Notion Ink Adam Tablet PC Review: Cheaper but Better than Apple iPad?

Welcome to a hands on Review of the most eagerly anticipated Tablet PC of 2011, the "Notion Ink Adam. We have the highest end version you can possibly get the 10.1 Inch Pixel-QI 3G WI-FI. Can this device live up to the viral hype that surrounded it during the entire development process? Or is it really everything it was billed to be?

The Hardware

The Notion Ink Adam features a 10.1 inch multi-touch screen with a resolution of 1024×600 pixels. It has a 1 GHz Dual-core ARM Cortex -A9 with a Nvidia Tegra 250 processor and 1 GB of DDR2 RAM. You have a fair amount of internal memory to store your content via the 8GB of flash memory and can further increase it up to 32 GB via the MicroSD slot. We found with our testing that although the internal memory has 8 GB, you only have 5 GB to work with due to the applications and operating system pre-install

ed.The Adam comes with a built in accelerometer to switch between landscape and portrait mode. It quickly does its task flipping it, so we have no problems with any type of LAG. The LCD screen also includes an Ambient Light Sensor to automatically dim the screen. In conjunction with the Pixel QI Screen, it allows for more power saving and the ability to read in direct sunlight. The screen itself also has anti-Glare coating, Finger Print resistive and scratch resistant enhancements. All of these factors employed by the Adam greatly enhances the screen technology that no other competitor on the market uses.

The Anti-Glare and scratch resistive coating has met with some controversy thus far, we found through our experiments that fingerprints instantly got all over the unit. The screen itself did not show them to a high degree, but the outside of the screen sure did. Although the screen is not as resilient as Gorilla Glass, it looks like it could hold up to some serious use. Recently CEO of Notion Ink Rohan Shravan commented on the way the anti-glare and anti-fingerprint technology works talking with Slashgear “The Adam comes with 2 layers of Matte Surfaces, one on the Pixel QI LCD screen, other through the Matte Screen protector on the outside Glass. Inside layer cuts the gloss on the LCD layer and colors are not washed out. For the outside glass we are using specially designed matte covers w

hich users at their end can decide to use or not. It is finger stain resistant (oil component) and has same matte properties as on the LCD. The glass in itself is further scratch resistant.”

The Notion Ink Adam uses both LCD screens and Pixel QI screens, with the latter coming at a higher cost. Just to baseline summarize the technology allows two different modes, one being high color and brightness and the other a lower powered setting, kind of like e-ink. The pseudo e-ink screen actually gets brighter the more direct sunlight falls upon it. We found through our own testing that it performed great in the sun, the Adam outperformes the iPad in an outdoors setting.

The Adam includes many interface ports such as; 2 USB 2.0 ports, mini USB, MicroSD, SIM Card and a mini HDMI port to connect your Adam into your Video card if it has a full HDMI or your HI-DEF TV.

One of the great features on the Adam that prooved to be the most fun in the first 10 hours of playing with the device is the swivel camera that actually adjusts itself in an arc, unlike many netbook and tablet cameras that have a fixed position. The camera can move a total of 180 degrees and can take pictures or video! Solid!

For audio functionality it has stereo speakers, a 3.5 mm headphone/microphone jack and a built in microphone to take advanta

ge of teleconferencing via the swivel camera.

Finally, it has a 3 Cell Removable Lithium-Polymer Battery. Because the Adam uses low voltage (around .02) it can feasibly last around 140 hours with Audio and around 18 hours of full video.

Software

The Adam currently runs on the Google Android 2.2 operating system, although all signs pointed to it coming out of the gates with 2.3. There are many heavily customized programs for your day to day tasks that are unlike any other tablet experience you may have found so far. Essential day to day apps are tremendously revised and allow for a more intuitive experience with the Adam. We found the Email client (Mail’d) File Browser (sniffer) Web browser, paint (Canvas) had the best experience so far. With the web browser we were able to view Adobe FLASH content and embedded Youtube videos right out of the gates! It was fast and stable and a nice treat. So many budget tablets come out and do not even have the ability to play embedded youtube videos.

As well, the Adam has many more modified applications right out of the box including; Office Suite, Calendar, Weather, Music player, E-Reading, Sound Recorder,Calculator and tons more!

When we had our Adam today, it’s a given that this is an early firmware version and many of the applications were unresponsive and did not work. We had a heck of a time configuring the email client and Facebook application.

Although Notion Ink has claimed its Genesis Android market would be on this unit as it shipped it did not have a stand-alone application for it and the website itself has no content on it.
We will continue to review this unit as firmware updates come out, the Notion Ink Adam is a sturdy and sexy piece of hardware.

The Speakers are very loud and the microphone input is very responsive. The 180 degree webcam is also a great hardware feature. Also the Pixel QI model we have allows for NO glare and the battery life is amazing. It has been running 1080 P video streaming to the television and streaming audio for 16 hours so far, and it is still at 45% battery life. We were told that it should last up to 150 hours with just audio with a Pixel QI model and WI-FI turned off due to the low voltage.

The project launched too quickly in our mind, but it is nothing that a few firmware factory updates will solve. Speaking of updates, people who received their Adam the first day had their units bricked due to a faulty firmware update, although Notion Ink did provide a solution a few hours later.

Finally the Adam design wise, is very solid, it is light and easy to carry around and came with a free screen protector and static proof wipe.

Which is better? The Notion Ink Adam Tablet PC or the Apple iPad?

The biblically-named Notion Ink Adam Tablet PC is a joy to witness because it is packed with considerable features that the much-hyped Apple iPad Tablet PC lacks. The most obvious of these advantages is the revolutionary hybrid 10-inch PixelQi transflective touch screen display. This astonishing display of the Notion Ink Adam Tablet PC has three functions; it can run in full color, black & white, and e-paper mode. The PixelQi 1024×758 display provides optimal benefits for viewing high-resolution photos and videos but can also go on ultimate power-saving mode when reading or writing plain documents.

Despite good Apple iPad Reviews, the Notion Ink Adam Tablet PC review is in favor of the latter. This is because another great advantage of the Adam Tablet over the iPad is its built-in autofocus 3-megapixel camera! Why did Apple fail to include a camera for the iPad Tablet PC. This is a feature that every modern portable computer should have. Notion Ink also trumps Apple by including an expansion SD-card slot in their Adam Tablet. The $499 dollar version of the iPad has only 16GB storage and for me it’s just miniscule but would have been easily remedied by including a memory card slot on the iPad. The other features which make the Notion Ink Adam Tablet PC superior to the iPad are the HDMI output that transfers full 1080p HD video files, AGPS, proximity sensor, accelerometer, and Touchpad. Adam does fully support Adobe Flash whyle Apple keeps on refusing the Flash Player. No watching embedded Youtube videos and movies on the iPad.
The Adam Tablet also boasts up to 160 hours of battery life if the backlight for the display is turned off. Otherwise on regular use, its battery life can last up to 16 hours which is still better than the 10 hours offered by the iPad Tablet PC.
The Adam Tablet is a real computer powered by a dual-core 1 Ghz Intel processor, unlike Apple’s A4 iPad chip which is too slow to support multitasking. The Adam Tablet will fully support multitasking because of the desktop-like dual core processors. Gaming on it will be excellent because the Adam Tablet is armed with the potent nVidia Tegra 2 CPU. The iPad runs fast on the iPhone OS 3.2 but it can never really support full desktop applications like what the Adam Tablet is capable of. Notion Ink confirmed that their product is going to support Ubuntu, Android OS 2, and Google Chrome OS. The prototype displayed at the Mobile World Congress was running on Android OS 2.1.
And lastly, Notion Ink has officially confirmed that their Adam Tablet PC will retail for $327 for the basic unit and up to $600 for the high-end model. Price and feature-wise the Adam Tablet is the clear winner.

This was seized at Good E Reader and Technology Talks