Hardware
Design
Smart Devices definitely made a step forwards with the design of the SmartQ R7. Compared to the SmartQ 7 / V7, the R7 is thinner, lighter and looks quite a bit better. The crappy stand on the back is removed and the device is comfortable to hold in both portrait and landscape modes. Buttons are well spaced and the new four-way key on the front is very useful for scrolling through content. Besides the power button on the bottom of the SmartQ R7, there are no more buttons on the sides of the device, which makes navigating easier.
Touchscreen
The previous SmartQ devices all had a resolution of 800×480, which was great on the MIDs with a 4.3″ screen, but a bit of a let down on the SmartQ 7/V7 which had a 7″ screen. The increase to 800×600 on the SmartQ R7 might not look that impressive on paper, but is actually a very welcomed improvement. Because of the added pixels and changed aspect ratio, it’s much more pleasant to read in portrait mode. The resolution is now on par with that of most e-book readers, but with the SmartQ R7 you get an added 1″ of screen estate (compared to the popular 6″ readers in the same price range) and, of course, a color screen.
It’s a resistive touchscreen, so it’s not optimized for gestures and doesn’t support multi touch. However, unlike most capacitive touchscreens, this one isn’t glossy so it’s more suited for e-book reading.
Connectivity
The SmartQ R7 has Wifi and USB On-The-Go(OTG). USB OTG is a mini-USB port that can be used to connect the R7 to a computer or to connect USB devices to the SmartQ R7. This way, you can use a keyboard, mouse, GPS receiver, GPRS/UMTS modem or a storage device with the SmartQ R7. Unfortunately, Smart Devices decided to drop Bluetooth, which allowed all the previous devices(except the SmartQ 7, but that one had a full USB port and came with a Bluetooth dongle) to easily connect wireless input devices or to connect to the internet using the tethering function on your mobile phone. Of course, it’s still possible to use a Bluetooth dongle using the USB OTG port, but it’s unnecessary cumbersome. Another feature that has been dropped is HDMI output, which can be found on the SmartQ V5 and V7. While I personally never used it besides testing, it might be disappointing for some people. Especially with the capability of 1080p video playback.
Accelerometer
Unlike the other SmartQ MIDs, the R7 now has a accelerometer. Unfortunately it currently only works in the eBook reader applications. Everything else currently only runs in landscape mode.
Battery life
Compared to the SmartQ 7 / V7, the SmartQ R7 has a smaller battery so battery life is shortened. Still, it’s very decent with about 8 hours of battery life with WiFi turned off and about 4-5 hours with WiFi turned on.
Specifications
| Screen: | 7″ 800×600 touchscreen, 16 million colors |
| CPU: | ARM 600MHz |
| Memory: | 256MB DDR II RAM |
| Connectivity: | 802.11b/g WiFi, USB OTG |
| Storage: | 2 GB Flash(512MB available to users), SD/SDHC (max 32GB) |
| Battery: | 3300mAH Built-in Li-poly |
| Dimensions: | 205×136x16mm |
| Weight: | About 380g |
- Introduction
- Hardware and design
- Linux and software
- Conclusion
Tags: ebook reader, SmartQ, tablet
Great review, overall the r7 looks really nice, but i do have to say they should have added android to make it the best smartQ device so far.
By the way, i have a v5 and was wondering what’s the best way to get emulators to run smoothly in ubuntu. When i try running a gba emulator it lags too much to play. Would be nice to run an emulator in ubuntu cause i could use a keyboard then. Wii remote is nice and all, but having as many options as possible is always good
I guess Android will be added later on, like with the SmartQ 5, which is a better option than having it pre-installed and eating up the internal storage. Personally, I hated the bootscreen and Android. It was just too slow and buggy (wifi). Even scrolling through a list with items was a chore using the resistive touchscreen.
GBA emulators won’t run smoothly on the SmartQ devices. I guess this is mainly because they don’t use the hardware graphics acceleration.
Thank you for the great review!! It was extremely helpful and detailed, as is the res o your site (I just found out) Best review I’ve found on the web. I know I would use the classic gaming software, remote desktop, a little e-reading, and very heavy web and e-mail. The smartdevices mids look really nice for these purposes. Do you think I should get the r7, which from your review I think would be the best smartQ mid for me, or some other non smart devices product? so far this looks great.
Regards,
Henry
Thanks for the compliment. The R7 is in my opinion the best suited SmartQ device, but judging by your needs, you might be better off with a netbook. I don’t know what your standards are for heavy web browsing and emailing, but if it includes a lot of typing, it might be annoying to use a touchscreen. Also keep in mind that Flash sites aren’t supported. If you mainly want to read news sites and so on, the SmartQ is quite suited. Gaming besides ScummVM and some simple games is basically non-existant, with a netbook you can use much more demanding emulators like those for SNES, GBA, PSX and N64 plus a lot of older pc games.
The SmartQ is a great and affordable device for reading, some videos or some light browsing and mailing on the go or on the couch, if you’re more of a power user, you might be disappointed with the lack of true horse power behind the device.
GREAT review. To paraphrase what someone else said, this is the best ipad-style tablet review I’ve read! So if I’m looking for a (or is it Ipad? Ha!) style table with Android 2.0 or later that actually works, unlike the iRobot apad, what do you recommend? I want browsing, multitouch, and a camera for skype, with good resolution (800×600) and a 7″ or 10″ screen, preferably something that’s ungradeable.
Thanks.
I wonder about battery… its life is pretty good, but what about replacing it? Can you buy a spare battery? Rechargeable batteries dies pretty fast if used regularly… I don’t wanna end up with $200+ photo frame (oh no, wait, there is no stand for this)
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