Joined on 07/05/10
Like it at this price
Pros: Low price, high resolution. Almost like new! Cannot understand why the average rating for it is so low here!!
Cons: Not ultra-fast but can't complain at this price! User guide is not much useful: it did not tell me there is a screen rotate lock on the side panel. Viewing angle is somewhat limited.
Overall Review: I bought it last week, when it was on sale. If the rebate holds, it would come out at $50. It did not come in the fancy package, and came only with the USB charger. Had to struggle a bit understand some of the features/limitations. Initially the screen would not rotate with the holding position. I looked up in the Android settings and the "Auto-rotate screen" option was greyed out. So I googled to find why! There was a link on Lenovo servers that mentioned to manually release the little screen lock on the side panel. Somewhow there is no mention of this lock slider in the user guide (again there was no hard copy that came in the box, but there was a softcopy on the tablet) . Another thing I noticed was that it could not play any HD videos in the YouTube app. It would simply keep buffering or give an error message: "There was a problem while playing. Touch to retry". The same videos would play in the web browser though. Updating the system and YouTube app did not help. Then I found on the web that it was not an issue specific to this tablet, rather a YouTube app bug. The trick is to disable the HD option by tapping a small icon on the left bottom corner of video. However this needs to be done for each video and there is no general app option to disable the HD mode. Initial boot was long, but subsequent boots were not bad.
both units lost HomePlug within 3 months
Pros: Still work as basic router
Cons: Purchased two of these to pair as HomePlug network because I needed to hook up my TV to network (modem is in other room). They worked fine for couple of months. Then one lost the Homeplug within two months. It started showing HomePlug firmware version and MAC address as unknown. Contacted Warranty and they asked to ship back the defective unit at my cost. Spent some ten bucks for returning it. They shipped me another unit, but by the time I got it, the other one also lost the HomePlug (started showing unknown firmware version). So the basic purpose of HomePlug networking still remains un-served.
Overall Review: Learnt the hard way -- it is better to spend money on some reliable wireless dongle. Just wasted some seventy bucks on these two units and lots of time figuring out the issues!!
Calling it 802.11n is a big lie
Pros: Cheap... works OK as wired router
Cons: I have been unable to setup this router for 802.11 n mode, since I bought it couple of months ago. No matter whether I select b/g mixed, b/g/n mixed or n only, the hardware remains in the b/g only mode. Only the configuration software switches to different option. I have verified this using b/g only client, which can connect in the n only mode also. On the other hand, my b/g/n capable laptop just sees the AP as b/g router (while I have configured it to b/g/n mixed or n only mode) - as a sidenote my laptop can see some neighbors' AP as b/g/n . I have already set the Channel width to "Auto 20/40 MHz". I also upgraded the router to latest FW version 2.00.36, but nothing helped. Other problem with the router is that WLAN turns off every couple of days (the WLAN LED is off, and clients can no more see the router). Then it comes up after power cycling.
Overall Review: The setup wizard software is not intelligent. Unlike Netgear/ DLink utilities I have tried earlier, this one did not set up WAN properly to connect using cable modem. I had to clone my laptop MAC address in order to connect with the cable modem.
All features work, but not as plug and play
Pros: Priced pretty low compared to all the features it offers. Serves great as all-in-one device for wired ethernet LAN, powerline LAN and wirless LAN. The powerline adapter part seems to OK as devices get detected automatically and data rates seem to be good.
Cons: I think primary reason why it is discounted so much off the retail price is because it is not a plug-and-play device, mainly the router and wireless LAN part. You need some technical knowledge about LAN configuration to exploit all its features. Like others I had to spend 4-5 hours to figure out all the settings. I have tried Netgear powerline adapters and they come up without any configuration.
Overall Review: The reasons I said it is not a plug-and-play device: a) I am using a cable modem. Configuration utility did not detect my WAN type. I had to manually assign type as Ethernet, however it could not connect to internet until I cloned its MAC address with my laptop. I have tried other routers like Netgear, D-Link before and their configuration utilities automatically detected my WAN (used both cable modem and DSL in past), and automatically cloned the MAC. b) If you plan to use one router with the modem in one room and connect other one in different room over powerline, first remember to change the default IP of second one form 192.168.1.1. Otherwise the two routers will confict with each other. c) In my case the second router was still trying to use the unconnected WAN for internet, hence no internet access. I had to change its default gateway to 192.168.1.1 (which is first router) and also enable something else to use LAN instead of WAN.