JXD S7100 / Chinese Android Gaming Tablets

[KidIce]

Well once I get home (assuming it has actually charged) i will do this. I mainly want to remove some of the cluter hat is on there and those chinese apps that I can't figure out. Luckily I haven't done any customization on it as of yet.

I can understand the complaints people have with the launcher, but if you could run it and actually customise it all like the organised drawers the games are in, and maybe add a link the the android app page, it would be nice.

Yeah, I kind of liked the launcher it came w/ too, but the fact that everything was pretty much locked down was the deal breaker for me.

Is the system update on the site an update worth doing? I didn't get the chance to look at the specs in detail so I don't know what it updates at all

Update: So I got back and decided to play with the device some more. I installed the market/root package mentioned earlier and I installed a new loader, but what I am wondering now is whether the Chinese garbage can actually be removed or not. I am wanting to update the emulators and replace the GBA one with the version that runs golden sun, but it just says it can't uninstall.

Also it seems as though no apps from the Google market want to install, they all say they are not compatible with my device/version (MIP s7100 is what it shows up as), which is weird considering my phone that runs froyo can have the same apps installed. I am just hoping it's because I am just too tired to know what I am doing after a long day at work >.<

Did you get an A or B unit? In the about device page in the system settings under Build number it will display S7100B and a cryptic serial like code if it's a B. The Model number field will still report S7100 regardless of which you have, though. If it's a B you should be on Gingerbread (2.3) and not Froyo (2.2)... It could be that 2.3.4 is in the update, and I just don't recall. I really didn't see any big differences after doing it, other then all my apps and tweakings were gone or undone and the ROM's included for the emulator were gone (no biggie there). I really don't recall if it was on 2.2 when I got it though, I applied it only a couple days after I got mine and was too excited about its other crap to pay enough attention (and fairly clueless about Android).

The emulators and many of the Chinese apps are installed as system apps, you are going to need to use something like Root Uninstaller to get rid of them, the App Manager that is on there will not remove system apps.

Hmm... Not sure what the problem is w/ the market. My market install works fine and after a market update the pages I mentioned that were crashing it quit doing so.

What apps? I can check on mine to see if there is an issue for me. I mean, usually if a app isn't compatible (according to Google) then it doesn't even show up in the market when searched for or by browsing. If I locate it via other sites that then link me to the market page, then it reports it as incompatible w/ my device. Of course, if I download the APK from elsewhere and install it it usually works, despite what Google has to say on the matter.

 

[elgarta]

Did you get an A or B unit? In the about device page in the system settings under Build number it will display S7100B and a cryptic serial like code if it's a B. The Model number field will still report S7100 regardless of which you have, though. If it's a B you should be on Gingerbread (2.3) and not Froyo (2.2)... It could be that 2.3.4 is in the update, and I just don't recall. I really didn't see any big differences after doing it, other then all my apps and tweakings were gone or undone and the ROM's included for the emulator were gone (no biggie there). I really don't recall if it was on 2.2 when I got it though, I applied it only a couple days after I got mine and was too excited about its other crap to pay enough attention (and fairly clueless about Android).

The emulators and many of the Chinese apps are installed as system apps, you are going to need to use something like Root Uninstaller to get rid of them, the App Manager that is on there will not remove system apps.

Hmm... Not sure what the problem is w/ the market. My market install works fine and after a market update the pages I mentioned that were crashing it quit doing so.

What apps? I can check on mine to see if there is an issue for me. I mean, usually if a app isn't compatible (according to Google) then it doesn't even show up in the market when searched for or by browsing. If I locate it via other sites that then link me to the market page, then it reports it as incompatible w/ my device. Of course, if I download the APK from elsewhere and install it it usually works, despite what Google has to say on the matter.

I have the s7100b. The device just seems to be recognises as a generic MIP when going through the market and I cant install any apps directly, so i need to download them onto my PC as an APK and then transfer them over. Been tinkering with it for the last 2 hours or so and I think I am finally getting into it. I am also getting a better understanding of how android works too since I haven't done alot of customisation on my phone, cause really I don't do alot with it anyway.

The tool I finally found to remove the apps was Titanium Backup, It has no problems removing system/protected software, so i got rid of the ones that were preventing me from installing my own updated versions, working like a charm now. The battery has also been great since last night, so I don't know what was causing it to drain fast.

Well, a few apps off the top of my head were Mame4all, Astro (file manager), appbrain & uninstaller. Maybe that is it, alot of them i am searching through appbrain since I have used that more in the past and that directs me straight to the google market. Downloading the APKs from anywhere else is fine, so it is a bit weird that the market has some sort of compatibility issues when the device runs them fine once you work around it

 

[KidIce]

I downloaded both MAME4All and MAME4Droid Reloaded from the market w/ no problems and I'm downloading AppBrain now. I visited the market page for the other two apps, but didn't download them... As far as I could tell though I could have no problem. Mine also identifies itself on the market as a MID S7100.

When you connected to the market did it upgrade to Google Play? For some reason it took a few visits w/ the market app included in that root package before it upgraded mine, but afterwards any issues I had were gone.

 

[elgarta]

I downloaded both MAME4All and MAME4Droid Reloaded from the market w/ no problems and I'm downloading AppBrain now. I visited the market page for the other two apps, but didn't download them... As far as I could tell though I could have no problem. Mine also identifies itself on the market as a MID S7100.

When you connected to the market did it upgrade to Google Play? For some reason it took a few visits w/ the market app included in that root package before it upgraded mine, but afterwards any issues I had were gone.

Weird.. I will have to check it again then. Mine upgraded almost immediately to the Google market from the Android one. Obviously the device is capable of getting the stuff from the market place

Otherwise the only other issue I had was the screen sensing touches in some places when I wasn't actually touching the screen, but that might've been some smudged on the screen, it went away after a quick wipe-down with a microfibre cloth. Very happy with the device. I also love the screen, generally very responsive except for maybe 10 seconds after booting when the launcher is loading up. I am going to test it out over my weekend and I might throw a bit of a review together for it just so there is something out there, I personally didn't find the "IT DOESNT HAVE SHOULDER BUTTONS!!" cry-reviews very helpful, and almost all of the ones I found and read were about the old resistive screen model or were un-rooted devices, so there were complaints about the default apps.

 

[raulpica]

@[member='KidIce'] @[member='elgarta']
Where have you guys bought yours?

I was thinking of getting an A unit because of the DTS/AC3 license thingy, which kinda is a major selling point for me.

 

[Dingoo-fan 32]

Should I wait for a AML8726-MX dual-core version, or buy the current version?

 

[elgarta]

@raulpica I bought mine from willgoo.com (weird name, I know). I think they did have the A unit at one point but I am not sure if it is still in stock. DX is another place that I saw the A unit at which I almost ordered.. then you have Chinagrabber and Isharegifts. I heard they shipped alot of people the resistive screen model when it first came out, so just be cautious if you do that

Should I wait for a AML8726-MX dual-core version, or buy the current version?

Hard to say when/if they will do this, that is the only problem with waiting it out. honestly I haven't even OC'd mine yet and I only get a little bit of stuttering on a few games, mostly N64 and a few of the very very busy MAME ones, but even then it's just a slight jitter and not game breaking.

 

[KidIce]

I may go AWOL for a couple days. My computer is having a major hardware failure, it won't even post 85% of the time. I'll be going out this weekend and buying a new MOBO, CPU, etc. I'm actually surprised I managed to post this from my computer and not my s7100, 3DS, etc. :-/

I bought my s7100 from Price Angels. Like I said earlier, they were selling them for ~$160 (and still are). They sell the black capacitive screen model only, from what I can see. They do not mention whether it will be a A or B unit, but because I received a B model and the A model supply seems to have dried up, I think it's safe to assume you will get a B unit from PA.

@[member='Dingoo-fan 32']:
I absolutely agree w/ elgarta. This is a nice little device...Even now at it's current spec. RP's speculation about a C model w/ a dual core processor was (I believe) as much to poke fun at me and my comment as it was an attempt to predict what will happen. He has no special knowledge about what JXD might do in the future, he was just using some news about ARM cores to exploit my pessimism. The AML8726-MX dual-core equipped s7100C is a myth made up in this very thread. If you wait for it you will probably be waiting a VERY long time... And in fact, you may be waiting for a device that may never exist.

Waiting or not is up to you, but I really think you will be missing out on what elgarta and I are currently playing w/ and waiting for something that won't be available for a long time... If ever.

 

[Dingoo-fan 32]

@[member='KidIce']:
I Knew the s7100C was a joke, but JXD launches a upgraded device every month, so a dual-core version is probable...

I'm in trouble deciding between the s7100A and the YDP-G16, any help?

 

[raulpica]

@[member='KidIce']:
I Knew the s7100C was a joke, but JXD launches a upgraded device every month, so a dual-core version is probable...

I'm in trouble deciding between the s7100A and the YDP-G16, any help?

YDP-G16 has a resistive screen (which isn't multitouch and it feels really really crappy, when compared to a capacitive one), and has different CPU. A positive note is that it has shoulder buttons (the S7100 doesn't have them). It also has a smaller screen (4.3" vs 7").

While it has the same GPU as the S7100, the CPU might be weaker. It's a Cortex-A8, and while clocked on 1.5GHz, a Cortex-A9 is probably stronger (A9 is super-scalar, iirc?). Positive note is that the media "engine" (the specialized DSP) in it is a lot stronger than the one the S7100 has got.

As for the Dual Core thingy, as KidIce has said, it's just speculation on my part. But as you've said, JXD upgrades their designs kinda frequently (3 months apart between each model?) so it might come soon, or not.

 

[elgarta]

@[member='KidIce']:
I Knew the s7100C was a joke, but JXD launches a upgraded device every month, so a dual-core version is probable...

I'm in trouble deciding between the s7100A and the YDP-G16, any help?

The S7100A is disapearing from stock, so if you are looking at it then I'd look at going for it now. Otherwise you have the S601 which is the smaller version of the 7100A model with shoulder buttons. I haven't read much on the YDP-G16 since I didn't know it had been released yet, but I'd expect a slightly weaker CPU and resistive screen. The screen seems to be resistive in alot of the small consoles they make, not sure why they do this though : /

 

[KidIce]

I discovered the JXD in an advert e-mail from one of the Chinese shops I buy stuff from. Once I discovered it, I looked at a bunch of devices like this. I've never payed much attention to JXD, YinLips, etc products, so I didn't realize they had started making ones running Android or that might have a chance at replacing my PSP for on the go emulation. I went w/ the S7100 because of the larger/capacitive screen and generally better specs than most the Android devices w/ hardware controls bolted on them. I mostly bought it for retro gaming, but it is an Android tablet and I knew I would probably use it for some "tablety" type things (e-reader, web-browsing at the local pub, etc) that would make a bigger screen more desirable, so the other devices lost on those merits.

Do I miss the shoulder buttons? Yeah a bit. There are some titles I've had to get pretty creative w/ to make playable because they're missing, but not enough to make me regret buying a "gaming" device w/o them. My PSP is pretty much done for as my portable emulation device of choice if that gives you any idea of how much I need them.

There are times I wish it was smaller, but it's not like I wasn't aware what a bigger screen would mean. My DS's and PSP's will fit in the breast pocket of my coat, this obviously will not. If that level of portability is more important to you, the other devices obviously win. This is great for plane/train/bus rides, on my breaks at work and so on; but if I'm waiting in line for the latest block buster movie I'm probably not going to have it on me because it's not pocket-able... Of course my 3DS is always in that pocket anyway. :-)

 

[elgarta]

I'd never heard of them until I made this topic. I was looking at picking up one of those GP32X things but then a thread I was reading directed me to yinlips, then it directed me to a Yinlips vs JXD post with little substance. I am certainly happy that I picked this thing up, like you said it requires creative ways for some games to work, especially since some emulators (Snes9x) don't give you many options for mapping L/R buttons, so I have all the buttons on my screen just so I can set them up in a way I like

Since buying this I have pretty much kept my PSP Go for PSX/PSP titles and the JXD has become my retro emulator device of choice. I love that there are choices for emulators. The only things I could see being better are the inclusion of shoulder buttons and more emulators that share battery saves instead of having their own unique save type (Snes 9x and Super Gnes are the only 2 that I find that support .srm files). It'd just be nice to switch emulators on the fly because you'd prefer ones special features for certain parts of the game, but thats an Android issue and not JXD.

 

[raulpica]

@[member='KidIce']

I got a reply on apad.tv on the issue of AC3/DTS decoding. Soulflier (the guy behind GaboROM for S7100A) told me this:

Oh I see. There is a software solution too, in MX video player, you can select software audio decoding, so that video is HW decoded, audio is SW.

I guess it'd be worth a try. Might be interesting with those kind of vids

This rekindled my hope in it. I'll get a S7100B in two weeks.

 

[KidIce]

I'd never heard of them until I made this topic. I was looking at picking up one of those GP32X things but then a thread I was reading directed me to yinlips, then it directed me to a Yinlips vs JXD post with little substance. I am certainly happy that I picked this thing up, like you said it requires creative ways for some games to work, especially since some emulators (Snes9x) don't give you many options for mapping L/R buttons, so I have all the buttons on my screen just so I can set them up in a way I like

Since buying this I have pretty much kept my PSP Go for PSX/PSP titles and the JXD has become my retro emulator device of choice. I love that there are choices for emulators. The only things I could see being better are the inclusion of shoulder buttons and more emulators that share battery saves instead of having their own unique save type (Snes 9x and Super Gnes are the only 2 that I find that support .srm files). It'd just be nice to switch emulators on the fly because you'd prefer ones special features for certain parts of the game, but thats an Android issue and not JXD.

Yeah... PSX emu is at best useable. If you have a PSP you are probably not going to start using the S7100 instead. The other emulators for Android on this device tend to be better than the PSP altenatives though. As I said, my PSP is no longer my goto device for handheld retro gaming, unles it's PSX emulation.

I've known of JXD, Yinlips, Game Park, Dingoo, Pandora and a mess of other brands/products for some time. The only thing that looked like a better performer than my PSP for emulation was the Pandora, and its price and lack of availabilty made it a no go. I've played w/ iPhones and various highend Droid's. None of them have made me want to switch from my PSP due to the lack of physical controls or just flat out poor performance. The videos and reviews of the S7100 showed a level of performance (and physical controls) enough changed my mind, and I'm not sorry for a second that it did.

@[member='KidIce']

I got a reply on apad.tv on the issue of AC3/DTS decoding. Soulflier (the guy behind GaboROM for S7100A) told me this:

Oh I see. There is a software solution too, in MX video player, you can select software audio decoding, so that video is HW decoded, audio is SW.

I guess it'd be worth a try. Might be interesting with those kind of vids

This rekindled my hope in it. I'll get a S7100B in two weeks.

I can't test it right now, unfortunatley. My new PC build is currently sucking up all my time and bandwidth dowloading/installing drivers and other nonsence and I deleted the test videos (I figured I was done w/ them). After spending most of a day trying to eliminate my BSOD's and all manner of other crap, I figured it was probably going to take less time if I just did a clean install and start over then continue to try to troubleshoot . I'm still working on that... And I have to work tomorrow and meet w/ a broker and...

When I'm done getting this new rig back to what it was I'll start working on my JXD again and test that for you. Sorry, but my computer is my priority, I have to work from this thing fairly often. :-/

 

[raulpica]

Sorry, but my computer is my priority, I have to work from this thing fairly often. :-/

Well sure, don't worry I forgot you had issues with your PC. It was worth a shot.

I can't wait to join you guys in the S7100B club

Just one question (it's for @[member='elgarta'] also), with games on emulators that require shoulder buttons, you can map them to the touch screen, right?

I sure do hope so

 

[elgarta]

Sorry, but my computer is my priority, I have to work from this thing fairly often. :-/

Well sure, don't worry I forgot you had issues with your PC. It was worth a shot.

I can't wait to join you guys in the S7100B club

Just one question (it's for @[member='elgarta'] also), with games on emulators that require shoulder buttons, you can map them to the touch screen, right?

I sure do hope so

A club eh? That sounds cool, but I don't know how many people would know what we were referring to

You can map shoulder buttons, and quite easily. The only emulators I've had to be creative with were SNES 9x since you need to map the L/R buttons to the on screen D-Pad and/or the A/B/X/Y buttons. Snesoid and others let you just stick them by themselves, but not old 9x.. nope.. And the N64oid. I actually could not get mine to work as a D-Pad, plus you have to have the Analog stick mapped sepperately and then you have 2 shoulder buttons and the Z trigger.. My god, whoever designed the N64 controller must have made it simply to stop people from re-producing copies of the games. It was so horribly designed >.

 

[KidIce]

Yeah, the N64 controller is unholy. I did manage to play some Zelda: OoC and do alright, but I never found a useful way to Z-target. :-/ OTOH, the virtual analog stick is a lot nicer than I expected.

Almost any Android emulator is going to have virtual controls as most Android devices lack physical ones. Most of them are remap-able, some allow you to even move the buttons to where you want them on the screen or only display the ones you need. Really, it's not as bad as some people seem to think.

 

[elgarta]

Exactly. I find the N64 to be fun to figure out, but some games like Mario are alot easier to set up then say Zelda or Star Fox. I do resort to the virtual analog stick, which as you said works nicely. Much better than the joystick on the MAME emulators : /

I ended up just downloading different versions of the emulators to see what worked for me. I think I have about 2 of each for some since 1 will run some games perfectly but not othres, but some will run those others fine, but not run the first set very well. I think they get more support than the PSP ones too, so improvements will likely continue over the course of time.. Especially as people are startign to get game controllers like the wii-mote working with their bluetooth devices.E

Edit: It looks like Apad.tv has links to a custom rom for the s7100b. The launcher on it looks ok, but I wish it was out when I first got mine haha. It would've saved some time and frustration when dealing with the pre-installed apps

 

[KidIce]

Alright boys and girls.... The problem w/ the Android market elgarta is having seems to be directly related to the ROM that I linked to that installs root and Google Play. I screwed up again (you have no idea how reckless I've been w/ my tweeking) and had to re-flash. I used that package instead of Unlock Root this time and all of a sudden I can't find a damn thing on the market and just about everything is now "Incompatible w/ your MID S7100". I also took more extreme measures this time by spoofing as a Galaxy S. An here's what I did...

If you have applied any of the kernels that root, install the market or OC your S7100 it would be best if you re-flash to the update from the JXD website. That's where I started this time.

Use Unlock Root to root your device, and enable installing from unknown sources in settings.

Install Root Explorer from SD. You'll have to find the APK on your own, because at this point you will not be able to install via the market.

Open Root Explorer and go to the system directory. Locate the build.prop file. You might want to back this file up first, but the edits I'm about to suggest aren't really dangerous and can be undone easily enough. Touch and hold until a menu pops up. Select "Open in text editor". Look for the ro.product entries (should all be there on the first screen). Replace any instance of "MID" w/ "samsung" and any instance of "s7100" w/ "galaxy s" (do not enter quotes), there should be exactly 4 entries replaced. Save and exit.

Now you're going to need some APK's: I can upload them somewhere, but I honestly don't know if I can link to them here or not (are these freely distributable or not?!?), but these are the APK's you need:
1) GoogleServicesFramework.apk
2) MarketUpdater.apk
3) Vending.apk

Put them on your SD, then Use Root Explorer to copy them to system/app. Touch and hold on the newly copied files until the menu appears, then select permissions (one at a time). Set all the read column to on, the owner/write box to on, the rest of the boxes to off/ The menu should look like this:

[X][X][ ]
[X][ ][ ]
[X][ ][ ]

Now go back to your SD and tap the vending APK and then select install,

That's it, you're done. A reboot would probably be a good idea at this point, but afterwards you just need to sign in or set up you Google account and you should be able to download anything that will run on a Galaxy S.

Edit: If I get the time, I'll clean this up and do a step by step tutorial... But time is not something I'm likely to have a lot of any time soon. If anyon can use this to make a better tutorial, please do... But a thanks would be nice. :-)