14 replies to this topic

[spainter]

After my Ellipsis qmv7a (Crappa Tablet) decided to completely die last Friday. The Ellipsis qmv7a Tablet I had was nothing but problems from the start. We got two of them from Verizon as a bonus on some promotion at no cost so I don’t have much room to complain.  It received one upgrade while I had it to KitKat 4.4.2 which failed on mine (worked fine on the other one).   It was sent back to the factory for repair (3 week turnaround).  It came out of the box new locked down so tight you couldn’t get into recovery short of using adb commands. No write access to sd card with out root and modifications etc.  Definitely a Low end POS. Like I said it was free, I sure wouldn't buy one.

 

I did some quick research on tablets and finances and purchased a LG G Pad x 8.3 (model  vk815) and to my pleasant surprise it seems like I have found a tablet that doesn’t need modifying from its out of the box state to enjoyably use.  Specs: http://www.phonearen...ad-X-8.3_id9429

This tablets design was well thought out and some of the features are nothing short of outstanding.  Not only does it support OTG through the micro usb charging port but also had a standard usb port for full size flash drives.  SD Card slot support for up to 128 gig card is as usual next to the sim slot.  One of the reasons I have always insisted on root access is to back up apps and settings. Guess what LG has included an app that does just that, including home screen settings.  The display is clear and crisp and almost matches my Nexus 7.

I will update this as I give it more of a workout.  But coming from the Ellipsis tablet unboxing  and setting up the LG tablet has been one good surprise after another.

[spainter]

Over a month in with the LG vk815 and I don't have anything bad to say about it. Battery life is good with almost 6 days with light use.  The LG backup / restore app works very well and has no problem restoring settings or apps as a group or individual. It does require the battery be above 50% to function. A warning pops up if you try to use it under that telling you to charge your tablet prior to doing a backup. As a mid range tablet I would recommend this tablet over and above the nexus 9 unless unlocking and rooting is a show stopper for you. Not being able to unlock this tablet and being able to reflash the software incase of a software issue is the only downside. Earlier models of this tablet has been unlocked, rooted, and have custom roms available. Just not the Verizon model. The tablet is still on Lollipop but so are most of the tablets other than the Nexus.  I would suspect that the December, January time frame for the update to Marshmallow from LG.

 

Note on the Verizon Ecllipsis 7:  After sitting for about a month I plugged the crappa tablet back in just for the hell of it and it started to charge. After a few hours I tried booting it and it did boot up but now it will only charge when it is powered down. Has to be a software issue, however a FDR didn't help, and it is so painfully locked down reflashing is out of the question. 

[rmcx]

HI.  New member here.

 

Just got my LG-VK815 and it does what it says it will do (at a pretty good price) EXCEPT my OTG doesn't work.  I am unable to plug in SD card readers, external HDDs, etc.

 

Any ideas as to what this might be?

 

I can plug stuff into the full sized USB port on top successfully, but not the micro port.  I can charge through the micro port OK, and I can plug my PC into it, but other devices just aren't seen.

 

Thx

[livinginkaos]

Are you using an otg cable or ? If you are trying to connect an external HDD it likely will not operate because of the power requirements. Another limitation may also be file format. Android likes to limit you to fat32. Exfat requires a tweak.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

[rmcx]

I'm using a device like this:

 

http://www.amazon.co...pf_rd_i=desktop

 

and like this:

 

http://www.amazon.co...card reader hub

 

These devices work on a variety of Android devices such as my wife's Samsung Galaxy S5, various Samsung tablets, a Dell tablet, etc.

 

While I can use the full-size port to read in my SD card, I'd really like to use the micro port.  This would allow me to use the same reader in a variety of devices.

[rmcx]

BTW, there is a power LED on the larger of the two devices and this lights up on the various machines where it works, but not on the LG.  i.e. no power getting there.

[spainter]

HI.  New member here.

 

Just got my LG-VK815 and it does what it says it will do (at a pretty good price) EXCEPT my OTG doesn't work.  I am unable to plug in SD card readers, external HDDs, etc.

 

Any ideas as to what this might be?

 

I can plug stuff into the full sized USB port on top successfully, but not the micro port.  I can charge through the micro port OK, and I can plug my PC into it, but other devices just aren't seen.

 

Thx

I get the same result on mine.  The full size slot works fine.  It appears the only thing the micro usb slot is for is computer connections and charging.  I had never tried it for otg since it had a full size usb slot.  I use the sandisk dual usb drives for the most part here.

[rmcx]

OK, too bad.  I was hoping to use both ports simultaneously.  I'll manage, but a bit of a disappointment.

 

Thx!

[livinginkaos]

I don't know if it will take it, but you could try a hub in the other port

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

[rmcx]

Yeah, no problem on the full-size port.  It's just that I wanted to keep my travel collection minimized and standardized.  I have tested a hub with a micro plug connected via a micro->full-sized adapter.  That works OK.

[spainter]

Yeah, no problem on the full-size port.  It's just that I wanted to keep my travel collection minimized and standardized.  I have tested a hub with a micro plug connected via a micro->full-sized adapter.  That works OK.

I guess you can tell, I really like this tablet .  Did you notice user downloaded apps can be sent to the SD card.  Haven't seen that since Jelly Bean.  Here it is in Lollipop.

[spainter]

Also selecting either a large usb drive or a usb external hardrive (I have several 40 to 80 gig hardrives around from old computers) in LG Backup it will let you backup the entire device including the SD card so you can backup apps installed to the sd card.

[rmcx]

I noticed the download to SD card option, but didn't consider the whole-machine backup.  That's pretty good.

 

I got this tablet to replace a 1st-gen iPad Mini.  I loathe Safari on it (always reloading pages, slow, etc.) and the iPad can't do the one really critical issue: Back up my camera photos -easily-.

 

Yes, iOS has a backup/auto-load facility ... but only up to the limit of its memory.  After that:  SOL.

 

So I needed to switch to either a Windows tablet or an Android tablet.

 

I went with Android because the other thing it absolutely had to do was to play Scrabble!  My wife and I play it a couple of times a day.

 

I have been using the PlayStore free version of Scrabble until I was sure I was going with Android.  There's an ad after virtually every move you make in the free version.  And now I find out that there is no paid version on Android, only on iOS.  I loathe EA as well.

 

Also, with the market the way it is the LG was the most rational decision:  $50 at Costco/Verizon.  Best bang for the buck as of today.

[spainter]

It has been quiet for this tablet for a long time.  Since it is locked down there hasn't been anything except root.  Well today they announced the Marshmallow update for this pad.  Verizon is releasing it today.  Going from android 5.0.2 to 6.0.  My tablet is still stock, just like it came out of the box which is really a first for me.  I am looking forward to finally getting the advantages of the 64 bit processor on Marshmallow. Also having the same OS on all of my main devices.

[spainter]

The difference in performance from 5.0.2 to 6.0 is quite visible. The graphics and radios have also improved. Battery life over the past 24 hours (though it is too early really tell for sure) looks to have improved. Gsam battery monitor for that period (mostly idle) is showing an average of .2 to .3 percent per hour where it was .4 to .5 per hour while idle on 5.0.2.  Gsam at is showing predicted battery life of 13 days 18 hours. I haven't gone through all of the new settings as of yet but that will be done when I have less going on.  I still enjoy using this tablet almost as much as my Nexus 7, but being able to play and customize things still puts the Nexus ahead.