Another out of topic article… We were invited last weekend for a “premier session” on DroidPad Mi700 - an all-in-one smart pad by local company CSL (just found out that it stands for Commitment, Service, and Loyalty). Long story short, let’s start.

Sadly we were only briefed at a counter with 10 of us surrounding 3 devices. The environment was kind of noisy as well. I am expecting a private room and each of us being assigned with a real device to hand-on. Anyway, the device is powered by Android 2.2, Qualcomm 600MHz processor, 512MB RAM, Bluetooth, GSM (yes, you can make call), GPS, Wifi, 3MP camera + webcam, and router…. just to name a few (click here for official spec).

Seriously it was kind of slow if compared to other Android devices which used 1GHz processor. The boot up took times and certain games could be lagging. With limited RAM, definitely a memory card slot is required and thank goodness it came with a MicroSD slot (up to 32GB). The device also has a mini USB port so that you can connect it to PC.

The screen is 7 inches capacitive touch screen with the resolution of 800 x 480. Sadly, it was made of plastic instead of scratch-resistant glass, and glare was serious. I had difficulty in taking the screenshot with fluorescent lights on top. The device dimension is 179.4 x 110 x 11.5 mm. It is smaller than iPad but still bigger than normal smart phones and normal pockets will not fit in. Perhaps you need to put in inside your handbags or cargo pants.

For tech savvies or cheap IT engineers like me, good news is that this device can be rooted/customized (e.g. similar to gaining root access in Linux). I won’t go into details here but you can always Google around.

At first glance, an all-in-one device at an affordable price (RM1599). It looks like the China’s Android “iPad” before the real iPad released however this one definitely better than its “predecessor”. The ability to make calls and 18 months warranty are definitely a plus for this device. CSL has its advantages of releasing this device early as next year would be the year of smart pads and competitions can be high that time. Perhaps the only things remained unknown are the battery life, hardware quality and software stability. Special thanks to the organizer for organizing the event.

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