Pipo P9 Testing/Review

[Djuganight]

Since that situation with my M9 I promised to myself not to play with unofficial firmware ever again.
I think I'm going to just root it and its fine for me.

[jorm]

Camera in P9

Hi

I just would like to know how the camera is working in the P9 tablet, i have had PIPO before and the camera was usable i mean not good but OK, but in the P9 it is terrible, is this normal for the P9


Jens

[Djuganight]

In Pipo M9 they claimed 5MP camera but soon I realised that 5MP in the output photo size because quality as in the range os VGA or something.
I did not create expectations regarding the 8MP they claim Pipo P9 has, whcih I assume its also hyper crapy

[chaona]

Pipo P9 Testing/Review

Having just read here about the camera I just checked my own P9. I took some pictures when I first got the tablet and thought they were OK - for a Chinese tab. But just now the camera app screen was very blurry. I think the problem is that the piece of plastic/glass (?) that covers the actual camera lens becomes fogged very quickly because it's flush with the camera bezel and gets scratched when the tablet is put down and picked up. I used a craft knife to take that black square off the camera lens and sure enough that piece of plastic was already semi-opaque after only about five weeks use. Personally, I don't use the tablet camera anyway so no big deal!

[kaizah]

Hi all,

I have a virgin pipo p9 unit, which I think is a bad unit from the factory. Please advise.

1. There is a crack/white string hovering between the camera lens and cover. This results in a bad focusing camera app.

2. MicroSD card does not stay in. I have tried to push it in completely with a long thin object all the way until it won't go, but after release it just springs out.

3. Battery is wonky. I have a screenshot in which the battery timeline shows 6 spikes dropping to 0. Those are the times that he restarts/shutdown on its own I think.

4. I have tried to connect it to 3 different window PCs. None of them showed any sign of recognizing a device. They just charge the tablet, but absolutely nothing happens. No sign in device manager, no sign of windows trying to automatically install, no MTP popup on android. I did it on my win7 x64 USB2 pc, my workpc win8.1 x64 USB3 PC (just to test), my friend's win7 x64 pc. I have also tried 3 different microUSB kabel.

On my first PC I was following RileyRom Flashing procedure and installed the rockchip driver assistence, but still nothing happens.

[Djuganight]

OMG thisd is exactly what I'm afraid off.
Everytime I see comments regarding the P9 they are never good.....
Everyone as some kind of issue with the bloody unit. I hope I'm lucky with mine, which I normally am with these things.

I would reccommend you to contact the shop to replace the tablet

[giouncino]

kaizah,
if you are still in time, I suggest you to send the tablet back and buy a DIFFERENT BRAND!
Your tablet seem totally unreliable, how can you use it well? I suppose you can't!

[kaizah]

Which brand if not Pipo P9?

[Axios]

Which brand?

Hard to tell... because, while it is true that Pipo has overall (less than) average build quality, it has poor support (rom development and updates), but it has some community and... it has RRiley!

He is actually the one and only reason (other than pure and sheer luck since I got a working unit) why I am quite satisfied with my old Pipo M8HD... with rileyrom 1.9 and some tweaking, my tab still works very well.

But, frankly, without that rom, even if the tablet itself is perfectly working (wifi range is not so good, but it works) I would have never used that tablet because of the complete lack of support and rom upgrades from Pipo: they discarded and abandoned the device waaaay before it was fully working and could be used!!!!

I really do not know which brand to suggest: while it is true that Teclast and Cube have really a good build quality, they , as of now, lack community support (outside chinese speaking forums)... I do not actually know if they can/will/want to support the development of the (stock) rom better (and further) than Pipo... should they do such a thing, then I could sincerely tell You to switch to one of them, the one who could offer better and longer rom support... since their products undoubtedly are built better.

[giouncino]

These are the best choices at the moment:

cube communuty is here:

http://www.freaktab.com/forumdisplay.php?194-MTK-Tablets

for cube talk 9x custom rom are developed every now and then, this tablet is the very best chinese tablet I've ever seen (I'm currently using it since last June, I'm really really pleased of this device!).

for cube T9 is so new... at the moment there is not a good support for custom rom and rooting...but this is the tablet-to-go at the moment in my opinion (fast, with 4G support, long battery life, good build quality).

For Teclast...
Teclast T98 4G (equal to T9 but lighter and with a little battery)
Teclast X98 Air 2 (dual boot android/windows)

I agree with Axios, I don't have info about a good community...


For iFive:
iFive air

again here, I don't have info about a good community...

[kaizah]

I think I'll give PIPO another chance and ask for a new unit.

[Djuganight]

I also faced the same dilemma. Which tablet to buy to replace my Pipo M9. I searched a lot and no matter I looked I end up coming back to Pipo M9. It's a shame their client support and build quality (interior) but is the best tablet for the money.

Regarding building quality, I can't talk about this. Nor never seen others inside, nor know how these are build "properly". The Times I had to open the tablet did not see anything wrong with the building, but overall, people says it's bad...

[giouncino]

I also faced the same dilemma. Which tablet to buy to replace my Pipo M9. I searched a lot and no matter I looked I end up coming back to Pipo M9. It's a shame their client support and build quality (interior) but is the best tablet for the money.

Regarding building quality, I can't talk about this. Nor never seen others inside, nor know how these are build "properly". The Times I had to open the tablet did not see anything wrong with the building, but overall, people says it's bad...

I can add:
ONLY in 10.1" 16:9, because for a 9.7" 4:3 other brands ARE A LOT better than pipo. Is the only acceptable compromise.

So have you opened the tablet? have you seen that everything is kept together by tape? Do you think it's normal? Of course NO!
Have you seen that the battery has the wires SOLDERED (badly) on the mainboard? NOT A GOOD INTEGRATION!
Have you seen that the antennas have the wires SOLDERED (badly) on the mainboard? NOT A GOOD INTEGRATION!
GPS antenna has the WRONG length! This is why most of pipo tablets have problem with GPS. Do you think it's good?

I think that we are ready to accept some issues with our tablets with the excuse of: "I paid it not that much" and: "it's chinese, I can survive with this kind of problem".
But in my opinion it's not a good way of thinking, we've paid 200€+ for tablets that have problems, but our money did not have problems!!!

As I said thousands of times we now HAVE WAY BETTER alternatives: with outstanding build quality, fast, reliable and with ROM 100% stable OUT OF THE BOX! at least on 4:3 models (that I think it's the best ratio for a tablet, but this is a personal opinion).

[Djuganight]

Pipo P9 Testing/Review

Yes, specifically in 10.1.
9.7" there are tremendous good options out there, but in my case, had to be 16:9 format.
But Teclast brand seems to be Top.
Let it grow so that the online community grow together and we will have a top chinese brand, I risk to say, without comparison in terms of quality.

Regarding the Pipo construction, I always thought that the wires being taped were something normal. For example how would the speakers in the back shell be connected to the tablet, other then by a long wire to allow us to open it without damaging?

[giouncino]

Tape is used for many things: wires, battery etc...this is not a good engineering...