Coby Kyros 4 GB 7-Inch Tablet with Touchscreen and Android 2.2, MID7024-4G (Black)

I just got mine yesterday. I really have to say I am totally impressed with it. I’ve played with iPad and it is definitely cool; I also owned two Kindles (one regular, one DX). My prior experience with “tablets”, as such, other than the Kindle, was a cheap Chinese knock-off called “ePad”, bought from a seller on Amazon maybe 9 months ago and returned promptly. This was with an older version of Android (1.6 I believe). It’s worth recounting a few of the highlights of that unit’s performance for contrast with this Kyros, in 2011, in the <$200 segment. It had a resistive touch screen (ok). The screen's plastic was wavy and bowed in random, odd places all around. The case for the unit was made of cheap plastic and the silver paint was chipped or just peeling off around the edges. The battery, after charging for a full 24h, lasted for 10 minutes. The battery life on subsequent charges decreased precipitously until a full charge only lasted about 2 minutes (not joking, not exaggerating). No apps could be installed whatsoever. Flash Player could not be installed. No firmware updates available. It would not recognize an SD card. There was no way to organize MP3s other than in one big long single directory. It was, in short, absolute useless garbage, and I believe I paid about $40 more for that than I did for the Coby Kyros. That thing was a proper cheap Chinese knock-off, and was an abysmal failure of the marketplace to provide any kind of meaningful competition to the far more expensive iPad.

Now enter: Coby Kyros MID7024. Just on a lark I checked on tablets last week and saw this one, just released, for the right price – a cool toy. I thought I’d take another swing at the cheap tablets, did a little reading, and this one (more specifically, its predecessor, the MID7015) sounded like a solid buy. I received it, opened it up, and wow – it is COOL! The screen is flat; the frame is high-quality and solid. Everything is very precisely engineered. The little backlights behind the buttons and on the “Home” button are very slick. It has standard mini-USB, headphone jack, micro-SD, mini-HDMI. I started it… and it WORKED. Perfectly. With about 1 hour charge it lasted around 5 hours on wifi last night. Within a few minutes of turning it on, I had it connected to the home network, downloaded a free ePub book from Gutenberg Project and opened it with the pre-installed eBook reader. In a few more minutes I had configured it to check my email in 2 accounts. This morning, in a couple more minutes, I installed Amazon App Marketplace and downloaded the Kindle Reader. It plays flash movies in the web browser. Auto-rotate works very smoothly. Overall, everything seems to “just work”, exactly as you’d expect it to.

To be clear, this isn’t a PC, nor do I expect it to be. It does load up both mobile and ‘full’ websites and looks just fine in both; so you can browse pretty comfortably. On a regular basis I’ll carry it around the house, check email, read e-books, and potentially, load up MP3s and listen to them in the car or at work. Everything else it can do is gravy.

Note that despite the misleading product label “MID7024-4G” here on Amazon, this unit is a “MID7024″, and 4G stands for 4GB (internal drive space), not 4G cellular wireless. It has no 4G modem. It also does not have a GPS receiver and no straightforward way to connect an external antenna. That is one thing I would have really liked it to do. So far I have not been able to get the webcam to connect to any video chat client but I only spent a few minutes working at it with Google Chat. Out of the box, all the webcam does is stares back at you, and the photo/video quality isn’t the best. I’m pretty confident that can be remedied with some kind of app, either on the web or in one of the app stores. It does not have bluetooth. Many options exist in the slightly-more-expensive $250 to $350 range that do include these features; so if you’ll use them (as I suspect many folks will), this isn’t going to meet your needs. But, just to have a fun around-the-house or around-the-office e-reader, email checker, multimedia player, and basic web surfer, this is absolutely right on the money. And, obviously, it’s leaps and bounds better-made (both the hardware and the software) than the stupid “ePad” I bought last year.

I have searched for a good tablet for days and compare so many with regards to price and capabilities. This one is not cheap, its a steal. One of the most important thing about this tablet is that, its not one of those china cheap brands that I almost bought before finding out all the problem people have to deal with. I committed to buy something that I can call the manufacture and ask for help or return it, in the extremist. The second great thing about it is the 1 GHz processor 512MB RAM 2.2 Android OS and the ability to get flash player on it. What this mean,(for those who don’t care much about computer specs) you can watch almost all YouTube videos, ESPN, play flash player games online, read books, PDF files , word , excel, PowerPoint and many more applications without having delays and what so ever other issues cheap tablets have. Also, there are very few tablets going for this price with 4G internal storage. It comes with wifi, 1080p video output, HMDI port to connect to your HD TV or laptop or whatever. Memory expansion is up to 32 Gigs; I mean, look how much apple Ipad lovers pays to just jump from 16gigs to 32gigs. Since apps and games for Coby KYROS tablets are from the AppsLib(tm) marketplace, which does not have as much apps as goggle android, many people find this a limitation. However, it is possible to use amazon app store that is limitless and you can also root this tablet and use the Google android apps without a problem. Just needs a little do it your self twik found all over Youtube.

Pros:
You can’t find anything comparable to this product in the market right now that goes for this price, I’ve spend days researching this.

Cons:
Still uses the resistive screen technology, its really not a bad thing, but some people find it annoying. You just have to get use to it I guess.
Other than that, I can’t think of any other cons.

And for the price you pay, need I say more?

I got mine a week ago and almost returned it less than in two days. It did not power up, was absolutely dead. The solution was very simple. Just press RESET with a paper clip for a couple of seconds and everything was fixed. It was my fault in the first place. I drained the battery completely and the unit just was unable to wake up.
Pros: It is small,but big enough to surf the web comfortably, read e-mails,view video. It is light and thin, but feels very solid and well built. It does not look or feel cheap like many gray market tablets from China.Guess where this one was made? It has sensitive resistive screen, but if you have been using your Android phone, equipped with capacitive screen, you will need a little bit of time to get used to different way of touching the screen.It works great with just finger touch (actually, but nail),but for the precise touch without magnifying the screen – stylus is very helpful. The screen is very clear and bright.It has very sensitive buttons which are lit when touched. The battery life is great.The sound is not very loud, but loud enough to listen to the news, etc. You can listen to music, but the sound quality is much better using earphones (included).It has USB (full size) and HDMI ports and expandable memory via microSD, it also has 4GB memory. It comes with basic applications installed, but you can add more from Appslib (also preinstalled) or download directly from the web.Customer service from Adorama, where I got mine, was absolutely fantastic. Coby website has a lot of helpful tips with video, FAQs,etc. Have not tried their customer service due to no need, but read reviews that they are great.

Cons:Very sensitive buttons. Yes, I mentioned it earlier as a positive, but it is a negative as well. The buttons react even to the slightest accidental touch, so you are kicked out of where you were easily. The good thing is the return button will bring you back also easily, but it can be frustrating at times. It comes with a black sleeve, which looks nice, but it is not protective enough. It will definitely protect the unit from scratches,but it does not give enough of protection to the screen if you carry your unit in a purse.It fits the unit like a glove, but due to nice tight fit is activates very sensitive power button. It was the reason why I drained my battery. I turned the unit off and then put the sleeve on and it activated power button and turned the unit on without me knowing it. I am planning to get one of those leather cases, maybe with USB keyboard,from eBay.There is no easy way to root it yet.Forums also do not have a solution yet.

Overall, it is a great gadget. I did a lot of research and looked at many units in different price range. I was looking first for the unlocked unit with 3g-4g capability, but I have already got my Android Dell Venue with this capability.I decided it would be not wise to pay for data for both units, or keep swapping a SIM card between them, when I can just tether my Venue to connect Coby to the Web.There are tons of free hot spots in my area, so did need tethering so far.There are unlocked 3G units (Huawei, Viewsonic), but you pay almost twice you would pay for Coby.You can get Samsung Galaxy or Dell Streak for $199, but then you are stuck with the data plan for two years. I did not even consider iPad. I can not justify to pay 3x (4x -5x more for added storage) for the unit. The Appslib is similar to Android Market, but has mush less choices. I found out that do not need that many choices any way. You are installing only so many applications. I downloaded Adobe Flash 10.1 and Skype Light Beta directly from the web, which was very easy. Googles Flash.apk and Skype.apk on my Coby.I found out that not all the applications which are running on my Dell Venue run the same way or work at all on Coby.But was ready for that knowing that Android 2.2 is not a tablet OS and some limitation should be expected. It did not make my experience less enjoyable.

As other reviews have noted, one major flaw of this tab was the lack of the real Android Market. If you go to androidtablets dot net and do a quick search you can find a thread complete with instructions and a link to download the market from your pc to your sd card. The whole process took me a whopping 5 minutes and 1 press of the reset botton. The Android Market is far superior to appslib and has 1000s more apps. Not to mention they seem to download faster then applsib or the amazon app
store. I hope this helps someone who is on the fence about purchasing this device because of the generic app store decide to pull the trigger. It’s also worth noting that installing the market this way doesn’t require you to root the device. You won’t be disappointed!!!!

I was an owner of the previous model of the 7″ Kyros (the MID7015). I was happy with it, despite its limitations and flaws.

I bought this one with hopes it was merely a fix of the previous version. It is not. It is an entirely different product. Everything has been improved, including external controls and speakers. It has a much higher quality build in every way, and all the features have been improved. The software, Android 2.2, works much better and it is very fast.

Its camera, microphone, stereo speakers, and faster CPU have resulted in a tablet which is very useful without any apparent flaws.

I first bought the 7015 after trying a Nook and realising it would be perfect if it only was unlocked. This tablet has surpassed all of those specifications I had in mine, and still is a very good price.

The one thing is that it is a resistive touch screen. This means it needs pressure. I wanted such as screen so I wouldn’t always get fingerprints over it. The Kyros 70 series all have such screens, and an included stylus.

This model does not come with the same jacket its predecessor had (it has a good sleeve though) and it does not hold the stylus in the case.

As with the others, this device does not have the Google Market. It has Applib. However, one can easily install the Amazon Appstore on it (go to the Amazon site, give email address, and download it from email sent by Amazon).

I have not rooted this device because there is no need (I did on the 7015). I use Opera Mini for web browsing and the included Browser for watching Youtube videos.

Games such as Angry Birds render and run fine on this device, although, I have not extensively tested such apps on it.

It is also a good device as a book reader, with the app of your choice (Kindle for me), and it is more versatile, but less expensive, than comparable devices.

I ordered the Coby Kyros expecting to get allot for my money after reading several initial product reviews on the web…and I was absolutely blown away by the quality and functionality of this device once it arrived! The first reviewer on this site is absolutely correct that this item is indeed a steal! And the quality of the device is second to none. Comparing it to other similar devices, I believe that this Tablet is more in line with the quality of other android pads in the $300-$400 price range. The only short coming of this Tablet is the weakness of the Appslib market app that comes pre-installed. But I was able to overcome this within a few short hours by downloading the new Amazon App Marketplace app, which can be done through the Tablets web browser in a few short minutes directly from the Amazon web site. The sheer number of Amazon App Marketplace apps are growing by the day, and include many of the most popular apps currently available in the Android Marketplace, and best of all, absolutely NO ROOTING required! Which keeps your warranty on the device intact! Secondly you can also Google search for other popular free app download APK files such as Nook and Skype and download them from the devices own web browser and easily install them on the Tablet. The resistive touch screen also is not as nice as a capacitive touch screen, like that of the iPad, but it is completely functional and video and movies look fantastic and smooth on the colorful and rich display! And the speed of the processor ensures that they run without a single glitch or pixel out of place! All in all this Coby Kyros Tablet is an awesome device and is sure to please those that are unwilling and or unable to plunk down the cash for an iPad! And did I mention how cool it is to have an Adobe Flash supported device unlike the iPad??? Now I can tether it to my iPhone and never miss another sports cast no matter where I am at!!! Gotta love that!!!

Update: Unfortunately I ended up having to return the unit due to a faulty HDMI out which would not transmit sound to my TV. I then decided to upgrade to a higher price point Android Tablet with a 10.1″ capacitive screen, a Nvidia Tegra 2 processor, and the extra memory and ram. Still a fan of the Coby Kyros for the budget minded buyer, but I decided that I need more bells and whistles and more bang for my buck! I have since tried the Viewsonic G-Tablet but struck out again with a dead pixel and faulty volume rocker out of the box, so now I am going to give the Acer Iconia A500 a try!

If you are like myself you didn’t have enough, or simply didn’t want to pay for an Ipad. This pad is great depending on what you want it for. Personally, I already have a great laptop and couldn’t justify spending 5-6 hundred on a pad. All I really wanted one for was casual web browsing. This will do casual web browsing and more. However, if you want the best go for the Ipad. In fact everything apple makes is almost otherworldly in comparison to anything else on the market. That said here is my review-

Touch Screen- The resistive touch is not as responsive as I would have hoped but it gets easy once you learn the product, so no big deal.

overall design- This is a very solid and sturdy little product. nothing on it feels cheap. In contrast, I did buy another cheap pad (cant remember the name) that felt very poorly made. I quickly returned it. One design flaw that drives me nuts are the extremely sensitive buttons on the right side. They are ascetically appealing but very annoying. if you accidently brush one with your finger it will immediately take you out of any application. Not a lot of thought went into their funtionality.

battery life- On A full charge (preferably overnight) I was able to get 6-7 hours as an ereader/casual web browser. The wifi is what really burns up the battery. Somewhere in the range of 30-40 percent. So make sure it is off if you are not useing it. If you are doing heavy web browseing or watching movies expect 4-5 hours tops. You can tweak the screen brightness to get a little more time. The display eats about 50 percent of the battery resources.

Device storage- 4G not bad at all. I was able to easily (With the included usb cord) download 10 hours of tv shows, five games and several other useful apps/books and still have about a 1G of storage. also, It’s not very expensive to buy a micro sd. I purchased a 16 gb for 28$ at Walmart. You can find a better deal online.

Functionality- I am learning to accept that computers are made by imperfect beings and will therefore remain imperfect. Sometimes this tablet will freeze and a hard restart is necessary. This has mostly happened while playing games or heavy web browseing. This does not detract to much from the product considering my expensive laptop sometimes freezes up. Other than the occasional freeze it runs great. With a strong wifi signal I am able to watch streaming video on justintv, youtube, ustream ext. without a problem. Actually I was very impressed with the internet speed. Its not slow at all. Really once you learn and get used to the product you will love it. Just like in windows most applications that you download automatically start when the device does. This may be why you will get an occasional freeze. At start up I go to application and disable what I am not useing. Have not really had much of an issue since.

So the upshot is that for the price this is a really good little product. The only other Coby product I,ve owned was a portable dvd player and it was a tank. I dropped it many many times over the years. To the point that it eventially cracked open and had severed wires hanging out, but it still worked. I finally offed it by spilling a can of beer on it. You can do pretty much everything on this, within reason, that you can do on your laptop. I strongly recommend this product.

EDIT: DO NOT BUY!!!!! IM A LIL PISSED.. NOTHING WRONG WITH THE PRODUCT, BUT I JUST FOUND OUT THAT COBY HAS SILENTLY RELEASED THE 7022. IT CAN BE FOUND AT TOYS R US FOR $180. THE 7022 HAS A CAPACITIVE SCREEN AND DROID 2.3. ALSO THE ANNOYING BUTTONS ARE GONE. TECHNOLOGY IS REALLY VERY ANNOYING. YOU BUY THE LATEST TECHNOLOGY AND REGRET IT 1 MONTH LATER. PLEASE STOP!

I almost did not purchase this tablet but I am glad that I did. It is sturdy, has a nice look and feel to it. It looks more expensive than it is. This tablet has very quick response time and is very user friendly. It is perfect for web browsing, reading and the like. Using Amazon App market makes a huge diffenence in the amount of apps available and the ease of installation. I would and have recommeded this tablet to others. Battery life is awesome. I get about 8 hours out of a single charge and it charges quickly as well. You simply can not beat it for the money. I my order another for my teenage son.

I really debated spending $400 to $500 on a tablet, when they seem to be outdated in six months time. After much research I chose to go with the Kyros. As a first time tablet user, I was pleasantly surprised with the ease of use and the abilities of this inexpensive device. I have shown it to many friends and everyone really liked it. It does exactly what the company said it would. For a beginner I would recommend this to anyone.