Hipstreet W8 8” Tablet 2G 32GB Win 8.1 Office 365 With Additional 32GB SD Card

Comment:
On sale its an awesome bang for buck toy. I purchased a Dell micro USB OTG Data and charge adapter to power and use a M/K with this device. I have the tablet hooked up to a 27" 3D monitor and video playback is smooth using cyberlink and 3D mkvs. Windows 8.1 font scaling isn't the greatest but is usable for the modern UI(metro). Installed a touchscreen mouse program that makes desktop use feasible.Despite its short comings this tablet is awesome for the price on sale and is serviceable as a media player or secondary desktop.

Comment:
The UEFI firmware (bios) that this thing has does not have provision for booting legacy partitions. That means no backups with G4L or use of Linux. After spending hours trying to enable legacy support (FYI hit F7 for boot menu), I called Hipstreet tech support, they do not even support a clean install using a USB created with Windows media creation tool. When something goes wrong, you can send your device to Hipstreet and they will charge to re-flash. Others including Acer, Asus, HP, etc. have the option to disable secure boot and enable legacy partition support which gets around the problem. Linux even runs on Apple MBP, but this "locking" of the hardware is unacceptable in my mind. NCIX is great to deal with, perhaps a "Supports Legacy Partition Boot: Y/N" can be added as a specification for UEFI devices so people can know which manufacturers are locking their hardware.

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I'm comparing this to a much cheaper HP Stream 7. Processor specs are similar - Intel Atom Z3735G (for the HP) and Z3735F for the Hipstreet. Base speed (1.33) and burst/turbo (up to 1.83) are the same. The G version has 1GB of embedded RAM while the F version has 2GB. Performance in either configuration is the same as I don't expect either tablet to be severely multitasking as to use up the embedded memory. The hipstreet external expansion maxes out at 32GB (while the HP goes up to 64 despite the online specs saying up to 32GB as well). I tried a 64GB (silicon power) on the hipsteet but it wasn't detected (but maybe it may still work with other brands). OTG works without any issues. A generic $3 OTG dongle paired with a multi-port usb hub also allows access to more devices and drives. I plugged in a mouse, keyboard, a couple of usb flash drives and a usb card reader - and all were detected simultaneously. Using the hub also allows transfer of data between 2 or more flash storage devices.My only concern is the external expansion location. For some, this would be ideal but for me, I would rather have a hidden or less accessible placement (such as in the HP Stream where the micro SD expansion slot is hidden behind the back cover). Again, some people would probably prefer easier access but personally I consider the microSD card as permanent storage and use the OTG support for removable drives.Despite being $50 more than the HP stream 7, it is also an inch bigger in terms of screen size. The hipstreet has marginally better front and rear cameras as well. Top that off with the free 32GB hipstreet branded SD card and this may seem like a better value.Again, these are not power tablets, but they are sufficient for everyday tasks and video playback and minor games since the Intel HD graphics came from the 3rd generation intel core processors (albeit a little gimped). Free office 365 personal for a year also sweetens the deal.If you need a cost effective and basic tablet, these $100-150 tablets offer excellent value, great usablity, and very little learning curves (if you're more accustomed to windows). While others may think that 32GB for the built-in drive is too small (24GB available after OS and recovery partition), proper configuration, cleanup and maintenance will still land you adequate storage. Out of the 24GB and after installing all files, drives, Windows and Microsoft updates, I was left with around 14GB and after smart cleanup I was able to reclaim another 4GB, bringing me back up to 18+GB usable from drive C

Comment:
Cheap table used to playback video. does the job and allows for sd card expansion