# Ainol Novo 7 Fire



## DiNet

Tablet cost is about $ 163 in the store .

The first thing to talk about is, of course, the specs:

*Screen*: 7 inch, 16:10, 1280x800 resolution, capacitive IPS display, multi-touch 5 points
*CPU*: Amlogic AML8726-M6 1.5GHz, Cortex-A9 (ARMv7), 2 cores.
*GPU*: Mali 400 MP2 (2 cores)
*RAM*: 1 GB DDR3
*ROM*: 16GB + MicroSD slot supporting cards up to 32GB
*Wireless connectivity*: Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 01/02
*Camera*: Rear - 5MP, Front - 2 MP
*Interfaces*: MicroSD, 3/5 Jack, Micro USB, MiniHDMI, microphone, power supply
*Battery*: 5000 MAh
*Dimensions*: 186.7 x 126 x 10.6 mm
*Weight*: 336 grams
Package:

Ainol Novo 7 tablet Fire 16GB
Micro USB cable
Power supply unit
European plug adapter for
Headphones
Booklets and papers



Spoiler: Images










Entire plate is made of a plastic material, the screen is also feeling plastic. Appearance looks stylish and elegant. During the production of back cover company uses a combination of alloys of magnesium, aluminum and plastic, thus increasing the strength of the cover, and improves the appearance of the tablet, also increases the effective protection of the internal parts from the adverse effects of damage.
Front: On top is a 2MP front-facing camera, and on the bottom company logo.
Back: at the top is 5MP camera and flash. Bottom loud speaker, protected from dust metal grid.
On the left side:Hole charger, Micro USB, MicroSD slot, MiniHDMI, 3.5mm jack, The power button, Microphone.
At the top: the power button to turn on and turn off the tablet, rocker to adjust the volume and the Home button.
No complaints about assembly, all parts fit tightly together, no gaps, no backlash, no squeaks.


Spoiler: Images












*The screen* is covered with a protective film that protects from most scratches. 7-inch IPS-display with a resolution of 1280x800, which is enough for comfortable work on the Internet or reading books. The picture is very bright and saturated. Viewing angles are excellent. 5 point multitouch, as stated by the manufacturer. There is no jitter.


Spoiler: Images







*Camera*


Spoiler: Pictures taken with back camera








*Battery*:
When playing video, tablet lasted about 8 hours with Wi-Fi off and the brightness set to 50%, while the volume of the speaker has been at the half. If you listen through headphones, the result will be better. When playing at full brightness and sound volume, the device discharged in 6 hours.

Via habrahabr.ru


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## Robilar

Thanks for posting this. I have added it to my round up of 7" tablets.

Perhaps you can confirm the following:

Can you charge it via the Micro USB port?
What format does external devices require (NTFS, FAT32, EXFAT etc.)
Does it have DLNA support?
Does it have an IR sensor
Does it have NFC support
Does it have MHL support (not really needed due to Micro HDMI)

Thanks


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## Carniflex

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *jacklee5566*
> 
> this is cheap tablet


Relatively cheap, considering the hardware specs. I ordered mine for about 147$ a week ago with free shipping from china. Should get it next week probably. It is said to have a good screen and should function fine as ebook reader. The mod community support is also sort of there. The releases are not as fast as for the most popular tabls like Nexus 7 or Amazon Fire, but there is CM10 out for it (http://androidforums.com/ainol-novo-7/634330-crystal-flame-testing-cm10-4-1-2-christian-troy.html) and official 4.1 release is said to be planned in near future as well. According to the other forums the device has some minor issues, like small noise from the speakers if the screen brightness is not 100% and some devices are said to have burned out their touchscreens (although both are claimed to be addressed in latest firmware patches).


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## kaivorth

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Carniflex*
> 
> Relatively cheap, considering the hardware specs. I ordered mine for about 147$ a week ago with free shipping from china. Should get it next week probably. It is said to have a good screen and should function fine as ebook reader. The mod community support is also sort of there. The releases are not as fast as for the most popular tabls like Nexus 7 or Amazon Fire, but there is CM10 out for it (http://androidforums.com/ainol-novo-7/634330-crystal-flame-testing-cm10-4-1-2-christian-troy.html) and official 4.1 release is said to be planned in near future as well. According to the other forums the device has some minor issues, like small noise from the speakers if the screen brightness is not 100% and some devices are said to have burned out their touchscreens (although both are claimed to be addressed in latest firmware patches).


Def let us know how it is. I had my heart set on a Tegra 3, wondering how this will compare


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## Carniflex

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *jacklee5566*
> 
> Thank you the information , get a video for the ainol fire tablet http://youtu.be/B5ev7vzErbw !!


No problem. Mine has still not arrived but I'm hoping it will make it early next week and I can start poking around it figuring out how Android works as it's my first tablet and also a first Android device.


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## Carniflex

Got mine today (it got stuck in customs but as it was under 150 euros then got away by paying only VAT of 20% on it). Seems pretty decent so far. No noticeable lag, plays youtube fine, etc. PDF text on A4 is a bit on the small side for reading from normal distance. Have one bright white stuck pixel and while its mildly annoying I can live with it for now - not feeling like trying to argue with customs again







Mine has the older (QM) screen apparently based on the serial number. As its my very fist Android device then I'm a bit unsure about how to navigate around that thing so have not really done any indepth investigation inside. I did go over the "settings" tab tho - WiFi works fine and it seems it also supports Ethernet dongles (there is tab for these) and 3G dongles (you can even set data limits of GSM connection although the device has no built in GSM). Another interesting thing I noticed . it seems that the "internal" SD card is 16 GB out of which about 13 GB is free. I also plugged in 32 GB Class 10 microSD so I'm assuming there will be enough space inside for my purposes for now.

Now it remains to be seen if I can find any other use for it than pocket calendar / navigation device (bluetooth GPS dongle got stuck in customs as well today, plus one of the agencies claims that this thing is not safe to use in EU so I have some paperwork to do to get that one unstuck from customs)


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## Carniflex

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Robilar*
> 
> Thanks for posting this. I have added it to my round up of 7" tablets.
> Perhaps you can confirm the following:
> Can you charge it via the Micro USB port?
> What format does external devices require (NTFS, FAT32, EXFAT etc.)
> Does it have DLNA support?
> Does it have an IR sensor
> Does it have NFC support
> Does it have MHL support (not really needed due to Micro HDMI)
> Thanks


I can answer couple of these questions:
(1) The Tablet can be indeed charged through the micro USB port. I have not tried using it while its charging but if I plug in micro USB the screen starts showing the charging animation.
(2) I have not tested myself most of them, FAT32 seems to work fine (plugged in an 32 GB mSD card and it worked right away), as far as NTFS and ExFAT go according to the official forums it should support these as well, however, I have not tested the last two.
(3) DLNA support? - dont know - I'm using an Android device for the first day so if you tell me how I can try to look it up from the device.
(4) IR sensor - no, there is none visible externally and in the settings menu it's not referred either. (if you mean ambient light sensor then that one seems to be present as tablet can change screen brightness based on ambient light).
(5) NFC - umm probably not - I did not notice anything about it in the settings menu. I can try to look it up, however, if you tell me where to look.
(6) MHL support - seems like not present, at least in the settings there is no mention of it.

Edit: Upgraded to the latest official firmware which was surprisingly easy, just copied the files to the SD card, shot down, held power and volume minus down, then then tabled did something, restarted and I had the latest firmware (1031qm in my case), only issue was that it was all in Chinese







But with some googling I found out how to switch back into english, the item in the settings right under the lock icon and then first row of hieroglyphs in the top in that menu. I did consider custom ROM's as well but it seems most have still issues in their "outstanding stuff" list which some functions I think I'll need, like bluetooth GPS support, etc. Anyway 1031 is already pretty decent, after switching to English there is very few places with chinese letters left.


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## Carniflex

I just finished charging the battery first time and did that over the USB connection from my PC, took about 6-7 hours alltogehter. The tablet went flat at approx 20% battery left so probably some-kind of calibration issue - granted it did install new firmware with 40% battery left so this might have messed something up. I'm also happy to report that I got Holux M-1000C bluetooth GPS dongle working with google maps. It did not work right out of the box with the firmware 1031, however, after I installed from playstore a small program called Bluetooth GPS the google maps were able to utilize the GPS dongle. Indoors the accuracy was not stellar but it did manage to get pretty reasonable area pointed out (a 30 m radius sphere).

So to conclude I'm reasonably happy with the device and it seems to be doing what I wanted it to do - that is allow me use google calendar, google maps and do so with good quality IPS screen. I'm probably will find some other uses for the device as well in the future - atm just one function is not yet working which I want, thats being able to do remote desktop into my PC, however, there is several more programs to try for that purpose and I'm not yet fnished with poking at teamviewer either ...

Edit:

Got TeamView working - apparently it does not like Eyefinity resolutions for some reason. Here you can see MATLAB 2012b "running" on Ainol Novo 7 Fire







It's in 1080x1920 resolution (single screen portrait) in there. This solves btw also the problem of no reasonably working truecrypt client for the Android, as I can access the crypted containers on my main PC if needed.
And one with main sceen at 1280x720 as well with better camera









TeamView apparently drops color depth substantially as well (by the looks of it 16 bit color) and full screen stuff seems to not work properly (tried to run Crysis at 1280x720 for showoff). But productivity stuff should be possible to get done remotely if really needed if I'll get a real keyboard and mouse attached to that thing. Perhaps I'll give later a try to some other remote desktop program, main point against teamview is that I would be needing to set dektop to low resolution before leaving if I want to use teamview.

And some more pictures, a real GPS trying to get a fix (as opposed to aGPS) and some sample youtube pictures. Once it get fix on about 6 to 7 sats it will zone down to approx 3m accuracy although with the half day i have had it this seems to be taking a minute or two.







Oh - one more thing - the "5 MP" "camera" is kinda crap, at least in the usual slightly dim lighting conditions. Probably low quality optics on it or something like that. The few sample shots I did are quality wise similar to Nokia C2 (which is rather cheap "dumb" phone). In a dire need you can ofc take couple of snaps of your car for insurance or something like that but its no match against your average point and shoot camera, like Nikon Coolpix S5100 and the likes. An example shot with the back camera:


Edit 3:
Splashtop 2 HD is atm free and seems to be able to handle the Eyefinity resolutions, however, unfortunately I have not yet noticed ability to switch on an ssh tunnel in it so its not suitable for my purposes probably. It's also a bit laggy at 5400x1920 even over wlan.





Edit 4: Adding an example shot with the built in 5 MP camera at the back. Thats my workplace.


Also, it seems that the issue with TeamView not being able to connect a PC what is running large Eyefinity array is memory. I tried to connect with the PC at my workplace and it was able to log in regardless of the eyefinity, however, I was immediately presented with an pop up message telling me that the proggram is running low on memory and that I should lower the PC screen resolution or there is risk of having the program to crash. At workplace my main array resolution is 3240x1920 + a single 1920x1080 screen. So apparently 5400x1920 is just too high resolution for the teamview to handle.

As far as remote desktop goes I just uninstalled Splashtop 2 HD, as on top of that it seems indeed to not support ssh by defualt it also tried to sell me a subscription for accessing my own computer (at work the wifi spot I use is public while the internal net is wired and far more secure setup, so splashtop told me that I need and subsription to access my computer in different network which makes this program useless for my purposes).


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## eduardoo

One "tip" I picked up from another forum regarding the Ainol Fire's camera. Out of the box, there is actually a protective film on the lens. Remove it carefully from the edges with a toothpick or something small! The cam is still crap after the removal but slightly less so. The battery calibration issue is also a known problem for this machine (as is a "pop" sound from the speakers during sleep, frequency of which depends on what apps you have on and running). Some people have fixed it with more updated but unofficial firmware. I am not too adventurous and is awaiting new official firmware to come up. I actually lost all the levels and credits in a game when power died while I was playing it (and it was saying about 20 somewhat %). This is the thing that bugs me most. Otherwise, it is quite a bargain.


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## Carniflex

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *eduardoo*
> 
> One "tip" I picked up from another forum regarding the Ainol Fire's camera. Out of the box, there is actually a protective film on the lens. Remove it carefully from the edges with a toothpick or something small! The cam is still crap after the removal but slightly less so. The battery calibration issue is also a known problem for this machine (as is a "pop" sound from the speakers during sleep, frequency of which depends on what apps you have on and running). Some people have fixed it with more updated but unofficial firmware. I am not too adventurous and is awaiting new official firmware to come up. I actually lost all the levels and credits in a game when power died while I was playing it (and it was saying about 20 somewhat %). This is the thing that bugs me most. Otherwise, it is quite a bargain.


I should really try to remember to check for these protective films more often







Ofc mine had one on - I even earlier noticed some glue on the "lens" so I carefully rubbed that way but still did not remove the film. Reminds me when I put my 6770 under water and it was hitting like ~100C under load - I was really buzzled as I made sure the contact was good. Until I took it apart again and noticed the "please remove before using" sticker under the thermal paste when cleaning the block before reapplying it.


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## DiNet

You can try battery calibration apps.
For remote you could try RDP... no-ip is free service. I'm using it for remote connection to home pc.


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## Carniflex

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *DiNet*
> 
> You can try battery calibration apps.
> For remote you could try RDP... no-ip is free service. I'm using it for remote connection to home pc.


Thanx for the hint. I'll have to give a try to one of these battery calibration things. Also, I'm happy to report that I managed to get TeamViewer functional even for my desktop resolution by increasing the VMheap size from the default of 48m for that tablet up to 128m. Ofc actually using an 5400x1920 on a 7'' tablet involves substantial amount of scrolling but if its really needed it gets the stuff done. BTW I also noted when nosing around the system properties that this tablet still thinks that it's a 160 dpi device while its actually closer to ~ 220 ppi which would explain why some buttons start out a bit on the small side to be comfortably hittable with an finger without some zooming.


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## Carniflex

Got some of the cables I ordered and among these was mUSB OTG cable so I used it for attaching a 3G dongle to the tablet to test it out - apparently its capable of using these. I tested with HUAWEI E173 and after installing ppp widget it asked for the PIN as its supposed to do (dunno if its actually capable of data connection as my prepaid SIM has ran out atm)


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## Tiihokatti

Got Ainol Hero today, Hero is basically the same as fire/flame but with very good 10" screen (LP101WX1-SLN2 Screen of LG).
Runs smooth and was cheap as hell (180$ + cheap accessory bundle).
Small Slatedroid review.

Actually, I got 2 heroes. 1 for me and 1 for my twin.
With the updated 1115v2 firmware antutu benchmark gave ~9400-9500 scores for both tablets.
And CM10 for hero is already in the making.


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