blokenfeffer’s JXD S7100 mini review


butch87402 blokenfeffer over at http://forum.xda-developers.com has been playing with his JXD S7100 (you know, the big android one with no shoulder buttons and some incredible confusion over whether it has a resistive or capacitive screen (answer: there are two versions – before you buy, be sure to check!) and shares his experience:
Just received my JXD S7100 this morning and I'm playing around with it now, fairly nice device for the price.
Update:
- Power and MENU buttons to enter System recovery.
- Device rooted temp/perm with z4root.
- Market installed fine.
I rooted with z4root V1.3.0.
http://attachments.xda-developers.co...5&d=1290341328
I have to admit, I've mostly been fiddling with it rather than really using using it and now that I've got it rooted I need to update the emulators. So far, with the stock emulators it's pretty good for most things. The D-pad could be better, it suffers from the usual problems trying to pull off moves in games like SF2 and shoulder buttons would be a big help. Can live without that for most things though.
Being a Chinese device, it comes preloaded with some roms and games and there is a DVD in the box with a few more. There's also plenty of software on there that you're just not going to want. The android rom itself isn't brilliant and it's fairly buggy, here's hoping someone can do some work to port another rom over to it and tidy it up. In the meantime, I can live with the odd reset here and there.
One really annoying bug is the power button seems to lock up and become unresponsive, forcing you to do a reset on the device with a pin. Still, it's not a deal breaker for the money.
Other things:
There's no stock Android keyboard, instead it comes with Baidu - shouldn't be a problem replacing this either.
It has it's own Market, with some dodgy downloads on there, but putting the official Market on there isn't a big deal. FYI, it's recognised in the Market as "Amlogic JXD-S7100".
The viewing angle on the screen isn't amazing, but it's acceptable as is the screen itself. I've got 1 or 2 stuck/hot pixels which I'll try to get rid of, but again, nothing I can't deal with for the price.
Seems to handle 1080p content really well from local flash, struggled a bit streaming the same file from the NAS. This will be a useful device for the odd movie, especially with the mini HDMI output.
I did run a quadrant benchmark on it and it gave similar results to my Nexus S, I'll post a few screenshots once I've got past my post limit.
I think once I've done a fair bit of cleaning up of junk software and got my head around some of the issues with the buggy rom, I'll be really happy with the device. Not to say I'm not happy with it, I just need to be rid of the extra junk.
Again though if anyone with rom knowledge gets one of these, PLEASE tidy up this sloppy build... please!

As I can't yet post images, I'll post benchmark numbers for now. These are vs my Nexus S on CyanogenMod 7, running at 1000MHz:
AnTuTu Benchmark v2.5.1:
Nexus S: 3285
S7100: 3176
Quadrant:
Nexus S: 2637
S7100: 2587
Thanks blokenfeffer, and please keep reporting and testing! Follow the thread here.

Comments

  1. I have received the JXD S7100 today but it not working ! I switch it on, and it starts to boot up and shows the Android green robot, then it gets to a light blue screen with some Chinese writing and just stick there, the screen goes black a few time but it returns to the light blue screen. I think its looking for a WIFI connection or something but my WIFI is secure so you need to enter a password.

    I have tried resetting the device but it still get stuck on the same blue screen, this is very disappointing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The boot screens you should see in order are:

    JXD logo
    Android robot, with android logo
    Arm Cortex A9 logo
    JXD Chinese text screen and animated logo that looks like wifi.

    The last logo screen isn't actually searching for wifi, it's just an animated boot screen - wifi is disabled on the device from first boot.

    How long have you left the final screen for?

    I'd suggest following the thread link at the bottom of Gagetmesiters post and registering for the XDA forum. I'm tracking that thread and I'll help you if I can.

    There are a few things you can try before you return the device, like a factory reset and an update. I can walk you through that.

    ReplyDelete
  3. You're the man blokenfeffer :D

    The device just keep on staying on the light blue screen with the fake wifi seeking thing. It stayed on that screen for like 30mins, even repeated reset attempts made no difference.

    Then luckily I discovered your thread, I did the following to get the unit working

    [COLOR="Navy"]"Press and hold the Menu button, keep the Menu button pressed and now press the Power on button. The "upgrading please wait" message will be displayed.


    Scroll down to "wipe data/factory reset" using the dpad and press the back button (far left button at the bottom). Scroll down to "yes" and confirm the factory reset using the back button again.[/COLOR]"

    The S7100 is up and running, my son loves it. All the emulators work fine.

    Heres hoping for a ICS ROM for it soon..:D

    Does anyone any details as to what the latest update S7100 1227 does?

    Originally I ordered the S7100 from isharegift, this was before I know there were 2 different models, capacitive and resistive.When I asked isharegift which one they were going to ship me, they said resistive and wanted extra cash for the capacitive model I cancelled my order with them and went with r4shop instead as they said they were UK based and already had the unit is stock. However Im not sure this was the case, as the postal tracker says the parcel was shipped from Hong Kong...and it had to be completely factory reset to get it working..not sure the average customer would have been able to figure it out. Imagine giving this to a child as a present and then having to fiddle with the damn device to get it working.


    Anyway now that its up and running , its actually quite a good little device that ticks all the boxes, its android and has physical game controls, (a 2nd analog stick and shoulder buttons is sorely missed) and is reasonably cheap . I played around with the dingoo (installed dingux) before but its was so poorly built that I just bin them. I even ordered a pandora handheld game console but cancelled the order after the loooong delays. It has more features than the 3DS, which we got bored with in few days.

    At the moment I got my eyes on the new 8" glasses free 3d tablet, 8" is perfect for kids, its big enough to comfortably read books and surf the web yet portable enough to throw into the back of the rucksack when going on hoildays.

    The tablet is already out, just waiting for the game controller attachment.

    [url]http://usb.brando.com/gadmei-t863-3d-tablet_p02644c051d15.html[/url]

    [url]http://www.theverge.com/2012/1/11/2699768/wikipad-glasses-free-3d-tablet-android-4[/url]

    ReplyDelete
  4. hey guys, i just got the s7100 cap screen from isharegifts. for some reason i cant get the wifi to work. it keeps force closing on me. it wont even find my router. any ideas? thank you

    ReplyDelete
  5. i really like the unit, before i decide to return the S7100 can anyone help with the wifi issue? thank you

    ReplyDelete
  6. I also cant get wife to work. Also are there any updates so it dislays in english, asside from language settings

    ReplyDelete
  7. to me it's a mix bag : charger is defective, screen is sometimes missing some colors and it hangs sometimes but else, when it works, it's a nice device and I like android with buttons ! The sound is no bad (even good compared to the yinlips that is very bad!) and it's powerful enough to play lots of things. Modded, it might be very good even if UI for chinese must be great !
    Wifi in my case is very good : the best range I ever had with such a device and the capacitive screen is responding very well.
    So just waiting for updates to fix some bugs here and there.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Will be if some good Samaritan of the forum there will be dedicated to making a good rom for this xing ling? ! rsrsr .... From what I saw is a good hardware with the ability to run multiple games and NORs al. And there's the fact that the controls are well adpatarem the games too, with a lack of shoulder buttons, good tablet is new and there is a long way to perfection.
    We will wait there to fix those small buggs ... lol

    ReplyDelete

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