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[rpalmer68]

I see that there are a lot of 7" android 1.6/2.1/2.2 tablets out there on ebay now.

I'm considering one of them just to run Gizmo on so I can send music to zones from anywhere in the house.

I'm not expecting anythign fantastic from them, but has anybody tried any of these $100-$150 units so I can get some feedback on how well they perform?

Thanks
Richard

[ruze]

I bought an Eken M001 and it was basically unusable.  Installing a custom ROM sped it up a bit but still not something I'd actually want to use.

I got a Nook Color and hacked it with Froyo - this is the cheapest "usable" tablet option out there TODAY.  Works brilliantly if you don't care for mic or camera (I don't).  Capacitive instead of resistive touch screen is make or break, and that's usually what adds to the cost.  As an absolute bonus the IPS screen is great and 1024x600 resolution.  $250 is a bit higher than your range but I'm pretty sure anything less isn't worth it.

However, if you wait a few months all prices will drop with competition.

[leezer3]

I've got a 700ET (7", I believe the older model)
Under the hood, these are actually a Gome Flytouch 128mb clone. Custom roms with the proper market & more infos are available from here:
http://www.androidtablets.net/forum/gome-flytouch/
http://www.slatedroid.com/index.php?&board=60.0
You'll want a 128mb firmware for build version 1.9_88 / 1.9.xx (The build version is displayed at the bottom of the first screen)

Not bad little machines for what they are, but slow. For some reason, Portrait mode is even slower still, almost to the point of unusability.
The keyconfig is also a little funky as it lacks the expected hardware keys, but you quickly get used to that.
Mine basically gets used as a streaming radio/ calender/ photo display which it works very nicely for.

Notes:
That the screen calibration normally seems to be inverted with a custom ROM. Two ways to fix this:
1. Navigate to the calibration manually with the inverted screen.
2. In the ROMs 'Script' folder, you will find an 'etc' folder. Download the official Elonex firmware from their website & replace the 'etc' folder in the ROM with the one from Elonex.

The default wifi times out after ~20 mins on sleep, no matter what its doing. I suspect there's a bug somewhere in the works, but with something this generic and chinese, support will not be forthcoming. If this bothers you, use SpareParts or similar to disable wifi sleep.

Copy of a post on mine I made elsewhere
Gizmo works just fine with wifi sleep disabled, but it's slow as anything in general use. Doesn't really matter as all I ever do is trigger the appropriate app and leave things to go.

-Leezer-

[Daydream]

I got a Nook Color and hacked it with Froyo - this is the cheapest "usable" tablet option out there TODAY.  Works brilliantly if you don't care for mic or camera (I don't).  Capacitive instead of resistive touch screen is make or break, and that's usually what adds to the cost.  As an absolute bonus the IPS screen is great and 1024x600 resolution.  $250 is a bit higher than your range but I'm pretty sure anything less isn't worth it.

What the man said. Actually I deem the Nook Color much more than "usable" for $250 (especially once it's unlocked). They put Honeycomb on it, overclocked the CPU to 1.2Ghz and whatnot. 169ppi vs. 132ppi on the current iPad.

[newsposter]

I've been playing with the most recent incarnation of the 7" Witstech A81G.  This revision comes with a Cortex A8/800Mz, 802.11 b/g, Bt 2.1 edr with a2dp, a full USB connector, built in GPS and accelerometers, and cap/touch screen.  Also supports use of 3G dongles, I plugged in a Sprint dongle and the 'net fired right up.

Quite a deal for $250 shipped from Hong Kong via merimobiles.  If you think the resistive screen is 'good enough' the price for that version is a cool $200-.

Not as visually pretty as an Archos 70, but it more than gets the job done.

Can also be reflashed to WinMo 6.5 with a no-cost download from Witstech.  It won't dual boot, but you can play in both environments for the hassle of a re-flash.  Wits says they are working on a dual-boot option but with the limited internal ram (256mb) I don't know how useful that would really be.

[dbalkunjr]

I have been using the Nook Color since Xmas.  I rooted it 15 minutes after I got home with it.  Like the poster above noted, as long as you do not mind no camera or mic you will love it.  Gizmo runs great on it.  It is going to be interesting to see how long it will take for someone to work the bugs out of Honeycomb...So far it seems it is moving forward very quickly as posted on the XDA developers forum.  The price of $250 can not be beat.  I even use it to read books....although ironically with the Amazon Kindle app.