Scroll Excel 7 first look

Posted on January 29, 2012 at 11:37 am UK

The market for tablet computers is looking rosy according to any number of research studies and reports in the mainstream media and tech press.

It’s continuing good news for Apple and its iPad and for the myriad Android tablet-makers; and for satisfying consumers’ desire to own the latest affordable tech that gives them the freedom to get at information whenever and wherever they want it.

According to one recent report I read by Research and Markets, the expected growth of the tablet market in the UK over the next few years will be driven by features such as ease of use, long battery life, mobility, ability to multi-task, instant on/off and the large number of applications available.

Such predicted expectation drivers – no doubt valid in most if not all markets, not just the UK – keep the pressure on vendors where those that build better mousetraps are likely to be the ones that dominate in the market, either overall (like the iPad) or in a niche.

Such predictions and opinion are probably welcome news to a UK niche player like Storage Options, maker of the Scroll Excel 7″ tablet they loaned me and that I’ve been taking a look at over the past few weeks.

Just over six months ago, in June 2011, I reviewed Storage Options’ predecessor tablet, the Scroll 7″ Tablet PC (Capacitive). As I mentioned in the review, that device while competent had some significant issues that made me reluctant to consider it a product to recommend to anyone.

But that was then, and this is now with a new device that offers a much better experience and makes it a worthy offering in an increasingly-crowded market. You can see what I make of the Scroll Excel in my first-look video report that runs at just under ten minutes.

(If you don’t see the video embedded above, watch it at YouTube.)

Overall, I think this is a very good device, certainly a far superior product compared to its predecessor. It’s well specified; the device I’ve got includes:

Android 2.3.4 operating system
Cortex A8 1Ghz single-core processor
512Mb DDR3 RAM; 4GB internal storage memory (of which 2Gb is used by the operating system); slot to add a microSD card up to 32Gb
Capacitive 7-inch touch screen, 16:9 (screen resolution) 5:3 (pixel resolution), 800 x 480
0.3 megapixel front-facing camera
Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n
Mini HDMI socket for connecting to, eg, a TV to play HD video (you’ll need to buy a cable, one isn’t included)
Mini USB port for connecting to a computer for file transfers and to to connect peripheral devices: keyboard, flash drive, etc (and a cable is included)
Plays 1080p HD video, supports MPEG2, MPEG4, AVS, H.264, WMV, AVI, MP4, RMVB, FLV, MKV

I like the build quality, the speed of operation (on a par with most devices I’ve used and matching your expectations in how quickly something happens when you tap on the screen), the screen’s great resolution, and long battery life (with my moderate use so far – exploring the device, video watching, news reading, a bit of email – it’s days between charges).

Storage Options offers the Scroll Excel 7″ at a pretty keen price – currently, £129.99 is mentioned on their website although I see Amazon UK has it at £139.99, a discount of £10 off the original price. And they reported earlier this month that it was selling very well indeed.

There is a negative about the device, although how big it is depends on what’s important to you. The Scroll Excel 7 doesn’t come with the app you commonly find on many Android devices that lets you connect to the Android Market to download and install or update your apps.

Storage Options say this:

Due to licensing restrictions, the Scroll Excel cannot officially be used to access the Android Marketplace. It does however come with a number of pre-installed apps including Adobe Flash Player, Adobe Reader, Aldiko Book Reader, Amazon Kindle, BBC iPlayer, BBC News, es_file_explorer, Evernote, Facebook, MSN Talk, Quick System Info Pro, Slider Me Market Place, TuneIn Radio, Twitter, WildTangent Games and YouTube.The Scroll Excel also comes with access to the Slide Me Market Place where most major apps can be downloaded to the device without issue.

I mention this in my video review. If ease of use for you includes installing or updating your apps with just a tap or two on the screen, then this could be a big issue. There are workarounds, though, as Storage Options mentions (and includes reference to in the device manual). There are also some extreme ones.

I discovered a way to get to the Market, by accident I think, when I installed the Kindle app for Android from Amazon directly, which took me to the Market. I did that today, after I recorded the video review yesterday, and it opens up some interesting usage possibilities I hadn’t considered – the Scroll Excel 7 makes a pretty good Kindle device alternative with a better screen reading experience than the Kindle itself (and it’s in hi-res colour), and the price between the two devices isn’t far apart. The Excel is about the same size as a Kindle, too.

That’s an extra although one you may find as appealing as I do. But as a ‘mainstream’ Android tablet, this Scroll Excel is worth considering if you’re looking for a good-quality and good-value device and you don’t want to venture into iPad-like pricing territory.

This market is evolving very quickly, though. For instance, Dell may be getting into the consumer tablet market later this year (not to be confused with it’s abortive efforts in the business tablet market with the Dell Streak). There’s also Amazon’s Fire rumoured to be coming to the UK in a few months and at a price that will bring pressure to budget-device makers

Still, for a penny under £130, the Scroll Excel 7 is a very nice product at the budget end of the market.

FIR Book Club starts in January 2012

Posted on December 22, 2011 at 7:45 am UK

firbookreviews194x225 Welcome to the FIR Book Club.

You already think of FIR as the podcast where you find out what’s making news and why in the worlds of public relations, social media, and communication. Now, the FIR book club – announced on the most recent episode of FIR – is a way to connect with the leading writers in these fields and share your ideas.

Each month, we’ll announce the book for the next month’s book club. Then, on a date to be announced, the author will join FIR Book Reviews editor Bob LeDrew on Blog Talk Radio to talk about the book.

Then comes your chance to join in. You can call in to Blog Talk Radio to add your voice to the discussion, or use the chat room to participate with a keyboard.

It’s talk radio like you don’t hear anywhere else – frank, engaging, intelligent, and on the topics that matter to you as a communicator.

Our first FIR Book Club book will be The Social Media Strategist by Voce’s Social Media VP, Christopher Barger. The book is scheduled for release on January 13; we’ll announce the date of the interactive session around that time. The FIR Book Club has its own page on the podcast website where you can find details of books and sessions.

(Cross-posted from For Immediate Release, Shel’s and my podcast blog.)

Sizing up the Samsung Galaxy Note

Posted on December 18, 2011 at 7:11 am UK

galaxynotes2

I’ve been exploring a new gadget this weekend, a Samsung Galaxy Note that I have for review. If you looked at it, you’d think it was a rather large smartphone. Indeed, compare it to the Samsung Galaxy SII that I have – which is a rather large smartphone – and you’ll see it needs another description.

You can see the size of it when looking at these two devices side by side in the photo above – the Note on the left and the SII on the right.

When I first looked at the Note on unpacking the box, my immediate thought was – this is like the 5-inch Dell Streak in terms of size. In fact, I have a Dell Streak so a comparison is easy to see at first hand as this photo below shows: Galaxy Note on the left, Dell Streak on the right.

galaxynotedellstreak

Pretty close in overall size dimensions. Pretty close, too, in screen size – the Note has a 5.3-inch display and the Streak has 5.0 inches. Not really much in it. Compare that to the SII at 4.3 inches – an inch less in overall dimensions – or the iPhone 4: at 3.5 inches, its screen is nearly 2 inches smaller overall than the Note’s (and almost 1 inch smaller than the SII’s).

You may be wondering why I seem to be fixated on size. Does size matter? Well, it does if you’re thinking of a smartphone and how you’d use that with emphasis on the ‘phone’ part of the word. I don’t know about you, but I really wouldn’t want to have to use a device the size of a Note or a Streak as my primary phone. Imagine something that big stuck to your ear!

Although the Galaxy Note does have a slot for a SIM card so you can make and receive phone calls and text messages, I wouldn’t call it a smartphone as what you’re far more likely to want to do with it is run apps and connect to the net. So a cellular connection as well as wifi is handy, letting you be online just about anywhere. And if push comes to shove, you can always make a phone call if you really want to.

This device is a mini tablet – a hybrid, in fact, in between a smartphone and a tablet. It’s the space Dell first entered in 2009 with the 5-inch Streak. But it’s a space they’ve now vacated entirely in the major markets of Europe and North America, leaving it to Samsung in particular to make the most of it.

The Galaxy Note I have is unlocked, not tied to any particular network or mobile operator. It works just fine on wifi without a SIM card, although I did notice something interesting – when I first turned it on and configured a wifi connection, it notified me of a new firmware update.

But it wouldn’t let me get it without a SIM card installed.

notesoftwareupdate That was easy to sort out by using the SIM card from my SII. It enabled the firmware to be downloaded and installed, which updated the version of the Android operating system from 2.3.5 to 2.3.6. Bang up to date!

(As an aside comment on that, searching for a firmware update on the SII – which, like the Note did, has Android version 2.3.5 installed – produces no result. Yet 2.3.6 is available. Maybe the fix that 2.3.6 brings – for a voice search bug – isn’t relevant to the SII. Or, as that device is tied to a mobile operator – Three UK – perhaps it’s waiting for Three to release the update)

As I opened the box only yesterday, I haven’t yet kicked the Note’s tyres in a meaningful way. Not run any apps nor explored some interesting aspects such as the S Pen – a hi-tech stylus that may seem conceptually familiar to you if you remember devices like the Compaq IPAQ from a decade ago – and some of the neat ways you can use it.

samsungbatteries

The short time I have spent so far with the Note shows me a mobile device that’s powerful, fast, familiar, light in the hand, feature-laden and a pleasure to use. One other thing I noted in particular was the battery – 2500mAh capacity. (Wikipedia explains mAh if you’re interested.) What that means to you and me is that a device this size with a screen this big needs all the juice it can get. Depending on use, I’d expect battery life to be on a par with what I get from my Galaxy SII with a smaller capacity battery (1650mAh) for a smaller-size and smaller-screen device – about a day’s charge with my typical use.

Would the Note be good as a primary mobile device, eg, as your phone? No, I wouldn’t recommend that. But if you want a tool that lets you do much of what you can with a full-size Android tablet (or iPad, for that matter) but in a pocket-size form factor – the best of both worlds, perhaps – then the Note may appeal to you.

Here are the top-level specs:

1.4GHz ARM9dual-core processor
1Gb RAM
16Gb internal storage (32Gb version also available but not in the UK)
MicroSD card external storage support for cards up to 32Gb capacity
Bluetooth
802.11a/b/g/n wifi
5.3-inch Super AMOLEDHD display with 800×1280 resolution
8 megapixel rear-facing camera with LED flash plus 2 megapixel front-facing camera
Android 2.3 Gingerbread with upgrade to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwichcoming
Screen capture capability (making screenshots)

More thoughts to come as I get to know the Samsung Galaxy Note.

(All the pics above were shot with an HTC Desire 5-megapixel camera and tweaked a bit in Paint Shop Pro X2. Not a bad camera compared to the Note’s and SII’s 8-megapixel ones.)

Getting to know the Galaxy S II

Posted on November 19, 2011 at 7:19 am UK

I got a new smartphone a few days ago, a Samsung model, as my evolution from the HTC Desire, the phone I’ve had for the past eighteen months.

It’s not the new Samsung Galaxy Nexus that launched in the UK (and across Europe) on November 17, the Android phone I’d sort of decided upon when I heard it announced a month or so ago.

No, the phone I went with is the Samsung Galaxy S II you see pictured here. Also an Android phone, this was my original choice before I heard about the Nexus.

But after all the research and in the final furlong of decision-making, I discussed specs of both phones at length with the knowledgeable sales assistant at the Three store in west London, and we concluded that for what I was looking for, the S II was the better choice, and one that I’d be comfortable with having made over a two-year contract. Plus it was about ten percent cheaper on the contract deal I chose.

Both phones are richly specified, from fast dual-core processors to rich and vibrant colours on the large screens, to excellent cameras and high-definition video-recording capabilities, and plenty of internal memory storage space.

Given that the Nexus runs the very latest version 4.0 of the Android operating system known as Ice Cream Sandwich – which no other Android phone yet has – that offers some compelling new features, and the device has a bigger screen in higher resolution than the S II, you may wonder why would I not go for that one?

Three specific reasons:

The Galaxy S II has the ability to expand memory storage with a microSD card of up to 32Gb capacity. Add that to the device’s internal storage capacity of 16Gb and you have 48Gb at your disposal – plenty for all the apps, HD video, photos, music, etc, that you might wish to have on your phone. In contrast, the Nexus has no such expansion capability – you’re stuck with the internal storage only. In the UK, that’s just 16Gb (there is a version of the Nexus that offers 32Gb of internal storage, but it doesn’t look like that model’s coming to the UK). Now looking forward to no more low-space warnings when I try and install any app, an unwelcome feature of the HTC Desire with its low 576Mb of internal storage.
The S II has an 8-megapixel rear camera, compared to the Nexus’ 5-megapixel camera. On the front, the S II’s secondary camera is 2 megapixels while the Nexus offers one at 1.3 megapixels. Small practical differences, you might argue, yet they are significant if you take lots of photos as I do and want to use video-calling eg, with Skype (which I already tried: it’s terrific!).
The lure of the coolness of Ice Cream Sandwich isn’t especially compelling to me as Samsung has said that it’s coming to the S II soon as an upgrade to Android 2.3.4 aka Gingerbread that the device currently runs. If that means not for two or three months, I’m happy to wait.

In the meantime, I’m very pleased to have a Samsung Galaxy S II that I’m getting to know. I’m well impressed with its thinness and light weight, excellent build quality, very good battery life after a couple of days of playing with it extensively, and its robust yet highly responsive Gorilla Glass touch screen (clever tech from Corning Glass: just take a look at what they see glass doing in the future).

There’s also the practical aspects of using such a phone in a business setting. I’ve yet to install many of the apps I run on the HTC Desire but already email’s up and running with various email accounts, calendar, contacts, etc, nicely sync’d with Outlook and Google apps in the cloud using the nifty Kies air app that syncs your phone wirelessly: no USB cable connection needed. I have the phone on Three’s The One Plan which, among other things, offers unlimited data use and tethering. That’s a huge appeal for me.

Earlier this year, Three produced this neat video introducing the S II including a simple explanation of Kies air at about the 1:40 mark

(If you don’t see the video embedded above, watch it at YouTube.)

So lots to see and learn about the S II; I expect to post further thoughts here in this blog. If you have an S II, a Nexus, or any other comparable device, care to share your impressions?

Scroll 7" tablet first impressions

Posted on June 26, 2011 at 9:17 pm UK

If you’re in the market for a tablet computer, you have a number of options. The obvious one, that everyone talks about, is the iPad. It was the brand that rebooted an entire market and quickly established the benchmark for what a desirable consumer product could be when it launched in early 2010. Enthusiasts said it was the only game in town: some people would say that is still the case today with the iPad2, launched a few months ago.

That brand-love and feature set come at a premium price, though. If your budget is more modest – less than £175 (€197 / $280) for instance – a Scroll tablet from Storage Options is worth considering among the many Android devices to choose from. I’ve been playing with a Scroll 7″ tablet with capacitive multi-touch screen for the past few days (thanks to Chris Norton who arranged it), enough time to share a few first impressions and make some conclusions.

First, let’s look at the major features you get for your money:

A stylish-looking tablet with a brushed aluminium case that measures about eight inches high by 5.2 inches wide by half an inch thick, weighing just under 15 ounces or nearly a pound. (In metric: 203mm x 132mm x 12mm, weight 420 grams.)
A capacitive screen measuring seven inches on the diagonal, at 800×400 pixels resolution. ‘Capacitive’ means you can do the kinds of things you might do now on a smartphone or, indeed, an iPad: ‘pinch’ a photo, web page, etc, to zoom in and out; single- and double-tap on the screen to perform actions; ‘stroke’ screen objects to navigate; and more.
A dual-core 1GHz ARM 11 processor, 256Mb DDR RAM, 2Gb internal memory expandable to 32Gb via a micro SD card.
Android 2.3.1 operating system (the OS for Android smartphones not specifically for tablets).
Rechargeable internal battery, projected usage up to four hours between charges.
Lots of connectivity options: wifi (802.11b/g), mini USB port (connect to a computer but also plug in an external hard drive, keyboard, etc), mini HDMI socket (for connecting to a high-definition TV or monitor), micro SD card slot. (Note the Scroll is wifi only: there is no option for cellular connectivity via a SIM card.)
A low-resolution (0.3 megapixels) front-facing camera that can do video and take photos.
Power charger, USB cables, ear buds, slim manual.

Read the detailed specs if you want to know more.

Out of the box, the device is straightforward to get going. Mine came with the battery partly charged so I just turned it on. It takes about a minute to boot up from pressing the on/off switch and arriving at the screen where you slide the lock to get into use mode.

If you’re used to an Android smartphone, the Scroll will be instantly recognizable. Everything looks familiar, just bigger on the larger seven-inch screen. It comes with a set of Scroll Apps (11 in total including Adobe Reader, Amazon Kindle, Facebook, MSN Talk) with an easy installer. One thing you’ll notice is that the Android Market app you find on lots of devices is absent on the Scroll, primarily for licensing reasons.

That means that if you want to find and install apps from the Android Market, you’ll need to go to the store on the web via the web browser. Not a huge deal but it’s an extra effort.

Speaking of the web browser, I found the one included pretty flaky: it would often crash and sometimes just not respond. One of the first apps I installed is the excellent Dolphin Browser which I run on all my Android devices, and doesn’t have any of those problems. (Subsequently, I discovered that there’s an update for the Scroll that is a fix for the included browser. Installing it is quite a performance though.)

Looking more generally at overall use, the Scroll is a competent device, running apps that I’ve installed on it such as Twidroyd, the BBC News app and Feedly. Indeed, apps like those which are very much focused on reading and writing text content give you terrific usability benefits from the large screen compared to a typical three-t0-four-inch smartphone.

If I have any negative comments, they’re mostly to do with usability. For instance, I find the device sluggish in how it responds to interaction via the touch screen. Often, tapping an app icon to launch it takes five to ten seconds: unacceptably slow when other Android devices I use – notably, my HTC Desire smartphone and Dell Streak 5″ mini tablet – respond instantly to such interactions.

Maybe it’s the processor. The Scroll spec says it’s 1 GHz yet the system info on the device itself reports processor speed at 720 MHz.

There are some other oddities, too. Sometimes, an app will cause the device to freeze momentarily. The auto-switching from portrait to landscape view when you rotate it doesn’t kick in quickly: you often have to wait some seconds. And most weird: apps like the BBC News app runs upside down (which it doesn’t do on any of my other Android devices). Figure that one out!

Still, as I mentioned, it’s a competent device. It’s affordable and, on my experience so far, will run all of the apps I like to use on Android devices. But anomalies like freezing up, taking a long time to respond to taps, weird stuff like upside-down apps present major obstacles to my being able to unreservedly recommend the Scroll. The price point is attractive – price on the website is £169.99 and Amazon UK has it at a price close to that – and the overall spec is generous. But is that enough to justify the purchase?

The reality is that there is a huge range of choices if you’re looking to buy a tablet computer, whether for personal use or for business (or for that increasingly-common blurring-of-both situation), quite a few in the price area the Scroll is at. Name-recognition manufacturers who already have tablets on the market include Dell, Samsung, Hewlett-Packard, Asus, RIM (Blackberry), Motorola and Archos. Others bringing tablets to market during 2011 include Huawei, Lenovo, Panasonic, Sony and Toshiba.

Then there’s some views that the market for 7″ tablets is a finite one and the real market that matters is for 10″ screens.

However you see it, it’s a crowded market that presents challenges to manufacturers to stand out from the crowd with a device to wow the consumer with great features at a terrific price. Even with the oddities I’ve experienced, I think the Scroll is good but does it wow?

Unfortunately, in a word, no.

In any case, I’m pressing on with my Scroll discovery. For instance, I want to see what it’s like with showing video on a TV via the HDMI interface. I want to use the camera, take some photos, shoot some video. I’m tweeting various thoughts as I go along at the #scroll7 hashtag. Do join in if you have anything to add.

Related post: