So it finally landed on my desk like a Christmas gift, the one and only Samsung Exynos 4412 Quad-core Android tablet, the
Ramos W30. As always i will run down some test to see if this device is as wonderful on the inside as it is on the outside.
Ramos W30 Specifications
CPU Samsung Exynos 4412, ARM Cortex-A9 Based Quad Core
Frequency 1.4GHz
Graphics Mali-400x4 Quad Core GPU
Screen 10.1 inch 1280*800 wide viewing angle high-definition IPS screen
10 Point capacitive multi-touch touch screen
Memory 1GB DDR3 + 1GB ROM (extremely fast processing speed)
Storage Nand flash: 4GB-16GB
Micro SD(TF) card slot supports 1GB--16GB
Function Hardware 2080P video decoding!
3D graphics acceleration
VGA front camera, back 2MP camera
Connectivity IEEE 802.11 b/g/n WiFi network
2x USB 2.0 high-speed OTG port and Mini USB port
Sensor Three-axis accelerometer
Ambient light sensor
Audio 3.5mm standard stereo headphone port
High-quality stereo loudspeakers
Microphone
OTG external mobile device supports EXFAT, NTFS, FAT32 subarea. High sensitive G-sensor. Vibration motor.
Casing Alluminium and Hard Plastic
Weight 538g
Dimensions 258.3*164*9.5mm
Battery 3.7V 5400mAH Li-polymer battery. Low power consumption and long standby
Hardware
Ramos displyed the W30 and W30HD already at the Hong Kong fair back in October, where i had a chance to get a quick feel at this and other devices which you can read about his this post. The first impression i had back then is still the same today, the W30 is snappy with its 4-core cpu, its super thin and the built quality feels first class apart from the ports cover which i will go into details leter in the review.
When you pick up the device you will be surprised how thin (9.5mm at its thickest) and light (538 grams) this device really is. The bezel around the screen is really at its minimum, the white front makes it look sleek and the silver aluminum back gives it even more quality feel. Ramos is well know for its built quality, good design but also late release of their hyped devices, as in the case of W30/W30HD. Late release can in some cases actually be a good thing. I can easy that the built quality is on pair with highend devices from Samsung or other expensive bands.
The only issue i have as for the built is the cover over the ports at the pack of device, its made of plastic and not very easy removed using your nail, its held in place by tiny rubber bands on each end and it really feels like they will break easily after extended use, i guess its the price you pay for the slim design. Under the cover you find the micro USB port and the SD card slot, if you dont plan to use the USB cable or remove the SD card too often i guess this wont be un isssue and it looks more clean with the ports hiddeden.
Orther thing i noticed is that the power and volume buttons are quite tiny and located too close to eachother and its easy to press wrong button by mistake, they also feel very plastic, i would prefer something more solid as i tend to use the volume buttons alot. Overall the good built quality, slim snd sleek design lets you easy forget about the few drawbacks.
Screen
The screen is very bright with good contract and crystal clear image, even at extreme angles the image is claer and there is no color tint from any of the 4 angles. Even at lowest brightness setting the image is very clear and hopefully can help you save battery when on the-go. The quality of the IPS displays on new tablets constantly improves and its no longer an issue as it was just few months ago. Having said that i noticed some screen bleeding on my test sample but i also know this is very common with IPS displays, plus my unit comes from an early batch. To see the bleeding you need to turn off all your lights set the screen to 100% brightness and open a totally black image, something that is invisable in normal use, but i dint want to left this one out.
I have noticed the image on the W30 is displyed at lower color bitrate resulting in lower color tones which makes images with lost of color tones look poor in quality and this is also noticable in the UI effects. Im not sure if this is related to the IPS display, the android drivers or some setting that im unable to find but this has to be addressed and i will update this part as soon as i have this cofirmed.
Software
As with most Chinese tablets the Ramos W30 comes preloaded with few Chinese apps that cant be removed as the device is not rooted. I hope for a rooted firmware or at least a root method for this device to gain more control over the Android firmware and to tweak what needs to be teaked. I have not owned or used any Ramos tablet eariler but looking at their firmware updates and forum topics im not very impressed, i hope this will not become on of the device with great specs and potential but left abondond with no firmware updates. Im worried that the last firmware update was november Novermber 26 (20121126), maybe the communiity can keep this device alive.
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