A Wild and Crazy (and Possibly Foolish) Android Tablet Story

[Qs Laptop]

Did you get far enough into the check-out process to directly see that the card was denied by Visa or Chase?

I had entered all my credit card info and clicked the "Buy Now" button (or similar button) and I got an error message something like, "Your transaction could not be completed."

It didn't say payment denied, or payment failed, which I thought was odd. It was not until I called Visa and learned about the block they had on AliExpress, got that block lifted was I able to complete the purchase.

The tablet was supposed to be delivered by the 22nd. It is now the 24th and looking at the tracking information my package is still in Chicago, where it has been since September 5th.

Meanwhile, there are reviews of the tablet from USA customers on the AliExpress website, the majority of them having been posted in the past several days. I ordered on the night of the product premiere so I expect anybody that ordered during that morning or during that day would receive theirs before me. All I know is that I better get it next week.

 

[Qs Laptop]

It’s finally here!

I received the Tab 13, the Bluetooth keyboard, and the Bluetooth earbuds on September 27th. They were shipped in plastic bags with bubble wrap padding surrounding the products. No problem with shipping.

The Tab 13 feels substantial, with a nice heft to it. At the same time it is very thin. It has a premium feel and looks great. The included TPU (thermoplastic polyurethane) soft case is decent, with reinforced corners, though the cover is kind of thin. The cover may be folded to create a stand for the tablet in landscape mode. A nice touch.






Once I had the tablet set up I connected to my Wi-Fi network and started playing with it. I was pleasantly surprised to see it has face recognition for unlocking. It runs Android 12 but with a skin over it called Doke OS. It’s an unfamiliar look to me. It has some catchy graphics and a different menu tree. I am used to Google Pixel’s minimalistic approach to Android OS so this will take some time to become acclimated with it. I found myself using the Search function to find things like various settings within the OS. Everything appears to be here, just not where I’m used to seeing it.



More to come...

 

[Qs Laptop]

The internet browsing app is Google Chrome. I tried some YouTube videos. Also, looked at MLB.TV. Wow, this tablet has a 1920x1200 screen and it is beautiful! Color accuracy is very good. It gets ridiculously bright. It was set at 50% out of the box, which I immediately lowered. During my time surfing the web I kept lowering the brightness. I’ve got it set at about 20% now, which is plenty. For comparison, my phone is set to about 75%.

 

[Qs Laptop]

The Blackview Tab 13 comes with a launcher that was unfamiliar to me. It has some of the same features of the stock Google Pixel launcher, like swiping right to get to the Google feed. It only had three pages—the home page, one page if you swiped left and the Google feed page if you swiped right. This is definitely a handicap because I’ve been using Nova Prime launcher for years now.

Then I remembered I had a backup of my Nova launcher settings from my Pixel phone saved on Google Drive. I started Nova Prime launcher on the tablet and restored my backup file and VOILA! Instant setup! My tablet now looks exactly like my phone. Same apps on the same pages. Same icon pack. No more Google feed on my leftmost page. Beautiful. Thank you Nova!

 

[gauss]

Several weeks ago a story came up on my Google newsfeed regarding a new Android tablet being released. I’m in the market for a new tablet as my 2013 Google Nexus is very slow. The new tablet is the Blackview Tab 13, a 10.1” tablet, 1920 X 1200 resolution, 7280 mAh battery, 6 GB RAM (expandable to 10 GB), 128 GB ROM, 1 TB micro SD storage, E-sim and dual sim cards, and it runs Android 12.


Here's a link to the Blackview description of the Tab 13:
https://www.blackview.hk/products/item/tab13

Neat looking unit, but am I correct that the cellular features would not work in the USA? It looks like it is setup for European frequency bands if I am reading this right.

Thanks
-gauss

 

[Qs Laptop]

Neat looking unit, but am I correct that the cellular features would not work in the USA? It looks like it is setup for European frequency bands if I am reading this right.

Thanks
-gauss

You are correct. Doesn't work in the U.S.

I loaded a SIM card from my secondary phone into the tablet but it had trouble recognizing it. Sometimes it would show up in the settings, displaying the phone number associated with the SIM card and sometimes it wouldn’t. I tried sending some texts to my primary phone and they were unsuccessful. I tried making some phone calls and same result. This was a slight disappointment as I was looking forward to having phone capabilities on my new tablet. Many reviewers on YouTube reported having this capability.

I knew when I ordered the tablet that it might not work on the 4G networks here in the U.S. Indeed, when I checked on the 4G bands built into the tablet and the 4G bands used in the U.S. they did not correspond. The tablet is shipped with the ability to work on Asian, Russian, and European cell networks. Looking back, I realize the YouTube videos I saw were all based from those three areas and none in the U.S. Oh well, I’ll have to use my phone to make phone calls and text messages.

 

[gauss]

^ Thank you for the confirmation on the details of the cellular hardware.

-gauss

 

[Qs Laptop]

I've seen about a half dozen reviews of this tablet on YouTube. This is probably the best all around review. Apparently is a Russian reviewer that used a translator tool to get the audio in English. There are a few mistranslations but not a lot.

 

[Qs Laptop]

UPDATE. I've lived with the Blackview Tab 13 for about six weeks now. I remain very impressed, especially considering the price, which was about $159 when the accessories I purchased with it (earbuds, keyboard) are backed out of the cost.

The screen quality is amazing. It gets super bright. I've taken to setting the brightness at 20%, and I have to turn it down when reading in bed with the lights out. My wife has seen some content on this tablet and she has said it looks amazingly clear and sharp. And it does.

The battery is outstanding. I have measured the battery life and usage using the AccuBattery app and I'm freakishly impressed. I'm kind of a cell phone battery snob, meaning I value phones with extraordinary battery life between charges.

Trial 1: Charging to 100% and using the battery until it was down to 14% took 5 1/2 days. Total screen on time was 9 hours, 22 minutes.

Trial 2: Charging the battery to 100% and using the battery until it was down to 7% took 9 1/2 days. Total screen on time was 13 hours, 27 minutes! Note: I did adjust the screen brightness from about 33% to 20% after running Trial 1.

I got this outstanding battery life running apps like YouTube (battery intensive), web surfing, Twitter, TapaTalk, checking emails, etc. The usual gamut.

Totally pleased with the battery, Exceeded beyond my expectations.

 

[walkinwood]

That's impressive.



I find myself wanting one - but I have a totally usable S6 Lite that meets my needs.

 

[Qs Laptop]

UPDATE. The camera leaves a lot to be desired. Despite having a decent Sony camera sensor it takes only average photos. Photos with decent lighting come out pretty good (see photo of plant.) Photos in average lighting exhibit noise in the darker areas. (see baseball hat photo.) Photos in dim lighting are pretty crappy, full of noise and artifacts.

(These photos have been reduced in size and compressed.)





Photos that are not taken in sunlight tend to look a bit washed out, or at least tilted toward white more than natural. You can see that just a bit in the baseball hat shot. The selfie camera was OK, but it too, tended to yield photos that appeared a tad washed out.

Ironically, the video camera takes better shots than the photo camera. I suppose Blackview has better video processing than they do photo processing.

All of it is irrelevant because I always take photos and videos with my Pixel phone. Pixel phones are known for their outstanding cameras. Maybe I'm spoiled from having a Pixel phone camera for the past 5 years and that's why the Tab 13 photos look "off" to me. It's like the Tab 13 has the average phone camera from a phone in 2015. Any cell phone camera with decent lighting nowadays will take a photo at least as good as the Tab 13. If you have an Apple or a Samsung Galaxy S-series phone, you will not be impressed with the camera on the Tab 13.

 

[Qs Laptop]

UPDATE. As far as smooth operation and speed goes, it's good for a tablet, but it's no match for my Pixel phone. No surprise, it's faster than my 2013 Nexus 7 tablet, even when the Nexus 7 was new. But it's slower than my Pixel 5a and my wife's Pixel 6a. This is not really noticeable unless you have the devices side-by-side. For example, if I place my Pixel 5a next to the Tab 13 and navigate to a particular video on YouTube, then simultaneously press play on both devices, the Pixel loads a fraction of a second faster. Opening emails I can tell no difference in speed.

In the six weeks of ownership I've had a handful of spontaneous resets, meaning I'm surfing the web or on YouTube and suddenly the device shuts off that app and I find myself on the device's home screen. On at least one of these occasions I may have initiated that action unwittingly. Reopening the app that was closed brings me right back to where I was previously.

I CAN TEXT FROM MY TABLET!! Yes! When I bought the Tab 13 it came with a 4G LTE radio, meaning by inserting a SIM card it could be used as a phone. It has the ability to make phone calls and text, just like a regular cell phone. However, the built-in radio does not cover the USA's cell phone tower frequencies, it's made for the Asian and European market. Major bummer for me, but when I bought this tablet I knew it might not work as a phone in the US.

However, by using Google Messages and pairing the tablet to my phone over my wifi network I can send and receive texts from the Tab 13. This is a major convenience for me and really, between the functionality of texting or using as a phone, the feature I was desiring was the ability to text. I now have that (so long as my phone is on the same wifi network as my phone, which is almost always since my tablet hasn't left the house as yet.) So, a big victory for usability here.

 

[SecondAttempt]

Late to the party but I have a few comments.

First, I'm glad to hear your gamble turned out well.

I have made quite a few purchases from aliexpress and have always been happy. Overall my experience has been better than Amazon. Most of my Aliexpress purchases have been electronic components for very low dollar amounts, usually less that $20. I have made maybe 2-3 buys close to $100.

I use Chase cards and have never had a purchase blocked. Your dollar value was higher and that may be a factor.

Shipping is extremely cheap because it is subsidized by China post under decades old agreements with the USPS. Trump ranted a lot about this at one point. I'm not going to go political but will say I think this is one thing he is right about. Someone in China can mail you something cheaper than you next door neighbor. It benefits me so I am not complaining but it explains the crazy shipping rates.