Tablets by stefan @ 2013-04-17
The Kyros MID1045 is a mainstream tablet with a single core Allwinner CPU clocked at 1GHz which sports a 10.1’’ 1280x800 resolution capacitive display. If we do not mind occasional hiccups during web page browsing inside content-heavy websites or the lack of the Play Store, then this product may be a good choice for users on a tight budget.
At first we would like to thank COBY Electronics GmbH and Royal Computers for offering a sample of the Kyros Internet 10 Touchscreen Tablet for testing and reviewing.
“COBY was founded by Mr. Young Dong Lee in 1991, with the corporate objective of delivering value, quality, and innovation in consumer electronics products to all consumers at all levels of income. Mr. Young Dong Lee set this objective in the mid 1980's while building a separate, $100+ million wholesale distribution business in New York City. His distribution company sold a wide array of branded CE products. Yet despite the strong growth of his business, Mr. Lee was unhappy that many consumers could not afford the brand name CE products that he sold. Recognizing a significant opportunity to create a new kind of CE company, Mr. Lee created COBY and steadily built consumer brand equities through an ever-evolving product line and by staying true to the company's core idea and objective of delivering consumer value. This simple business objective still remains true today as COBY aims to evolve into a world class CE brand.”
10.1 Inch LCD capacitive multi-touchscreen 16:10 (WXGA 1280 x 800)
High-speed 1 GHz processor
1GB of RAM for seamless multi-tasking
Browse the web, watch Youtube®videos, check e-mail, and much more with AndroidTM 4.0
Connect to the Internet wirelessly with high-speed networking support (Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n)
Plays popular video, music, and photo formats
Application marketplace to download and enjoy popular games and apps
HDMI - to connect and enjoy 1080p HD videos on your HDTV (Cable not Included)
E-book reader - download and read thousands of books (ePub standard)
Built-in front and rear-facing camera and microphone
Expandable memory to 32GB with optional microSDHC card
View pages in portrait or landscape with automatic orientation sensor
Rechargeable lithium-polymer battery
The Kyros MID1045-8 tablet from COBY has arrived in a medium-sized cardboard box, with a photo of the main product on the top side, along with the list of the main features:
On the back side of the box we will get more in-detail information of the tablet:
To avoid unauthorized access inside the box, COBY has sealed the enclosure on both sides:
With the top cover of the internal packaging lifted, we will find some leaflets, along with the rest of the bundle:
The product also ships with a carry pouch to protect the tablet while on the go against scratches:
The tablet is equipped with a multi-touch screen and on the first leaflet we are instructed on how to activate some gestures, but also how to remove the protective film. If you’d like to keep the tablet in top-shape, we’d recommend keeping the original protective film on until we get a 3rd party replacement (the films for the Galaxy Tab P7500 seem to fit quite well):
The second leaflet will let us know how to contact the support team:
Besides the bundle we have just mentioned, we will also get a power adapter with plugs for UK and the rest of the Europe, a set of stereo headphones, an USB cable, an OTG USB Host Cable, a soft cloth for wiping the screen clean and a small manual:
The power adapter is branded MOSO and is rated on the output 5V, 2.5A:
Here is a closer look on the provided headphones:
The supplied carry-bag is all-black and comes with the COBY logo:
The MID1045 Kyros tablet is noticeably longer than the Ipad 4 and sports a plastic chromed bezel screen frame, which looks quite nice. On the top we have the front facing 0.3MP camera:
The back side of the tablet is made from aluminum, which is a step-up from the previous COBY tablets, which had a plastic back. Thanks to this choice, the tablet now looks and feels more solid:
Nearby the bottom connectors, we will find the internal storage capacity written near the product serial number:
The tablet features not one, but two speakers, located on the back of the tablet and covered with a metallic mesh. Near the right speaker we will also find the rear facing 2MP camera:
On one of the sides, we will find the On/Off/Standby button along with the Volume +/-:
On the same side we have the Reset button hole, along with a memory card slot:
On the bottom, we have a DC-IN 5V port, a HDMI type C (mini) port and also an USB port:
The opposite side features a headphone jack:
Before booting up the tablet for the first time, we recommend charging the battery to 100%; our sample has arrived with the rechargeable battery at a very low level, but we have managed to charge the tablet fully in the end. After pressing the Power button for a couple of seconds, we will see first a COBY logo in the center of the screen, followed by an Android animated boot logo. When the system has been loaded completely, we will be prompted to unlock the tablet and we will be greeted with a familiar Android interface that we have also found at the previously tested ARM sticks and mini-PCs:
The MID1045 tabled comes preloaded with ICS and some pre-installed applications like Aldiko, ES File Explorer, ES Task Manager, GetJar (Play Store replacement), OfficeSuite and also the Youtube Video Player:
Aldiko will let us download the books we like in electronic format and read them from the same application:
The Camera application lets us take photos, record movies or take panoramic snapshots; the quality of the rear 2 Megapixel camera is quite average:
ES File Explorer will let us easily browse the internal and external file systems:
COBY have chosen not to include the well-known Play Store from Google and preloaded a replacement for it, GetJar:
The OfficeSuite version that we get is the free distribution so we cannot edit the documents, we can only view them:
The Youtube application icon is only a shortcut to the online website that will open inside the stock browser:
Let’s go inside now the Settings page. On the top we have the Wi-Fi menu, where we can select and configure the detected networks:
Inside the Data usage menu, we will be able to see the total amount of data downloaded by each application:
From the Sound menu, we will be able to change the volume levels, but also choose the notification sounds or enable/disable the Touch and Screen Lock sounds:
The Display menu lets us select the screen brightness, choose the wallpaper, enable/disable auto-rotation, choose the screen sleep time period, font size and also options regarding the accelerometer and screen adaptation:
From the Storage menu, we can enable/disable media scanning and see the status of the free space on both partitions:
The Battery menu provides useful information regarding the current battery status; here we can also find if a program we have installed recently uses more battery than needed:
Inside the Apps page, we will be able to see the currently downloaded, on SD Card or running applications:
From the Location services menu, we will be able to enable Google’s location service:
The Security menu lets us to configure some related options; here we have to tick “Unknown Sources” in order to install unofficial applications:
The Language & input menu allows customization of the Language, Spelling correction or Personal dictionary options. From here we can also choose the default input method (if we have applications like Swiftkey installed, they will also show here), configure text-to-speech output or adjust the pointer speed in case we are using a mouse or trackpad:
Backup & reset will allow performing a factory data reset or entering Recovery mode for performing OS upgrade:
The Date & time menu is self explanatory:
Inside the Accessibility menu, we have some options available like Large text, Auto-rotate, Touch & hold delay or Install web scripts:
The Developer options menu provides us with some miscellaneous options:
Finally, we have the About tablet menu, where we can see the system status, the product model number, the installed Android version (4.0.4), kernel version, but also the build number:
To test out the performances of the MID1045 tablet, we have installed some freeware benchmark apps from the Internet in the internal memory (did not transfer them to the Sdcard). Afterwards, the applications were ran one-by-one, and we recorded the final results; the obtained scores were also compared with the previously tested systems, to spot the performance differences.
We were unable to install the Mobile GPUMARK by Silicon Studio since the release of the new version with the modified score calculation, because the extra files were failing to download from inside the application. Tech support from their website was also non-responsive.
During several days we have tested the MID1045 tablet in different activities like web browsing, gaming, viewing documents and watching Flash clips. For navigating the Internet, we have installed multiple browsers like Mozilla Firefox, Dolphin, Opera; the tablet loads the pages with average speed and scrolling through them is fine unless we browse content-heavy websites.
When watching Flash video clips inside the browser, the content was a little sluggish while inside a window, but when we have maximized the video to full screen, the playback was fluent.
To test the gaming capabilities further, we have installed games like Angry Birds, Vector, which are in 2D format and ran flawlessly. Next, we wanted to see how 3D games run so we installed Death Rally which ran perfectly fine which surprised us considering the high quality graphics (thanks to the Mali400 GPU). We have installed then GTA III, but after the initial cutscenes, the game was pretty sluggish and we believe that is because of the CPU speed limitation.
Viewing documents is not an issue for this tablet with the preinstalled software or other applications, thanks to the large diagonal screen. Speaking of the screen, we really liked the viewing angles, even if it is a TN-based display; the resolution isn’t very high (1280x800) so not a lot of resources will be used when running 3D applications.
The tablet feels solid thanks to the aluminum back and having stereo speakers is a plus. The audio jack can be used to plug in the included stereo headphones or connect other amplified audio devices. Both frontal and back cameras are of low quality and we would recommend them only for occasional use.
Most people will be surprised that the well-known Google Play Store was not included with this tablet; COBY wants us to use GetJar for installing the applications or the file manager for browsing the APKs that we have just downloaded off the Internet. There are already workarounds available in order to root the tablet and for forcing installation of Play Store; with it installed, we will have access to much more applications and rooting will allow us to have more control over the tablet with the installation of utilities like Greenify for conserving battery life.
Talking about the battery, it can last for more than a full day during normal use; if we have a lot of applications eating resources in the background, we will be surprised of the loss of battery power even with the screen off, during standby. We have charged the battery by connecting the tablet to our computer, but also to the supplied power adapter; the tablet seems to charge the fastest while off, with its own power supply plugged in.
These being said, we were quite pleased with the tablet performances, considering that this is a mainstream tablet with a single core Allwinner processor. On May 2013, COBY will launch a dual-core based tablet available with the same screen dimensions.
The Kyros MID1045 is currently available online for about 200 Euros; at this price the MID1045 has quite a competition; we feel that if the price will fall even more, this product will become quite interesting.
We would like to thank again to COBY Electronics GmbH and Royal Computers for making this review possible!