Identity Tablet  by WinTech

(clicking on the blue underlined headings will send you to the video review)

The tablet comes in a white box that contains:

• Identity Tablet
• Micro USB to USB cable
• Pouch
• Headphones
• Guide
• Charger
• Cleaning Cloth

There are a few accessories that I would recommend getting as part of your setup, and they are a mini HDMI to HDMI cable, and an SD card. Yep, that’s right, this thing takes a full sized SD card. I for one was quite pleased with this because I had some lying around and even if I hadn’t, the SD cards are less expensive than the microSD cards.

Hardware:

The tablet looks nice enough, the front is glass and certainly tabletish enough, it does have 3 physical buttons on the bottom of the front face: Back, Home, and Menu. The sides are made of what appears to be a single piece of aluminum, and the back is made of a closely matching plastic. It does have some pleasant heft to it. I found this to be just about right, though there are some who might think it too hefty.

It has a flap on the top which hides the mini HDMI, and SD slot from view, which happens to be magnetic as well, a nice touch to be sure. Proceeding Counter-clockwise from there, you have the microphone (built in),  speakers and micro USB port through which you both transfer data and charge, volume rocker, power button, and headphone jack.

The back is unadorned by screws or rubber bumpers, (for those like me who like to take things apart this means that you would have to use a blackstick to pry it apart) and only features some logos/info, and a 3mp rear facing camera.

Specs:

• 1 GH CPU
• 341 MB RAM
• 8 GB internal storage
• Digital Compass
• 3 axis accelerometer
• WiFi and Bluetooth module
• 3 mp rear camera

Software:

It runs a vanilla Android 2.2, with market access, and the full slew of Google apps.

Performance:

I was quite skeptical at first as to how well it would handle with just 341mb of RAM, but it surprised me. Most of the tests that I threw at it were not a problem. Even some of the more intensive games it handled with only a slight slowdown.

Netflix worked very smoothly, and the browsing experince felt nice and fluid.  It also managed a Quadrant score of 1440.

The WiFi was an absolute dream! I am used to a Notion Ink Adam, that, admittedly has a less than average wireless range, but this one blows it out of the water. In places where my Adam would have spotty or no reception, this was still getting excellent reception.

Battery Life:

Here is where the Identity graduates with flying colors. The official numbers claim that it will last 120 hours on standby, and 4 hours of video playback. In our tests, the Identity lasted 121 hours on standby, and 4:45 of video playback! It is very refreshing to have a company whose numbers are inaccurate by being a too conservative measure of their battery life.

We also did a “standard use” test, which here means that we used for 50 min. intervals, reading books, surfing, or viewing video and then putting it on standby for ten min. to simulate the type of use it would see in a classroom setting. Under this “standard” it lasted for about 6.5 hours.

At aprox. $190, this is, I imagine exactly what most people will want/need to accomplish their daily computing tasks on the go.  On a scale from 1.1-2, whole numbers only, I give this product a 2. Definitely a buy!

BONUS!

Ask a Noob: 

This is a little test that, though not very scientific, and not the best measure, is a fun way to look at the intuitiveness of the UI. I took a volunteer with no previous personal experience in operating a tablet, gave them a list of challenges, and let them fly off on their own, timing them to see how long it took to complete the whole battery of tests. These were, in order:

• Turn it on
• Find the Apps
• Connect to WiFi
• Link to your Email
• Setup and operate Android Market
• Download and play a game
• Watch a YouTube video

Our “Noob” was able to accomplish these tasks in 12 min. 25 sec. In the future we will post the footage of other “Noobs” and their trial times. However for this one, we do have a quick video of him commenting on his experience.