ZaTab ZT2 brief review

[Matt Graham]

I finally got a working ZaTab ZT2 delivered on Nov. 21.  (The first one 
showed up on Nov. 12, but it had a defective backlight or screen.)  So 
far, everything I've tried to do with it works pretty well.  This is the 
first Android device of any type I've ever owned, so I don't know if I'm 
the best person to write a review.

Hardware:  4.6G internal storage (FAT32, label "FIBER"), 1G RAM.  The 
camera's lousy in low light, but this is probably only to be expected.  
If the power's on and it's hooked up to wireless and USB, it won't 
charge at all.  (Wireless ate all the tiny amount of power the USB port 
delivers?)  I found it difficult to get the card out of the microSD 
slot, which is probably a feature since those things are so small.  
There's no bluetooth.  A case designed for the Asus Transformer 10.1 
works, other cases for 10.1" tablets will probably work fine too.

Software:  Android 4.2.2.  Open-source Android applications from 
https://f-droid.org/ have all worked.  Being able to VNC from a tablet 
to my desktop doesn't work as well as it should--this might be due to 
bad x11vnc settings on my part, or something.  I haven't tried anything 
from the app store yet.  There are a bunch of settings designed for 
debugging stuff (show screen repaint, show taps, log filesystem access, 
etc.) but I haven't tried these yet.  I don't know whether these things 
are present on other Android devices or not.  It's of course possible to 
disable/uninstall applications you're not going to use.

I haven't tried installing a custom ROM image.  This is possible, even 
encouraged, but there's no documentation for it.  They say they're 
working on a detailed owner's manual and will give everybody who bought 
a ZT2 a PDF when it's finished.

You can probably get more hardware (and bluetooth) for less money if 
you buy a different device.  With a ZT2, though, you won't void your 
warranty if you flash it with CyanogenMod or another non-vendor-supplied 
ROM.

-- 
Crow202 Blog: http://crow202.org/wordpress
There is no Darkness in Eternity
But only Light too dim for us to see.