Overview of the device’s hardware

Here are the hardware pictures I’ve taken so far.

The front of the device. There are three soft buttons to the right- Back, Home, and Menu. There is NO search key or volume key, which is a downer. The soft keys do not light up, so they are relatively hard to operate in the dark. The company name is displayed at the bottom, beneath the  touch screen. In the upper left corner is the camera (webcam) and the light sensor. The light sensor doesn’t show up in these photos, but it is there. At the top, slightly to the left middle is the microphone.

The right side (the side with the soft buttons) only has one stereo speaker.

The left side of the device (the side with the camera) has the power button, power indicator, USB, HDMI, and the other stereo speaker. The power indicator is green when the device is ON and Charged. It is Yellow if the device is being charged and off, or if the device’s battery is low. The USB and HDMI have a plastic cap. The USB port is USB 2.0, and I believe that the HDMI port is full-sized. The USB port does NOT act as a gateway between a computer and the eLocity A7+ (at least without some modifications). You can plug a mouse, a keyboard, and (almost) any normal usb storage device. It acts as a SD card slot does on other devices-“unmounting” is the same as “safe removal”.

The bottom (or front, depending on how you look at it) houses the 19v DC IN port and… two really strange circles. I think they may be for docs or add-ons, but I can’t be sure. The Quick Start Guide says nothing about these.

The top of the device holds the 3.5 mm headphone/audio jack and the Micro SD/SIM card slots. Having a cap over the audio jack sucks sometimes, but I suppose it isn’t that important. The Micro SD card slot works just like a normal one, no changes. I have not used the SIM card slot, so I can’t offer any explanation or information on how that works.

The back of the A7+ is a little boring. It has a shiny, glossy tab across the top with the logo on the top left – it’s a fingerprint magnet, but not as bad as the chrome backing on a iPod or similar devices.. In the middle of the shiny glossy tab is the reset button. You need a pin or a pen to use it. Other than the glossy tab, the back has a really nice matte finish that feels slightly rubbery to the touch, yet still plastic smooth. Towards the middle bottom is the FCC/Logo/Device information…Nemko…text…thing. I don’t know what to call it.

The overall feel of the tablet is actually really nice. There are a couple of problems though:
1) On the front, the glass beneath the eLocity logo is slightly pushed out. Pushing down on the glass will actually push it in, but then it bends back up. It seems like there is something beneath the glass down there that causes it to stick up a little. It isn’t that noticeable.
2) The matte finish is really nice, but it heats up when the A7+ is being put though intense use. Usually phones/tablets feel a little warm, but the backing on the + actually gets moderately hot. It’s not so bad as to make me return it or anything, just something I noticed.

The caps are nice when you aren’t using the ports, but when you are using the ports, the caps are incredibly annoying. If I removed the caps manually, there would be some really awkward indents along the sides.

I am quite happy with the look and feel of the eLocity A7+. It’s sleek, modern, nice looking, and easy to grip. More about the software side is coming soon!

Price, Lether Case

To be honest, right now I’m pretty ticked off. Only one week after I bought the eLocity A7+ from 1 Sale a Day, they “relisted” the item and are selling it not only $10 cheaper, but with a free “Leatherette Case”. I bought the A7+ quickly because I have bought from 1SaD before, and I thought that it would only be available for ONE DAY. Obviously I got a little bit ripped off.

The Buy

How I Discovered It:

I was hanging around Liliputing, when I stumbled across a daily deals page that had a link to a page that was selling an “eLocity 7″ Android Tablet w/ 1.2GHz Tegra II Processor, 4GB Memory!” for $100. At first I was super exited, because this was the first tablet that had none of the cons that had stopped me from buying tablets before; fast processor, 512mb RAM, decent internal storage, capacitive multitouch, Flash, and a SUPER low price. (for the value, at least).

I did some research, and got more disappointed the more I learned. The description had “A7”, no “+” in the name at all, so that’s what I was searching for. Yet after taking a closer look at the screen resolution, the “multitouch”, and the model number (004) I realized that this was actually the A7+. After I figured that out I tried to look for reviews, and couldn’t find any really in-depth ones, but bought the tablet anyways. I mean, for $100 that thing is quite the deal. Of course, I weighed the signs that it was the A7 and that it was the A7+:

A7 Signs: Description was copy-pasted from somewhere on the eLocity web page for the A7, “Package Includes: eLocity 7″ Touchscreen Tablet”

A7+ Signs: “7” capacitive touch display (1024×600) (Resolution)”, “Model: A7-004”, and the picture.

The Shifty Part:

Among the stats and features I found “Android App Market access with thousands of apps available”. Now, every single site I’ve checked says that it does NOT actually come with the Android Market. So as far as I’m concerned, this “feature” is phony.

Shipping:

It says that the tablet usually ships “Estimated within 3-12 business days”, and that “Items ship within 1-2 business day of purchase”. It has been six days so far- bought it on the 2nd, 4th is the max for processing and getting it shipped (5th is a Sunday), so that leaves 4 days of shipping time. I bought the eLocity A7+ from 1 Sale a Day on Ebay. They are notorious for super-slow shipping on their mother site, but they are known for fast shipping on Ebay.

The Start – Welcome!

This is a blog by 6Leinad6 (you can call me Dan or something less… username-y) dedicated to bringing potential buyers, electronics enthusiasts, Android users, and whoever else might stop buy the most in-depth look possible at the eLocity A7+ Android tablet.

Why?

I am starting this blog because I could NOT, for the life of me, find ANY reviews or videos about the A7+. I actually almost didn’t buy it because almost every link I clicked led me to a review on the A7 (without the +, mind you), which is a different tablet with quite a few problems. This blog will hopefully stop the spread of misinformation that I was subject to. That misinformation is mainly the fault of Stream TV Networks and the site I bought the A7+ from. Amazingly poor advertising and little to no references to the + in the name could make any non-experienced reader think that they were reading about the A7, not the A7+.
How?

Every day (hopefully) for the next three weeks (or until there is nothing left to cover) I will be uploading a small report on my experiences with the eLocity A7+. Sometimes, probably Mondays or Fridays, I will post a video showing any tricks or modifications I’ve done to the tablet. These posts will contain images, links, tutorials (or links/excerpts to/of tutorials), and reviews.

Current Status

As of 12:35 PM, August 5th, 2012 I do not physically have the tablet. It’s projected arrival date is… well it’s the eighth or ninth, but I bought it off eBay and we all know how slow free shipping can be. Whilst I am waiting for the arrival of my baby-I-mean-tablet, I will post some history and facts that will show the on-paper specs.