Visual Land Prestige 7 Internet Tablet 7-Inch Android 4.0 (White)

This little tablet delivers! I had Visual Land’s first tablet, the Connect, which worked great for what I wanted to use it for, but wasn’t very keen on the way it looked. Their newest tablet has the same guts but with a nip/tuck job that made it much better looking. And this time it’s got Android 4.0 under the hood to boot! So I gave the Connect to my sister and bought this one for myself!

Primary Usage
- E-book/Comic Book Reading
- Addictive Games (GLWG, Fruit Ninja, Heaven & Hell, etc.)
- Skype/Video Calling
- Portable HD Video Player / YouTube

Pros
- Android 4.0
- Slim, Portable Size
- HDMI Out
- 8GB Storage
- Multiple Colors
- Decent Battery Life

Cons
- No Google Play
- No Bluetooth

This is the first tablet I’ve seen available with Android 4.0. I saw a couple others saying they did but reading that tricky fine print, it’s a future upgrade. Ice Cream Sandwich is on this baby right out of the box. I missed the Honeycomb (3.0) band-wagon, but have read it’s similar. The previous tablet and my phone were both Gingerbread (2.3), so this is definitely like a shiny new toy for me. I like being able to multi-task between programs. I like how 4.0 works much like a regular PC OS.

This tablet’s much sleeker than their previous one, looking like it went through a 12-step weight loss program. It’s super thin…probably the thinnest tablet out there. My boyfriend can actually fit it in his front pocket. I’m actually surprised how much they were able to cram into this thing with how thin it is. They have the usual headphone, mini USB and DC ports, a MicroSD card slot and a built-in mic. Like their previous tablet, they have a mini HDMI out port, but sadly, still no Bluetooth. There’s a front camera and the speaker is in the back. The housing is plastic but it’s got a very nice look and feel to it. And it comes in a variety colors (I have the purple one).

There’s no Google Play (Market), but then again, Google seems to reject anybody in this price range from joining their “club”. GetJar is pre-installed and I installed Amazon Appstore and 1Mobile which are working perfectly.

This tablet is the perfect size for reading ebooks and comics. It sits in my hand comfortably, like a small hardcover. Kindle, Comixology and MangaZoo run smoothly. The capacitive screen on this responds well to touch. Very responsive without being too sensitive. Even worked perfectly well with the factory protector still on. Colors look crisp and clear when watching HD videos. The multi-touch works well too, as I’ve been playing Fruit Ninja with no issues at all in responsiveness to pretty much noobing it, dragging my whole hand across the screen.

Speaking of games, I’ve got quite a few on here already and almost all of them run smoothly. The single core processor is pretty powerful and the 512MB of RAM definitely help make this thing speedy. There seems to be a small issue of the accelerometer working properly with some racing games but I have a feeling it might be a 4.0 issue and not a tablet issue as that doesn’t seem to be an issue outside of games. I got caught up in saving the world in GLWG for about 4 hours, so the battery life is definitely impressive.

As I mentioned earlier HD videos play great, and look great. The MicroSD slot supports at least 32GB cards (hoping to get a 64GB one soon), which I’ve got loaded up with videos. YouTube and TED videos playback perfectly. Netflix has a bit of a problem with picture and sound syncing, but reading feedback, sounds like an app problem they’re working on fixing. I love having the HDMI out port, as I often snatch videos from YouTube to watch later on my TV. Also great for turning a TV into a monitor especially when you hook up a wireless mouse/keyboard (yup it’s supported) through the USB port (they even provide the OTG cable…so thoughtful of them) and voila…instant PC.

I love using a tablet for Skype, as it’s small enough to be as convenient as carrying a cell phone versus a laptop that you have to hold upright and usually with 2 hands if you’re walking around while chatting it up. The camera is pretty decent, even in low light conditions. And the mic picks up sound very well. Right now there’s an issue with Skype and 4.0 so I’ve been using Fring which works just as well.

For those who are tech savvy, this tablet is rooted. And there are already people out there making their own scripts and mods to fix those little issues and tweak better performance for tablets with the same chipset as this one. I’ve tried a couple (turned off the mobile network signal for better battery life, unlocked Google Play, etc.) and they work great.

For a sub $200 tablet, this is one to keep an eye on. As the first I’ve seen with Android 4.0 and it’s super thin design, it’s absolutely a worthy entry to the tablet market.

UPDATED (now that I have a Kindle Fire)———————————————-

I’ve had the Prestige 7 for about a month now and finally got a Kindle Fire about 2 weeks ago (when they dropped it to $139 for a special deal). You can’t really compare the Prestige 7 to an iPad or an ASUS Transformer or such…they’re different beasts…just like you can’t compare a peach to a plum. There’s a reason you pay $300 more for those, whether it’s a quad core CPU or paying for a brand name stamped on the back. The Kindle Fire isn’t exactly the same as the Prestige 7 either…it’s kinda like a peach to an apricot. The CPU comparisson changes the game. But they’re similar in size and in the same price range so I guess it’s pretty natural to size up the 2 against each other. So let’s look at how they stand side-by-side.

Size
Kindle Fire: 7.5″ x 4.7″ x 0.45″ 14.6 oz.
Prestige 7: 7.5″ x 4.7″ x 0.4″ 10.5 oz.

Screen
Kindle Fire: 7″ Capacitive Multi-Touch (1024×600)
Prestige 7: 7″ Capacitive Multi-Touch (800×480)

CPU
Kindle Fire: OMAP Dual Core ARM A9 + 512MB RAM
Prestige 7: Cortex-A8 Single Core + 512MB RAM

Storage
Kindle Fire: 8GB + no expandable card slot
Prestige 7: 8GB + MicroSDHC card slot

Battery
Kindle Fire: about 8 hours continuous reading; 4 hours to charge
Prestige 7: about 6-8 hours continuous reading; 2 hours to charge

Ports
Kindle Fire: USB (micro; charge/connect to computer)
Prestige 7: USB (mini; OTG + charge/connect to computer), DC Power, Mini HDMI (1080p output)

Wireless Connectivity
Kindle Fire: WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
Prestige 7: WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, supports 3G dongle

Audio
Kindle Fire: 3.5mm stereo audio, dual speakers on side
Prestige 7: 3.5mm stereo audio, speaker on back

Content Formats Supported
Kindle Fire: Kindle (AZW), TXT, PDF, unprotected MOBI, PRC natively, Audible (Audible Enhanced (AA, AAX)), DOC, DOCX, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, non-DRM AAC, MP3, MIDI, OGG, WAV, MP4, VP8
Prestige 7: MP3, WMA, OGG, AAC, M4A, FLAC, APE, 3GP, WAV, AVI, MKV, WMV, MOV, MP4, MPG, FLV, JPG, GIF, BMP, PNG, DOC, DOCX, XLS, XLSX, PPT, PDF, TXT, AZW (Kindle app can be installed), Audible (Audible app can be installed)

Included in the Box
Kindle Fire: Kindle Fire Device, Power Adapter, Quick Start Guide
Prestige 7: Prestige 7 Tablet, Power Adapter, OTG Cable, USB Cable, Headphones, User Manual

The main reason I went with the Prestige 7 (P7) first is the exact reason I’d still rate it higher than the Kindle Fire (KF) now that I have one as well. The problem I have with the KF is it’s pretty out of the box, but once you start using it, it’s not as flexible as a more “vanilla” Android tablet. The KF has it’s own special set up that I personally don’t care for. And it’s a bit of work (that I’d rather not go through) to skin it down to the natural Android OS.

The KF has an awesome screen. I’m not gonna lie, there’s a huge difference when the 2 sit side by side. And this makes a big difference when reading e-books over long periods of time. The technology used on the KF’s screen is different and I’m sure that’s where the added cost partially comes from. However, when playing videos, the P7 wins out. At least as far as I can tell, as one of the main problems I have with the KF is that many of my videos I’ve downloaded/created cannot play on the KF…at least without conversion which is sometimes a painful process. And even then I don’t have the 1080p HD quality of the original. Touch-wise, they’re about equal. The responsiveness and fluidity are very similar.

The other thing the KF has going for it is a dual core processor. Websites load quicker and switch between apps is smoother. But that’s not enough for me to justify an extra $50. I can be patient enough for 5-10 seconds longer waiting for a website to load.

Beyond those 2 things, the P7 has the KF beat as far as I’m concerned. Both have 8GB of internal memory but the P7 has a MicroSDHC slot so I’ve got 32GB more to play with. Additionally the USB port on the P7 allows for flash drives. So it’s very easy to get content on my P7. For my KF I need to either stream or download from my cloud drive if I need anything outside of the internal 8GB worth of goodies I store there.

Speaking of content, one of the top reasons I want to own a tablet is to take videos with me. As I mentioned earlier, the KF doesn’t take most raw video formats as is. Conversion is typically necessary and it can be a painful process of trial and error depending on the original file. On the other hand, I’ve yet to need to convert anything on my P7…everything I’ve thrown at it has played without problems.

The second big reason I wanted a tablet is for an e-reader. The KF was, of course, built specifically for that reason, but as the P7 can use the Kindle app, as well as Comixology, Mangazoo, and other readers, there’s not a big plus as far as the KF is concerned. As I said before, the screen was made for long hours of reading and is great for reading indoors or out. That’s where it has the upperhand against the P7.

Neither tablet has Google Play, which boggles me when I see reviewers complain about the P7 not having it and therefore are returning it then ending by saying they’ll get a KF instead. Both handle the Amazon Appstore fine and I also use 1Mobile for my P7 as well. I’ve yet to try other appstores on my KF as Amazon’s Appstore just works so naturally and easily on the KF.

I could get into more detail and comparissons between the two but overall I love both tablets. However the Prestige 7 just has that edge, making me glad I bought it. It’s much more versatile and being $50 cheaper (at least when I bought it), worth the difference.

Hardware

The Prestige 7 weighs in at 298g (10.5oz), 19cm x 12cm x 1cm (7.5′ x 4.7′ x 0.4′). It has a 7 inch, 800×480 screen (16:9 widescreen ratio), with 5 point capacitive mutli-touch.
The tablet has 8GB of on-board storage, and is expandable through a microSD slot (will support up to 32GB). An A8 1.2GHz processor, 512 MB RAM.
It has the usual array of power button and volume rocker, along with a 3.5mm headphone jack, Mini USB (through which you can charge when connected to a computer, send data from your computer, or with the provided cable add a USB peripheral such as a flash drive), HDMI out port (you will need an HDMI C type cable), and the port for your wall charger. A speaker on the back, and a 1.3Mp front facing camera (no back camera) finish off the tablet nicely.

Software
This little tablet runs Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich, and it is `vanilla’. (No pun intended, but that is the term for an unmodified Operating System) As such, its software really does not set it apart. It does not have access to the Google market (play store), Perhaps in the future, that can be changed, but for the present, Amazon, GetJar, and other alternatives will have to do.
There are, at present a few hiccups with Skype. Though the camera will produce Video Over Internet, because of some miscommunication between the camera and Skype, on the other end, it has pink and green lines running through the picture. This is an issue which should be resolved in the next version of Skype, or so I am told.
Apart from this, all of the apps that I tried worked flawlessly.

Performance
This tablet is surprising in it power. Having tested out a number of 7 inch tablets I have always felt like there was a noticeable decrease in performance from their 10 inch counterparts. The Prestige 7 seems to plug along rather quickly despite its small stature.
The Average Benchmark scores for the Prestige 7 are:

Quadrant- 1820
Antutu- 3150

You can use these numbers to compare the Prestige 7 to other devices, and see just what I mean.

Battery Life
Two Edged Swords, that is the lesson here in tablet batteries. Visual Land opted for a battery size that allowed for quick charging, as well as charging through not only the DC jack, but also the MicroUSB port. That kind of decision sits well with me, because if I can just carry around a MicroUSB cable and not worry about lugging an extra cord, all the better. Don’t misunderstand though, the wall charger for the Prestige 7 is quite small and light.
You can expect to charge the battery from naught to full in about an hour! A bit more slowly if you leave the WiFi on when you are charging.
Here are the exact figures (all are given in percent change per hour):

Standby -1.5%
Netflix -45%
YouTube -32%
Browsing -20%
Charge (WiFi on) +51%
Charge (WiFi off) +82%

To be frank, the Battery life is not at all what I expected. From our tests, you can go from full to empty in nearly two hours. This is unfortunate, however I have heard that other reviewers have been getting much closer to the 8 hours advertised. So it is possible, as always that my results in this regard are not typical.

The Wind Up
Here is the final score. On the Forel-Ule scale, I would give this tablet a 17. It gets great marks in almost everything; it can hold its own in both size and form, but the battery life leaves something to be desired. All in all, it is a very affordable 4.0 tablet, with character in its design that sets it apart from the usual crowd. If you are looking for a compact and light tablet on a budget, this should be near the top of your list.
If you want to see it in action, you can watch my video review on YouTube. [...]

Pros
-Price
-Android 4.0(Ice Cream Sandwich)
-Build Quality
-8GB plus microSD expansion
-HDMI Out Port
-Front facing camera
-Different color options
-Small and portable

Cons
-No Google Play
-Screen resolution
-MicroSD card protrudes slightly

When I began my quest to purchase a tablet, my wife placed me on a strict budget of $200. Ipad, Samsung and many others were instantly ruled out. After scouring the internet, looking through Best Buy and Walmart I thought I narrowed it down to the Amazon Kindle Fire or maybe the Barnes and Noble Nook. However, both of these devices run very customized versions of Android and cater to their respective stores. Fortunately, I stumbled on to the Visual Land Internet Tablet. Not only was it unaltered Android. It has Android version 4.03. Oh, did I mention the price? It was well under budget so that I could purchase a case also. Did the low price mean cheap and low performing?

The box contains the tablet, wall charger, mini usb cable, mini usb to usb cable, in-ear buds and a manual. I was surprised at all the contents. Most higher cost tablets do not have as much accessories included in the box. So far so good!

The Visual Land Prestige tablet feels good in the hand. It is all plastic, but is solid. No creaks or groans. Holding the tablet in landscape, you have the mini usb, HDMI(yes, HDMI out), charging port, 3.5 mm headphone jack, microphone, and microSD slot. Phew, that is a ton of ports. Most high end tablets do not come with HDMI out. Way to go Visual Land!! On top is the power button and the volume buttons. The left and bottom is bare. The front of the device has the 7 inch 800 x 400 capacitive touch screen along with a web camera on the upper left corner. The rear of the device has a textured plastic back on most of the back with the left and right edges (in landscape mode) a shiny plastic that is a fingerprint magnet. There is a small opening for the speaker and a reset hole also on the back. A nice touch is that all ports and buttons are labeled so you know exactly what they are. One thing that I do not like is that the microsd card slightly protrudes out from the side. It leaves me a little concerned that it could pop out. It has not yet and I hope it doesn’t.

Let me mention the screen. It is a mixed bag. My phones screen has a higher resolution. However, the colors look good as is the viewing angles but you will notice some pixilation at times. The screen is bright enough and responsive to touch. It is not the main selling point, but is not a deal breaker.

The Visual Land tablet comes with Android version 4.03. I t has the basic apps you need from you tube to web browser. Documents to Go, Angry Birds and Skype also comes pre-installed. . If you want to get more apps there is the Getjar app store. You could also download Amazons Android App store. You have plenty of options. I have downloaded Amazon Kindle app, the Nook app, Netflix and some games. All the apps run smoothly. Videos stream great. I inserted my 16GB microSD card and all my music, photos and videos were easily accessible!!

All in all, I am very happy with this tablet. There is no other tablet that comes close in this price range. If you are on a budget and want a little more than an ereader, this is the device for you.

I had a gift card and purchased this tablet really not expecting it to do much more than i needed, which was just to surf the web and check some emails in wi-fi areas.

Boy, did it far exceed my expectations! The tablet itself is pretty well built and sturdy, it’s large enough to see things clearly, yet small enough to not be a burden over time. The rear speaker can be a bit of a setback in louder environments though, luckily headphones are included. There’s a front facing camera, and if you’re familiar at all with the Android OS via smartphone, picking up the loaded Ice Cream Sandwich on this tablet should be seamless. I felt that way at least.

Be aware that this tablet doesn’t come with google play market, and the suite of applications that entails, such as google talk, play books, play store, etc. The included marketplace should suffice for most users, I was easily able to get my Google Play Books and gmail accounts up and running through it. The wi-fi set up was a breeze as is always the case with android devices.

Where the Prestige 7 really shines in my opinion, is the included video player that can pretty much play anything you throw at it, and that includes .mkv 1080p blu-ray rip files. It actually plays videos better than my laptop. If you get this tablet, which i highly recommend you do, be sure to get a big SD card to throw a ton of videos on it.

Battery life is ok. I can get about 1-2 movies in before it prompts me to recharge. On standby it lasts about a day or so, the battery seems pretty small because it recharges really fast too.
All in all, i have no complaints and am really glad i bought this tablet. It does everything i ask of it. Pick one up!

The main purpose I wanted a tablet was to avoid traveling with my heavy laptop. I write while I’m traveling, and this little inexpensive tablet is coming through for me with flying colors. I added a micro SD card, a case with a keyboard, downloaded software to recognize Word, that allows creating and editing as well as read-only, and I am good to go. The app store is pre-installed, so a gazillion apps are right there to download, lots and lots are free.
The on-screen keyboard is actually good enough that the keyboard case is not entirely necessary. I’m pleasantly surprised all around that I didn’t have to spend a bundle for a tablet to meet my needs!

I love this little jewel! I have owned it for two weeks now and have learned to make it do lots of tricks. I am a “techie-grandma” and wanted the newest Android system (Ice Cream Sandwich). Look at the spec’s! It has everything I wanted and it all works well.

the tablet is good so far was going to get a coby 7042 but after comparing the two side by side the coby had a darker screen even after playing with the setting and such. it took some time but i hacked the prestige 7 so that i could get google play and deleted some of the other stuff that i didn’t need like the other app loaders that are worth less. and am now spending time to loc apps with app locker and such to make it safe for my 3 yr old twins to play with adding games netflixs and movies to it. both my children are autistic so it helps my wife a lot since im traveling and cant help her out to much with the kids.

if you have some time make sure you hack the tablet to get google play all you need is a computer the tabletand some time to download what you need i fallowed aguy on youtube so a novice could do this but make sure you read and or watch how to first, then just fallow along with the video and pause it as you go and thats it
good luck and have fun with it.

oh yea i got mine at frys electronics store for 129 dollars