- Internal memory: 4 GB, plus flash card slot
- Display Resolution 800 x 480 (WVGA - widescreen)
- A/V Connections: Mini HDMI out, Type C (max 1080p) 3.5mm headphone out
- Android 2.3
- Integrated microphone, Integrated speaker
So, after researching what I could of the various Android OS Internet Tablets out there (most with terrible reviews of hardware issues), and considering the purchase price, I decided to bite the bullet and purchase the Coby unit. I was at first leary of buying something of this nature which is made by Coby, a manufacturer of basically cheap, low end electronics.
I purchased this unit (K-Mart, $149.95(save $30) in 12/12/10 12/19/10 AD I also bought an additional year replacement contract for under $18 a good idea on new electronics!), and immediately plugged it in to charge the battery (it notified of full charge after 1-1/2 hours). I decided to play with the unit a little, since I could not resist. I will say, I was impressed with the quality of the unit, it seems very sturdy and well built. It powered up fine and I found it very easy to navigate thru the functions (both on screen and the case side buttons). Of course, I recommend that you visit coby.com and download the manual in PDF format (as I did several days ago).
Now, as far as the touch screen, it functions excellent in my opinion. None of the quirks other mention about this unit or other units being sold. And forget about HAVING to use yor fingernail or the stylus to select or scroll. It works great with my finger tip, better than even the stylus. I admit, the finger swipe method to scroll thru lists or menus takes a bit of practice, but that may be only me, because I have never used a touch screen device of this type before. Oh, and the actual look of the screen (800x480 TFT), very nice. Again, better than expected. Enough about that. It just works.
Setting up a wireless connection was simple and effortless (using my own home wireless connection). Surfing the Internet was easy too, once you get used to seeing "mobile device formatted" versions of web pages. All my favorite web pages loaded quickly (I mean fast) and problem free. (For those interested, even Facebook loads and works fine I tried it). The Ap for Youtube works great as well. Youtube videos load as fast as my desktop PC and of all the 10 or more that I tried, they played without any delay, chopping or buffering. Way better than I expected.
Using the Email AP, I very quickly set up a POP3 account and sent and received messages effortlessly (all verified).
File transfers to and from my PC went smooth, using the included USB cable (to the Coby's internal 4GB memory I have yet to buy a mini SD expansion card).
The included Ebook reader works perfectly too.
And, the built in accelerometer works nice. The screen will automatically change from portait and landscape mode, with only perhaps a 1 second delay. (The screen self-rotates 360 degrees upside down, etc).
The only thing I can mention, which was not expected, is that when you go to the Apps Library onine for additional Aps, many are listed, and listed as free too. But when you choose them (all that I tried) and download them, the start up screen for the Ap gives mention that you can purchase it or continue with 15 day free trial. To me, that is called "limited shareware", not a Free Ap! Perhaps some are indeed free, but I did not bother to search thru the hundreds and hundreds offered, and there is no advance way to know if they ARE indeed free. I am not really an AP person, so none of that really matters to me. The unit does, as it is, what I expected and bought it for, and it does it well.
*One note. If you purchase one of these, there is a firmware update on Coby's site, with a Youtube instruction video as well. You WILL need a mini SD card (8Gb or less in size) to install the update file onto first, as the update takes place in the Coby unit itself (from the memory card). (I have not yet done this, but will next week). After this update, the site states that the unit will show even better performance.
Battery life is stated to be 7 hours (we will see), with it's rechargeable 3200 mAh battery (a larger capacity than most other brand tablets).
That is my experience with this unit. I purchased it for the small, light form factor (no more clunky laptop), the wireless Internet, Email function, Reader and MP3 player, things I use often on the move (outside on lunch break at work, in bed at night or anywhere in the house or workplace, etc), but hate being tied to a power cord or a heavy laptop. So far, it has shown to serve this purpose with flying colors. (Some people have cellphones to do these tasks, but I hate cellphones and believe they are the leading cause of added stupidity in this country).
Included is a vice semi-hard protective case, wall charger, ear buds, USB Host cable (for thumb drives, mouse, etc) and a USB transfer cable to connect to a PC or laptop.
I realize I have not covered everything pertaining to this unit, but I wanted to post a good and a truly honest review for prospective buyers. I hope it will be of help to someone.
I love it and look forward to being productive with it. Merry Christmas to me!
Buy Coby Kyros MID7015-4G 7-Inch Android Internet Touchscreen Tablet - Black Now
--------------UPDATE----------------So five months after i bought the Coby 7015, it still goes strong. It has this annoying sleep/wake thing if you dont turn it off that drains the batteries, and occasionally i have to reset it, but once again for the price i can not give it less than 5 stars.
However, i recently recieved the Acer A500 tablet (roughly 450 bucks) and i have to say it absolutly kills the Coby tablet in terms of performance in every aspect, the thing is awesome and an absolute joy to use. At 4 times the price that is to be expected, but if you can squeeze out the extra $300 or so, there are some darn good tablets coming out right now that are excellent alternatives to the iPad.
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Review of Coby 7015 Tablet.
I got one of these as a 10 year anniversary gift from my company. I probably would have never bought one otherwise. All in all, i think this is an awesome little device for what it is.
I see a lot of things repeatedly addressed, other things are not, im going to try to go over every feature on this.
Please forgive my terrible spelling. ;)
When rating this i am comparing this to my samsung galazxy S droid phone, Ipads, Iphones, and Ipod touches all of which i have used many times.
==========OVERALL BUILD QUALITY=========
Good! This does not feel like a tiny junky piece of crap like i half expected. While it does not have the build quality of an Ipad, it does not feel like a little childs toy either. the buttons are solid and have a nice snappy responce to them. The Mini USB, HDMI, and DC input all seem like well built sockets, and i have no doubt they will stand the test of time. The back is a hard shell with a small speaker and reset button. It has a decent heft to it that implies stoutness, but it is light enough to carry around all day. All in all, much better than the sub $150 price tag lead you to expect. I dont like the MicroSD, there is no reason for that, they could have easily used standard SDHC cards, plus i have about a dozen SDHC cards lying around, but only one microsd. Keep the micro SD cards in the phones folks.
=============SCREEN==============
This is the biggest point of interest to many, and probably glossed over with the least amount of information. As has been mentioned this is a resistive screen. This is NOT the same type of screen as your Ipod, Iphone, Ipad, or Droid phones or Tablets. Those devices use capacitive screens which flat out rock. The resistive screen is not as good, but it is important to know that this screen is NOT Frustrating either! It really works well! If this is NOT your experience, i suspect a faulty unit.
A) Touch and Feel The wonderful capacitive screens feel like glass. This one feels like plastic, and like plastic it has more drag on your fingertips. The resistive screens seem to have several layers sandwiched together so they are not that flat hard surface, but slightly mushy. It does not feel as nice as the capacitive screens, it feels like older technology. The slight mushyness actually does give you somewhat of a fingertip-fatigue over time, where the capacitive (droid/iphone/ipad) screens are always a pleasure and do not tire your fingertips. I know that last part sounded rediculous, if you buy this device you will know what i mean.
B) Responsiveness Very good for a resistive screen, in fact, this is the most impressive resistive screen i have ever used. I used to have an old LG Incite phone a few years back, it had a resistive screen and it was an absolute horrible experience to use. I was very pessimistic about this device because of the screen but once i started using it it worked just fine. It DOES come with a stylus, sometimes you will find that more comfortable, however it does seem to respond just fine to finger swipes and the stylus is absolutly not required. If on a scale of 1-10 with the LG Incite touchscreen being a 1, and the Ipad screen being a 10, this sits at a solid 8. It just isnt quite there, but like i said, this is the best resistive screen i have ever seen.
C) Resolution and Color. Not bad. The color has a slight bluish tint, almost like an uncalibrated Dell laptop screen. You photos will seem to be lacking some of the poppy reds, yellows, and oranges. So if you are a photographer like i am, forget using this as a device to showcase your images, stick with your Ipad,Iphone,Droid. I have looked for a color correction App, so far, no dice. Resolution is 480p, this is DVD quality, for a 7 inch screen this is plenty, however if it is a foot from your face you do see all the little pixels.
========= AUDIO ==============
its a cheap tiny speaker like the kind found in blackberries, droids, ipods, etc. Nothing special, the sound is weak and tinny like any other speaker of that size, but the quality is not overly objectionable if there are no other options. It is great for podcasts, youtube, etc, but it falls far short of a KRELL HEAT system... as expected. ;)
========BATTERY LIFE==========
Maybe it is just mine? The battery indicator on my Kyros is all over the map, 98% one second, 32 the next, then 75%, then 63% then 80%. use it as a guide. it apparently has no idea exactly how much juice is left. I suspect it is trying to give you an idea of how much battery life is left depending on the amount of applications running? Even the battery managers on this thing are all over the board. In the end, i can score 5-6 hours of internet surfing. The screen and tablet stay nice and cool. Maybe this is a benefit of the resistive screen, less power consumption? this is just a guess.
==========APPSLIB APPS MARKET===========
THIS IS THE WORST THING ABOUT THIS DEVICE The apps in thier apps lib market are generally crap, i diddnt find much of anything i was interested in. some of the bigger games like angry birds are there, but there are many others im interested in that dont exist. There are 165,000+ applications for the android platform, so why the hell should you be limited to about 3,000 in the apps lib? plus they are 3,000 of the crap apps nobody wants. basic stuff like some facebook apps, email apps, are there, but other than that it is mostly junk.
But guess what? there is a light at the end of the tunnel! This device can easily be rooted, once it is rooted you can install some nice software to back it up, and once that is there you can side-load applications. Such as... THE GOOGLE APP MARKET! Yes! This is awesome! All 165,000 apps i want are now available!
The problem is you have to root the device (gets superuser permissions) install the backup software (which also enables application installation outside of the apps application itself and to keep a digital backup image of your device, very nice). And to do this you literally have to add a few lines of code(not nearly as scary as it sounds i promise! once of the easiest parts), you have to download several different files all of which seem to require you to sign up to various forum boards and stuff to get.
i did this. I am not a hacker by any means, in fact, im an idiot ask anybody, i dont understand most of what i was doing, other than the basic overall idea of what i wanted to accomplish. It took me several hours, mainly because of my ignorance on this kind of stuff. The key is to go one step at a time, if something is not working, search for an answer. There is a website that gives you step by step instructions, there are many posts on there of problems they ran into and solutions around them. Just google up the ULTIMATE KYROS 7015 and look for a website that is like XDA developers or something. it is a online forumboard where people figured out how to do this junk. It is on a forum thread, read through several pages, you will see what i mean, if you run into a problem, somebody else already has, and the answer will be in that thread somewhere.
Once this is done, and you have google apps, it absolutly transforms your entire experience with this marvelous dirt cheap tablet because they stuff you WANT is all there for you. I highly highly reccommend doing this (at your own risk) and trust me, if I can do it, anybody can, just take your time, when you get stuck read ahead, somebody else probably had the same problem and figured out how to correct it and explains how.. It does require an MicroSD card though. There IS a Possility you will turn your tablet into a brick. however, from what i have seen, this almost never happens, you almost have to have a flawed device from the get-go, or be overly careless.
=========OPERATING SYSTEM FUNCTIONALITY=========
Not bad at all! Mine keeps waking itself up which is annoying, but it responds to my commands, has only frozen twice, which is more than i can say for most other devices.
Keyboard Not bad at all, works well, you get used to using two thumbs on it, you have to pace yourself and not get ahead of it, you can not type as fast as on a keyboard, but overall it seems pretty reliable. There is no vibration, so no haptic feedback which i enjoy on my samsung galaxy S phone.
Pic viewer As i said, slight bluish cast, it is slow loading up images too. I loaded a bunch of reduced sized images to my droid phone to display my photography to possible clients, i loaded them on the Kyros and it takes about 3-4 seconds for the pictures to really lock in onto full resolution. I was a bit disappointed by this because this thing has a great little processor in it. The Slideshow is about retarded because you can choose between 2-4 seconds on the intervals and the images never really crisp up, they stay the 1/2 resolution blurry versions because they change before the processor locks them in. stupid stupid stupid.
ALDIKO e-reader.... if you want an e-reader go get a kindle or nook. that is my opinion. I briefly looked at it, it uses a backit screen, which stinks for extended reading. But the size of the text and font is pretty nice, you wont be squinting to read, and it would probably suffice for an e-reader, but it is nowhere as comfortable to look at as a kindle or nook.
The Youtube video app I dunno, i had a hard time getting this to work properly, then i rooted my Kyros and got the google marketplace installed and it came with a much better youtube app.
Email I am sorry, i did not even try this untill after i rooted my tablet, once the google marketplace was installed as part of the process it synched with my email. it works just fine.
Widgets seem to work just fine. I have a Facebook widget, Weather channel widget, Google widget, and a battery widget, it does not seem to slow down with the use of any of them. You ccan use live wallpaper, it seems to run just fine with live wallpaper, i dont notice any lag.
Video playback is smooth and crisp, the 480P quality is very much there.
Wi-fi performance. The wi-fi on this runs as fast as my Dell Laptop, my Samsung Galaxy S Droid phone, or any other wireless device for that matter. It is not pant-leg-flapping insane fast, but certainly nothing to complain about. If this is NOT your experience, i suspect you have a faulty unit.
===============Random things i noticed==============
Twice now in 5 days it has crashed while i was typing. Not sure why.
it keeps waking itself up. Not sure why. i have heared other reports, this may get fixed in a firmware update later.
No volume control on the side, once again, what the hell? You have to set the volume BEFORE starting any videos.
Charges VIA power cord..... will NOT charge through USB. I was actually suprised by this, maybe because it looks like a massive cellphone. That would have been nice. Go on google and look up Kyros 7015 tablet charger, and prepare to realize you will only have one. lol
more than once i had to reset the wif-fi in the device if it has been asleep for a while... annoying, but not a huge inconvenience. maybe a firmware upgrade will address this.
===========Good Bad Ugly=======================
Good -
Very responsive resistive touchscreen.
Excellent built
Solid performance
Expandable memory
Fast capable Wi-Fi
Under
Bad
Resistive screen. (i just preffer capacitive)
Slight bluish cast
No volume controls on side
MicroSD card.. really? Micro? Cant just use SD cards which we all have laying around?
Ugly
Applib. This just stinks. it requires rooting and such to get google market apps, and trust me google market apps is absolutly worth the effort, and it is not that difficult, and appslib just flat out sucks.
============Conclusion==============
I cant believe how much bang for your buck you get. This can be had for well under !!!! a handheld lightweight internet browser that potentioally has access (if rooted) to 165,000+ applications, games, etc. Anybody who complains that this device does NOT do enough for seriously needs to get thier heads examined. Im suprised this is not sold for closer to .
A few thoughts...
To address a few points, one person wrote a review and said the batterys dont last long enough, they popped it open, saw the batteries, then decided to return it. No mention if they actually USED it though. 5-6 hours of internet browsing is not enough? Really? Show me a droid phone that has that kind of battery life on wi-fi, it is right up there with the Ipad. To say that 5-6 hours of battery life is not enough is flat out stupid, because nothing really has much more battery life than this! its reviews like those that i just dont understand. jump to conclusions rather than try it out yourself.
Another person mention that it sucks because you have to root the device to get google apps and such. Well. True. Either do it or dont, Coby restricted the potential on this great tablet for some stupid reason that i could care less about, the fact is the option is there, take it or leave it. Those who are willing to do so will have a DRASTICALLY better experience than those who dont. If you dont want to root it and install google apps, then go spend on the Galaxy S tablet (which looks awesome) or the iPad. To be perfectly honest, i would only give this device a 3 star rating if the option to root was not there.
Others complain about the screen, yes, it is not the same as the Ipad. That is why it costs less. Not sure why you would expect to get a ferarri at a honda civic price tag.
If price was not considered in the rating at all, i would give this a 7 and the Ipad a 10.
if price IS considered in this rating, i give this a 10, and the ipad an 8.
Somebody mentioned non-child appropriate content on the apps market, i checked, i did not see any "porn" per se, but there ARE plenty of sexy wallpapers and stuff. This may or may not be a concern for you.
And then there are some stupid reviews, like the guy chiming in about how the processor, memory, ram, stuff like that are all not known, i disagree, they are clearly listed in every bit of literature, i think he must have been digging through thier grandfathers medicine cabinet again.
I see several reviews that give 1-2 star reviews that seem very contradictory to what my experience was. This leads me to believe one of a few things, unrealistic expectations(40%), ignorance on how to use the device(20%), or possible QC issues at COBY(40%). lets be honest, when you think of "quality" is COBY the first brand that comes to mind? Keep your reciept and check the return policy, apparently cobys customer service sucks, make sure the store will take it back.
That said, for bucks this cant be beat, im floored at how well this works (for $).
If you are not willing to root, this is a great internet browser while yer on the couch, but you are missing out, i suggest either root this device or find one that doesent have an idiot in charge of what can and can not be done with it.
Thanks and have a nice day!
Read Best Reviews of Coby Kyros MID7015-4G 7-Inch Android Internet Touchscreen Tablet - Black Here
The problem most negative reviewers have here, is what so many others run into before buying something with hopes and expectations. Simply put, you have to do your homework before purchasing anything in order to keep from getting let down by false hopes. I have 3 of these coming in the mail for my kiddo's, and spent about 4 to 5 days researching all of the current Android tablets available in this price range before picking anything. Out of all devices under $200, this Kryos has the best performance, and hardware options available. There are a few that run right up there with it, but still cost $30 or more per unit.I already know what to expect as the positives and negatives of these devices, primarily the resistive screens that are not as nice as our Moto Driod's Etc. But with facts in hand, the tons of functionality they offer, and the extremely low price tag, I was very comfortable purchasing three of these as Christmas gifts for my loved ones.
If you have considered an iPad, and are looking at one of these Android tablets as a cheap alternative, then you have already set yourself up for upset. These do not perform the same way. The screens are not the same technology meaning they do not recognize a soft swipe of the screen, or multi touch like most of their mobile phone brethren. They are resistive screens much like the older Windows mobile phones that react to pressure on the screen. A stylus is going to be more precise of course, but not always needed to operate the touch screen.
As for browsing, it is only as fast as your wireless connection will allow it to be. Many of the reviews others have made during test drives of the Colby show excellent response times loading web pages. But just like any device including your high performance notebooks, wireless signal strength, internet speeds, and many other factors come into play when you decide to hit a website.
I can honestly say, that these are by far the funnest little gadgets you can pick up for this low of a price, that offer so much features and functionality. They will and should never be a comparison to a high dollar iPad with a ton more hardware resources available. But at a third of the price, I am much happier playing my HD movies and MP3's, surfing the web, checking email, etc on an Android then paying the price of an Apple.
And I must correct all those out there bashing the lack of Android's mighty marketplace. This is not missing due to not having mobile connectivity, or even funnier, "an obscure legal loophole" LOL! This is due to the fact that Google requires high cost licensing from manufactures against their devices to allow access to their Market. The Android Tablet arena is still very new, and has not reached the sales yet needed to take on the cost of this licensing, and still produce a profit worth production. Once these devices are welcomed into the community, and sales become profitable, most manufacturers will have the leverage they need.
For most, the offerings of these tablets will provide allot of satisfaction as a media and internet device in your home. For those with little patience, you can't save money and be happy at the same time. Whip out that wallet and go get yourself something more expensive so we don't have to hear your whimpers of an another poorly researched purchase. And for those who are driven heavily on performance, and not scared by technical challenges, get out there and upgrade this Kryos and you will open up tons of limitations and performance from the hardware and OS.
Hope this helps some out there. Good luck, and happy smart shopping for the holidays!
Some of the great resources I used: (remove spaces in URL)
-Colby Kyros MID7015 Hands on Review (Unbiased)-Competing Android Tablets Test Drive Comparison Data-Colby Kyros MID7005/MID7015 Resource Page (Contains bugs, apps, and mods)-Manufacturers Site (Contains Manual and Firmware Update)-Excellent video on Home Shopping Network showcasing what it offers (if you can get past HSN's cheesy sales guys)(very biased of course)
Want Coby Kyros MID7015-4G 7-Inch Android Internet Touchscreen Tablet - Black Discount?
I have been using this tablet for almost a week now. Here are my first impressions:It is quite thin and light. Ignore other reviews as they are talking about the model 7005.
It comes with a protective case, USB cable and USB mini-to female connector. The latter is very useful to mount USB drives. Be warned the tablet mounts it as the 'scsi' drive.
The battery life is quite decent (capacity is 3600mAh).
It has only 256 MB memory and the available memory is usually vey small. So you need to kill the backgroud apps from time to time.
It plays Angry Birds (with some font problems) and other 3D games quite well. Looks like there is a support for 2D and 3D acceleration. However, the Quadrant Benchmark marks around 300. Compare it with Galaxy Tab around 900 and Viewsonic gTablet around 1800.
No problem with any book readers. Actually can be a decent book reader considering the size and weight.
No Google Market as it has no Phone support. Not a big deal as I was able to install apps/games from various web sites.
Wi-fi support is good and Wi-fi stays on without any problems.
The is a manufacturer's support web site (cobyusa). It has the latest update zip package and installation video alongside with the online user guide. So you are not alone when it comes to update this tablet.
The screen response is OK if you know how to deal with a resistive screen. You should not use your finger , but the tip of your finger nail or the stylus provided.
Overall a decent tablet, very compact and light (again this is 7015 not 7005) and performs well within the price range.
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I got this Coby Kyros Android Tablet for $139.99 at Kmart during the Black Friday Deals that went on. Everything with this tablet works good, I especially love this Pad compared to Apple's iPad which has limited functionality and is priced at several of hundreds of dollars compared to the Android Pads because I only need something like the iPad for the internet, checking email, reading books, and playing movies but was surprised that it can do a whole lot more than just that!This Pad uses Android v2.1 OS, it has AppsLib which is a marketplace for apps to install specifically on Android Pads and not Android Phones. The reason why Android Marketplace is not on this Pad is because it does not have Phone capabilities, the Android Marketplace has apps that are for every feature for the Android OS. Other than that, the AppsLib is for Android devices that would not have phone capabilities, hence, Android Tablets. I assume they weeded through the apps that would work on Android Tablets and just created AppsLib. The HDMI output for the device works great! I bought a 16GB microSD card for this and works good. I played a couple of movies with HDMI out in DVD and 720p Quality to an LCD TV and it looked great, sound was great, and there was no delay, lag, or anything wrong with the video! The Pad seemed to play every video format I have thrown at it. I've also used the USB port on this Pad and it recognized my 4GB PNY, 8GB Kingston, & 16GB Patriot Xport flash for additional storage which is a big plus!
The only issues I have had with this Android Pad though is that most games I have played on it so far, the G-Sensors (Accelerometer) are reversed on it. When I play a racing game such as Asphalt or Raging Thunder, you're suppose to twist the Pad to the right or left to turn right or left and it's reversed. This is a big disappointment for me and I hope a fix is released for this. Another problem also is every application I install on this Pad, only about 75% of them will work, and this goes for games and apps.
Overall... the Pad satisfies what I basically need it to do so far and everything else is just a plus for me.
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