Hi all,
I've noticed the Alfawise Tab tablet on Gearbest Mod Edit: Selling site link removed.
As reviewed by some, this tablet seems great at a very low cost. It has the screen, the sounds, the battery, the form factor etc...
Mod Edit: Video link removed for promoting selling site.
Sadly, searching for at least a "support" or "download firmware" doesn't return any results.
It only has Android 6 with security patches from March 2016.
I'm a bit concerned about security, but not that much, since I only use my current tablet for reading and browsing (so... a pdf reader and Chrome is enough).
I've seen in some other review that an anti-malware check returned nothing (minute 5m 24s, in the view below). So, this tablet may be clean, just the software outdated.
Mod Edit: Video link removed for promoting commercial selling.
So, I'm just interested in BUGS right now, if any. The iFive tablet seems to also have an outdated Android 6 version and it has some pretty annoying issues mentioned HERE, on XDA forums
If you have this tablet, please tell me: what bugs did you find? Force crashes of apps, deadlocks, SoD, etc... ?
Kind regards
I have the tablet since last week now...
i have to say I have several Android tablet Teclast x98Air, x98Air2, Cube i7, iFive 4S... I have rooted all my tablet, some by mounting a factory system partition on my computer and manually adding su binaries. I switched also to iPad mini 4 for 1 year and half or so... In short, I know what kind of issue you can meet and what is a good tablet according to chinese standard and can compare with other kind of devices...
The Alfawise Tab is an amazing piece of hardware AND software for the bucks :
Hardware :
- Good Audio
- Slim. Not as much as an iPad mini but slimmer then iFive 4s (which is a ****ing piece of crap).
- Great screen : it's 1536 x 2048. Clear, bright... You get it.
- USB-C charge.
- Storage seems fast enough.
- Decent battery life.
- It's metal. Not ****ty plastic like iFive.
- Good build according to chinese standard. Not as good as Xiaomi but still pretty good. Better than Teclast.
Software :
- No bloatware, crapware, ****ware of any kind... It's stock Android. Period.
- Fully loaded with google suite : Appstore and the whole google ecosystem (map, book, film, chatting stuffs, music, assistant, youtube).
- NO SoD, NO crash, no infamous shutdown... Nothing. The thing is as stable and smooth as swiss clock.
- It's fast. NO lags. (But i idn't test any game. And I'm more like puzzle game than car or fight).
Only downside : I couldn't find any factory rom on the web, neither boot image. There is no "su" binary in the system partition (???), the rom is a production one and adb root is disabled so there is no way to make a dump of boot and system partition as a backup or material to root or custom rom (as far as I know). Couldn't find a way to contact Alfawise. There is no contact form or any information on that matter on their website to ask them to release the factory rom for public consumption.
Great reply, @w1nst0n sm1th, and I totally agree with you about the downsides!
w1nst0n sm1th said:
I have the tablet since last week now...
Only downside : I couldn't find any factory rom on the web, neither boot image. There is no "su" binary in the system partition (???), the rom is a production one and adb root is disabled so there is no way to make a dump of boot and system partition as a backup or material to root or custom rom (as far as I know). Couldn't find a way to contact Alfawise. There is no contact form or any information on that matter on their website to ask them to release the factory rom for public consumption.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First of all, thank you very much for replying with such useful information. I too noticed the PROs of this and I'm glad you confirmed them.
As for the downsides, yes!, those quoted concern me the most. No support, no contact, no "download firmware" section.
However, this is not really that bad, given that other popular brands in China will make you almost flash a new ROM when they release an update (no OTA or not working).
For example, the iFive is backed by a s***ty website with updates and support. Each update is tagged with a hardware version. In their case, you have to update the right tablet with the corresponding ROM, otherwise you are probably screwed. (please correct me if I'm wrong regarding the updating process in the case of iFive)
I prefer a stable OS with no updates and no support page :good: rather than an unstable OS , with updates that patch the issues reported on an official support page.
Thank you again for your opinion.
I hope others will join this thread with hands-on experiences.
@w1nst0n sm1th do you feel like it's a good upgrade from ifive mini 4s (battery life, audio output, video decoding)? have you tried 10 bit videos? thinking of upgrading, using it mostly for reading, watching x265 videos & Twitch.
looks like they can be contacted through here : https://www.alfawise.com/category-contact
w1nst0n sm1th said:
I have the tablet since last week now...
i have to say I have several Android tablet Teclast x98Air, x98Air2, Cube i7, iFive 4S... I have rooted all my tablet, some by mounting a factory system partition on my computer and manually adding su binaries. I switched also to iPad mini 4 for 1 year and half or so... In short, I know what kind of issue you can meet and what is a good tablet according to chinese standard and can compare with other kind of devices...
The Alfawise Tab is an amazing piece of hardware AND software for the bucks :
Hardware :
- Good Audio
- Slim. Not as much as an iPad mini but slimmer then iFive 4s (which is a ****ing piece of crap).
- Great screen : it's 1536 x 2048. Clear, bright... You get it.
- USB-C charge.
- Storage seems fast enough.
- Decent battery life.
- It's metal. Not ****ty plastic like iFive.
- Good build according to chinese standard. Not as good as Xiaomi but still pretty good. Better than Teclast.
Software :
- No bloatware, crapware, ****ware of any kind... It's stock Android. Period.
- Fully loaded with google suite : Appstore and the whole google ecosystem (map, book, film, chatting stuffs, music, assistant, youtube).
- NO SoD, NO crash, no infamous shutdown... Nothing. The thing is as stable and smooth as swiss clock.
- It's fast. NO lags. (But i idn't test any game. And I'm more like puzzle game than car or fight).
Only downside : I couldn't find any factory rom on the web, neither boot image. There is no "su" binary in the system partition (???), the rom is a production one and adb root is disabled so there is no way to make a dump of boot and system partition as a backup or material to root or custom rom (as far as I know). Couldn't find a way to contact Alfawise. There is no contact form or any information on that matter on their website to ask them to release the factory rom for public consumption.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey man. Can U write something more about battery? I mean, how long can U watch videos, play games etc. Thanks
lelecureuil said:
@w1nst0n sm1th do you feel like it's a good upgrade from ifive mini 4s (battery life, audio output, video decoding)? have you tried 10 bit videos? thinking of upgrading, using it mostly for reading, watching x265 videos & Twitch.
looks like they can be contacted through here : https://www.alfawise.com/category-contact
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's definitelly a good upgrade. Quality is clearly above iFive 4s, as well for hardware than software.
---------- Post added at 01:10 ---------- Previous post was at 01:03 ----------
Regin_ said:
Hey man. Can U write something more about battery? I mean, how long can U watch videos, play games etc. Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't really measure it. But since i had the occasion to compare with iFive 4s I bought 2 months earlier, it seemed to me the battery life lasted longer, as long as you don't leave the tablet in a state of heavy duty without putting it in deep sleep (screen switched off), like screen on with a game started on the foreground or background.
Once on heavy duty, the battery will soon decrease rapidly, but that's the case with every tablet.
Does it support Full HD Netflix?
Hi all,
Does this tablet support viewing Netflix in Full HD?
I know many of the chinese tablets do not support this due to moded or non-certified OS...
Kind regards
Dear,
Few weeks ago I bought the Alfawise Tab Tablet from Gearbest.
GREAT specs for this small device ... low priced.
Unfortunately it does not connect to my Windows 10 pc weird ???
can someone please help me how to copy and past my movies/mp3 to this tablet ???
Greetings
Phil from Belgium
Pilsor said:
Dear,
Few weeks ago I bought the Alfawise Tab Tablet from Gearbest.
GREAT specs for this small device ... low priced.
Unfortunately it does not connect to my Windows 10 pc weird ???
can someone please help me how to copy and past my movies/mp3 to this tablet ???
Greetings
Phil from Belgium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Stupid me .... I needed the pull down menu .... and choose file transfer instead of usb charging ......omg , stupid me.
Its working now.
firmware
The tablet is a rebranded JDtab 01. In order to find firmware for this one google "needrom jdtab" (i can't post a link), but it needs a premium account, i also found it and downloaded from another site, google "panuso.com52949643", i uploaded it to my google drive (i can email the link to anyone that need it). I think it's possible to use the scatter file from the JDtab's rom to take a backup for the rom and create CWM recovery, in order to root, or even flash the entire rom to the tablet (there is a post at androidiani.com, you can google "androidiani. alfawise tab root" in order to find it. Also you can google "rom development for Mediatek MT8173 & MT8176 " , maybe you find something useful.
Bugs?
Has anyone managed to root the device , take a backup or flash Jdtab's rom? I have a problem with many apps that want to draw over other and I can't give them the permission to do it. Also there isn't a reboot selection (strange for Android 6). Another major problem is that there isn't Wi-Fi hot-spot setting and there isn't any way to activate it, (unable to use shareit or midrop). Lastly, when you power off the device and boot it again, it takes a very long time to boot.
ROOT for JDTAB
Here is a tutorial that i found, explaining hot to root JDTAB: Google "baidu5615963852"
Maybe appliable to our tablet by only flashing boot.img (if the boot.img is compatible with ours).
I also found that MTK8173 can be generally rooted with magidisk, but we can only use JDTAB'S boot.img.
So if someone is risky enough, can give it a try.
I made flashable rom zip for custom recovery (TWRp etc) using JDTAB'S stock rom for spflashtools with android kitchen. I HAVEN'T TESTED IT
Link : https://drive.google.com/file/d/11aWntKplL8p8Ik_0O5rNr5b85JKzwbs2/view
There is a MT8173 TWRP for porting, maybe someone can make a working TWRP. I used Alfawise's stock recovery and tried 3 differend methods, none worked.
Link: https://forum.xda-developers.com/mi-pad/development/recovery-twrp-3-2-1-0-mi-pad-3-cappu-t3744185
Spflashtools JDTAB rom: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ckEkkvXeqtFDjzttvDewVNFgfxWUAiIT
Alfawise tab firmware
Good news!
I managed to get the official firmware and tool from Gearbest.
So if anyone ends bricking his device, can hopefully restore it with this firmware.
I will also try to port TWRP with this stock recovery.img
Here is the alfawise image&tool download address in baidu cloud:
https://pan.baidu.com/s/12ojEZHuw16uUS42Op2qWaw
PassWord：fz8b
I will also upload it to Google Drive tomorrow.
For now, here is Alfawise's stock recovery.img and scatter: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ppChA43MamPdVtli6JKnc9Hp33zHWMid
ROOT tutorial for JDTAB, probably appliable to Alfawise: https://tieba.baidu.com/p/5615963852
Alfawise tab firmware
Alfawise firmware for spflashtools: https://www.needrom.com/download/alfawise-tab-firmware/
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LiMjvdKXtk5X-1Oist8MfYRhJsvSnsCP/view?usp=drivesdk
root
That also seems like a guide that may be appliable to our tablet: https://forum.xda-developers.com/android/help/root-teclast-master-t8-t3722210
i bought the tab from gearbest. the tab switches on rarely. currently the tab wont switch on and don't know if it'll ever switch on. from day 1 i'm facing this issue. Don't know if it's the battery/ power / display issue. the charging indicator light is displayed when connected to battery. pressing the power + volume down button continuously for more than a minute is also not helping. tried charging the battery one whole night. still no luck. Any help is appreciated
chand_0466 said:
i bought the tab from gearbest. the tab switches on rarely. currently the tab wont switch on and don't know if it'll ever switch on. from day 1 i'm facing this issue. Don't know if it's the battery/ power / display issue. the charging indicator light is displayed when connected to battery. pressing the power + volume down button continuously for more than a minute is also not helping. tried charging the battery one whole night. still no luck. Any help is appreciated
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First try to hold the power button pressed over 15 seconds . If that doesn't help, try to reflash the official firmware.
Still no luck
radicalx said:
First try to hold the power button pressed over 15 seconds . If that doesn't help, try to reflash the official firmware.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the tips. Unfortunately, reflashing the official firmware too didn't help resolve the issue.
chand_0466 said:
Thanks for the tips. Unfortunately, reflashing the official firmware too didn't help resolve the issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In this case you should open a Ticket to Gearbest (do not mention that you reflashed the firmware).
Hello,
(Short version)
What is the best stock software version/update in your opinion?
Any reason not to upgrade to the latest version?
(More details)
Just got this tablet today.
I think I'll stay on stock for now.
Model - SM-T837R4
Came with version - T837R4TYU1BSCB
Update wants to update to version - T837R4TYS1BSE1
(attached current version in pics)
Thanks to anyone who helps in advanced.
Well, I think that it's always worh updating. Because of the newer security patches available. And just because you can
I'm on Android 10 and I see no differences with Android 9.
I'm on Android 10, last update, and everything runs smooth and perfectly. I agree with exnokiafan. Worth the update
Hm, I use this tablet to play Rules Of Survival and I suspect I had better performance on Pie than 10. I don't know if I can still agree with my previous answer .
Everything depends on the use you make of this tablet.
exnokiafan
InsertCoin_Pls
Thank you both for your input and giving your opinion.
I decided to update the tablet. I haven't had a chanceto use it yet, but just scrolling and opening apps looks fine and smooth
I plan tp use it mostly for watching content, and for 1 game, but rarely, so I belive it will be fine.
Thank you both again, appriciate it.
opeller said:
exnokiafan
InsertCoin_Pls
Thank you both for your input and giving your opinion.
I decided to update the tablet. I haven't had a chanceto use it yet, but just scrolling and opening apps looks fine and smooth
I plan tp use it mostly for watching content, and for 1 game, but rarely, so I belive it will be fine.
Thank you both again, appriciate it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice. I Use the tablet just like you. One game and streaming contents to Chromecast. I have updated, kind of heavily debloated it with adb and rooted it. I still have to find a way to make it pass the cst check but since I don't use any banking app or anything similar I might forget about this detail. It's warranty is gone but it will expire in 2 months. Tbh this is the only device I haven't rooted at day one xD.
I needed root to try a couple of things in order to fix the heavy lag that affects rules of survival. LoL. I hope you will enjoy your updated and safe tablet ))
exnokiafan said:
Nice. I Use the tablet just like you. One game and streaming contents to Chromecast. I have updated, kind of heavily debloated it with adb and rooted it. I still have to find a way to make it pass the cst check but since I don't use any banking app or anything similar I might forget about this detail. It's warranty is gone but it will expire in 2 months. Tbh this is the only device I haven't rooted at day one xD.
I needed root to try a couple of things in order to fix the heavy lag that affects rules of survival. LoL. I hope you will enjoy your updated and safe tablet ))
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you
I hope we both can get the most out of our tablets and enjoy ourselves.