I just picked up this tablet for my mom for Christmas and decided to play around with it. For the price, it's not a bad tablet at all. Screen resolution is crappy but for a first tablet for my mom, it's just perfect.
It's surprisingly smooth with no real noticeable lag but I did a Quadrant benchmark test and my Tegra 2 [dual core] Viewsonic G-tablet actually benchmarked higher. Albeit the G-tablet is rooted and ROM'ed, overclocked to 1200mhz along with a bunch of other memory tweaks, it's getting solid 3100's while the All Winner's [quad core] Ematic is only scoring around 2700's. Still happy with the Ematic though.
Before I forget, I managed to root the Ematic in under 5 minutes and that includes tracking down a spare SD card. I haven't been very active in the forum so it won't let me post the link but just go to freaktab.com>click forum>scroll down to Ematic Tablets>Root directions are under "Quick and easy Root for Ematic EGQ307 series"
The worst thing about the tablet is the battery life while you're using it. I can literally watch the battery percentage going down a percent increment every 10 to 15 minutes. Here's a few things I did to save the battery while the tablet is on but the screen is OFF (standby mode):
- Turn off location access - Settings >Personal>Location Access>Access to my location> OFF
- Turn off sync - Settings>Accounts>Google>Select your account and turn sync settings to off (deselect all options - you can always manually sync by clicking the 3 dots in the top right of screen and selecting "sync now")
- Advanced Wi-Fi settings - Settings>Wireless & Networks>Wi-Fi>(click the 3 vertical dots in the top right of screen)>Advanced - Uncheck box "Network notification"; Also click "Keep Wi-Fi on during sleep" - select "Only when plugged in"; Finally for "Wi-Fi optimization" check the box to "minimize battery usage when Wi-Fi is on
- Data usage setting - Settings>Wireless & Networks>Data usage>(click the 3 vertical dots in the top right of screen)>Check the box "Restrict background data" - Note: You are still able to get on the internet through Wi-Fi, background data is not needed.This is the biggest contributor to saving your battery/screen off.
- Turn off sync settings on other email. You can always manually sync by refreshing your email
* Doing the above settings has enabled my battery to stay at the same level for over 8 hours (while in standby mode/screen off - whatever you choose to call it.) I left for work in the morning with my battery on 93%. Came home in the early evening and the battery was still on 93%
Miscellaneous Tips
- I also suggest using the app Juice Defender but I found it wasn't absolutely necessary
- The obvious settings: turn brightness down; sleep after 30 seconds; turn Daydream OFF; No live wallpapers
- Do 2 to 3 full charge and discharge cycles
- I highly recommend going with a different launcher. The stock launcher was running 2 processes and taking almost a 100Mb of RAM between the two of them. Apex or Nova Launcher use far less.... around 20 to 30Mb depending on your settings
- Enable Developer options - Go to Settings>About tablet>Build number - keep clicking the build number and you will see a count down to open Developer options. Once inside Developer options (if your into speed and not animations) - scroll down to "Window animation scale", "Transition animation scale" and "Animator duration scale" - Turn all three of them OFF (default is 1x)
*Note: if you're into higher benchmark scores, while your in Developer options, scroll down to "Force GPU rendering" and check the box. This will increase your 2d scores.
To increase your 3D scores do the following very carefully.
Download ES File Explorer in the Play Store. Open the app and click the top left of app (looks like a phone in front of a sphere) Select Tools>Root Explorer (turn ON) - Press and hold the word Root Explorer for 5 seconds - another screen opens. Select "Mount R/W" and select RW for "Path" and "system" - click OK
Press the top left option you clicked earlier (phone in front of sphere): Now scroll to the top and select Local>Device>system>lib>egl - Find the file named libGLES_android.so
Long press on the file to select it. On the bottom select "Rename" - simply change it from libGLES_android.so to libGLES_android.bak
Long press on the file one more time to select it. On the bottom select "More" and then "Move to"
Select the 1st option (there should only be two, the first one looks like a phone and the second one looks like an SD card), then select "system" and finally click OK
*Note: Doing the above steps increased the frame rates in Quadrant 3D benchmark scores thusly increasing the overall 3D score. I've done this simple tweak on this Ematic, my Viewsonic G-tablet, my rooted and ROM'ed LG Optimus S and it increased the 3d scores on all of them.
I've done more tweaking than what I've listed here but I hope this little bit helps