About that $99 8" NextBook

BitPusher2600

New member
Dec 16, 2011
114
0
0
Visit site
If I can just throw my two cents into the ring, this is a great tablet.
The $99 E-Fun/NextBook tablet Walmart had on black friday,

I get that you look at the specs, see a quad core chip and then see 1gb ddr3 ram and automatically believe that's just not enough. For people who are adamant about huge games (like Skyrim or something), you're probably not going to be satisfied. My daughter has already played Despicable Me Minion Rush (which if you aren't familiar) is a 3D rendered game and it runs excellent.

As for the OS, I don't get what the difference is between Windows 8.1 and Windows 8.1 with Bing because as far as I can tell, this is full fat Windows. I can switch between Metro and the standard Windows desktop, standard Explorer, etc. I've been playing with this all day and it's performance is great, which is how I prefer to judge something rather than by looking at it on paper and making assumptions.

So anyway, with full out Windows onboard, i've used my microUSB to USB adapter and have used a keyboard and mouse, and also, i've installed iTunes and tried burning a CD using my LG slim external DVD-RW drive and that worked out just fine. I've also installed Audacity and GIMP and fired those up as well.

I chose to install a 64gb microSD card for the extra storage space because onboard, there's give or take close to 6gb free on the internal storage. If you were to use this tablet for everything except storing a particularly large music or movie library, it's an excellent little laptop replacement, and i'm so glad it's desktop Windows because I have been able to plug my smartphone and other stuff into this and use it with no drama. I intend on getting a keyboard packing case for it and as far as i'm concerned, it will at that point be no different than one of these hybrid laptops.

So, in the notion of using this as a laptop replacement or otherwise as a more daily and important device, allow me to recap that it probably won't run the type of stuff that needs mega resources (again, I site something like Skyrim as an example), but it seems to use GIMP (what I call the open-source Photoshop), Audacity (the sound editor), and iTunes without problems. As far as storage, there's plenty of room for apps and programs, but I don't see using a massive music or movie library unless you have an external hard drive. Again, it's full-on Windows as far as I can tell and it has all the same hardware and software capabilities of any desktop hardware. It's really quite fun :) Very very worthwhile purchase.
 

grydlok

New member
Aug 31, 2013
8
0
0
Visit site
I was looking for some more information about the tablet, I just bought it for my daughter today for Xmas

"Nothing I shoot ever gets back up again."
 

SammyD97

New member
Jul 1, 2014
542
0
0
Visit site
User review on another forum.
Disclaimer: This ain't me

Ok so I have had mine for a couple of days now.

Gaming:
If you are looking for something to play tablet games on, move along. The windows store is quite sparse on touchscreen games. That said, this thing is a full windows laptop so there theoretically is a much higher amount of games you can run on it if you have a bluetooth keyboard and mouse (USB OTG would be too much like hard work). I have played a couple of games of Warcraft 3 on it so it definitely is capable of gaming, at least in the traditional sense.

Internet Browsing
For me this was the most surprising thing: Internet Explorer on a tablet is one of the most enjoyable app experiences I have had. It pretty much replaces the need to have dedicated apps to access web functions. For example: I used to post to MyBB using the tapatalk app on my phone. Now I just open it on the browser on my tablet and it renders perfectly. Speedtest, Facebook, Twitter, 4chan are now accessed though the browser instead of apps. For me this alone would be worth recommending the tablet. Just as nice way to troll the net in bed.

Video playback:
Overall, does exactly what you would expect a modern tablet to do. The default media player can't access network files, so you have to locate them with windows explorer,then open them. To test playback, I streamed a blu-ray rip of Wall-E without any issues (something to consider, the video file I played was larger than the amount of free space I have on my machine). So again, if you are looking for a cheap device to watch videos, look no further. The other great thing is since it runs a proper operating system, you can always load vlc or mpc and never run into problems with subtitles etc.
 

SammyD97

New member
Jul 1, 2014
542
0
0
Visit site
Work:
So far we have a tablet that is nice to browse the internet and watch videos on. However this tablet comes into it's own when you want to start getting things done. For a start, the keyboard on the device is again the best I have used on a tablet. It comes with a split layout that you can use to tap with your thumbs. This layout is useful if you have to type something whilst holding the device. It also comes with a ctrl key that works as it does on a PC, so you can press ctrl-z to undo. It also has a tab key for the handy auto-complete in the command line.

As for what I had to type, I decided to spice things up for a presentation by running my code on the little tablet. Once I had loaded python and my code on the device, I had found that there was a bug on the display portion of my code. Simple, all I had to do was open notepad++ ,edit the code on the device and save.

The ideal use for this device would be for someone who knows how to code, needs a mobile solution (lets say simple data capturing and processing) and doesn't know how to/want to code a full mobile or web app. Since it runs full windows, all you have to do is write the program on your PC (or use a keyboard), copy it on, and it will work perfectly. I can think of quite a few scenarios that fit this template.
 

SammyD97

New member
Jul 1, 2014
542
0
0
Visit site
Battery life:
I have not had the chance to run though any heavy cycles so I cannot really give numbers on the how long it lasts, but with casual usage, running the occasional program, browsing the net. I reckon you should be able to get about a day out of it. Obviously it will suffer if you play games or watch videos.

Conclusion
Based off the price that this thing cost, I really cannot fault it. It does everything I thought it would and more. I would recommend it to everyone who is looking for a basic tablet for media consumption. Writing your own apps or scripts for the thing definitely has some application to business.

For people who already have one, I have a couple of tips:
1) Enlarge everything in the display settings in desktop mode. I have increased the size of all the fonts and windows by 150% and it makes working the desktop much frustrating
2) Stick to modern-UI apps as much as possible. That means use IE instead of Chrome and Firefox.
3) Don't bother with social networking apps and others that connect to the net, just use the browser and make a bookmark to your start screen.
4) Split screen functionality is really useful for multitasking and is a charm to use.
 

Philip Hamm

New member
Jul 28, 2014
249
0
0
Visit site
1) Enlarge everything in the display settings in desktop mode. I have increased the size of all the fonts and windows by 150% and it makes working the desktop much frustrating
Absolutely! First thing I did when I got my Surface RT in desktop mode was to make everything large - borders, fonts, etc. etc. It really helps with touch on the desktop.
 
Nov 20, 2012
2,997
0
0
Visit site
My mom got one for her and my dad got one for my little brother. While I would never trade my surface for one, this is an adorable little bugger to me and it performs well enough shocking due to its price range and the fact I never heard of the company before.

I did notice some weirdness with the tablet where it was lit up buy the screen was black. I did a soft reset and it worked out great. Hope it was a once off
 

anon1727506

New member
Nov 12, 2014
4
0
0
Visit site
I got the 10.1" NextBook with the keyboard for $179. Have to say that it performers pretty well for the money.

It is heavy for a tablet, even without the keyboard attached... but functionality has been much better than I expected based on my experience with desktop machines.
 

svaethier

New member
Dec 11, 2014
278
0
0
Visit site
I got this tablet and am loving it, just hope win 10 will run on it fine when it comes out, main reason I got this tablet is to have something that can use future windows updates.
 

WillysJeepMan

Active member
Aug 7, 2008
1,066
0
36
Visit site
These $99 Windows tablets are running 32-bit Windows 8.1 (rather than 64-bit). Performance with 1GB should be better (than running on 64-bit) and it can run Win16 apps. That's of no value to you youngsters, but for those of us with vintage Windows app, this can be a nice way to run those old apps.

These older apps also run better on LOWER screen resolutions (desktops back then had the same and lower resolution than these tablets) so it might actually be an enjoyable experience.

If anyone has any old Win16 apps, please test them out and let us know!
 

svaethier

New member
Dec 11, 2014
278
0
0
Visit site
Kind of dumb that they basically false advertised about the system having 16gb memory on it when it only has 10gb on it but 3gb is taken from system files so you start off with 7gb, only thing that I disliked about the product, not even enough gb to install the win 10 tech preview if someone wanted to test it out on this system.
 

aximtreo

New member
Jul 14, 2008
2,385
0
0
Visit site
It's still $99 at Walmart and includes 64 GB SD cardwith free shipping. An additional 2 years of support is $39. Would you recommend the extra coverage?

If I buy, it will be for the following needs:

IE surfing
Amazon ebook reading
WP Central access

Anything more would be icing on the cake.

Let me know your thoughts.
 

SammyD97

New member
Jul 1, 2014
542
0
0
Visit site
It's still $99 at Walmart and includes 64 GB SD cardwith free shipping. An additional 2 years of support is $39. Would you recommend the extra coverage?

If I buy, it will be for the following needs:

IE surfing
Amazon ebook reading
WP Central access

Anything more would be icing on the cake.

Let me know your thoughts.

The screen is kind of crap. I found it barely usable at first but I guess my eyes got used to it and now it it doesn't seem too bad but still noticable (you get what you pay for I guess) . Its "ok" for reading but not great. Surfing and IE should be fine.
 

WillysJeepMan

Active member
Aug 7, 2008
1,066
0
36
Visit site
The screen is kind of crap. I found it barely usable at first but I guess my eyes got used to it and now it it doesn't seem too bad but still noticable (you get what you pay for I guess) . Its "ok" for reading but not great. Surfing and IE should be fine.
That's what I've heard too. There is a review video on YouTube where the reviewer compares the Nextbook against the Insignia and chooses the Insignia over the Nextbook due to the superior screen at the same price.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGkljGvwhtI
 

Kebero

New member
May 26, 2011
717
0
0
Visit site
Kind of dumb that they basically false advertised about the system having 16gb memory on it when it only has 10gb on it but 3gb is taken from system files so you start off with 7gb, only thing that I disliked about the product, not even enough gb to install the win 10 tech preview if someone wanted to test it out on this system.

You are aware that 16gb formatted is never 16gb, right?
 

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
322,915
Messages
2,242,889
Members
428,004
Latest member
hetb