Notion Inks Adam- Review

“By
addressing the limitations of both e-readers and normal tablets like
the Nexus/iPad/Slate, it’s the only product out there that makes a
convincing case for the modern tablet.” Notion Ink, the company
that developed this much talked about tablet “Adam” say proudly
on their facebook page. Going by the specs alone, Adam seems to live
up to what NotionInk say it is. Adam is the only tablet to integrate
to stunning technologies, Nvidia’s blazing Tegra chip (which can
handle 1080p video playback) and Pixel’s groundbreaking
dual-mode display that lets you go from full color mode to ePaper
with the push of a button.

Notion
Ink is based in Hyderabad, and run by a group of IITans except for
one management student, who left behind lucrative careers in the
corporate arena to bring alive the dream of a tablet that would
replace the laptop. NI have been in touch with the public about the
development right from the design stage to the selection of the logo,
through their blog and website, and this ensured that they kept
everyone on hooks waiting for it.

After
many, many, delays, the Adam was first unveiled at CES in Las Vegas
in January 2011, and finally started shipping a couple of months
later.

OS-

Adam
basically runs on Android 2.2(Froyo), but Notion Ink have given it a
complete custom overhaul and dubbed it as “Eden UI”(Get it? Adam?
Eden?). The cornerstone of Eden is Panel View, a home screen
alternative that allows users to view multiple running applications
at once as if using several Android phones side by side, even though
it’s currently limited to a few apps. OS has it’s fair share of bugs,
with the tablet being overwhelmed easily if there are a number of
apps running, but NI have been trying to address these issues. Eden
1.0 has been upgraded to 1.5 and features a lot of changes and fixes
a lot bugs, and there’s even an update available for those who want
to test Android 2.3(Gingerbread).

Camera-

The
Adam features a 3.1 M.P. Swivel camera. While it is twice as good as
most front facing cams, sadly it doesn’t match up to the rear-facing
cameras in other tablets.

Display-

Adam
comes with a 10”1 standard LCD display or optional Pixel Qi
display. Notion Ink claimed that the Adam came with Matte screen
protection, it seems that you have to install the screen protector on
your own. Some users also complained about the bad viewing angles,
but a tablet is mainly for personal use and I’m sure you can figure
out a suitable viewing angle. The Pixel Qi display, however is not as
bright as the LCD.

As
an e-book reader-

When
compared to the e ink technology that e book readers like Amazon
Kindle and Sony Reader use, the Pixel Qi display, with backlight
turned off even in direct sunlight, doens’t match up. The display is
more of a greyscale, and the contrast ratio is not high. However, you
can read in sunlight without
any problems. You cannot read indoors with the backlight turned off.
While the reading experience may not match up to a pure e-book
readers, it is perfectly adequate and you cannot play angry birds on
a Kindle or Nook, now, can you?

Connectivity-

The
adam supports two full sized USB ports and one full sized HDMI slot,
and it is the closest you can get to a laptop in terms of
connectivity. It also features an SD card slot with expandable memory
upto 32 GB. The adam also supports mutli-tabbed browsing and offers a
desktop like web browsing experience. You don’t have access to many
apps excpet for the basic ones that come pre-installed with it and
Amazon App marketplace, but NI is coming out with Genesis, the app
store exclusively for Adam soon, so you can hope to get your hands on
some cool apps soon.

Having
been touted as the biggest i pad killer”, ever since it was
announced, this may not be IT, for the Apple fanboys, but it surely
has made a niche market for itself. With the tablet industry and
customer base set to increase multi-fold in the coming year, it’ll be
interesting to see how “Adam” holds up.

Like
the i pad 2 is a much better tablet than it’s predecessor, maybe
we’ll get an Adam that fulfills all our requirements and addresses
our issues if NI ever comes out with Adam2. However, for those of us
who
cannot wait
to get our hands on this 14mm thick device, the Adam comes in a lot
of variants. You can choose from LCD, Pixel Qi, Wifi only and Wifi+3G
with the price of the base model(LCD+Wifi) being 19,000.

Youthopia Team

Team Youthopia works with a passion to make your voices heard!

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