Sungale ID430WTA PMP/MP4/MP5 Player

This product works well for someone who wants a tablet that can fit in your pocket. I must admit that it does go very fast also, and gets all game downloads. Definitely not bad for a tablet or game device.

Let me start this review by saying that I’ve been looking for a small inexpensive Android based tablet to use as a media player for a while now. I think I found it with the Sungale ID430WTA. After trying a few other 4.3″ tablets and being disappointed, I came across the Sungale. Initial research showed that it met my first criteria, which was hardware buttons for volume and menu. My second criteria was support. This company has a website (In English), where you can actually get product information (<...>). I emailed them with some questions, and got a reply within 24 hours! That alone sold me, so I bought one. Let me tell you right now, If you’re looking for an ultra slim light weight device, this is not for you. This thing is built like a brick s#!t house! (That’s a good thing) It does not feel cheap in your hands, and it’s got a bit of weight to it. It’s not heavy mind you, but it’s not a feather either.
The dimensions of the unit are: 5 19/32″w x 3″h x ½” thick.
The unit came nicely boxed, and included a charger and a USB cable. No headphones, but that’s no big deal. I’d rather have the charger anyway. I’ll use my own phones. The charger it comes with has a coaxial plug, and there’s a coaxial power jack on the unit. BUT it can be charged, and powered via the mini USB too! That’s nice. What I liked too is that besides hardware volume and menu buttons, there is also a hardware back/home button. Again ..Nice! There is a headphone jack, and a dedicated AV jack on the left side along with the power button, and a micro SD slot. The rest of the buttons are on top (in landscape view). The device has Android 2.2 on it, and it comes preloaded with a bunch of apps like angry birds, Kindle reader, Moon+ reader, and the Android market. My unit did not have Android market when I got it, but a quick email to support, and they sent me a firmware update. Again, Nice! This device uses a MIPS processor running at 800mhz (According to Mfgr.), and is dual core. It’s not the fastest thing around, but it’s not terrible either. Right now, the number of apps for a MIPS device is limited, but it’s growing. You will see the limited number of apps in the market. I loaded Slide ME market, and got access to more apps. My big gripe with a lot of these small tablets was poor audio performance. This device had good over all audio quality (an equalizer would be nice), and decent headphone volume. Feeding a line input on my stereo sounded great. I loaded a bunch of songs on an 8 gig micro sd card, and I was set for the day. The nice thing is that you can adjust the volume with the buttons without having to unlock the screen. Battery life is pretty decent. Don’t expect any of these devices batteries to last forever, they don’t. I put it in airplane mode, keep the screen at 50% (plenty bright enough), with a 2 minute time out, and I can run it for hours. The screen: It’s a 4.3″ resistive touch screen. On a screen this small, a stylus is a must (Not included). I use an old palm stylus. I can get away with my finger once in a while, but it’s not always accurate. I also ran the screen calibration 4 times before I got it to where I thought it was decent. Are there better resistive screens out there? Sure, but I doubt it at this price point. There was no big difference between this one, and other sub $100 4.3″ tablets I tried. Image quality is nice (In my opinion). I watched a full length movie on it, and I was happy with the quality. HD videos from you tube (included app) looked fantastic! The sound out of the rear facing speaker was good (for a small speaker). Most You Tube videos were loud. That brings me to the WiFi. I would say it’s about average. The range is comparable to my Net book, and my other tablet. I had a reliable connection at 20 – 30ft, and no problems streaming video. Beyond that, it will start to get spotty. I was able to hit my basement router while in my back yard at about 50ft, but that was very hit or miss. The not so good: The biggest issue I had was software related. For some reason, I can’t get iHeart radio to install. I had this working on the Elsse tablet (Similar Hardware), but not on this. Considering I want to use this as a media player, that’s a big deal. Sungale support is aware of this, and I hope they can fix it. Pandora works fine. The other issue was with the browser. It seems that when it opens to the Google home page, about 20 seconds into loading, the browser just closes. This only happens on certain pages, and the problem is that even though I changed the home page in the browser settings, it still opens to the Google home page. The work around is to install Dolphin Browser. BUT! You still need to keep away from certain pages, or that browser will close too. This problem is not unique to the Sungale. I had the same problem with the Elsse, and the Archos 3.2. Plus, looking on the internet showed many people having the same problem on many different devices. That’s it for the not so good. The next thing I did was try the AV output on a 42″ tv. The video quality was decent. I’d say a step above a VCR, and just below a DVD player. I watched Caddy Shack, and only used about 50% of the battery. Currently I’m using this device to listen to Mp3′s in my car (hooked to the stereo), and on the train commute. I play games like Angry Birds, Mini Golf oid, etc. I read e-books on it (a little small, but ok), and I check my corporate email via Outlook web access. I have a GPS mount in the car with 5v USB power, so it’s a great little setup. For the money, you can’t beat this little tablet. The hardware works, it feels well built, and the software can be worked on. If a community developed around this device, you’d see even more support. The bottom line is, I’m keeping it.