Quick Hands On With The Augen Gentouch78 Tablet

So the buzz today has been about the Augen Gentouch78 8-inch Android tablet that was being released by K-Mart (yes K-Mart). I quickly called my local store and he said he just got 5 of them in and would hold one for me. I checked the specs (which are below) and it seemed like this might be a nice tablet to have around the house. I've been reading books on the Kindle app on my Droid X and thought a bigger screen would be a bit nicer to read with. Especially having a $149 (full price $169) price tag being on sale until July 31st.

Once I got there he took out the floor model of the Gentouch78 as well as the Genbook74 (pictured below). I'm glad he did because first thing I noticed and couldn't get passed was how slow and unresponsive it was. Even the sales guy said it ran slower than his Motorola Droid. I turned off live wallpapers and that didn't help anything at all. I think it was more of the screen they used that wasn't responding well. If you look at the specs, it should be running Android 2.1 just fine. Here's a quick video of me using it while I was there.



They didn't have an internet connection so I couldn't really test the browser or the Market. The screen didn't look that great either. I saw pixelation around icons. I'm sure coming from a Droid X has spoiled me a bit on speed and screen quality but this just wasn't good enough to get my wallet out.

UPDATED:
See my full review videos here:



Gentouch78 Tablet
•800x480 color TFT touch panel screen
• CPU: 800 Mhz
• Ram: DDR2 256mb
• Internal Memory: 2GB
• Expansion Slots: SD/MMC card slot up to 16GB
• Wi-Fi Connectivity with Full Web Browsing Capability
• Supports Ebook Formats: Text, PDF, E-PUB, HTML
• Supports Media Formats: MP3, WMA, FLAC, AAC
• Supports most popular E-Book formats
• Picture Viewer in JPEG, BMP
• Video Player
• Rechargeable Lithium Battery
• Carrying case included

Accessories Included
• Leather Carrying Case
• USB Cable (for data transfers only)
• UL Certified AC Adapter

Now for the Genbook74, I didn't even get to use it. Something was wrong with the powercord and it wasn't charging. Not really a good since since they just got them in a few minutes before I got there. The screen is just small with a big bevel. This doesn't appeal to me at all. And here is a shot of the Genbook74 that was priced at $99: