Mobility Digest Review: Pandigital Multimedia Novel 4GB 7" Touchscreen Tablet Android w/Barnes & Noble eBookstore

I have to start this review off with a public apology as this is a bit late. It’s not exactly my fault that it’s late, but then again it is. Today for review I have the Pandigital Multimedia Novel 7” Android tablet and coffee got dumped on it, not once but twice. The first time was an accident on my part, the second time was my puppy jumping up on my desk to drink my coffee. This happened about a week apart and the tablet needed time to dry out completely of course. The good thing is that the tablet is perfectly fine, to me this means this is a rather durable little tablet. Anyway, let’s just get into the review…

Author: Kristofer Brozio

Vendor: Geeks.com 

Price: $89.99

Overall Rating: 4/5

Pandigital Multimedia Novel 4GB 7" Touchscreen Tablet Android w/Barnes & Noble eBookstore

The Pandigital Multimedia Novel Android tablet features a 7-inch color touchscreen display with a large 800 x 600 resolution. It’s built with 4 GB of storage that is pre-loaded with Google Android! Integrated 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi is included so you can browse the web with wireless freedom.

Expand the storage capacity of the Multimedia Novel 7-inch using its SD/SDHC card slot. Load your memory card up with your favorite movies, music, eBooks, and office documents; the Multimedia Novel 7-inch supports the most popular formats of each. More than just an Android tablet, the Multimedia Novel 7-inch features access to the Barnes & Noble eBookstore! Browse millions of eBooks, magazines, and newspapers, purchase premium content or access the thousands of free eBooks.

The Multimedia Novel 7-inch is built with a Lithium-ion 2300 mAh rechargeable battery, you can charge it with the included AC power adapter or USB cable, and the charge lasts up to 6 hours when you’re using it in eReader mode. Work and play on this dynamic multimedia device, get your Pandigital Multimedia Novel 7-inch Android tablet today!

General Features:
-Red color
-7-inch TFT touch panel
-800 x 600 resolution
-Google Android pre-installed
-4 GB internal storage
-SD/SDHC card slot (supports up to 32 GB)
-Mini-USB 2.0 interface
-Integrated IEEE 802.11b/g
-Built-in stereo speakers
-3.5 mm headphone jack
-Automatic orientation sensing
-Supports Barnes & Noble eBookstore & Library
-Supports add-ons from Android Apps Store
-Landscape-view stand included
-Built-in lithium-ion rechargeable battery
-Up to 6 hours battery life when reading
-Built-in alarm clock & calendar
-Music and video players
-Photo viewer
-Multi-language support
-Stylus included

Battery: Lithium-ion battery

Physical Features:
-Power switch on left side
-Volume +/- on top
-WiFi switch on top
-SD/SDHC card slot on top
-Mini USB 2.0 port on right side
-DC 5V input on right side
-Stylus insert on bottom right

Supported Formats:
-eBook: PDF, EPUB
-Video: MPEG4
-Photo: JPEG, JPG, PNG, GIF, BMP
-Audio: MP3, WAV, AAC
-Documents: DOC, DOCX, TXT, XLS, XLSX, CSV, PPT, PPTX, PPSX, PPS

Unit Dimensions: 7.25 x 5.25 x 0.63-inches (H x W x D, approximate)

 

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What’s in the Box?

The Novel comes in a colorful and informative box.

The tablet does come packaged very well.

Inside you’ll find the power supply, owners manual, the tablet, stand and a USB cable.

The stand is just a plastic thing, but it seems sturdy enough. The USB cable is the mini style.

The tablet I got is red in color and it’s basically plastic making it rather lightweight.

On the back of the tablet you’ll find a single speaker and in the top corner a stylus. The stylus is plastic and basic.

On the top of the tablet you’ll see volume controls, SD card slot, wi-fi switch and an audio jack.

On the side is the USB port, power connection and power button.

Impressions / Review:

The stand is nice, it holds the tablet very well. Not much to say really about it.

This is an Android tablet but it’s not what I expected. Normally I can put an Android device into debug mode and take screen captures but with this one your can’t. Apparently it’s running a special version of Android just for Pandigital. When you plug the USB cable in, it just pops up as PC mode so you can transfer eBooks over. I couldn’t find any way to do screenshots so I had to do it the old fashioned way with my camera.

Boot time takes quite a while, but this is common for lower end Android tablets. When you boot it up you’ll see the main screen and a navigation bar at the bottom, along with a Google search bar at the top.

The screen is 800×600 resolution which is fine for a 7” screen. The colors are decent, nice and bright even though my camera doesn’t really show it.

Pushing the tab on the right side of the screen will open the applications menu so you can see what’s installed.

There’s really not much installed as you can see. There is no Android Marketplace but a market called Slide or Sam 4.0 which is a sad example of a market I think.

Wi-fi works fine, I connected it to mine and browsed the web.

The keyboard is pretty much your standard Android one, nothing special here.

I tried to install some other programs, or games actually, on the tablet, 10 of them actually and only one worked.

So it’s a tablet yes, but it’s primarily an eBook reader and that it does well I think. The screen is nice and sensitive to the touch. The orientation sensor works but it’s a bit slow, you turn the tablet then a second or so later the screen rotates.

Included on the tablet as a feature is the Barnes and Noble bookstore and a few books for you to start with.

Reading on the Novel is fine, it works great for that, no complaint here at all.

Battery life is excellent, I easily got over 5 hours, very close to 6 really.

There is a stylus included but you really don’t need it from my experience with it.

As far as formats the tablet can handle, there’s plenty of them for documents, but only two for eBooks, PDF and EPUB, which I guess is fine really. The Novel can also handle Jpeg, Jpg, Png, Gif and Bmp photo formats along with Mp3, Wav and Aac audio files, but it can only do Mpeg4 video files.

 

Conclusion:

The Pandigitial Novel works great as an eBook reader, you can literally sit for hours and read. The Novel as an Android tablet is questionable though, it’s not exactly the fastest out there. I wouldn’t but it for using as a tablet but a reader it’s fine. it also works fine for browsing the web and checking email as well. I don’t know how many games you’ll be playing on it, but that might not be a concern for everyone.

The Novel can make a nice photo viewer, or music player or even a movie player. it shines though as an eBook reader, especially for the long battery life.

 

 

Pros:
+Excellent battery life
+Simple to use
+Great as eBook reader
+Seems durable
+Screen is nice and sensitive

 

Cons:
-Can’t install much
-No real Android marketplace
-Rather slow boot time