- I bought all these tablets from AliExpress
just to answer the question, why do they look like this?
This one is clearly a tent.
These two look more like door stoppers
or maybe ramps for tech decks.
And these ones sort of look like tablets,
assuming you want them to pull double duty
as a freaking frisbee.
Now, obviously, companies aren't just pumping out tablets
in random silly shapes anymore, mostly,
so what's the deal with these?
Are they packed full of the same malware
we found in our Android TV boxes?
Do they have any redeeming features
that'll make you want to abandon your iPad for...
Ooh, walkie-talkie functionality built in?
Ooh, the ability to download a dedicated computer,
which, wait, what?
Legacy serial ports.
I don't know about that one personally,
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This black doorstop here
is easily the thickest Android tablet that I have ever seen,
and that's just the beginning of its surprises.
Aside from the mic speakers and 10.1 inch touchscreen,
its features are actually very reminiscent
of those awful Android TV boxes,
including the complete lack of a battery,
which is unexpected for something called a tablets.
There's an option for PoE at least,
which allows it to be powered with a network cable
rather than with a separate plug.
But we didn't spring for that.
The I/O is even similar to the TV boxes.
Power, two US-BA ports, a headphone jack
that contains a button deep down inside it
for reflashing the firmware.
Okay, USB-BC, a microSD gigabit ethernet,
and the white port is actually listed as serial.
And indeed, it doesn't seem to work with USB peripherals
like mice or flash drives, though it does output power.
Did they really go to the length of including serial
only to replace the connector with USB
so that you need an adapter
for the native serial connection?
No, the answer is far less silly.
This port supports USB to UR adapters,
which allows you to plug in conventional serial devices,
be they barcode scanners or anything else you can imagine.
Under the hood it's running Android 10,
because you aren't really getting
the AliExpress Android experience
unless you're using a version of Android
that's never getting another security update.
Other than that, the under-the-hood specs
make the overall experience pretty responsive,
and there's no signs of the dreaded Corejava virus,
for now anyway.
It comes pre-rooted, which doesn't worry us at all.
Inside the device...
Wait, is that a battery to keep the clock accurate
and a button to reset it there?
I guess it does have a battery after all.
I mean, realistically,
for something that's sitting at a desk
where people fill out their license plate number
for parking validation,
it's gonna get the job done just fine.
You didn't really need a proper battery
or a way to mount it.
Just like you don't need volume controls
or the default bottom navigation to show up
and give you a way back out of the window you're in.
I mean, if you go into settings,
you probably wanna remain in settings
until the device is powered down, right?
Right? I mean at least it was cheap.
And wait, how much?
370 Canadian rupees.
That's like 275 real monies.
For that price, I could have had a Galaxy Tab S6 Lite
with a bigger and better screen, a battery,
and support for up to Android 13.
Okay, forget Android for a second.
What if we got a Windows tablet?
For around 300 US,
we got this triangular prism of a PC
with a Celeron J4125, 8GB of DDR3, and Windows 10 Pro.
It's not exactly a powerhouse
compared to other Windows devices,
but it's certainly serviceable for text entry.
It boots from an integrated 64GB memory chip,
and ours came with a bonus 128GB SATA M.2.
The screen is 10.1 inches, just like the Android,
but this time the resolution is 1920 x 1200.
Not bad.
It's a bit thicker, but it's got buttons on the side
for power and volume controls, HDMI out,
and otherwise, a very similar complete I/O layout.
At least on the outside.
It's not until we crack it open
that we find its wasted potential.
There's an extra BTM.2 slot for the optional 4G card,
an unused USB-C port.
That sure would've been nice to have.
Missing headers for a fan.
And shockingly, an Intel I225-V 2.5GB ethernet controller.
Don't get too excited though.
This I225 is one of the earliest models of that chip,
and there are known issues that occur
at speeds exceeding a gigabit.
But you know what the biggest wasted potential here is?
The lack of a way to properly mount the bloody thing again.
if these tablets are being used to control digital signage,
like behind the counter restaurant menus,
it makes sense that you'd wanna mount them
on a table or a wall.
I mean, at least the Android one had the thoughtfulness
to include a Kensington lock,
which we also found on the Android tent.
This one is kind of cool.
It's got dual mirrored displays running at 1280 x 800.
It's only got 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage,
and it runs Android 8.1, meaning that even for $250,
I'm pretty disappointed with the internals.
Again, no battery,
which it totally has space for on the motherboard.
But if it's intended for text input
and to be permanently installed,
I guess it's better to have no battery
than a fire hazard swollen battery.
But what is up with these devices
missing volume buttons or USB-C for power?
Like what is this one actually for?
You guys got any ideas?
Real estate presentations.
Here, have a look at what I am doing on my side.
- [Andrew] Kitchen building.
- Kitchen building. Oh, okay.
Okay. Yeah.
In both of those cases
you could probably just sit side by side
and look at one proper sized screen though.
Come on. Let's brainstorm here.
- [Tanner] You can put your fist in it
and then use it as a glove.
- Ah, it's a power gauntlet.
(tablet beeping)
Hold on, we're gonna have to do my left arm.
It's a lot smaller.
Definitely badminton.
Frankly, we're probably overthinking this.
All three of these so far seem to be POS equipment.
Not to say that they're bad.
That's to say point of sale equipment.
Though I'm not saying they're good either.
After we ordered these tablets,
we noticed the local Denny's locations
all seems to be adopting similar tablets at their tables,
except those ones include charging ports,
wireless charging for your devices,
and they have batteries in them.
Seems a lot better.
So I'd only bother checking out the link to these ones
if you want a sign tablet that's worse
than what the local pancake dispensary has.
So far then we haven't seen anything that's terribly useful
or at least not a great value, just kind of wacky.
But this all black weatherproof Windows tablet
is definitely both useful and battery powered.
We know that because it came to us
with nearly 13,000 battery cycles counted
since November 2020.
That means, doing the math,
it went through roughly a battery cycle
every two hours from then until the day we ordered it.
And that wasn't the only sign of use.
Someone had been using it
to watch the latest historical drama
on Iqiyi, China's equivalent of Netflix.
And even if it was new, this thing is not terribly powerful.
Just 4GB of DDR3 RAM, a 64GB generic SSD,
and an Intel Atom Z8350.
That's a processor that requires only slightly more power
than the zero watt one on lttstore.com.
I/O includes NFC, mini HDMI,
a sim card slot that supports LTE,
and we've got buttons for control: Finally.
We've also got some pogo pins that attach to this car mount.
Man, that gives it two more USB2 ports,
gigabit ethernet, and a barrel jack for charging.
Ooh, and a serial port.
When we open it up though,
we find that the 8500 milliamp power battery
is in fact only 7800 milliamp powers,
and there's markings everywhere
for EM-I82H and EM-I86H.
These are two potential real model numbers for this device,
which is apparently made by Emdoor as a barcode scanner.
That makes sense given the inclusion of serial.
For nearly $700,
it really feels like we could have bought something
that isn't secondhand.
But with an IP67 rating,
it should be able to withstand being dunked in water
for several minutes.
Now, we haven't tested that yet
because we didn't wanna break it
before we started filming, but now we can.
I mean, how long do we wanna leave it in there for?
Can I use it?
This is a capacitive touchscreen,
so it doesn't function at all underwater.
Not even a little.
I don't know what else to say. It survived.
I mean, obviously,
this isn't the most scientific test, but what?
If it passed,
were you gonna buy a used tablet for this price?
No. Good job, buddy.
This padded bumblebee of a tablet
also claims to be IP67 rated,
which we are eager to put to the test,
but its special trick is that it supposedly has the ability
to communicate with walkie-talkies.
Cool if true.
Emphasis on if true.
It appears to be identical to the Runbo P2,
which would be great,
except that the version of Android 8.1 that it's running
seems to be borrowed from Ulefone,
adding one more layer of rebranding and remixing.
The outside contains most of its uniqueness on the front,
with two unlabeled buttons,
presumably for push to talk, walkie-talkie functionality,
but we never got that working,
arrow buttons for navigation,
physical representations of the standard Android Back, Home,
and Circle buttons. - Sweet.
And an Okay button.
These are all really useful in an environment
where you're wearing gloves,
or at least they would be if they all worked.
Back and Home function,
But the arrow keys are all wrong.
The Circle brings up media controls,
and the top two buttons for push to talk
don't seem to do anything at all.
As with any tablet, the edges contain ports and buttons.
So it's got USB-C...
Can you shut up?
USB-C for charging.
It's recessed though, so most cables won't fit.
Another USB-C for data that has the same issue.
A detachable antenna, a headphone jack, IR maybe?
A power button,
a dial to select your walkie-talkie channels.
And on the back is a cover that gives you access
to two microSD slots and two sim card slots.
That's pretty cool.
The software is really what's important here though.
It's all bog-standard Android 8.1,
except for the push to talk app.
This is where you should be able
to set up your walkie-talkie connections
or possibly receive shortwave radio.
It's hard for us to know for sure though,
because even though we have walkie-talkies,
even though we found the program to access their channels,
and even though we matched up
everything perfectly between the two,
we don't even know what this app is called,
and there doesn't seem to be much information available
about walkie-talkie apps
that properly use VHF and UHF radio signals.
Can it at least swim though?
Water always wins these.
It just takes time.
Didn't immediately die.
Ah, does it float?
No.
What I want to do though
is find out if this touchscreen works.
'Cause it seemed like it might have been
a pressure sensitive one, and it's not.
But could I navigate using the buttons?
Oh, okay.
Hold on a second.
Okay, just clicks in the middle of the screen.
(light music)
It doesn't do anything useful.
So I think the script said it doesn't do anything,
which is fine, but it does sort of do something.
As crap as it is, at least it survived the water test.
So what can we take away from this exercise then?
If you buy tablets for a specific purpose on AliExpress,
you might end up with something usable
or you might just get left high and dry,
separated from your money.
You know what won't leave you high and dry?
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If you guys liked this video,
why not check out the tough time we had
trying to find a tablet for one of my colleagues' dads.
Surprisingly hard to find an Android tablet
that doesn't suck.
'Cause they put all of the energy
that it took to make all of these into just one.