Teclast X98 Pro Review: The next version of the X98 Air

[zijin_cheng]

Hey guys, what's up, check out my video review of the Teclast X98 Pro! Hit me up if you have any questions!

[Grimmy]

Is this much better than the 3G. I got a 3G from EntertainmentBox and now the missus wants one but not sure whether to risk getting this from overseas. Ta

[trebor]

Thanks to Geekbuying and DHL for a quick ship to AU.

Teclast X98 Pro Dual OS Windows 10 & Android 5.1 Lollipop 4GB/64GB 9.7 Inch Intel Cherry Trail Z8500 Quad Core 2.24GHz Tablet PC IPS 2048*1536 HDMI Bluetooth WiFi

• Windows 10 + Android 5.1 Dual OS
• 9.7 Inch IPS 2048*1536 IPS capacitive touch screen
• 14nm Intel Cherry Trail T4 Z8500 Quad Core 2.24GHz CPU
• 2x64 LPDDR3-1600 4GB RAM + 64GB eMMC ROM
• Support Bluetooth 4.0/WiFi/HDMI/WiDi functions
• 2.0MP Front + 5.0MP Rear dual cameras
• Support TF Card extend up to 64GB max

Whats in the Box



In Tablet Mode with a Cheap BT Keyboard found, Does the Job well easy to connect In both Windows and Android



http://www.geekbuying.com/item/Tecla...er-350953.html


Just received mine, going good, w10 and Lollipop 5.1, switched on today and an OTA update for Lollipop
Finish maybe a little better than the one reviewed above. as in no excess wiggle in Volume or Power.
Gets warm but not to bad. More to come Soon

Cheers

[trebor]

I have Been tinkering with the X98 Pro for the past couple of days
Since the update of over 37 Drivers if I can believe Drive Booster 3, Seems to perform fairly well.
Tablet It was mainly purchased for Windows but have booted into lollipop and updated all appears good and well.
It can get warm and throttles, this can take awhile so I feel that updated drivers and maybe there is some improved thermal features.
Will pull it apart one day soon but as the unit is for another family member I must comply

Found a review and mod to cool it
http://techtablets.com/teclast-x98-pro/review/


So Further the next day, Unit appears to have the odd crash related to Power/Heat/unsure problem, it will shut down not turn on for a minute or so then hit the switch on it comes. maybe all the drivers I installed was a little over the top and something has upset the apple cart, Oh well back to the drawing board, maybe time for a fresh windows 10 instead of what was on the unit.

A Cheaper option OTG cable if you need a keyboard / mouse etc.



Setting up windows 10 stand alone, much the same as the media player boxes win10,
Download Windows 10 with Media Creation tool, create USB boot disk option.
Plug Stick with Keyboard and mouse in OTG port
Cmos option boot from USB Stick
Custom Setting deleted all partitions, Including Android,
Click New to reset Partitions.
Then next to install, 20 minutes or less all done.
Just be sure you have the Battery charged.

So a few days on and this unit is still a little crazy, it will not be going to a family member as yet, not for the faint of heart.

I have the X98 PRO a little more stable with a few registry files that have enabled with control now available in
Power Management, with both Power and CPU usage, and time outs will see how that goes.
More Googling around to find out what it all means.

Thermal mod not done, still pondering the best way to approach that.

More to come

Cheers

[trebor]

A few more days things have slightly improved with the thermals and battery the excessive overheat is now just overheat.

I had issues with Touch screen inverted touches found that to be when setting up drivers a file needed to be manually
placed in windows\inf to make things work .gt file

Camera is the only device that does not want to co-operate presently but like all things it will happen.

I set this unit up as I would Intel media players(most likely not correct) boot of USB from CMOS.
Downloaded Windows home using the Media creating too,
Wiped all partitions including Android, then let Windows set up do its thing.
Installed drivers with right click on unknown device update and pointed to a Dir with all the drivers.

The performance overall as a windows tablet is good, and while testing with lollipop.
Like most of these new devices from that part of the world if its new always expect the unexpected

The only real let down is the Battery 4~5 hours and heat/throttling when pushed.
Overall appearance and feel the unit does look impressive.

More to come

[trebor]

Powewr Supply

The Power Pack supplied with the Teclast X98 Pro would appear to be underrated as I have seen peak wattage draw up to 16 watts at switch on.
Power supply is rated at 5 vdc at 2.5 Amps = 12.5 Watts......peaking at 16 watts then drops to about 13.5 watts while charging cant be good.
Would suggest a 5vdc 3amp or even a little more.

Further to this Higher wattage usage I did some further testing on the cables....using various other OTG cables to test power usage.

Supplied Cable draws 16 watts onBoot/peak and 14 on the charge
One I found up to 17 watts on Boot/peak 14.5 5 on the charge (very thin)
Shorter 200mm 14 watts on Boot/peak 13 on the charge

I use Anker 40 watt USB charger had this since they first came out lots of them about these days

Found a good tear down of the Tablet
Will require Google translate or similar.
Teclast X98 Pro tear down

[trebor]

Modding the X98 Pro,

Found some more interesting work being done over at:
bbs.teclast

One Complaint that seems to appear around is lack of Build Quality
Not saying they are all like this.
These images are not from my X98 Pro



Can fit an extra USB port if you want to do a bit of Soldering and Hacking: Spare pads I believe.



Thermal mod: The under side of the Tin lid that covers CPU and Ram found in the Intel Media Players at Freaktab




This looks OK as long as things don't touch the bits underneath, Heat Sink Glue was used to attach to Tin Lid
This would help spread the heat



Another found over at bbs.teclast





Another mod the video is about 20 minutes
this is from TECHTablets

More to come
Cheers

[trebor]

Camera finally working the Final Frontier on the X98 Pro K9C6 (so far)

Problem driver used was not a signed driver for windows, I thought it was a bad driver as I have installed many non signed drivers before.
Turns out driver is ok and there is option in Windows 10 to temporaly disable until reboot or a Command below using bcdeit.

For those that may not know and sorry to bore the rest.
You will need at least a Mouse plugged in to the OTG port

Was advised holding shift at Restart should take you to startup settings not on this tablet (yet)

In Windows 10

• Settings
• Update & sercurity
• Advance startup
• Restart
• Blue screen 3 options
• Select Trouble Shoot
• Advanced options
• Startup settings
• Restart again
• Startup Settings
• Use number key or Function to change Numer 7
• Restart

Then Browse for the missing driver, Right click on the .INF and install
It complained but I had the option to do it, and it went in…
Windows advised to restart.
On restart, Windows has stopped a non signed inf from running or words like that so the device is there but it has the Yellow !
So did the above again….to disable driver signing..
Reboot….
Driver is there and camera now works. woohoo
Must be a reg fix to disable driver signing always
Googling found this on the MS answers website.

This may work straight away with out doing all the above but reading around some did have problems.

Disabling Driver Signature Enforcement In Windows 8 Permanently and Windows 10 I found
Step 1. Open the Windows command promt as “Run as Administrator”.
Step 2. Run “bcdedit -set loadoptions DISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS” (without the “”).
Step 3. To finalize the process run “bcdedit -set TESTSIGNING ON” (without the “”).
Step 4. Reboot and you’re done.
To disable it do step 1 and run these commands on step 2 and 3:
Step 2. “bcdedit -set loadoptions ENABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS” (without the “”)
Step 3. “bcdedit -set TESTSIGNING OFF” (without the “”)
Then do step 4 and you’re done.

Knowing all this I guees and looking around further someone would have made a simple little click this to make it happen in a second
Most likely less code that this story tells
Cheers

[trebor]

More happening with this X98 Pro K9C6,
Bios update:
Over the weekend installed a so called new Bios, Version 1.13 using the Afuefi tool from AMI.
Various Options to view at the CLI prompt, /o for backup current Rom was good to find and did so.

Installed 1.13, appeared to take Ok no errors all passed.
After switch off the unit took a good 15 minutes to decide to switch back on.
Bit of chatter about this on some other forums, some have yet to turn on.

Also looks like they have embedded the Dual Boot Bios Menu as it cannot be disabled (yet)
Only using Windows 10 not needed slows down Boot. :-)

Not to sure what this Bios was going to fix they made mention of Win10 compatibility and a few units would not recognise the Boot Device would just boot to Bios.
My unit did not suffer from the above problems as far as I knew (yet) only problem is lousy battery life.

Its in and working nothing appears to have improved or got worse the only thing no option to turn off Dual Boot Menu, still looking.

[trebor]

A few days on and things are improving with various Registry/Power management fixes we are nearly getting 5 hours, things are looking better.
I have been getting a lot of Interesting ideas from Taipower Forum a interesting place to have a read make sure you Google Translate is al fired up.
Cheers

[zijin_cheng]

Have you gotten anything above 5 hours? Your tablet might be defective, because I can get 6 hours of video playback.

[trebor]

Not as yet, Do you have K9C6?
First few days, not good.
Getting closer to 4 hours now, yet to do any mods
Cheers

[trebor]

More updates: X98 PRO

Locked in New Bios File 1.13
Performed Windows Insider update now running Windows:-10586
Windows itself is looking and feeling a little more snappier

Streamed Movies and Videos from Netfilx for about 2 ~ 3 hours
Locally streamed Using VLC, 2 hours usually tinkering web browsing.
Over 5 hours not heavy use but busy, still showing 27% battery = 1 Hours pending on the mood of the battery monitor.
X98 is starting to look a little brighter that the first week
No mods to CPU yet, may get away without doing it.

[trebor]

This the deal that has the X98 PRO K9C6 working better than ever:

Lots of reading around
Charge the beats for a good 12 hours before using.
Find and record your windows key (just in case) with a keyfinder or similar.

Update Bios v113 (read instructions)
You will need a Hub and a USB keyboard for bios update
it may take some time to restart after bios update dont panic.
Install the Reg fix for windows Power and Battery setting.
Have a fiddle, if windows is still messy
Join up with MS Insiders preview and update to Windows v10586 (its good)

Still not happy then wipe out Windows and start again.

Media creation Tool and re-setup windows (same version) lots of ideas about
Install fresh windows 10
All the Drivers and bits can be found
Install reg Fix as above
Re do the Insiders Preview(update again)
Take your time,

[trebor]

Often the Complaint with this table is the sound quality is poor, and no wonder with speakers shooting sound out the back.
What may work is a Sound Bender
A few can be found at Amazon
Cheers