OcUK Ultima 7" IPS 8GB Tablet PC

oll3h · 29 Dec 2012 at 18:17

So today I had one of these delivered. The idea was that it was to replace a very limited Kindle Fire. The specs looked good and as it was OCUK selling it as "one of their own" I place some faith in the product being half decent.

After un packaging the tablet from the couriers box the first thing I noticed was the tablets actual packaging was not sealed and looked like it had been forced shut. "Not to worry" I thought as I took the tablet out of the box to find the screens protective cover was all scuffed and folded. At this point alarm bells starting ringing. I took the cover off to find the tablet definitely had the tell tale signs of use with finger prints and marks all over the screen. The accessories that came in the box also look like they had been taken out and used then put back in.....

So after a bit of a clean I plugged the tablet in and powered it on. There was no "setup" wizard, I just got dumped to the android start screen after a bit of Icecreamsammich loading. The first thing I did was to download the BBCI Player app which wouldn't not work in the sense that I had audio but no video. This was the same for the Tvcatchup app. Reinstallation of the browser, flash and the apps themselves made no difference. The wireless also seems to keep dropping the connection whenever it fancies and the battery lasted about 2 hours on its first charge.

So....has anybody else had any positive experiences with these tablets? Do I have a duffer that's been sent out and resold? Any advice with the iplayer problem?

coltus · 29 Dec 2012 at 19:09

I received the ultima 10" yesterday and like yours the box had no seal and the protective film was a bit tatty with finger marks underneath.

I haven't connected to the net yet so can't comment on that. Although do i feel a bit paranoid about connecting to the net without a good AV and firewall.

Battery came charged to 98% and lasted under 3 hours while watching a bit of a film and just getting a feel for it.

chippy08 · 29 Dec 2012 at 20:28

Sounds like you both been sent out returns you both should contact overclockers using customer service forum

KWJay · 29 Dec 2012 at 21:19

Received mine yesterday and am using it now. Seems ok for the money. Discovered it seems to be made by Eken. Didn't look like it had been opened so no problems there.

I would like to know whether it can be upgraded to 4.1 as there are apps that aren't compatible accrding to play store. I get the same on iplayer, there's advice in the 10.1 thread about it but I haven't tried it yet.

Gibbo - do you know about any possible update to 4.1? Thanks.

chippy08 · 29 Dec 2012 at 21:36

Yes Eken is a big electronics company in China i think there factory opened in 2002.

KWJay · 29 Dec 2012 at 21:48

Yeah, i'd seen the name when l was looking at cheap chinese tabs a while ago. I think its the W70 on their site which on the info page says it does 4.1 so am hoping it can be updated

coltus · 29 Dec 2012 at 23:39

Aren't the tablets already at android 4.1, when i go to setting then to About Tablet it says android version 4.1.1.

Also if you tap android version really fast a picture of a jelly bean comes up, and if you tap and hold you get a bunch of jelly beans floating about which you can drag around.

Now i am trying to reverse tether the tablet to my laptop to get online (don't have wireless router) and it's causing a headache.

KWJay · 30 Dec 2012 at 13:54

Nope. The 10.1s were but the 7 I've received is 4.0.3. Is yours the Ultima 7"?

They are advertised as ICS, but i would have thought they could take 4.1. I discovered the fast-tap thing the other day, made me laugh!

coltus · 31 Dec 2012 at 07:24

Mine is the Ultima 10.1. I also found that if you press and hold the Power Off message it gives the option for booting into safe mode.

It would have been nice to have some more detailed documentation with the tablet.

whammer · 31 Dec 2012 at 19:56

I got one delivered just after Christmas, and my box was open too. The screen protector did seem a bit grubby but the screen was fine. There is a problem with BBC iplayer, but that's not the fault of the hardware. The BBC seem to have really screwed things up for some Android devices.The only issue I have so far is the battery life, it's really quite poor. I'm hoping a few charge cycles will improve things.
So far it seems good value for the money.

alterapc · 1 Jan 2013 at 13:27

I bought one on new years eve for my son's birthday at £95.99 having spotted them on OCUK at £79.99 prior to them getting stock in... Good start.. NOT

When I got it home I noticed on the back of the box it stated that it had 512MB memory not the 1GB stated on OCUK website... Called customer services who took 18 mins to answer phone and ended up getting the customary OCUK CS attitude.. Told to run benchmark which shows it has 1GB.. Just stunningly poor.. Stupidly I took him on his word and decided to just go with it..

To add insult it does not work.. Charged it for a minimum 6 hours as per instructions.... turned it on and it just sat at the ICS logo... 10 mins later still ICS logo... 1 hour later still ICS logo... 3 hours later same result... Gave up in the end.

It also look suspiciously like it was used. The screen protector looked scuffed and like it had been removed several times.

Seriously not impressed at all.. This at best is worth £49.99.. This one will be coming back to OCUK for a full refund and the money spent elsewhere.

DarkHorizon472 · 1 Jan 2013 at 14:29

Even from a good retailer there are risks around build quality, performance and long term reliability of Cheap Chinese clone tablets. It is difficult to keep the prices that low and fully test each tablet.

alterapc · 1 Jan 2013 at 16:11

Simple answer is not to sell them then. It does not excuse the poor CS and the rip off attitude that OCUK have. Using the made in china excuse is a bit lame considering the majority of electronic components are manufactured there. I reserve judgement on OC being a good retailer.

Gibbo · 1 Jan 2013 at 17:11

Hi there

To answer some questions.

1. All tablets are not seal, we open them and put uk plugs in the boxes.
2. Stock only arrived on 24th December and they are all brand new.
3. BBC iplayer can be a pain on android devices and can work after much fiddling, hopefully BBC will sort it out in the future.
4. The units are 1Gb RAM for sure.
5. For sub £100 for an IPS tablet they are great and one of the best amongst the sub £100 Chinese tablets. If your expecting IPad quality and battery life, it wont happen sorry.
6. OcUK operate a 14 day DSR period so those unhappy can return them and faulty ones will be swapped out quickly or refunded.

alterapc · 1 Jan 2013 at 19:36

With respect I was not expecting iPad quality but I do expect it to work.. I wouldn't buy a £100 CPU and expect it to be dead.. I wouldn't buy a £100 mobo and expect it to be fried..

As it happens I also bought a 10" IPS tablet at the same time for £180 from ocuk and it keeps freezing... nice work..

Gibbo · 1 Jan 2013 at 20:09

alterapc said:
With respect I was not expecting iPad quality but I do expect it to work.. I wouldn't buy a £100 CPU and expect it to be dead.. I wouldn't buy a £100 mobo and expect it to be fried..

As it happens I also bought a 10" IPS tablet at the same time for £180 from ocuk and it keeps freezing... nice work..

Any item can be faulty, it happens. I have a 10.1" and think it's great. Faults can happen or a product cannot meet people's expectations, we have DSR to protect us should we not find a product meets our expectations.

KWJay · 2 Jan 2013 at 12:14

Considering the price these tablets are good value. Battery life isn't great in heavy use, but for sub £100 it's not going to be. To put an IPS screen in they would have had to cut corners elsewhere.

Gibbo - Any chance of letting us know the manufacturer? Would be nice to see if we can get some Jellybean action!

janp · 2 Jan 2013 at 16:20

KWJay said:
Considering the price these tablets are good value. Battery life isn't great in heavy use, but for sub £100 it's not going to be. To put an IPS screen in they would have had to cut corners elsewhere.

Gibbo - Any chance of letting us know the manufacturer? Would be nice to see if we can get some Jellybean action!

It was mentioned in another thread, Eken apparently. That might just be the 10" model though.

Still no sign of my 7", ordered well before Crimbo

I'll get the order no from the family member that ordered it for me. Really disappointed in the service to be honest!

Gibbo · 2 Jan 2013 at 16:34

janp said:
It was mentioned in another thread, Eken apparently. That might just be the 10" model though.

Still no sign of my 7", ordered well before Crimbo I'll get the order no from the family member that ordered it for me. Really disappointed in the service to be honest!

Drop a post in CS forum, makes no sense why you don't have it, got 100+ in stock so something has to be delaying the order or some mistake on our part.

Gibbo · 2 Jan 2013 at 16:35

KWJay said:
Considering the price these tablets are good value. Battery life isn't great in heavy use, but for sub £100 it's not going to be. To put an IPS screen in they would have had to cut corners elsewhere.

Gibbo - Any chance of letting us know the manufacturer? Would be nice to see if we can get some Jellybean action!

When update is available, we shall make it available ourselves or it shall be made available via the update tablet within android.