A little while ago I bought an Advent Amico - a budget tablet running Android 2.0 as a back up device to my first gen Ipad. Essentially the Ipad has become more of a family device as Mrs Localventure and the two LV children have begun to claim the device more and more leaving me bereft of evening browsing except for the tiny Iphone.
The Amico is one of two tablets launched by the highstreet retailer : Currys in late 2010 as a response to the Ipad - the Amico was the 7" budget version with 2GB on-board memory and a 300Mhz processor. It's Bigger brother was the Vega, a 10" tablet with 4GB and a 1.0 Ghz Tegra ARM processor which retailed for around the £200 mark. To be honest neither was an Ipad killer but there are plenty of them available on auction and second hand electronics sites now and I'd certainly say to have a play with one or the other.
However, having got the device and played for a few weeks I found it a little lacking - sure it's fine for browsing, e-mails and the like but having had the top end IOS devices I just found it a little laggy and limited.
Physically the device feels nice in the hand - the build quality is average (which you'd expect at the entry level price point). The Android interface takes a little getting used to following extensive IOS use but the home screen experience is good and everything is where it needs to be - one word of warning though, having entered my e-mail details I couldn't find a way of removing the account from the e-mail settings prior to selling the device short of bricking it totally. So I ended up changing my main gmail account password on-line (so deactivating access to my account on the Amico) then manually deleting the e-mails from the device whilst off-line.
It's also the devils own work to add any new apps to the device - a limitation of the memory and older OS I suspect - the only way I can see to do it to instal via the PK settings in the system menu using an SD card - again for a novice this is quite a complex work around and spending more to get a version of the OS with Google Play re-installed could be worth it.
In the end, although I wouldn't consider myself a 'power-user' by any stretch of the imagination but I was constantly demanding too much of the device. It's not for anyone who wants to poke around inside the OS settings and really aside from getting a feel for the Android OS on a tablet I've now given the Amico up as a very middling device and returned it to the electronic dealer in the sky (actually it's up for sale on Ebay at
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/320921374453?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649#ht_500wt_1158)
If you're interested in having a look check it out. I'd only recommend this to someone who needs a basic device or as a super cheaper emergency back up. I picked mine up for £ 25 on an auction site and they seem to re-sell for between £ 20 and £40 depending on condition (mine was manufacturer refurbed and worked perfectly).
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