December 12, 2012.

Forget all the nice things I had written and said about this tablet. While they all still might be true, it's all useless when the charging pin breaks off in the tablet with less than 1 month of use time. The moment I saw it, I knew that it could be trouble, but I convinced myself that I wouldn't have a problem with it because I'd be gentle each time I put the charging adapter in, or took it out. I'm left with a 60 dollar paperweight now, because since it won't charge up - I can't do a factory reset, and if I can't do a factory reset...well, I'm not going to send it back to get a refund.

I tried with this device. I really did. I knew it was the best, or the greatest, or the most sleek. I found workarounds and compromises just to get AmazonApps to not crash. I even bought an on the go cable to see if I could hook up different peripherals.

Well, I guess you live and you learn...I'm keeping the video up as well as the observations I had previously made because I don't want to discourage you all from giving it your best shot with this device. I truly don't think I was being heavy handed with the tablet - maybe just bad luck, maybe bad manufacturing, maybe a bit of both. The good news is that the tablet takes up no more space than a PS3 or Xbox360 game, and like I said earlier - there are some games I've previously purchased for 60 bucks that I got even less use out of. So there we have it. Goodbye, Coby 7034-4. Hello, Nexus 7. Maybe.

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November 28:
This is my first video review for Amazon - I thought it'd be a lot easier to show some of the functionality of this device rather than write it all out. This is meant as a 35,000 foot view of what the device can (and can't) do. Some immediate thoughts:

Pros:
- syncs e-mail fairly seamlessly such as Gmail and Yahoo, but they're generic IMAP clients (may not matter to some of you)
- able to go to Amazon.com from browser and download AmazonApps (a note on this later about optimization for the device)
- through Amazon app store, was able to download Netflix and install without an issue
- light weight
- Youtube works fine through the native browser, and even faster on Dolphin, which you can download
- paid 60 dollars for this device on Cyber Monday
- has expansion micro SDHC slot
- was able to open .pdf and .doc files without any issues

Cons:
- Charging is through adapter only, and NOT with the included USB cable (that is for data transfer only); this will bum some of you out with a lot of spare usb cables around
- 4 gigs is realistically 1.4 gigs or so (but you can expand with memory card)
- Resistive touchscreen as opposed to capacitive (may not matter to you, and germane only to the 7034-4); I find the learning (regressive, though) curve to be a bit difficult having multiple devices with capacitive touch screens
- No camera at all (may not matter to you)
- No bluetooth (may not matter to you)
- There are device with better build qualities (may not matter to you)
- Lower res screen means no HD on some video apps, which may not matter to you
- AmazonApps crashes regularly, but there is a work-around to this (see below under November 30 updates). This inconvenience is really the worst of the traits, at least to me.

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6-hour testing review: Review has been bumped from 4 stars down to 3 for these main reasons:
1) Not enough QA/QC went into making sure that all of the menu options made sense. Specifically, I've found at least two typographical/grammatical errors in the pop up menus. One lists internal stroage[sic], the other was with one of the auto update functions that used poor grammar when trying to express the notion of "Found update - do you wish to update?"
2) For some reason (and it may just be a 'doy' moment), I can't get the Google location services to work. I wouldn't ever truly need this function, but when I downloaded the weather channel app and hit "my location", I was met with a "no can do." Same thing happened when I went to Google maps in the browser. I've ensured that Google locator services are on, as well as the option to ask for location in the browser.
3) The outer corners of the resistive touch screen give me the most problems. Although I calibrated the coordinates a few times, I still have a few problems in the upper and lower corners, even when using a stylus. Maybe this is something that I'll just need to practice on, but it seems a little harder than it should be.
4) The default text looks "grainy" in the browser. Someone had suggested increasing the font size, which helped - but it's not really practical and it doesn't maximize the potential for even a 7 inch tablet.
5) With somewhat sparing use, I've drained 70% of the battery in around 2 hours. This may be commensurate with what some of you all were getting as well. This doesn't bode well for me if I need to take it on a trip; however, I'm looking at the usage, and wi-fi accounts for approximately 40% of the usage, so there are probably some behavioral changes on my part that can be employed to extend the battery life, i.e., not auto re-fresh my e-mail so often, turning off wifi if I'm not using the device, etc. Nonetheless, I don't perceive a 3 hour usage time to be anything extraordinary. I hope that this metric gets better as I completely drain and recharge the battery with each cycle.

*****
November 29th Update: 10 hours of use time

1) First, I'm getting better at using the resistive touch screen. I'm still the least precise around the extremities, but much better with it than I was yesterday.
2)I mentioned yesterday that Amazonapps crashed on me, and I was able to replicate it a few time (inadvertently). I think that the issue is this: when you download and install an app from Amazonapps, the system will ask if you want to open the app up at that moment, or if you want to be "done". The correct thing do to is to hit "done" first, and then repeatedly hit "back" till the system goes to its home screen. There's something goofy (memory issue?) if you try open up a newly installed app, and then go back to the Amazonapp store. As an aside, I've also found it convenient to keep the Amazonapp installer in the active downloads, in the event that I have to uninstall and then reinstall Amazonapps. A further note - Amazonapps is not optimized to fit on the screen - if you go to the menu where you can access your subscriptions and your previous downloaded apps, the boxes are truncated. Yes, you can figure it out within a few moments, but that's another FYI that you should be aware of. In other words, the pop up menu for AmazonApps on this device doesn't look quite right, but it's not unbearable.
3) The battery life has seemingly gotten worse today. I let it drain completely last night, and then kept it on the charger all day and I've gotten a scorching 1 hour and 3 minutes with 25% battery life left. Yikes. The caveat is that I've run it pretty hard today, so maybe it makes sense.
4) Downloading thumb keyboard (version 4 I think) has helped me with composing e-mails. I think I'm so accustomed to the keyboard size of my phone and ipod touch that when the pre-installed keyboard was presented to me, it overwhelmed me in the sense that it spanned so much space, and I found myself tapping keys very slowly. The thumb keyboard has helped me become more efficient, as the keys are now the same size and the key blocks are at the same spacing as my smartphone. It was 2$ or so well spent. I've still not been able to resolve the "." shortcut using double space after a word or sentence. Even with the function enabled, I'm unable to get it to work; this is a minor gripe though, as the thumb keyboard has a period in a convenient spot. Moreover, you're able to customize a row of quick keys to your liking so if you want the period at the top, so be it.
5) Locator services still doesn't work. This may be a lost cause, and although the manual classifies this device as not having GPS - I would have thought that locator services through google still would have worked based on my wifi. Like I said, I don't really have a cogent example of when I would need locator services as I often have my phone with me. I've tried the locator services on the newest version of Dolphin too. No dice.
6) Speaking of Dolphin - it seems to run a little faster than the default browser. I tried it with gmail, facebook, espn, and the cbs chicago home page. Seems to have less "twitchiness" than the default browser, and the text looks marginally better.
7) Lastly, with respect to the e-mail application - this is not a true "Android" in that it doesn't sync all of your google accounts. Rather, the e-mail server is a generic IMAP account, not unlike the one that may be available to you on your pre-existing device. I find it easier now to just go to gmail.com in Dolphin and compose messages.

*****
November 30 Update:
1) I can personally confirm one accessory that will work. There is a screen protector sold by an Amazon Marketplace vendor that works with the 7034-4. The link is as follows: Premium Clear LCD Screen Protector for Coby MID7012 7 inches Kyros Android Touchscreen Tablet, 2 Packs Although this is marketed for the 7012 by the vendor, I tried putting it on the 7034-4 and it worked perfectly.
2) For funsies, I may order an on the go cable to see if I can hook up either a mouse or keyboard. Not that I'd ever really need one, but it may be fun just to see how many accessories will actually work with this device. Read more ›