The other day I bought a tablet. NetTAB THOR WHITE by Iconbit. Anyone interested can easily find the parameters of the tablet on the Internet, here we will talk a little about something else.

There were no special reasons to swear at the tablet, it works as stated, without any disasters. In principle, it is understandable, hardware is hardware, android is also a system that is already quite run-in, and now more often than not there is a human factor behind glitches and malfunctions. So my human factor has played its role :)).

There was a problem that was not immediately caught, but it seems that sooner or later it will happen to almost every owner.
Due to his inexperience, he poured a lot of toys and cartoons onto the existing space (for children, the tablet was taken). And wow - the tablet stopped loading.
While uploading large amounts of information into it, it began to slow down, and to my decision to restart it by holding the "power" button, it responded with an hourly display of the iconbit logo without further loading the system.
In general, my initiative with a forced reboot of the system gave quite expected results.
It was not possible to boot the system, and without a loaded system, it was not possible to get to reset the state of the tablet to factory settings.
Of course, there was an option with a service. For quite a certain amount, specialists could easily fix everything. But there was no service at hand, and there was no point in running somewhere for the night looking ... Therefore, the devil pulled me to look on the Internet for a solution to my problem ...
How good, however, that the Internet was invented. It turns out that it is possible, without loading the system, to reset all settings to the minimum with a complete memory cleanup (which is what I needed, in my opinion).
This thing is called HARD RESET.
Alas, there were no direct references to the way to perform HARD RESET on my tablet model.
So I had to experiment. It's good at least that the tablet has only three buttons, so I didn't have to go through for a long time.
In general, in order to enter the recovery menu, you must

• holding down the volume up button, plug the charging into the tablet (otherwise it was not possible to turn on%)
• when a picture of a disassembled android with an exclamation mark appears, release the buttons.
• to display the recovery menu items, hold down the tablet power button and poke the volume up button again.

Next, use the volume buttons to navigate the menu and confirm the selection with the power button.
I selected the item "wipe data / factory reset", and then "reboot system now" ... and I was happy :)
It seems that from the same menu you can also make the firmware of the tablet, but I have not yet tried how this is done. I think these are quite standard operations ...

P.S. Again, I confirm the title of burdock ... I went to the iconbit forum and everything is written there in black and gray :)
http://forum.iconbit.ru/viewtopic.php?f=91&t=21842

We recently got acquainted with the iconBIT NetTAB Space II tablet - one of the two current flagships of the iconBIT company. Now it's time to explore the second model - iconBIT NetTAB Thor. Like Space II, Thor has an IPS screen and is powered by the rather powerful SoC Rockchip 3066. But, unlike its brother, Thor has a 10.1-inch screen and 16:10 aspect ratio, which is optimal for movies and games from the Google Play Store ...

Finding a competitor for this model is not easy, since most budget tablet manufacturers use 9.7-inch screens, and their 10.1-inch models we know are mostly equipped with less powerful SoCs. Therefore, let's see how Thor differs from the products of more well-known brands: Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1, Acer Iconia Tab A510 and, of course, iPad 2 (although it has a 9.7-inch screen, but still it is the choice “IPad or not iPad” is the first thing the buyer faces today.

* - according to the manufacturer's data; our weighing of iconBIT NetTAB Space II on an electronic scale with an error of 1 gram showed a weight of 688 grams, and iconBIT Thor - 659 grams.
** - the price of iPad 2 is indicated for the version without 3G and with 16 GB flash memory

So, the iconBIT tablet, despite a much lower price than other models in the table, looks quite decent. True, it is inferior to three other devices in terms of flash memory, but this is partially offset by the ability to use microSD. In addition, the Thor is inferior to the two Android tablets in terms of rear camera resolution, but this is not so important in a 10-inch tablet. The main thing is that the quality of the shooting is acceptable (we will check it).

Well, after a preliminary introduction, it's time to move on to an in-depth look at iconBIT NetTAB Thor.

Packaging and equipment

The tablet comes in a large dark box.

Inside, in addition to the tablet, we found a charger, headphones, an adapter from Micro-USB to USB-in (USB Female Type A) for connecting flash drives and peripherals, a Micro-USB-USB cable for connecting a tablet to a computer, a brief user manual and most pleasant - a cover. The Thor package is identical to the Space II.

We wrote about the cover in the Space II review, so we will not repeat ourselves.

In general, the Thor package bundle can be assessed as excellent: the presence of a convenient case and an adapter that allows you to connect external USB-devices is very pleasing.

Design

The tablet has a robust and reliable design. Its main feature is the metal edging.

The rest of the tablet looks quite traditional. It's a sleek, button-free front bezel and a plastic black back. The plastic is smooth, so it collects fingerprints.

On the metal edges (more precisely, on the left side - the rest are empty) there is a familiar, but still pleasing set of connectors and ports: Micro-USB, Mini-HDMI, a slot for a microSD / SDHC memory card, a 3.5 mm jack for headset, microphone hole, speaker holes and round charger connector.

On the same edge, we see the Power button and the volume rocker.

The overall design impression is good. I repeat that I was very pleased with the metal edging. It is both beautiful and practical.

Screen

One of the main features of the tablet is the IPS-matrix screen. Its diagonal and resolution correspond to the Android flagships of the first half of this year - 10.1 inches and 1280 × 800.

Alexey Kudryavtsev, editor of the “Monitors” and “Projectors and TV” sections, carried out a detailed examination of the screen using measuring devices. Here is his conclusion.

The tablet screen is covered with a glass plate with a mirror-smooth scratch-resistant surface and, judging by the reflection of bright light sources in it, does not have an anti-glare filter. There is no special oleophobic coating on the outer surface of the screen, so fingerprints are relatively difficult to remove. In addition, it is simply unpleasant to move your finger on the "bare" glass - smooth movements are obtained with difficulty.

With manual brightness control, its maximum value was 292 cd / m², minimum - 69.8 cd / m². As a result, at maximum brightness in bright daylight, it will be possible to see something on the screen, but it is better to watch a movie at least in the shade. The minimum brightness will allow you to comfortably use the tablet even in complete darkness. Automatic brightness control works according to the light sensor (it is located in the upper left corner), when the auto mode is turned on, the brightness is set in accordance with the level of ambient light, and it rather quickly increases with an increase in ambient light, but with a decrease in the intensity of external light, the brightness of the screen remains at a high level. However, if you turn off and on the automatic brightness control, then the brightness will be set in accordance with the level of ambient light. In complete darkness, the auto brightness function reduces the brightness to at least 115 cd / m2 (slightly brighter than we would like), in an office illuminated with artificial light, the brightness is set at the same 115 cd / m2 (comfortable level), in a very bright environment - by 258 cd / m² (which is less than with manual brightness control). Brightness control is carried out using pulse width modulation (rectangular pulses with 100% amplitude), but with a high frequency of 1000 Hz, so the backlight flicker is not visible at low brightness.

This tablet uses an IPS-type matrix, as a result, the screen has very good viewing angles without inverting shades and without significant color shift, even with large deviations from the perpendicular to the screen. True, which is typical for any IPS matrix, the black field is significantly lightened when deviated along the diagonal (although not very much), but remains close to a neutral gray shade. When viewed from a perpendicular view, the uniformity of the black field is good. The contrast is high - 1200: 1. The response time for the transition black-white-black is 25.9 ms (17.2 ms on + 8.7 ms off). The transition between midtones of 25% and 75% (based on the numerical value of the color) takes 54.5 ms in total. The gamma curve plotted at 32 points did not reveal any blockage in highlights or shadows, while the real gamma curve slightly deviates from the power law. The exponent of the approximating power function turned out to be 2.23, which is practically equal to the standard value of 2.2.

The color gamut is noticeably narrower than sRGB:

The spectra confirm this:

Apparently, the matrix filters mix the components a little with each other. This technique allows you to increase the brightness of the screen with the same energy consumption for the backlight. The color temperature balance is far from ideal - 8000 K of white turns into almost 13000 K as we move towards darker shades. However, the ΔE indicator is below 10 units, which is acceptable for a consumer device:

In total, we have a screen with an IPS-matrix, quite bright and contrasting and with relatively stable black in relation to the viewing angle, virtually no flickering and with a close to the standard gamma curve. These are virtues. Disadvantages: narrow color gamut (colors are less saturated than they should be), large deviation in color temperature (shades of gray are colder than they should be, and differ noticeably in tone), there is no oleophobic coating.

The tablet supports multitouch. 10 touches are recognized at the same time.

We also note a small drawback: when you click in the upper left corner, the image starts to float.

Platform

NetTAB Thor is powered by a new system on the Rockchip RK3066 chip, which features a high frequency of a dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 CPU (up to 1.6 GHz per core) and a quad-core GPU Mali-400 MP4, while the previous generation of systems on a Rockchip chip (RK29xx ) was equipped with a dual-core GPU.

We are familiar with this SoC from the iconBIT NetTAB Space II benchmark. Therefore, we will not dwell on this in detail and only present the results.

The new version of AnTuTu Benchmark, available in the Google Play Store, for some unknown reason did not work on the tablet. Therefore, we present here the result shown by the Space II tablet (running on the same SoC) in the previous version of this benchmark.

The results in the GPU benchmark Nenamark 2 differ slightly (downward) from Space II, but the explanation is simple: Thor has a slightly higher screen resolution. Therefore, the result in Nenamark 2 is excellent.

GLBenchmark 2.5.1 worked on Thor (as well as on Space II), alas, incorrectly.

In general, as we already said, the performance of Rockchip RK3066 did not surprise us, and our earlier conclusions were fully confirmed: this is the level of NVIDIA Tegra 3, although not so well supported by applications (the same AntTuTu Benchmark is evidence of this).

Output video to external display

We have repeatedly written that tablets equipped with HDMI output can be used as a media player. Indeed, in terms of convenience and portability, this is one of the best solutions. But the main nuance here is the resolution of the image displayed on the external screen. We decided to check on iconBIT NetTAB Thor if the tablet can display Full HD or not.

The device was connected with a Mini-HDMI cable (supplied with one of the iconBIT media players) to a Full HD monitor. In the HDMI settings (this menu item was added to the "Settings" section by the tablet manufacturer) 1080p 60 Hz was selected.

A test video with a static image was displayed on the tablet (using the main tablet video player that supports hardware acceleration). This is how it looked on the monitor screen (here is a fragment, the full frame is available at the link).

After that, we connected the same monitor to a Panasonic Blu-ray player and ran a test disc with the same video. And here is a photograph of the monitor screen.

Note the slight geometric distortion (the picture from the tablet is slightly compressed vertically). In addition, in the bottom photo, you can see that the square on the upper right consists of alternating black and white stripes. This means the video is being output at 1920 × 1080. In the top photo, the square looks completely black. This means that the image resolution is less than Full HD. In this case, most likely, it is 1280 × 800, like the screen of the tablet itself.

In addition to 1080p 60 Hz, we tried other settings, but none of them helped to display a "real" Full HD picture. What is the problem? Perhaps the fact that the tablet displays the image at the same time on its screen. Therefore, if Full HD was displayed on the external screen, and 1280 × 800 on your screen, you would have to decode two video streams at the same time. But then the question arises why the tablet does not turn off its own screen when choosing the HDMI 1080p setting - this would be a logical decision.

Further tests showed that the above result is valid for using hardware acceleration. And if you play the file in MX Player, decoding it with the system's ARM cores, then a 1080p image will be displayed on the external screen (although some geometry distortions will remain). The only problem is that the tablet's CPU power will not be enough to decode Full HD video with a normal bitrate. This means that although iconBIT NetTAB Thor is formally capable of outputting Full HD video, in fact it can only be used as a media player for 720p and lower video. The same conclusions are true for NetTAB Space II. But this only applies to video, there should be no such problems with games.

In the future, we will try to investigate this issue in more detail (displaying images from mobile devices to an external screen via HDMI or USB using MHL technology).

Games

iconBIT NetTAB Thor is marketed as a gaming tablet. And there is more reason to do so than iconBIT NetTAB Space II, as the 1280x800 screen is much better suited for Android gaming than the 4: 3 (1024x768) screen. Plus, the performance of the Rockchip 3066 is enough for all modern 3D games.

As we remember, on Space II the image in this game was displayed with some distortion (the round controls were stretched vertically). Everything is fine here.

However, a number of games have failed to install or run on Thor. Among them are hits such as Modern Combat 3 and Dark Meadow. Thus, despite the optimal aspect ratio and excellent performance, Thor can only be recommended to users as a gaming tablet if they play simpler games or are ready to install projects of interest from alternative sources. However, a considerable number of hits are installed and launched on Thor without any problems. The manufacturer lists the following:

• Asphalt 7: Heat
• GTA III
• Most Wanted
• Max payne mobile
• The Dark Knight
• The new Spiderman
• Shadowgun
• Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit
• Mass effect
• Bards Tale
• Recless racing
• Real racing
• Etarnity warriors 2
• Dead trigger
• Dungeon hunter 3
• Blood & Glory: Legend

Operating system and applications

iconBIT NetTAB Thor, which came to our editorial office, ran on Android 4.1. It is with this operating system (the newest, except for the Google Nexus 10, running on Android 4.2) that the tablet is being sold in stores.

IconBIT does not install any shells, but the OS still underwent one modification: made by root (superuser rights obtained).

This, of course, is a big plus, and the manufacturer should be thanked for this. As well as the fact that there are no Google services that are completely unnecessary for some users, such as a client of the Google+ social network or useless in this case (the tablet does not have a GPS, like Space II) Google navigation.

Of course, you can install any of the missing Google apps yourself and for free from the Google Play store. As for the set of applications that is preinstalled on the tablet, it is worth noting Adobe Flash Player, Superuser (for managing superuser capabilities), Apk Installer (for installing applications not from the Play Store), Video video player that supports hardware acceleration, as well as file managers ES File Explorer (and ES Task Manager) and Explorer. Also note that starting with Android 4.1, the set of preinstalled programs comes with the Google Chrome browser. However, the manufacturer also left the usual Browser, so the user has the opportunity to choose (whereas, say, on the Nexus 7 and Nexus 10, Google only shipped Chrome).

Autonomous work and ergonomics

The tablet has shown good, but not outstanding battery life results. So, in a benchmark that simulates a 3D game (we used GLBenchmark Battery Test, Egypt scene, 30 fps, screen brightness 100%), iconBIT NetTAB Thor lasted about three and a half hours. In this case, the Wi-Fi module was turned off, but the screen brightness was maximum. Perhaps, if the brightness is lowered, the tablet will last a little longer. Still, it's less than iPads or Android gaming tablets. Note also that this is not the most difficult scene, and the number of frames per second was set low, that is, a moderate graphic load (we usually use a much more complex Egypt HD scene, but it did not work correctly on this tablet). Accordingly, if you launch some very serious game, it is not a fact that the tablet will last even three hours.

The tablet got hot during the game, but not enough to cause any inconvenience or discomfort.

The tablet can play a YouTube video at an average screen brightness for a little less than seven hours (about 6 hours and 45 minutes). That's not bad, even bigger than the iPad 4. True, there we used a browser, and here - the official YouTube application. And, of course, the screen resolution of these models is incomparable.

We also checked how long the tablet will work in the mode with disabled Wi-Fi, with an average screen brightness, without load on the CPU and GPU - we can call this reading mode indoors. In such conditions, the tablet lasted about eight hours. In fact, this is the most economical mode possible during the day - if you lower the brightness even lower, then the tablet will only work comfortably in a dark room. In principle, this can also be relevant - for those who like to read at night before going to bed, under the light of a night lamp. But here it is already problematic to calculate the total battery life, since you are unlikely to read in poor lighting for more than an hour (this is simply harmful to the eyes) - therefore, most of the time the tablet will lie idle, and during this time it will also gradually lose its charge (with this, Android tablets are generally worse off than Apple devices, which practically do not discharge in sleep mode).

It is worth noting one significant feature inherent in iconBIT NetTAB Space II: if you believe the information about the percentage of battery charge shown by the OS, the battery is discharged very unevenly. From 100% to 50%, it discharges for a very long time, after which from 50 percent to zero the charge burns out in literally two hours. The same is with the reverse process: the battery is charged up to 50% rather quickly, after which it takes a very long time (several hours) - from 50% to 100%. So, from 99% to 100%, the battery can be charged for almost fifteen minutes. In principle, this cannot be called a critical drawback, you just need to keep in mind that you should not rely on the displayed percentage of the charge. If, say, after two days of use you have discharged the battery to 50%, do not expect that you will be able to work with the device for at least another day. It is better to charge it fully, and do it in advance, and not half an hour before leaving.

For clarity, we have compiled the results of battery life tests iconBIT NetTAB Thor in one table.

Cameras

As we recall, Space II had a low-quality rear camera that gave out a faulty image (too dark). Therefore, we were very interested in whether this flaw persisted in the Thor model. Fortunately, it turned out that everything is relatively in order with the camera here. Of course, the image is still too far from the desired, but still this camera is quite suitable for taking some kind of photograph when there is no other photographic device at hand.

We tried to shoot the view from the window twice. Once - on a sunny day, another - in the late afternoon, when it was already getting dark. Here is a snippet of a daytime snapshot.

It is clear that there are a lot of artifacts, and the cars are too much hidden in the shadow of the building. But in general, the result for a budget 2-megapixel camera is acceptable.

The evening shot turned out worse (see the frame below): here there is no clarity, and there are too many artifacts.

Below is our traditional photograph of a sheet of paper lying on a windowsill and illuminated by daylight. As you can see, the text is with great difficulty, but distinguishable (although it is on the verge of readability). But the numbers in the table are no longer there.

Note also that from the duplicates we made (we shoot each view several times) there was a large percentage of unsuccessful ones (for example, too much darkening or too blurry a frame). This also speaks against the camera.

The quality of the video filmed with the rear camera can be described by the word “fish without fish and cancer”. If you need to shoot something very urgently on video, you can use this camera. But if there is an alternative, then it is better to prefer it. Video with a resolution of 640 × 480 and a volume of 2.73 MB can be downloaded.

The front camera is even worse in quality than the rear one (although it has the same resolution), but it will do quite well for video communication.

conclusions

Like Space II, iconBIT NetTAB Thor seems to us to be one of the best budget tablets in terms of value for money. An IPS screen with a resolution of 1280 × 800 pixels and an aspect ratio of 16:10 (optimal for Android), a very decent SoC Rockchip 3066 in terms of performance and a good design (a case with a metal edging) make this model a very attractive solution. An additional plus is the HDMI output. However, through it, the tablet cannot output 1080p video to an external screen using hardware acceleration.

And this is not the only drawback. If you list other nuances, then first of all it is worth saying that SoC does not support all Google Play Store games (more precisely, game developers for some reason do not support Rockchip). Secondly, the quality of the rear camera of the tablet is rather low (although better than that of the Space II). Third, there is no GPS.

And yet, in terms of the totality of characteristics and features, we can safely recommend this model to everyone who has decided today to purchase a budget 10-inch tablet and is ready to put up with the lack of navigation functions.

Dual-core tablet PC with quad-core GPU and 10.1 "(1280x800, 16: 9) widescreen display with high resolution and wide viewing angle (IPS, capacitive, multitouch).

The new dual-core (Cortex-A9 1.6 GHz) processor provides high-speed programs and the latest version of the mobile operating system Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean). Stylish, lightweight, fast, equipped with a high-capacity battery (8000 mAh) and is ideal for surfing the web, HD videos and e-books, while the powerful quad-core GPU allows you to run modern 3D games. Bluetooth, G-sensor, USB OTG for connecting external flash / HDD media. 8 GB NAND flash, 1 GB DDR3, up to 64 GB micro-SD. Compatible with external modems and portable 3G / 4G (LTE) routers. Case included.

Dual-core processor up to 1.6 GHz

The latest Rockchip dual-core processor, based on TSMC 40nm technology, offers high performance and low power consumption. The dual-core ARM Cortex ™ -A9 MPCore ™ and ARM Artisan® Physical IP Process Optimization Pack (POP) deliver a 10% -20% increase in performance. The performance is 3 times faster than existing single-core tablet PCs. Quad-core GPU with support for OpenGL ES2. O and OpenVG 1.1, 3D graphics and HD video playback without lag.

Resolution up to 1280 × 800

1280x800 is the standard HD resolution for Android 4.1 platform. The screen with IPS matrix has a wide viewing angle (178 °), fast response, high quality color reproduction. Ideal for viewing photos, movies, web pages, and gaming in standard and high definition.

Slim and portable

High quality and stylish NetTAB THOR case is 20% thinner than comparable models with a screen diagonal of 10.1 ".

Multi-touch screen.

Capacitive touch screen, excellent light transmission, fast response, accurate positioning. Ideal for games and applications.

Excellent gaming performance of Mali400 Quad Core in 3D games!

NetTAB THOR has an integrated Mali400 GPU, which is one of the best GPUs currently available. Its performance is 30 million polygons per second and up to 1.1 gigapixels per second at 275MHz. This allows you to play many 3D games on Android.

Share your happiness

NetTAB THOR has HDMI Full HD video output, which allows you to display HD videos and games on a TV or projector and enjoy them with family and friends.

The Bluetooth module supports file and audio transfer. Enjoy high quality sound with a Bluetooth headset.

Reviews and tests

"What is an affordable and quality tablet: the iconBIT NetTAB THOR test."
ht.ua (03/20/2013)

"Review and testing of the iconBIT NetTAB THOR tablet."
Easycom.com.ua (02.02.2013)

"IconBIT NetTAB Thor Android Tablet Review".
gagadget.ru (10.01.2013)