This little tablet has put me in a tight situation! I’ve really been trying to get away from branding every Chinese made tablet that came along as an iPad clone. Sure I’ll always make the comparison to the iPad, but I’ve really been trying to keep away words such as fake, knock-off, clone and copy when introducing them, but now we have real images of the iRobot and I can’t help but point out it’s obvious forgery of the Apple tablet.
From the outward appearance you get the usual iPad look, but that’s to be expected, all tablets have large black bezels and touch screens as default.
The back however does whiff of cloning! There’s no real need to made the rear look like a 3G iPad, although the black plastic antenna shroud is functional in improving signal strength.
The 30 pin dock connector also looks familiar as do the speaker holes and mesh. It’s not all the same though as the iRobot gets 2 speakers (stereo! the iPad is mono!) an mini USB and a Micro SD card reader.
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When we look at the size of the iRobot compared to the iPad we see a real difference. The iRobot looses almost 2 inches of screen real estate to the iPad, which either means the iRobot is more portable than the iPad or more cramped when in use. In this case I’m taking the glass half empty approach and saying it’s cramped to use and hardly brings any extra functionality to the iRobot. A good sized smart phone would be easier to carry and applications would look pretty much the same on a 4 inch touch screen as they would on the iRobot’s 8 inch touch screen.
It’s when we boot up the iRobot though that we can’t help but scream ‘Clone’, ‘Fake’, ‘Knock-off’. The Android O.S has been heavily and successfully skinned to imitate iOS on the iPad complete with dock. The only big give away is the distinctly Android task bar at the top of the screen.
And finally there’s the packaging!
What more can we say!
So from now on I’ll try my best not to stamp every Chinese tablet with the iPad clone tag, unless they fall in to the iRobot camp of full immersion cloning!
Images courtesy of Shanzhaiben
Words Andi Sykes
good info !. thanks for sharing.
good info !. thanks for sharing.
Im bought the Irobot through Bidorbuy, but the manual is not readable, as it got damage in the post, Im trying to connect to internet, and also to use my bluetooth, but Im not winning, please end me information how to get my bluetooth active and internet. Im using a 3G modem.
Regards
Beulha
Sorry I have no hands on experience with that tablet. Hope you get it fixed
Im bought the Irobot through Bidorbuy, but the manual is not readable, as it got damage in the post, Im trying to connect to internet, and also to use my bluetooth, but Im not winning, please end me information how to get my bluetooth active and internet. Im using a 3G modem.
Regards
Beulha
Sorry I have no hands on experience with that tablet. Hope you get it fixed
I have used the Irobot and I find it to be much better than the actual Ipad and I pad2 due to the point and drag feature and since it is android 2.2 OS and 32gb you can upgrade it or customize it to whatever you needs may be for free without having to buy it from I tunes which is a big plus I rate this tablet from 1 to 10 a 9 and rating the I pad 2 to a 3 you will not be disappointed on the Irobot I find the 7 inch version to be the best when travelling in fact I pad is coming out with a new version called the Ipad mini which will be the same as the the Irobot 7 inch tablet but the best thing of all folks is the price an Irobot will cost you a 1/3 of what an I pad2 will cost you take a look and you be the judge
It is a great tablet, I hope more Chinese makers start to rival the ‘big guns’ in the tablet market soon too.
I have used the Irobot and I find it to be much better than the actual Ipad and I pad2 due to the point and drag feature and since it is android 2.2 OS and 32gb you can upgrade it or customize it to whatever you needs may be for free without having to buy it from I tunes which is a big plus I rate this tablet from 1 to 10 a 9 and rating the I pad 2 to a 3 you will not be disappointed on the Irobot I find the 7 inch version to be the best when travelling in fact I pad is coming out with a new version called the Ipad mini which will be the same as the the Irobot 7 inch tablet but the best thing of all folks is the price an Irobot will cost you a 1/3 of what an I pad2 will cost you take a look and you be the judge
It is a great tablet, I hope more Chinese makers start to rival the ‘big guns’ in the tablet market soon too.
i bought an i robot from EBAY its on the way I’ve been handling lot of i phones,i pods i want to know if i robot is good as apple or a rate out of 10 or someone with experience to help me?
please
It’s not bad as far as cheap Android tablets go, but don’t expect iPad or iPhone levels of performance.
For the odd game, surfing the web and watching movies it’s fine though.
i bought an i robot from EBAY its on the way I’ve been handling lot of i phones,i pods i want to know if i robot is good as apple or a rate out of 10 or someone with experience to help me?
please
It’s not bad as far as cheap Android tablets go, but don’t expect iPad or iPhone levels of performance.
For the odd game, surfing the web and watching movies it’s fine though.
So, you mean that iRobot ipad is a good start for those (like me) who can’t afford apple and Samsung ipad? Would my money worth it?
So, you mean that iRobot ipad is a good start for those (like me) who can’t afford apple and Samsung ipad? Would my money worth it?