Pipo P9 Testing/Review

[tminus3]

There is a lot of lying going 'round among the chinese SoC makers and vendors unfortunately. I've seen A5 cores sold as A7 in the past. Neither rk3288, amlogic m802 or alwinner A80T reach claimed frequencies. And
Antutu cheating is rampant.

That said, the ARM roadmap lists the A17 for Q1 2015, so I always assumed the RK3288 was equipped with A12 cores, as was originally communicated by Rockchip. No idea why they changed their story later on. With the rush to 64-bit cores, the A17 might never see the light of day.

I don't understand you comment on the big.Little architecture however. Wether A12 or A17, there can never be talk of a big.Little with 4 identical cores.

[Axios]

I guess U have a point about big.little

It was a "small" confusion considering the specs of an "upcoming" A17 AND big.little SOC.. the announced mtk6595.

It will (probably) have 2 A17 + 2 A7... just "little" confusion

Anyway rk3288 is A12 AND no big.little. it would have been "no big.little" even if it would have been A17 + A17, anyway...

[giouncino]

Axios
I sent you a private message, did you see that?

[rrileypm]

Getting back to my continued review of my P9....

Today, since I didn't have any firmware updates to work with...I got my P9 out to play with it. When I turned it on, I had the same 75% battery level I had when I shut it off a few days ago.

I've watched about 5 hours of videos...some I downloaded and some on Netflix. I've answered many posts here on Freaktab. I've done some web surfing, email writing and torrent downloading. As I'm putting it on the charger for the night, I have 25% left to work with.

I highly recommend this tablet...it and the P1 are "subjectively" the best two tablets I've personally experienced.

Whether its an A12 or A17 doesn't really matter to me.

From a ROM developer's point of view, this firmware is much more trouble free than the MTK ROMs I've been doing.

I'm looking forward to testing future Pipo models...while sampling some of the other brands to compare.

Sent from my P9

[Axios]

@rrileypm:

they should really give U a 24K golden P9!!

Seriously, I trust You and your expertise, U know, and I really considered the P9. But, since I have an M8HD which is (thanks to You!) working really nicely for my actual needs, I will wait and see next year what the market will provide.

I am very intrigued from the Big.little architecture (now I have read well enough to understand its basic working principles... ) because, for my everyday usage it would really be the best, since I only use it to surf the net when I am on bed, while leaving the most intensive tasks to desktop pc and the multimedia playing to my various boxes connected to the tv... this way I would have really long lasting battery charge for most of my needs, while retaining cpu power the (very) few times I need more "juice" to be put on work..

I will also wait for an overall better design choices in general (from Pipo and other brands) like unibody construction, better internal components and so on.. since I have seen that some current models (Pipo's) are actually not much better internally built than my current M8HD... while the M8HD works nicely, it really lacks wifi range compared also to older products on same places and same network conditions... also it would have been an "unfinished" and already discarded project (I am speaking about ROM update) if it wasn't for You and all your hard work!!!!

Sorry to say but it is a fact; for me it matters because it seems to have an actual impact for the performance (wifi for instance) in my own environment since it is not just a matter of "good looks"... For now I do not need a new tablet which has "only" a better soc than my actual one, while having the same (or even worse) internal design and components quality.

In the end I truly hope Pipo will manufacture better future models and I will surely buy again their products. Let's hope!

[StardustOne]

First impression and list of incompatible apps found on my Pipo P9 with stock ROM Sept 11 2014

As for my first Pipo tablet I had high hopes for the Pipo P9 because I had some bad experience with an Onda V975M and sold it as soon as the Android 4.4 ROM came out for that model.

First impressions - Pipo P9

The battery runtime when used indoors is amazing, 8 to 9 h is not a problem with auto brightness enabled. Plus, it does not get hot, great. Deep sleep works fine on mine.

Although, my P9 does squeak a bit when pressed at the top in landscape mode and there is a noticable sharper edge at the lower right corner plastic back cover part on mine. What is also not optimal is the slightly sticking out of the casing silver back camera frame, prone to scratches when put on a table.

I also noticed an issue with the USB charging, micro USB plugs must be of the longer type provided with tablet. All standard USB cables I own are about 1 mm shorter and therefore fall off easily when the tablet is used while charging. Always use the original cable to charge the tablet.

A RockChip 3288 with 1.8 GHz running at 1.6 GHz?

What really disappoints me is the false advertising regarding the RK3288 Rockchip CPU: if it is sold as 1.8 Ghz, therefore it must run at 1.8 GHz, no excuses. Although, it only clocks up to 1.6 GHz.

My Antutu 5.1 score is in line with expectation: 35371, would be WOW with 1.8 GHz, I guess.

Incompatible apps found

About incompatible Google Play Store apps, I have found quite a few, and they all install on my Cube Talk 9 U39GT-3G, but they are all incompatible with the Pipo P9.

As mentioned in a German forum, I was advised to install an alternative ROM posted here, but I rather would like Pipo to get their act together and address this directly than trying to fix it with other ROMs, if possible (I have already let them know in a mail). I do not like to install an alternative ROM for things that have to work out of the box.

So if my list of found incompatible apps on my Pipo P9 helps in testing your ROMs, I also post my findings here. I am fully aware that some incompatibilities may related to Android 4.2 vs 4.4, yet I have found lots that should work no matter what Android version is installed.


After updating the Pipo P9 with the 1.6.1 Riley ROM, the following applications still remained incompatible:

Meine Tui
Booster for Android - Free
Solo Battery Saver
Zeam Launcher
Turbo Launcher
Super Widget - Switch
Mini Sidebar
Mini Launcher (Kitkat UI)
Flash Alerts
Echo112 - The Pocket Lifesaver
Yet Another Auto Brightness
Super SMS Quick Delete
Current Caller ID & Block
Backup message & Call for Email
Rega - Schweizerische Rettungsflugwacht
APN Manager
Go Contacts
MiTalk Messenger
WhatsApp Messenger
Voice Search
Vlingo is now Dragon
APN Backup & Restore
HUDY lite
chomp SMS
Handcent SMS
LED me know BETA
SMS Backup
SMS Backup+
toolani global
Swiss Post App

[tminus3]

stock Rom or the Riley Rom I'm using now. But then again, my app use isn't as extensive as yours.
I suggest you try Riley's custom Rom, as they have better app compatibility.

[mreus]

Pipo P9 Tethering

Has anyone tried tethering their P9 to their phone and have they been successful in using their phone's Wifi or cellular connection to access the internet. I have tried several different ways and I can connect with USB or Bluetooth to the phone, but can't access the internet.

Any suggestions?

TIA

[Billcnz]

Re: Pipo P9 Testing/Review

Has anyone tried tethering their P9 to their phone and have they been successful in using their phone's Wifi or cellular connection to access the internet. I have tried several different ways and I can connect with USB or Bluetooth to the phone, but can't access the internet.

Any suggestions?

TIA

Better to just turn on the phone's personal hotspot then connect to it through the tablet's WiFi.

Sent from Tapatalk on my Pipo P4 running RR 1.9

[stevejc]

Has anyone tried tethering their P9 to their phone and have they been successful in using their phone's Wifi or cellular connection to access the internet. I have tried several different ways and I can connect with USB or Bluetooth to the phone, but can't access the internet.

Any suggestions?

TIA

It reminds me of the problem of lack of tun.ko on 3188

[rrileypm]

I turn my phone into a hotspot, and it works on my P9.

[mreus]

Using Hotspot

I have tried turning on the hotspot on my phone, but I get the message "failed due to slow connection" even when the two are right next to each other. I am trying to connect to a Samsung Galaxy S4.

[Dizzle]

I use my Samsung Galaxy S2 as an hotspot for my p9 each day (8h/day) and it works perfectly (bluetooth and wifi).

[maciaas87]

Hello,
Is on this forum more people who try to test this tablet ?

I have Cube 9X - this is good tablet overall but this screen is very bad... very grainy and little crystal effect which is no good for me to surf on net. it pissed me of. speakers is no good too.
Im looking for other tab now.

Do you have some troubles with your PIPO M9 ?
1. what is screen quality ?
2. do you have some trouble with spontanously restarts ?
3. any problem with charging ?
4. what is speakers quality ?

[rrileypm]

Here's my experience with the P9......

It's the best tablet I've ever touched. I like the P1, too...but there are a couple of issues that puts the P9 ahead of it. (Speaker volume is too low on the P1 so you must use Viper4Android to boost it...and there's a gap in touch screen on the right bottom of the screen.)

1. True crisp retina display...very brilliant and sharp.
2. I haven't experienced a single restart on mine.
3. Charges right up with the stock charger...and maintains well with USB charging as an alternative.
4. Speakers are loud and clear.

I've heard that the Cube tablets are really good, though. Are you sure you don't have a lemon?