tnt and do I dare root again. Kind of scary trying not to brick my baby

 

[iastonish]

Me too. A coworker saw mine and bought 2 from woot at work. Just rooted hers to tnt 4.2.3.

My question is vegan better than tnt and do I dare root again. Kind of scary trying not to brick my baby

Both roms are highly appraised. I never used TNT, but I think Vegan Gingerbread has a lot going for it. It's super quick and snappy, but the most noticeable edition are the on screen buttons. You know the home and side buttons on the side that don't light up? They are implemented directly onto the screen and it makes navigating the tab a breeze. The thumb keyboard is also very awesome and makes it a lot easier to type on the tablet in landscape mode.

I wouldn't worry about bricking your Gtab too much. It's an open bootloader I believe, so it doesn't have much if any restraints. As long as you read the instructions and are familiar with flashing roms, you will be fine.

To flash a rom

1- Download the rom onto your computer, then connect your tablet and drag the zip to the root of your sd card.

2- Boot into clockwork recovery

3- Wipe date/factory reset, wipe cache, wipe delvik

4- Install zip from your SD card

That's pretty much all there is to it. You'll be fine!

 

[IanMcB]

I just got mine over the weekend. I updated to the 1.2 firmware and loaded Brilliant Corners 1.2 a little while ago.

Will play around with it tonight and let you know what I think

 

[Mike_TX]

Is there someplace with screenshots, etc. of the interfaces? I flashed TNT Lite, and it's a little spartan in ways.

How do you know what you're getting with a given ROM without installing it?

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[iastonish]

Is there someplace with screenshots, etc. of the interfaces? I flashed TNT Lite, and it's a little spartan in ways.

How do you know what you're getting with a given ROM without installing it?

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Usually there are screenshots. Here is a thread for Vegan Gingerbread 7.0.0

[Rom][Howto] VEGAn-TAB GingerEdition STABLE RC1 . . The most popular Rom for gTablet

 

[Mustang46L]

I know that they don't all seem to have screenshots, that is something I like to see before hand as well. I chose Vegan because there were nice screenshots as well as hearing a lot of good things.

Most of the ROMs do have YouTube videos though if you don't see screenshots. Not quite as desireable if you are trying to do research at work (where I can't watch YouTube) or on the go, but most have some type of mechanism for seeing the ROM in action before installing.

 

[Mike_TX]

Thanks, guys - that's helpful. I'm not 100% happy with TNT Lite, but I'm also not thrilled about re-flashing tp a new ROM, either. Still having small issues with TNT Lite, for that matter.

I'll look closer at Gingerbread - I may go that way.

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[nww16]

Just received my new gTab. New departure for me from my existing HP Tablets running W7. Aiming to run it stock for a while, then maybe upgrade and overclock to improve performance. Reading these posts with interest, and learning the new language!