Arnova 9G3 9.7 inch IPS Touch Screen Tablet (4GB, Android 4.0, 1GHz Processor, 1GB RAM, 1080p HD Video Playback, Webcam and Expandable Memory)

I bought one of these for £150 from Maplin in June 2012, because I liked the idea of tablet computers, but didn't feel like risking £450 on something that I might end up not using very often. Here are my first impressions.

The case feels reasonably solid.
Screen: clear and sharp, but it has a very narrow optimum viewing angle. This is especially evident with video.

It takes about 30 seconds to start from fully off, but wakes up from sleep in one or two. Just put it to sleep when you're not using it.

The battery lasts about two hours from a full charge browsing the web. Recharging takes longer (surprise!), and it seems to spend a long time on 99% charge before it gets to 100%. I usually leave it on charge overnight, and have to recharge it during the day at weekends.

The on-screen keyboard is responsive and well laid out, but a 16:9 screen is not ideal for writing - in landscape mode the keyboard takes up half of the screen, but if you turn it to portrait, the keys are too small for my hands.
This review was mostly written on the tablet, using Text Edit from Arnova's app store.

The built-in speaker is very small, and struggles with anything more than clicks and bleeps. The tablet has a standard headphone socket, and the sound from this was fine.

Software is a big problem - the real Android Market does not recognise this tablet. Arnova have their own pet App Store, but there's a lot missing - Kindle, for example. You can fix this by installing third-party firmware, but this not a thing to be done lightly. Google "arnova 10b g3 firmware" if you want to have a go.
EDIT: see the first comment for a different method.

Video: the tablet comes with a demo CGI animation in .avi format. This played smoothly on the video app.

Music: I bought and downloaded a song from Amazon. The music player found it automatically, and it sounded OK on headphones.

Camera: probably acceptable as a webcam.

It only has 4GB of internal storage, but that's enough if you're using the tablet for web browsing and email. It has a slot for a micro SD card if you need more space.

I've been a bit cool about it so far, so do I regret buying it? For £150, absolutely not. I mostly used my desktop PC for browsing and email, and I've hardly touched it since I bought the tablet. The default browser Just Works on nearly every website, and the alternative browser Dolphin (free from the app store) is also very good. The 10 inch screen means that web sites can display in desktop format with no problems. Some sites (e.g. BBC, Daily Telegraph) will automatically render themselves in mobile versions which look better with the screen in Portrait mode, but turning the tablet round is no hardship.
I've rated it at 4 stars - if it had better battery life and no-fiddling-around access to the real Android Market, the score would have been 5.

EDIT: after I had had the tablet for about three weeks, the touch screen stopped responding, and the tablet went into a reboot loop. So I took it back to the shop for a refund. I was told that this was an unusual fault for Arnova gear (plug problems are more common, IIRC). I was offered a replacement, but decided to try my luck with an A1CS brand tablet from Amazon, which have a similar price and spec, but better out-of-the-box Android Market access.
I have not changed the review score, because I have no idea how common of rare this hardware fault is.

I'd been considering buying a tablet for a while - I use a laptop on a nightly basis but figured it would be good to get something that was easy to carry round and that gave me access to things like Facebook and Email with little hassle.

Initially my thoughts immediately went to iPad - however the more I thought about it I couldn't really justify the price tag given that I had a laptop that I could still use - if anything getting a tablet wasn't a necessity.
Then I came across the Arnova 10G3 - it was cheap - and despite reading some less than flattering reviews I parted with £125 (A special offer price)

Loading it up was easy - I am anything but computer minded but the set up literally runs itself.

Connecting to the internet was simple - the tablet searched - found my network and then I was away.

Browsing the internet was easy - I was able to visit my regular sites however a word of warning - the keyboard takes some getting used to - it can be frustrating hitting the touch screen something I have never had issues with before on other touch screen items - but after a while you get used to it.

I had a play around the various apps that had downloaded and was fairly happy.

The battery was doing ok - all was well - however logging onto the `app store' my views soon changed - basically it wasn't very good.

After reading about the firmware I downloaded it and this changed my whole perception - the apps for youtube, facebook, twitter etc all downloaded like a dream - and its turn what was a standard good price tablet into a slick little machine at a fraction of the price of an iPad.

So to review -

Pros
* Cheap
* Ideal for use on things like checking hotmail and facebook
* Video is clear and quick
* Built in camera not the best but would work as a webcam
* Downloading the firmware thing turns it into a much better machine in terms of apps.

Cons
* Keypad not the best
* Can stick from time to time.

In summary you get a nice tablet - easy to use - for a great price.

Don't expect miracles but for the price this is fantastic - you won't be writing essays on it but for a quick log on to check the internet or facebook this will do the business!

Do not buy this product if you won't be using it in the next room to your wireless router. Our house is an average sized semi and the tablet couldn't pick up the signal where our 2008 netbook, even older laptop, and our phones could! Tested wireless signal next to other Archos tablets in PCWorld and they had at least 1 more bar reception connecting to the PCWorld demo network than the 9G3 (Units tested: 10G3 and 7G3). We sent the first back and had the same problem with the second so also sent it back.

Sometimes has problems scaling or 'reshaping' webpages. Also some problems clicking on eg. username/password boxes juxtapositioning the keyboard and the page. Touch mostly fine although sometimes problems selecting links, words etc.

Appslib fine but prefer Google play - didn't have it for long enough to say if there were things I couldn't get, but play is familiar (we have HTC phones).

This does not have an office app - it can read files but you need to upgrade to produce files - or use google docs - simples!

Good screen, bright etc. Good weight and feel although may get a little too weighty if held for a long time. Great little speakers.

Charger is not a micro usb like most phones now so you'd need an extra charger going on holiday with it.

Battery life is around 2 hours - we've decided to upgrade to the Samsung Galaxy Tab which apparently does 9 hours and should have no problems with connection...