General Usage
The TC970 uses Android OS 2.2 (Froyo). This is actually the first Android device that I have used for a good period of time. The OS is very easy to navigate and menu’s are very fluid. The first thing I noticed when I turned on the device was how bright and vibrant the display was. It really looks great and is easy to read. On the main screen you can put App shortcuts and other widgets if you like.
On the right side there are shortcuts for the browser, app list, and the mail application. If you select the app list it brings up a list of all of your installed apps. The included browser works great, but another great alternative is the Dolphin Brower HD. This tablet does support flash so you will have no problem viewing websites that have flash content.
I’ve only used the iPhone App ecosystem, but after looking around the Android App ecosystem does have some great apps. There are a lot to choose from, but many are not optimized for tablets just yet. The Apps I am currently using the most are the Barnes and Noble Nook App, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Gmail. Talking about YouTube the videos look great and the 2 speakers on the back are more than loud enough if watching videos as a group.
I did try a Skype call using the TC970. It did not go that well, the person on the other end said they could barely hear me. The reason for this was that the microphone is located on the top of the tablet. The only way they could hear me is if I talked directly in to the microphone.
To give you an idea of how the TC970 performs, check out the video below…
For those of you that are not aware, the manual is located in the HELP section of the tablet
Externally the Le Pan looks nice but I technical support is no existing and difficult to contact.
Do yourself a favor, do not buy the old version of the LePan Tablet. I had one and would freeze quite often. Spend the extra $70 and get a LePan II. Much more powerful and enjoyable. You will not regret it.
amazon.ca:
Le Pan original: 48 one or two star reviews out of 272 total reviews or 17.6%
Le Pan II: 11one or two star reviews out of 36 total reviews, which is 30.6%
I’d say that both are pretty unreliable, but according to the numbers, the original actually seems more reliable than the newer version.
Le Pan: http://www.amazon.ca/product-reviews/B004PGMFG2/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1
Le Pan newer version: http://www.amazon.ca/product-reviews/B0067XX3AI/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1
However, as amazon has great customer service and refund/exchange policies, this may not be that much of an issue.
Update on my purchase of the LePan 2 Tablet. After having used the LePan 2 Tablet for about a week, I decided to return it for a full refund. In order to make this tablet to download videos from various TV channels, ABC, CBS, CBC, NBC, MSNBC, you need to have a very strong wifi system at home. While the Tablet performed very good when I had it at work, since the workplace is very much super wired for wifi, and had no problem downloading various TV shows from different TV stations, the same was not true when I was trying to do the same at my place. I have wifi at home at about 3 to 6 mbps, and yet it was not powerful enough to download various videos. I think, I will stick to my laptops. I have 3 of them at home and never had any problem downloading anything. No more Tablets for me.