Conclusion
Pros
- Sharply priced
- Great video playback
- Good battery life
- Great build quality and nice design
- Good connectivity options
- Great for e-books and comic books
- Open platform
- Great wifi reception
- Loads of free apps to install
Cons
- USB OTG currently not supported in Linux
- Poor speed
- Windows CE is horrible
- Not all apps are optimized for the 800×480 touchscreen
- Might be hard to use for a novice user
- Screen is hard to read in direct sunlight
- No English manual included
Final conclusion
The SmartQ V5 is definitely a step up from the SmartQ 5. It’s not a whole lot faster, but the build quality has been improved and the HD video playback is very impressive.
However the inclusion of Windows CE and Android don’t add a lot of value to the device. If you’re looking for a cheap device for mainly Android use, you’d better steer clear of the SmartQ V5. Linux is the only OS that feels rather polished and I found myself ignoring the other two operating systems completely. The current lack of USB OTG in Linux is a big con though, although it will be most certainly fixed in the next firmware release.
Overall, the SmartQ V5 is a device for tech geeks and gadget freaks. Those who expect a MID to have a slick basic interface and a simple app store will be disappointed. But if you don’t mind doing some research and like to fiddle with a device to get the most out of it, the SmartQ V5 is a wonderful piece of hardware. Priced at $149.99/€118.06 it’s cheaper than a PSP or iPod here in Europe, so if you look at it from that perspective, it offers a lot of bang for the buck.
Update: Android support on the SmartQ V5 has been vastly improved. A lot of bugs have been ironed and it’s now running Android 2.1 at decent speeds. A lot of users even prefer Android to the other operating systems. If you can’t live with Android without a capacitive touchscreen, you might want to look at the Ramos W7.
If you still have any questions, feel free to leave a comment!
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Great review. It’s the more complete review I’ve read about Smartq V5.
So, I’m very interested in buy a smartq device but i have one question:
- It’s is possible to use ubuntu repositories in this device…. I mean, there are lots of open programs that run in ubuntu, but those programs run in smartq linux OS too? i’m specially interested in aircrack-ng suite.
Sorry, my english is very bad.
Regards
Yes, that’s the way to install apps on linux. It uses the posts.ubuntu.com karmic repositries.
Aircrack installed, but I have no idea how it works and if it’s compatible with the wifi hardware/drivers.
what sd/sdhc card did you use to upgrade to english mine keeps saying SDchinesewriting! please help me out
How do you set the installer program to the repositories?
I lost the win ce software and am not able to reinstall san you help with info on how to install as all i hav now is the three icons on the screen
Thanks Jim
USB OTG works fine in linux version 5.3 on my V5…
Are you sure you’re talking about USB OTG and not USB Host (used to connect it to a computer)?
They removed the OTG option from the SysSettings and it doesn’t power my USB devices.
Yep I’ve connected usb drives, keyboard, mouse and a wireless mouse receiver and all worked fine. I haven’t tested USB host yet but I don’t really have any need to as NFS also works fine
Hello
You have given nice review about SmartQ 5.I think its really good high definition mobile internet device.I just came to know that it is capable of running Linux.Thank you for this review.
Do you know of any good links for compatible Linux software?
)
I did a quick search and only came with this: http://ubuntustudio.org/
(which looks a little more intensive than this could handle
I’m an artist and I’d use this to carry around samples and reference files. I’m thinking of getting an ipod touch (ease of use, good sunlight screen, lots software) but I hate the whole built in battery/memory/etc and this display intrigues me.
I need to know of a good gallery/camera roll for linux (like ipod’s but that can display at full resolution and not shrunken down.) Files are reference so they can be small 1-3 meg jpeg (since you note graphic pdf’s are kinda slow-bummer).
Any thoughts would really help me. And thank you for ur website. I’ve been lurking since discovering it 3 months ago. It’s really awesome. Your reviews are stellar.
Thanks for the compliments! You can just use the Ubuntu repositries to install the apps. I use Aptitude on the SmartQ to search for apps, and install them using the terminal. I probably take the long route, but it’s easy and it works. You’ll find hundreds of apps which you can install (although not everything works). Unlike you’re probably used to, you don’t need to scrape the web looking for apps.
I haven’t tried any gallery apps though. Just opening files from a SD card that came right out of my DSLR was quite slow though (and those were 2-3MB JPEGs).
Sorry last question:
Do u know if the audio jack support line in or mic?
I don’t think it supports line in. The SmartQ V5 does have a microphone though. Works fine using a voip app.
Hi,
I saw that the V5 has the ubuntu 5.3 version. Is there still need for a firmware upgrade?
I also downloaded the english language pack onto a 4GB shdc card but I can’t get GDebi to install it. It keeps saying there are errors of dependencies.
Thanks.
5.3 is the latest firmware, but I always recommend updating when a new firmware comes out.
I don’t get why you would download an English language pack though. Linux is all English,
Hi,
Thanks for your reply. Part of what I was hoping to get from this was to have the pdf manual already installed display in english instead of chinese. and I still keep seeing some chinese characters in the file system.
Also on the winCE OS I could not activate a keyboard to enter text to enable access to a wifi connection although when I click any of the office applications the keyboard does come up.
Thanks.
There is no English PDF manual and the only few Chinese characters are from Chinese apps.
In WinCE, you got to hold the icon at the right bottom and select the keyboard.
Thanks for very relavent info. The pointing device inc WinCE is inaccurate. Even when you calibrate it. I can’t get the pointing device to click on the icon in the bottom right hand corner. Any suggestions? Thanks again..
Thanks again for a great review!
There are some things I would like to know though.
Are you able to plug in a mouse and use that to directly navigate this device?
Also is the only improvement between the newer V5 and the older smartq 5 the HD video playback?
I was originally planning to buy a Smartq 5 but now that the v5/v7 are introduced I don’t know which one to pick…
Thank you in advance.
It’s possible to connect a USB or Bluetooth mouse, although I experienced problems with USB OTG in the current Linux firmware. You also need to edit some files to make the cursor visible.
The improvements over the Q5 are: HD video playback, HDMI output, better build quality, more memory and the extra installed operating systems, if that’s your cup of tea.
I didn’t really noticed an increase in speed though, but that might change in the feature. Overall, the SmartQ V5 is a bit more polished than the Q5 and it isn’t a whole lot more expensive.
Hi,
You did mention that the smart Q works well with VOIP. Can you suggest one that is easy to configure and that will also allow me to use another SIP ?.
Thanks.
I used Kphone, didn’t test it extensively. Just connected to my laptop to check the voice quality. It was easy to configure though.
I am thinking which would suit me more V5 or V7. My main purpose is playing multimedia content + reading pdfs on it. Do you think V5 will suffice? The thing I dont like about V7 is that it maybe too big to carry around….Tell me about V5’s pdf reading experience please ( I mostly read technical books)..
It depends on if you want to read on a 4.3″ screen. PDF’s work perfectly fine, but keep it mind that most PDF’s aren’t reflowable. So if you view a document that’s designed for A4 printing, it might be hard to read because the font size is too small.
Graphically heavy PDF’s are quite slow too.
But just regular reading books are perfectly fine. And of course, you can always zoom in.
Can you post some screenshots of the device reading pdf files such as programming related books, of different formatting..
Sorry, I don’t have time to download PDFs, taking photos, uploading them etc.
Just resize the window of your PDF reader to 800×480 pixels and that’s how it will look on the SmartQ V5.
Thank you for a very thorough review. I assume you can’t upgrade the OS to a newer version. The 3 OS’s are embedded in the firmware? Is Linux 5.3 a scaled down version of 9.10 for the MID?
New updates for the operating systems are released quite regularly. They all have their own firmware/update files.
Linux 5.3 (or 5.4 at the moment) is just Ubuntu 9.10 optimized for the SmartQ V5.
What kind of hdmi cable i need for the output? Regular or mini conector
A mini hdmi to full hdmi cable. Male to male.
Hi, thanks for the reviews and the website, a great help.
I was thinking of buying the Qv5.
One of my concerns was for reading word and pdf documents.
Will they fit the screen properly or do I have to scrole around. Same for the web pages.
Also, I only have half a brain at the best of times. Is it quite easy to use or will I have to go and get a science degree.
Kind regards.
It depends. Just try to set the resolution of your computer to 800×600 and you’ll get a decent idea how much screen estate you will have on the SmartQ V5. I barely had to scroll horizontally. Word documents are reflowable, but you might want to zoom in on some pdf files if they’re hard to read (just imagine an A4 sized document with small fonts scaled down to a 4.3″ screen).
The learning curve isn’t to steep. You got a regular taskbar with apps and once you know the ’sudo apt-get install’ command, you’re ready to roll. There is a lot of information to be found on the internet, so most beginner problems are already covered. Just don’t expect it to be an iPod Touch or something.
Thanks for the swift reply Chinese Gadget Person.
I borrowed another brain and changed the screen resolution. It made every thing fat and a little blurry. Nothing a large Scotch wouldn’t cure, though.
Kind regards,
Darcus.
When you use the sudo apt-get install command how does the program link to the repositories. I have attempted to install gnomesword or xiphos using that command and it says package not found. Also, I have found several websites that have repositories but they are always in some tyupe of file structure and i cant find the package I need. It might also help to let people know that the packages that are installable on the Smartq V5 are the debian karmic with the armel distributionn. Thanks.
hemeinci
This is way more hpefull than anything else I’ve looked at.
how did you get it to english. i keep having the problem where when the light turns greenish yellow it reads sdchinesewriting!. some people i know said that it is saying it can’t find the file or somehing of that sort. i have formatted it to fat 32 and put it in the start up of the card still no luck on 3 different cards.
Did you download the correct file and unrarred it to the root of the SD card?
sorry im a noob. what is unrarred. does that mean change name of file type. from what i read the root is just the first place that the card opens to correct? no i probably did not unrar. the only thing i did was download from site to card then try
How is thumb typing on this device? Waste of time or works good once you are used to it?
I also want to use this device as a remote controller for my desktop. The remote desktop might work for this. I would need to be able to load a video on my desktop and be able to watch it full screen. Have you tried it for this purpose?
Is it possible for this device to act as a touch pad mouse for my desktop? perhaps there is an app that can do this? Or a remote control for VLC media player?
With VOIP I assume I can use a VOIP service from my ISP?
Great review!! Best the web has to offer.
Thank you for the compliment!
Hopefully, this will answer your questions:
Thumb typing is pretty decent using the finger friendly on screen keyboard. I don’t use it all the time because it takes a bit longer to popup. So for short typing, I mainly use the stylus with the default keyboard. If I want to post a comment or something, I use to the finger friendly keyboard.
Remote desktop works fine, but the refreshrate is low so you won’t be able to stream video. Sound won’t be streamed either. I guess that’s more a problem of the Wifi connection. Of course, it is possible to use it as a remote using remote desktop. I don’t know if there are any dedicated apps for remote controlling specific apps or using it as a touch pad mouse, but it should be possible.
I’m not really into the whole VOIP thing, but I used Kphone and a free SIP server to test it and it worked fine. If your ISP supports the SIP protocol, there shouldn’t be a problem.
The rar format is a method of compressing files, like zip, but more efficient. There is a free unrar program available for all the common operating systems. You just have to uncompress the files first, then put them on the SD card.
after the last one i looked it up. it worked fine. android takes longer to boot though. how to get android online?
Is this available in the middle east?
I guess so, AllPMP ships worldwide.
What is the battery diff between this and the V7?
The V7 has about twice the battery life.
what’s your recommendation?
It depends on what you’re looking for, both are great devices. If you want something you can keep in your pocket, get the SmartQ V5. If you want something with better battery life and more screen estate (much more comfortable if you’re into reading), get the SmartQ V7.
thx, ps does the the V7 support the Spring engine and its related games?
Nope, no 3D hardware acceleration (yet).
what about flash support as of now?
Nope, it’s in the review too.
Hi,
I had wanted to know how you made the microphone work on the V5 you tested. I have tried several times to use VOIP on it but the mic does not work. So I am wondering if I have a faulty device. Also could you give me a guide on how to choose English language version on the options for the Android OS on the V5?
Thanks.
The mic just worked without any additional settings.
Getting the Android OS to English is just a matter of fiddling around in the settings menu. Just press random menu items and you will find it. Might take a few minutes.
Has anyone tried drawing on the touchbook using the mypaint app?, how well does it perform? Can you draw fluidly using a stylus?
Installing Apps In Linux On the Smartq V5
Perhaps every one knew this already except me. But, I found it extremely helpful. To install apps on the Smartq Vt, first I opened Evilite, the terminal program found under accessories. I typed “sudo apt-get update”. This command linked the Smartq V5 to the Debian Linux Karmic repositories. Then, I typed
“sudo apt-get install synaptic” which installed the Synaptic program manager. I now have the world of Debian Linux Karmic software in the palm of my hand. I was unable to install apps using Synaptic because of the limited screen real estate. The click buttons to install apps was below the bottom of the screen, even when I moved the pages up as far as it would go. So, I use Synaptic to find the apps, then use the “sudo apt-get install ” command to install the apps. This command finds all of the necessary dependencies and installs them as required by the program. The installation process can be slow but otherwise is absolutely great. The link for instructions on using APT is:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AptGet/Howto/.
Not all of the apps in the repositories will run correctly on the Smartq V5. I was able to install Bibletime and it runs perfectly. As you may know, you must install a program that uses the KDE environment to get the icons to work properly in Bibletime. I installed Amarok and the icons appeared correctly. I then uninstalled Amarok and the icons remained correctly. I was able to install Gnomesword but the program would not load once installed.
I think I noticed somewhere in these comments that some one was able to adjust the screen resolution in Linux on the Smartq V5. If this is possible would you please detail how it is done.
Thanks.
hemeinci
I can’t see the messages of my received emails in Claw Mail. The message window will only display barely 1 line. Is there a way to see the messages? Has any one tried another email program that works on the Smartq V5?
Thanks
Hemeinci
The Smart Devices site has updates to Linux 5.4, Android 2.0 and 3.0 (might actually be 2.1 since 3.0 isn’t supposed to be released quite yet) there’s videos of the SmartQ V5 running Android 2.1, looks quite speedy and impressive. There’s also an English WinCE to download.
Linux and Android that come with this device are multilanguage but unless the vendor you buy it from changes the WinCE install it’s the Chinese version. No big deal since all three OS updates are free downloads.
My main interest in this device is to replace my Palm LifeDrive, with MicroDrive replaced with a Compact Flash card. The V5 is slightly shorter in length, slightly wider, quite a bit thinner and a lot lighter.
Faster CPU, more real RAM (256 meg VS 32, LifeDrive uses a 64 meg drive partition as “RAM” with the 32 meg as swap/operating space). V5 can use SDHC without a 3rd party hack. I suspect that if one or two of the operating systems are erased, the user accessible part of the 2gig flash RAM will increase.
LifeDrive’s LCD is 320×480. V5’s LCD is 2.5 times that resolution! great for eBooks, which is my primary use of the LifeDrive.
This V5 gizmo looks to be the perfect replacement for a LifeDrive, TX, T5 or any other 320×480 Palm PDA. I like having my cell phone and PDA separate, I change phones more often than I do PDAs.
Though if the V5 was a USA compatible GSM phone too, I’d be tempted to use it with Fuzion Mobile.
Has anyone tried the V5 or V7 with an external USB webcam. I’m looking to avoid having to lug around a laptop with my telescope and was wondereing if they could cope with wxcam and possibly kstars.
looks like a great invention and gadget. good work!
How does that device cope with the 3d games Gameloft released for Android?
For example, if I throw ExZeus, Asphalt 5 or Dungeon Hunter for Android will it keep up or will it be sluggish?
[...] [...]
the device did had some issues, especially when playing graphics in 3d. good thing they had released already a patch suitable for Smartq v5 which fixes it.,
This player is a great “starter” player for someone that’s looking into getting a Blu-Ray player but doesn’t want to buy one at a high end price. First off, I just wanted to say that the reviews on this product have been covered very well by other customers that have purchased this product. So with that in mind, all I can say is that this player has done everything I wanted it to do
I’m keen on the design for what it will. I would make several changes: take a pwm output and filter it to some dc voltage. Use this voltage and a comparator to manufacture a controllable discharge current that you could set in a lots of steps. Alyce Getchell
This is such a great resource that you are providing and you give it away for free. I love seeing websites that understand the value of providing a quality resource
This makes everything so coempltely painless.
I would make several changes: take a pwm output and filter it to some dc voltage. Use this voltage and a comparator to manufacture a controllable discharge current that you could set in a lots of steps. Alyce Getchell
Though if the SmartQ V5 was a USA compatible GSM phone too, I�d be tempted to use it with Fuzion Mobile.
apple ipad future…
Keep working ,great job!…
Bangkok Condo…
[...]SmartQ V5 Review « ChineseGadgets.net[...]…
My daughter would love this. If I don’t win the contest I may have to invest in a Bindit.So cool.
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