Tesco Hudl 2 tablet.

thefunkygibbon

Senior Member
Sep 17, 2004
824
42
28
Ok, so i'm tempted to buy one of these as I have a bunch of vouchers which means i can buy it for £25 instead of £129.
I'm a little concerned about the lack of love of the original Hudl device in terms of custom roms and general hacking , and i kinda understand it since its a UK device. so i'm unsure to go for it because of this. Its an Intel Atom cpu so i would love it if it was able to be installed with windows 8.1/10 eventually.


Anyone else seen the device and have any thoughts on it?

http://www.tesco.com/direct/hudl2-8-wi-fi-tablet/454-7907.prd?pageLevel=&skuId=397-7926
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/tablets/391081/hands-on-tesco-hudl2-review
 

SkEvol

Member
Sep 7, 2012
44
6
0
Looks like I've found the right place for my review

I tried posting this in a comment box on Engadget. Suffice to say, it did not fit! I thought there might be a modding forum for the hudl1 over here on xda but to my surprise there is not :-O slightly concerning. I don't understand why it being a British device would be an issue, we make great stuff! :D

Anyway here goes..

Had a good shot on the hudl2 today. Going in teaco today was like the opening scenes of the Lego movie. Hudl propaganda everywhere. Point of sale cardboards you expect. But I have to admit impressed with the kiosk they've set up. The branding is simple, and hey had all colours of hudl on display, it definitely lures you in. On top of tat, giving the big brother Lego-movir feel, all of the television displays are showing a hudl2 promo vids on loop. 'Were really pleased to announce...' Etc..

The demo units run in obviously a demo mode. Pristine, I think I might have been their first prodder. All the tabs were heleved in landscape view and the first Hong you notice therefore is how wide they look. If you've seen the nexus7, these seem like pretty much the same ratio. The demo mode has a display encouraging you to 'try it', which if you tap, takes you to the android home screen. Naturally it is maiden with blinkbox icons. The home screen to the left features tescos feed. Things like shopping offers, how to get started on blibkbox etc. You can hide then (they appear as cards), but they come back soon enough. The home screen one to the right of the main, is more blink box a centric with more direct links to movies and music etc.

You can choose to ditch blinkbox icons if you wish but long and short, you're not getting rid of these left and right home screens anytime soon. I had a good look through the options and settings, and nowhere did I see the option to remove ho.eacreens.

Neither was I able to enable developer option s, something to note.

Going into settings, apps, I attempted to close/stop any references to Tesco processes running to see if it was possible to 'de-teaco' the homeacreens. And sure, I was able to stop them. But returning to the home screen starts them again and back they appear, as if they never went away.

The homeacreen to.the left incurs the highest lag in all my experience using the tablet. As you scroll left, the background blurs, which is a nice aesthetic touch but I would hedge my bets that is what's causing the lag. As another person has reported, touching the app drawer brings up the app icons very promptly, with only a slight *very very slight* * delay. To the otaku, this will annoy them possibly, but to.most casual users who don't race around phones/tabs as they likely so on desktop PC's, this won't be a problem at all.

Similarly, launching apps was prompt, about th same as the initial 'pressing on app drawer' button.

It feels very much like a smartphone, with a. Bigger screen, which is what most ppl expect.

The screen. The screen is absolutely stand-out feature on this tab. The colours, to my taster are desaturated enough to look natural, I would estimate skin tones in videos would look very nice on this. Photos look absolutely lovely, and using the tab to tweak them with Google Photos was easy, fun and satisfying.

Play store..
Internet wasslow connection in this particular tescos but at least they're connected! A welcome change to a lot of stores/demos. Indeed, these tabs were 'box-fresh' :) I downloaded Flipboard, which flipped through lagfree, although I can't say 100% for sure about hr speed because the connection was so slow that images weren't displaying yet.

I downloaded flickr, a nice appfor viewing photos on nice screens :) and it looked wonderful with next to no.lag (aside the net connection ).

Feel in the hand. These things are naturally powered up and connected via mai s as well as a central stem from beneath the desk holding them up. So I wasn't able to feel how theysit in the hand vertically. But I was able to.hold it horizontally and that was indeed very comfy, the rubbery soft touch back is very nice and trippy too.

No accessories were available yet.

I can't comment on the sound, but the screen is just lovely. Again, to echo others, the viewing angles are not fantastic, but its respectably bright and crisp. No such 'cyan oven mode style' colour options in the settings though, if the look isn't to your preference.

This is my first time using an 8inch tablet, its a nice experience. However this like email in landscape could definitely so with a bit of a makeover (everything appears very large), like email for kids :p. (Gmail I'm talking about).

Goodgle Newsstand, this had had a recent update which makes it quite graphically intense, using the cards style material UI of upcoming Google Android L. Scrolling through the items incurred a bit of lag, I would put in on par with my galaxy S3 (running CyanogenMod 11l. As a news reading experience, this app has a lot of potential, but Aimo It would only be optimal under android L.

Browsing through the play store for music, movies and books requires a fair amount of close-up viewing it on a galaxy s3, not so here. The items on display are pleasant and text metainfo, like price, genre, year etc. Are nicely legible.

Browsing speed..

Now this is the only area where I was not particularly amazed with the hudl 2. I fired up theverge as its quite intense. The chrome.browser held most of the images in place, however a quick scroll from very top to very bottom of the site had images blinking out of view,, then re-appearing. Not a ram issue I don't think. I think (only suspect) this might be a limit of the atom CPU.

I did nothing more strenuous to he tablet, and apart from that, I would say it is very very serviceable. Especially for £129.

Were it not for this potential.nexus9 around the corner with rumoured android L, I would buy this immediately.
 

thefunkygibbon

Senior Member
Sep 17, 2004
824
42
28
nice hands-on. sort out the strange spelllings and wording and you could put that on a proper website.

i'll be getting mine tonight (cost me £25 on top of my clubcard vouchers which have been sitting doing nothing for years) so will give some feedback for what its worth. i'm totally wanting to run windows on it though. I can't get my head around why anyone would chose a (presumably more expensive) Intel x64 chipset over an ARM given that Android is optimised for ARM.
 

gripweed

Member
Feb 24, 2008
7
0
0
I tried posting this in a comment box on Engadget. Suffice to say, it did not fit! I thought there might be a modding forum for the hudl1 over here on xda but to my surprise there is not :-O slightly concerning. I don't understand why it being a British device would be an issue, we make great stuff! :D

Anyway here goes..

Had a good shot on the hudl2 today. Going in teaco today was like the opening scenes of the Lego movie. Hudl propaganda everywhere. Point of sale cardboards you expect. But I have to admit impressed with the kiosk they've set up. The branding is simple, and hey had all colours of hudl on display, it definitely lures you in. On top of tat, giving the big brother Lego-movir feel, all of the television displays are showing a hudl2 promo vids on loop. 'Were really pleased to announce...' Etc..

The demo units run in obviously a demo mode. Pristine, I think I might have been their first prodder. All the tabs were heleved in landscape view and the first Hong you notice therefore is how wide they look. If you've seen the nexus7, these seem like pretty much the same ratio. The demo mode has a display encouraging you to 'try it', which if you tap, takes you to the android home screen. Naturally it is maiden with blinkbox icons. The home screen to the left features tescos feed. Things like shopping offers, how to get started on blibkbox etc. You can hide then (they appear as cards), but they come back soon enough. The home screen one to the right of the main, is more blink box a centric with more direct links to movies and music etc.

You can choose to ditch blinkbox icons if you wish but long and short, you're not getting rid of these left and right home screens anytime soon. I had a good look through the options and settings, and nowhere did I see the option to remove ho.eacreens.

Neither was I able to enable developer option s, something to note.

Going into settings, apps, I attempted to close/stop any references to Tesco processes running to see if it was possible to 'de-teaco' the homeacreens. And sure, I was able to stop them. But returning to the home screen starts them again and back they appear, as if they never went away.

The homeacreen to.the left incurs the highest lag in all my experience using the tablet. As you scroll left, the background blurs, which is a nice aesthetic touch but I would hedge my bets that is what's causing the lag. As another person has reported, touching the app drawer brings up the app icons very promptly, with only a slight *very very slight* * delay. To the otaku, this will annoy them possibly, but to.most casual users who don't race around phones/tabs as they likely so on desktop PC's, this won't be a problem at all.

Similarly, launching apps was prompt, about th same as the initial 'pressing on app drawer' button.

It feels very much like a smartphone, with a. Bigger screen, which is what most ppl expect.

The screen. The screen is absolutely stand-out feature on this tab. The colours, to my taster are desaturated enough to look natural, I would estimate skin tones in videos would look very nice on this. Photos look absolutely lovely, and using the tab to tweak them with Google Photos was easy, fun and satisfying.

Play store..
Internet wasslow connection in this particular tescos but at least they're connected! A welcome change to a lot of stores/demos. Indeed, these tabs were 'box-fresh' :) I downloaded Flipboard, which flipped through lagfree, although I can't say 100% for sure about hr speed because the connection was so slow that images weren't displaying yet.

I downloaded flickr, a nice appfor viewing photos on nice screens :) and it looked wonderful with next to no.lag (aside the net connection ).

Feel in the hand. These things are naturally powered up and connected via mai s as well as a central stem from beneath the desk holding them up. So I wasn't able to feel how theysit in the hand vertically. But I was able to.hold it horizontally and that was indeed very comfy, the rubbery soft touch back is very nice and trippy too.

No accessories were available yet.

I can't comment on the sound, but the screen is just lovely. Again, to echo others, the viewing angles are not fantastic, but its respectably bright and crisp. No such 'cyan oven mode style' colour options in the settings though, if the look isn't to your preference.

This is my first time using an 8inch tablet, its a nice experience. However this like email in landscape could definitely so with a bit of a makeover (everything appears very large), like email for kids :p. (Gmail I'm talking about).

Goodgle Newsstand, this had had a recent update which makes it quite graphically intense, using the cards style material UI of upcoming Google Android L. Scrolling through the items incurred a bit of lag, I would put in on par with my galaxy S3 (running CyanogenMod 11l. As a news reading experience, this app has a lot of potential, but Aimo It would only be optimal under android L.

Browsing through the play store for music, movies and books requires a fair amount of close-up viewing it on a galaxy s3, not so here. The items on display are pleasant and text metainfo, like price, genre, year etc. Are nicely legible.

Browsing speed..

Now this is the only area where I was not particularly amazed with the hudl 2. I fired up theverge as its quite intense. The chrome.browser held most of the images in place, however a quick scroll from very top to very bottom of the site had images blinking out of view,, then re-appearing. Not a ram issue I don't think. I think (only suspect) this might be a limit of the atom CPU.

I did nothing more strenuous to he tablet, and apart from that, I would say it is very very serviceable. Especially for £129.

Were it not for this potential.nexus9 around the corner with rumoured android L, I would buy this immediately.
Good review - and the web pages thing does seem to be an issue. I thought I would add a couple of points based on 24 hours of ownership of this device....

The first thing I noticed was how laggy the Tesco launcher was - not helped by the boat load of Tesco crapola on left screen. The first thing I did was put Nova on there and it was like night and day - zero lag. I disabled most of the Tesco apps and hid them in the launcher as well which basically left me with, essentially, a stock Android tablet. It also left no visible sign of Tesco on the tablet because Nova can get rid of the search bar (Tesco had moved their Tesco button up here instead of having it on the Navigation bar on Hudl1) The only gripe about performance would be that there is some lag with some live wallpapers.

I stuck Asphalt 8 and Modern Combat 5 on there and there no problems. Both games play really, really well. I also tested the touch responsiveness - an issue on Hudl 1 - by playing CounterSpy and Alone and it seems to be a lot better on Hudl 2. I have not really had a chance to test the speakers yet as I have mainly used it with headphones. I've also not had any issues with app incompatibility caused by the Intel processor yet. Internet speed seems great so far- even large games downloaded quickly both on home and work WiFi.

My biggest gripe is the 9gb of free space - 11 out of 16gb free should be the minimum. First thing I will do when I root it will be to get rid of some of bloat with Titanium.

Overall though - very impressed. As already mentioned, the screen is just fantastic. Huge improvement on the first one and a really, really decent device. For the money its a no-brainer.
 

SkEvol

Member
Sep 7, 2012
44
6
0
Thanks for continuing the discussion! What you've said all sounds very positive!
Have you managed to root it? I note that there sadly didn't seem to be much support for custom rom'ing the hudl1. But those changes you made with the launcher sound like they took care of any lag, this is great! :)

One thing you did mention.. I thought i would ask you, for clarity.. When you said..

Good review - and the web pages thing does seem to be an issue.
--were you referring to your own experience with loading pages? Or were you just echoing the concern i had expressed in my review?

Also, to hear that games work well is also really great!
 

tonyt3rry

Senior Member
Dec 28, 2010
625
25
0
Liverpool
Took the plunge today used my staff discount didn't use any club card put the google launcher disabled everything other than child and my Tesco which I couldn't do. Tablet is really fast display and size and great feels better the nexus 7
 

gripweed

Member
Feb 24, 2008
7
0
0
Thanks for continuing the discussion! What you've said all sounds very positive!
Have you managed to root it? I note that there sadly didn't seem to be much support for custom rom'ing the hudl1. But those changes you made with the launcher sound like they took care of any lag, this is great! :)

One thing you did mention.. I thought i would ask you, for clarity.. When you said..



--were you referring to your own experience with loading pages? Or were you just echoing the concern i had expressed in my review?

Also, to hear that games work well is also really great!
I was more echoing your concerns tbh - noticed it crop up in at least a couple of "hands on" reviews and was wondering if it was an issue. I haven't especially noticed but I will try a few more content heavy web page and see what happens. I should apologise for the lack of clarity on my original reply as I haven't rooted it yet- I rooted the last one and ran exposed and gravity box which did compensate slightly for the lack of custom roms. There was a bit of interest in Hudl modding on Modaco last time, which was where I found the rooting info.
 

vermillions

Senior Member
Jul 23, 2009
60
7
0
I think Rooting may take a while as this is an Intel Atom Bay trail Z3735D cpu. The Onda V975i has the same CPU and has been rooted so it may be possible to adapt it to work although it is running an older version of android which may raise other problems. Also I would not try any rooting method until a recovery ROM and method are available.
My Hudl 2 on order.

---------- Post added at 11:23 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:37 AM ----------

Further From my previous post it appears that these Bay Trial tabs can have a Bios so It will be interesting to see how this tab matures. Windows Anyone! :)
 
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vermillions

Senior Member
Jul 23, 2009
60
7
0
Pretty cool to think that would be possible.
Windows has a 1000 uses, what would you choose to do? (just curious)
I am the worst person with devices, I like to get them to do more than they were originally intended to do and to tinker and learn as much as poss, then I just end up never using them. But if a Dev overcomes all the obstacles in Boot and Bios and is able to roll all the drivers into a windows rom, I couldn't help myself I would have to test it. ;)
 

giac0m0

Member
Dec 6, 2012
31
4
0
Hudl2 Thread

How do we lobby the XDA Devs to open a section for the Hudl2?

Do we need to raise money to buy one to send it to a dev?

I'd quite like a recovery loader (at the bare minimum) to be able to back up the Hudl2, before asking for some kind dev to port a new Rom to it.

What can we do to make any of the above options happen?
 

seanspotatobusiness

Senior Member
May 3, 2011
74
3
0
How do we lobby the XDA Devs to open a section for the Hudl2?

Do we need to raise money to buy one to send it to a dev?

I'd quite like a recovery loader (at the bare minimum) to be able to back up the Hudl2, before asking for some kind dev to port a new Rom to it.

What can we do to make any of the above options happen?
I don't know the answer to any of your questions but I'd be willing to contribute £5 to the cost of finding out how to root it, in whatever form that takes.
 

vermillions

Senior Member
Jul 23, 2009
60
7
0
Just out of interest has anyone tried Root Genius? it is made by the same people that made Shuame. If not working I suspect root will probably come from installing IntelAndroidDrvSetup and then a flash from Fastboot if we can get into Fastboot. But it will need someone with the correct knowledge to make the flashable update with the right parameters. All only a guess though.
 

Solid_Snake.Pt

Senior Member
Apr 16, 2011
60
2
0
Hi. Does anyone have an idea of how someone who's not in England can purchase one?
I'm very interest, seems great value for the money.
Thanks.
 
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giac0m0

Member
Dec 6, 2012
31
4
0
Just out of interest has anyone tried Root Genius? it is made by the same people that made Shuame. If not working I suspect root will probably come from installing IntelAndroidDrvSetup and then a flash from Fastboot if we can get into Fastboot. But it will need someone with the correct knowledge to make the flashable update with the right parameters. All only a guess though.
Someone over in MoDaCo had a similar thought and suggested this may work:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2681783
 
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SkEvol

Member
Sep 7, 2012
44
6
0
If not working I suspect root will probably come from installing IntelAndroidDrvSetup and then a flash from Fastboot if we can get into Fastboot. But it will need someone with the correct knowledge to make the flashable update with the right parameters.
I'm impressed! I have no idea now you had the thought process of thinking of doing that! I take it you must have quite a lot of experience with routing. I only ropted my s3 because i needed to. Sometimes i wish i had the insight to be able to suggest something like that. I usually work off of what faq or how-to suggests. I'm quite interested in why this device would require a different method because of it's cpu. Interesting to me.
 

H_Mark

Senior Member
Jul 3, 2014
74
15
0
Has anyone had success playing encoded videos e.g. x264 codec and similar? I used to get decent results using MXplayer or VLC beta on my previous tablet (a cheap Chinese version that should be worse than the Hudl2), but now I suspect that poor x86 support from those players is letting it down. I've downloaded the x86 codec for MX and played with the various performance options, but results range from good to appalling depending on the video, with stuttering or full crashes. I've also tried some other players that claimed x86 support, but no dice.
Any advice gratefully received, as I'm very happy with my Hudl2 apart from this.

Sent from my Hudl 2 using XDA Free mobile app