Coby Kyros Review – MID7024 Tablet PC
It might be surprising, but there are really only a few budget tablet PCs on the market right now that are actually selling well. At less than $200, the Coby Kyros is definitely one. While it doesn’t aspire to the high-end functionality of more expensive tablets, it still has a good bag of features. Read on to find out if this budget tablet PC could be the one for you.
Coby Kyros – Best Price at Amazon.com
Coby Kyros – Key Specs
- Priced at under $200
- Released 2011
- Runs Google Android 2.2
- Size: 7.7 x 4.8 x 0.5 inches
- Weight: 0.87 lb. / 0.39 kg
- 7 -inch touchscreen
- Resolution: 800 x 480
- 4 GB storage (expands up to 16 GB)
- Telechips TTC8902 1GHz processor
- Wi-Fi connectivity
- 2.1 MP Camera
- Battery life: 7 hours
Good Points About the Coby Kyros:
Cost: Anywhere under the $200 threshold can be considered great value in a tablet PC. OK, so a lower price will mean less powerful features, but this tablet will certainly perform every function that a basic user will require. You can run office applications, surf the web, chat with buddies, and play music and video.
Style: Despite its low price point, the Coby Kyros doesn’t look like it’s held together with plastic and string. While being light enough to carry and hold without problems, it also has a good solid feel.
Battery Life: A 7-hour battery life isn’t huge, but it’s a pretty good offering for a tablet at this price. This should be more than enough to keep you busy while on the move and not having access to a charger. Great for using on train or plane journeys! The tablet also charges very quickly when you do plug it in.
Camera: OK, it’s only 2.1 megapixels, hardly enough to take over from your dedicated digital camera. That said, it’s a great spec for a tablet of this price. You’ll easily be able to use it for video chats over the internet.
Ports: The Coby Kyros has a good variety of ports, including mini-USB, micro-SD slot (for memory expansion), headphone jack, and a HDMI port so that you can connect it to a high definition TV.
Operating System: The OS on this tablet has both good and bad point. Android is the second most popular operating system for tablets (the most popular being Apple’s iOS.) This means that the Android store has a good variety of apps available, with more being created every day.
However, your choice of apps is limited due to the tablet running Android 2.2 and not the most up to date version 3.0. Android 2.2 wasn’t even designed for tablets (it was made for phones.) The device runs fine, but you won’t have access to some of the more sophisticated apps that will only run on 3.0.
Media Support: Although you might expect otherwise given the price tag, the Coby Kyros supports all the main file formats for video and audio, including a full Adobe suite – which means it renders Flash without any problems. Great news if you’re a Farmville freak!!
The Bad Points about the Coby Kyros:
View Screen: At 7 inches, this is pretty small viewing area for modern tablets. This is the tradeoff for having the tablet be so light and portable. This may be an acceptable factor if you need something that’s comfortable to hold for a long time. If you’re wanting to mainly play HD videos on it, then this is going to be an issue.
Processor: As you would expect in a budget tablet, it simply doesn’t have the power of its more expensive rivals. If you’re looking at running certain graphics-heavy games, this could be an issue.
Resistive Touch Screen: Unusually in today’s market, the Coby Kyros has a resistive touchscreen, which means you have to press harder on the screen to see a response. It also means you cannot use multi-touch functions such as pinch and squeeze. This will take some getting used to if you’ve previously used an iPhone, for example.
Connectivity: The Wi-Fi works extremely well, but at the time of writing there is no option to add on 3G to the tablet, which means you can only connect to the internet when you’re at a WiFi hotspot. If you need constant conectivity then this tablet is not going to be a good option.
Storage Space: With just a tiny 4gb storage space, the Coby Kyros is very small by today’s standards, and has even less memory than some smartphones! If you want to store a lot of film, photos or music, you’re going to need an expansion. Luckily the Kyros has a slot for this. You can add up to 32gb.
Apps: Rather than going through Android marketplace, this tablet comes with AppsLib. This somewhat limits your choice of apps.
Conclusion
Shortly, this is a low-priced alternative choice to the more expensive Android tablets available. While it doesn’t run the latest Android version, it functions well for what it is – a budget tablet PC with a good range of features. It also seems to be more reliable than other tablets in its price range, which makes this tablet a good buy at this price.
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Filed under: Coby • Tablet PC Reviews
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I bought 3 of these for my three grandaughters. You can install the amazon app store on it and get android apps that install easy and play very well. Amazon gives a paid app for free I believe daily. I was able to install apps like Angry birds on them for free and they work very well. I too, was impressed with this tablet, for the money it is a very good buy. I know it’s not an IPad and I would not compare it to it either but, out of most budget tablets, this is one of the best. I played with each one for a while and watched videos online. I did not have any problems. The screen is resistive but yet i was able to scroll and type without the stylus unlike some others tablets that i tried out first.I did a lot of searches on the internet and compared many tablets in the same category.I also bought several and had to return them. For me, this was the winner.