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Coby Kyros 7″ Andorid Tablet Review

I have read several blog posts and articles written about this device before it was released and I think they didn’t really give it a chance because of it’s manufacturer.  The tablet I am talking about is the Coby Kyros MID7015.  I picked one of these up for $149 and did my best to break it.  Now I have used an iPad and several Android phones to base my view of what performance should be.  This tablet is actually very surprising, it is responsive and snappy.  I had no problem with the touch screen and accessing apps that are installed.  Even web browsing was pretty fast, although I did have some problems with the signal range that the device has.  I like the live wallpapers that come with Android and the screen resolution was really good.  It has a mini usb  port that can be used to connect to a computer or to connect devices to the tablet.  I did do some file transfers from a Fedora machine to the Kryos and the speed was not very impressive.  It took almost 5 minutes to copy over 1.2 Gig of data to the external storage card.  But before I go further, here are the specs of the device.

Features

Specifications

The box comes with a few items to make life a little easier.

  1. USB cable to connect to computers
  2. USB adapter cable, mini usb to full size female usb port
  3. Power cord
  4. Head phones
  5. Screen cleaning cloth
  6. Protective case for Kyros

It does come with Android 2.1 which isn’t the most current but I hope they will come out with a Android 2.2 upgrade.  Android 2.1 will allow for the install of flash but I think it is hit and miss, with it working for some devices and not for others.  The apps that come installed are pretty basic and you will have to go out to their apps site to get apps to install.  One problem I have with the Android tablets is the fact that you have to go to a different App store other than Android Market.  I read that this was due to the fact that they are not phones and Android Market is for phones.  Anyhow there are several other sites to get Apps from and they will install just fine.

I installed several apps to include a weather, adobe reader, and battery monitor apps.  I don’t think the little battery icon in the task bar is very accurate so I wanted to see how correct it is.  I did have to get use to the on screen keyboard but it works fine just not really big enough for normal typing with the 7″ screen.  The WiFi was easy to setup and works good.  It loaded every website I went to faster than I though it would, and using the sites was alright.  Some links are a little small for tapping with your finger, so you could use the stylus or double tap the screen in the area to have it zoom in.  The screen will rotate a full 360 degrees and over all usage of the device is easy.  The ports are all on one end and the home and menu buttons are on the top with the back button on the face of the device.  Here is a pic of the ports.

I did have to install a movie player to watch movies and I need to study up on what all is available for apps, but the tablets was addicting.  I played around with it for several hours just learning and setting things up like I want it.  The battery seemed to have a good capacity,  I started with a half charge and 3 to 4 hours later I had 10% left.  So you may get 7 or 8 hours out of a full charge, but I don’t know for sure.

The tablets was a little heavy at the start but I got use to it pretty quickly as I learned how I like to hold it as I use it.  I did try to get flash installed but it kept coming back with a parsing error.  So I will have to do some more playing to see if i can get it to work.  I did find it a little funny that the phone portion of the OS is still present in the tablet.  So playing around with these settings could cause you some problems with the function of the device.  I did start getting an error with the app site.  After a few installs it started coming up with a Applib error and kept making me force quit the install I was attempting.  It turns out this is something they are aware  of and I followed their instructions to fix it.  However you have to factory reset the device and you lose everything you install.  So that is a pain but I haven’t had it since.  There is an update available the MID7015 tablet at the Coby website, but I haven’t installed it yet.

All in all I like the tablet and think it is a nice toy to play with.  I will use it for reading, some web browsing, games, and watching movies on trips.  It does not replace a computer, but I do like how it functions.  It is easy to carry and has removable storage.  I think it is more user friendly than the 10″ tablets just because of size.  I am far from done trying to make the tablet just how I like it, and if I can get flash to work I will post how I did it.  For the money this is a very good tablet and I am sure this was a device purchased by Coby to be sold using its name or they finally go something right.  It is good quality and works great.  I would recommend this to others that want an inexpensive Android Internet Tablet.

8 Comments (Open | Close)

8 Comments To "Coby Kyros 7″ Andorid Tablet Review"

#1 Comment By skyler On December 28, 2010 @ 20:41

how do i get my tablet to display my downloaded songs because they aren’t showing?

#2 Comment By erica On December 29, 2010 @ 11:31

what other sites do you use to get apps for your coby kyros bc appslib wont work with mine

#3 Comment By ogwatermelon On December 30, 2010 @ 21:57

Erica,

There are a few websites out there. One I have downloaded things from is http://www.freewarelovers.com/android
Another thing I did was go to the Augen website and download their AppStore app and install it on my Kyros. You can find it at: http://augen.helpserve.com/index.php?_m=downloads&_a=viewdownload&downloaditemid=41&nav=0

The last thing I did was root my Kyros and install the Google market on to it. It is a task that can kill your tablet so only do it if you feel you can. You can find a guide at this webpage.
http://www.androidtablets.net/forum/coby-tablets/3217-coby-kyros-mid7015-utimate-guide-rooting-android-market-clockworkmod-recovery.html

Good luck.

#4 Comment By ogwatermelon On December 30, 2010 @ 22:06

Skyler,

I had no problems with music, the player found it and made it part of my library. I also put it on the MicroSD card. You may want to install a file manager so you can look through your files on the Kyros and see if you can find your music. Check in the /NAND/downloads folder on the device flash memory not the /sdcard. Also you may want to look through the manual and make sure the music is a supported format. If you can’t find it maybe the downloads failed. Sorry if this isn’t much help, I’m always better when I can see the device to trouble shoot.

#5 Comment By Avery On June 21, 2011 @ 20:09

How do you get the Keypad to work. It says you just touch it, but it isn’t working. HELP!

#6 Comment By ogwatermelon On June 22, 2011 @ 09:51

You could try to recalibrate the screen. Select the cross hair in the apps drawer and it will want you to touch several areas of the screen. But if you can use the touch screen to access apps then it should work. You may want to find another keyboard app and install it to see if it fixes the problem as well. I need a little more info on the problem.

#7 Comment By Erika On October 31, 2011 @ 13:59

Did you install Flash player in your Coby already? Can you say if it is really possible? (’cause I’ve heard it is not)

#8 Comment By ogwatermelon On October 31, 2011 @ 15:11

I have installed Flash. However I don’t think the browser supports the use of flash. I have been told you need it for some applications to work but I can’t say that is true. So basically it is something you can do without unless you truly need it for something.