The Best $100 PC I've ever owned...

Typing this post on that PC now. It's an 8" Bay Trail quad-core CPU tablet running dual Windows 10 + Android.

What's so good about it?

1. Stereo speakers. There are really two speakers inside the tablet, not just two opening holes to one central speaker. Newer tablets that look like a smart phone cross over only have 1 speaker inside.

2. Dedicated DC charging port. I'm really loving the ability to hook up a keyboard and mouse to the thing while charging it at the same time. This is pretty rare for the newer models. The current ones only have one micro USB port. You either hook up a USB device via a micro USB dongle, or you use it to charge the tablet, not both.

3. 720p 8" screen instead of 1080p. There are some benchmarks where Bay Trail tablets with 720p screens last longer than the newer Cherry Trail ones with 1080p on a single charge. I guess it's no so cool to trade off higher res for shorter battery life.

4. Windows 10 Pro is free on these devices. You only pay for a license when you buy a device with a larger screen. It means I'm not really supporting Microsoft by owning the tablet.

5. Intel took a loss by selling the atom CPUs that power these tablets for cheap to the manufacturers. By owning this tablet, I'm in no way supporting the Microsoft-Intel cartel.

6. The CPU is essentially what some Microsoft Surface entry tablet models would have employed.

7. Dual OS. I do all the sensitive info stuff like online banking/OneDrive etc. in Android. Windows 10 can collect all the telemetry on this device they want. They'll never find out what I did in Android...

 

Is this an update on the machine which you told us you were getting, some months back?

 

OMG, I had put away my $10 Sony earbuds (you know those mid-end earbuds that can actually pump out [artificial] bass; they're probably like $15-$20 now b/c of inflation) away for so long b/c they didn't work with my laptop. Their so sensitive the 60Hz power source causes them to buzz.

Anyways, I took them out to try on my tablet. No buzz at all. OMG, it's like a Sony portable media player now! Sound output is crystal clear, even when plugged in charging!

Wish I knew what Win10 did to bass boost that was present in Win7-8.1 Control Panel, cuz I'd love to activate that right now.

 

BTW, if anyone were to ask me if there are headsets/earphones better than Sony for the average consumer, my answer would be yes.

You guys realize Sony is all about style. Every single piece of Sony audio equipment had artificially manipulated the sound output to give them an enhancement akin to serving fast food.

As a semi-audiophile, I much prefer Pioneer [another Japanese company] over Sony whenever I can, and their products are similarly priced but sound much more natural (ie. real food vs fast food).

 

Sennheiser for me. Used them since 1960's, and still my preference. Proper cans though, not buds, though I do have some of the latter as well.

I usually have my desktop sound routed to the Hi Fi. Also classic from 1960's: Linsley-Hood class A Amp, and KEF speaker units, B139, B110, T27 in Bailey Transmission line enclousure.

If, for whatever reason, I do not want to listen via HiFi, then I have found 'Creative Labs' T10 to be nice cheap desk speakers.

 

My Creative T20 sounds just like a home theater with a little tweaking. Little bugger BasXPort can sure output a lot of bass for a 2.0 system. (The T20 is just the T10 with fibre glass cones.)

The tweaking I'm referring to is software digital enhancement. For XP it's using SRS AudioSandbox and Win7/8.1 CP speakers settings to give them virtual surround and bass boost. The result sounds no different than a $2000 home cinema audio system.

 

I've had my 720p stereo speakers tablet for about 7 months, no issues encountered. But that's only coz I wrote a cmd script to disable Windows updates and the relevant telemetry services.


All those talk in the media about spying + forced updates, I defeated all of that with a primitive command prompt script! (plus use guest password to router of course while hiding the admin one from Win10).


Anyways, I enjoyed the tablet so much, I bought another one off eBay, BUT with 1080p 'retina' screen for $25 bucks extra. And let me tell you that extra $25 was worth it! Movies look more stunning on high dpi retina-like screen!!

BTW, I would laugh if ppl told me I could buy a 8" 'Macbook Air' for $120 a few years ago, and here we are a complete Windows PC with ultra high dpi screen!


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BUT, just a little problem encountered: At first Windows would mess up any video I played with artifacts, no matter which media player I was using, until I reduced display scaling from 200% to 100%. Hopefully, those artifacts will not reappear.

BTW, did you know that videos look more vibrant in Windows than Android? Some reason movies in Android look washed out, which is why those tablets that can only boot into Android are a bad idea if you want to use the tablet for media playback...

 

As usual, I'm going to use these tablets on weekdays, while my laptop on weekends, so the electricity saving from NOT using my laptop as my primary computing device could cover the cost of these tablets in about 4-5 years.

Hopefully, by the time I need to retire these tablets, something better comes along, like a mobile device with AMOLED display for roughly the same price...

Anyways, this company makes (Windows) tablets that are a serious contender to Apple in terms of price and quality:

 

BTW, the Cube iWork8 Air (unlike my 720p tablet of the same brand [= Cube iWork8 Super Edition]), is a mono-speaker tablet, as shown in image below... that's where a good pair of headsets come in for the best audiovisual experience:




... Nevertheless, the tablet boasts what is called a "sealing sound chamber", so even though it has only 1 speaker, the sound coming out of it is as least as decent as a mid-range laptop that costs many times more:

 

Probably the best tablet on the eBay market in terms of "cost-effectiveness" whatever that may mean to anyone:

 

Some more bits of technical info (the posters don't lie, the product I received in about 30 days shipped from Shenzhen was exactly as advertised):

 

I never really understood why someone would run a 64-bit OS on a system with 2GB RAM, but apparently that was what was preinstalled on my 'retina' tablet, Win10 64-bit edition. It might explain the weird behaviors I've recently experienced like video artifacts during playback.

Anyways, if anyone chance encounters similar problems on their mobile devices, here is a list of possible fixes:

1. Use a 64-bit media player

2. Disable GPU display scaling

3. Disable Intel video processing like skin tone correction, etc. (I've notice horizontal stripes appearing at the left side of the screen during outdoor scenes with really intense green...)

 

This article outlines some of the GPU 'junk' that Intel introduced with the Cherry Trail line of Atom CPU's. It may explain why I'm seeing video playback artifacts on my 1200p tablet (Cherry Trail), whereas no issue whatsoever with my 800p tablet (Bay Trail) of the same brand, and no issues playing videos in Android on both tablets:

http://vr-zone.com/articles/first-look-new-features-cherry-trails-gpu/64068.html