Ramos i9 - Hands-On review
I have tried the following tablets in order, and this tablet is my favorite of them all:
Cube U30GT2 - RK3188
Cube U9GT5 - RK3188
Voyo A15 - Exynos 5250
Pipo M8HD - RK3188
Ramos i9 - Intel Z2580
Key Features:
8.9 inch Samsung PLS 1920x1200 Display
Intel Atom Z2580 Dual-Core 2.0GHz x86 CPU with PowerVR SGX544MP2 GPU (Clocked higher than the more expensive Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1" which has the Intel Z2560)
Stock Android 4.2.2 with frequent updates
2GB of LPDDR2 RAM
16GB of Internal Memory
microSD slot
4.1MP Rear camera with autofocus (no flash) and 1080p video
1.6MP Front camera
Stereo Speakers
USB charging
USB Host
3.5mm Headphone jack
1080p Hardware Video Decoding
7000mAh battery (advertised)
Dimensions: 235*150*8.5mm
Weight: 441.7g
I will start with the negatives:
No ambient light sensor for auto-brightness. You must adjust brightness manually.
Battery life isn't as good with video playback as most RK3188 devices like the Pipo M8HD
An area on the back of the tablet gets quite hot when gaming. Luckily this is strategically placed where your hands don't touch in landscape mode.
The metal isn't "perfect"
Annnd that's about it for the negatives. You will still get about 9-11 hours of battery life watching video which is enough for almost anyone.
Packaging
Ramos provides tablets in high quality packaging. And the online shop which I got mine from improved this packaging with more bubble wrap and cardboard.
The box contains:
Ramos i9
MicroUSB cable for sync and chargeUSB 5V 2A 100-240V Charger with American plug
Chinese Manual
QA Passed tag
Design:
I really do like the design of the Ramos i9, especially the perfectly flat back of it. This makes me less worried about scratching the back when placing it on surfaces.
It feels premium (a bit heavy) in the hand and has no flex to it. The front camera is located for use in portrait mode. The bezels are a little larger in landscape mode.
The power button is slightly loose and the volume buttons are firm.
The rear camera is flush and the back is minimalistic in appearance.
The microSD slot is on the top of the device (in landscape) and is quite deep so a paperclip is needed to insert/remove it. Next to the microSD slot is the microphone hole.
This lacks an HDMI output.
The headphone jack is firm and provides near-perfect audio. There is a tiny bit of audio noise when the tablet is IDLE which is opposite to some other tablets.
The stereo speakers are located on the sides (landscape) at the bottom. Some gamers will find this annoying as hands can cover them. But at least it has two speakers unlike the Cube U30GT2.
This tablet charges via USB which is VERY convenient compared to most china tablets where you have to carry around another charger. USB chargers and microUSB cables are commonplace nowadays.
I tested via a USB OTG cable, a 16GB Flash Drive, a USB Keyboard/Mouse and they all worked fine.
The charger gets hot when charging, but still perfectly touchable.
Display
The Samsung PLS display in this is absolutely wonderful. The viewing angles are very very good. At extreme angles, you may notice a slight noisy haze over the display as seen on AHVA panels like on the Pipo M8HD and Cube U30GT2, but it isn't really noticeable.
1920x1200 Resolution at 8.9 inches is very good and individual pixels cannot be seen without a magnifying glass. The colours are very vibrant.
The brightness is high and can be seen in almost-direct sunlight.
The touch digitizer is only 5-point multi-touch but works very accurately and the response time is very very fast. No missed keys on the keyboard when you type fast. Ever.
OS and Interface:
This comes with Stock Android 4.2.2 with zero customizations from Ramos apart from the OTA software updater in the About page of Settings.
It is in the Phone UI mode and cannot be changed through build.prop like seen in some RK3188 tablets like the Pipo M8HD.
It comes with a ton of chinese apps but they are all installed in user data so can simply be removed from the Apps section in Settings. There is an Asian keyboard and a couple of other system apps which can be removed after rooting.
Firmware updates come from a chinese server at 20KB/s and are 260MB so take many many hours. Fortunately, you can install the update from the saved ZIP file through the OTA update utility. If anyone wants, PM me and I will upload the update to a fast file hosting service.
There isn't a lot of information regarding rooting of x86 Android tablets as they are rare. However, you can root this tablet with ease. Just follow the instructions contained in the ZIP file below:
DOWNLOAD ROOT FILES
Firmware updates preserve all apps and data but you will need to root it again.
Also, this device uses the "emulated" method of Internal Storage like Google Nexus devices. This means you don't have 2GB for apps, and the rest as storage. You just have 12GB (after system partitions etc) for apps and storage together so you aren't limited on apps.
Also, this device does not have Mass-Storage mode for USB. It only has MTP mode. I find this very convenient as I don't have to unmount to quickly transfer stuff to/from the tablet/PC.
Performance:
This is my number one reason for liking this tablet over the others. This thing just flies through everything I throw at it. Web browsing is silky smooth without stutters. Every game works thanks to the SGX544MP2 at higher clock speed. Office apps work fine. Even Google Chrome is usable (AOSP Browser is the best though).
This has a Dual-Core 2.0GHz CPU with Hyper-threading which shows up as 4 cores. When idle, it goes down to 800MHz.
The main thing that makes this fast though, is the I/O speed and flash memory. Apps open near instantly when they aren't even cached yet and there is no slowdowns in the system as seen on RK3188 devices all to common.
I did a test on the speed of the flash storage and it reads at 61MB/s and writes at 18MB/s. My PipoM8HD read speed was 19MB/s and write was 10MB/s.
It reads my UHS-1 SD card at 19MB/s and writes to it at 9MB/s.
The RAM measured at 6.2GB/s which is triple what my Pipo M8HD scored.
The USB speed of the RK3188 chipset is slow and writes at 7MB/s max when copying files to it. This tablet has full speed USB2.0 and really makes use of it when transferring.
AnTuTu sucks and scores my Nexus 4 at 18000 when it wrecks various 25000 devices in real-world performance.
Here is the AnTuTu results for the Ramos i9:
| Score | 20149 |
| UX Multitask | 3564 |
| UX Dalvik | 1564 |
| CPU Integer | 1691 |
| CPU Float-point | 1867 |
| RAM Operation | 1404 |
| RAM Speed | 2008 |
| GPU 2D | 1576 |
| GPU 3D | 4490 |
| Storage I/O | 1355 |
| Database I/O | 630 |
Cameras:
Tablet cameras. Never found good ones except maybe the Nexus 10 and iPad Air. This thing is no exception. Although it has autofocus, it lacks sharpness and saturation and is only really usable in outdoor lighting. The following tests were done on a gloomy day.
Front Camera: http://i1233.photobucket.com/albums/...126_145355.jpg
Rear Camera:
Note that the rear camera preview is about 10FPS but the front camera runs at a decent at least 25FPS.
Video quality is similar to the still shots above. The rear camera records at 1080p 30fps.
Connectivity:
This tablet has WiFi b/g/n. And the latest Bluetooth 4.0. I tested the bluetooth with a keyboard and my PC and it works fine.
WiFi often sucks on chinese tablets but this thing works great. I can download apps at my full internet speed of 1.5MB/s and I can stream 1080p video. The range works at a campus where it didn't work on the Cube U30GT2 (without midifications) or the Voyo A15. It shows only 1 to 2 bars at my home where I am 6 meters from the router. However connection quality is perfect and has never disconnected. This must be a software issue.
This tablet may lack a video output, but it supports Wireless Display.
The verdict on the WiFi, is that it is great and above most chinese tablets.
Battery Life:
The battery isn't amazing like the Pipo M8HD or Cube U9GT5 but it is above the "good-enough" mark and will provide a solid day's use with the average user and many hours of video playback.
The capacity is advertised as 7000mAh.
Verdict:
This is an excellent tablet for the price and outperforms even super-expensive tablets that can be bought locally. I would choose it over an iPad any day for its connectivity options and file-management support.
I recommend this tablet over any RK3188 tablet if you want a hassle-free premium tablet experience.
PM me if you have any questions. This is my first review.
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