Review of the Cruz T301 Tablet

For the price, the Cruz T301 Tablet by Velocity Micro is a decent as a basic reader or internet browsing device.

Specs:

• 7 inch screen
• 0.5 inches thick
• Android 2.2 OS
• 800 x 600 Screen Resolution
• 256 MB Ram
• 528 Mhz Dual Core Processor

From a performance standpoint, the Cruz T301 has decent speed and generally smooth operation.  The construction feels fairly solid and  as far as budget tablets go, it is surprisingly efficient.   As mentioned above, this makes it a fairly good choice for standard web browsing, book reading, or low end gaming.

On the downside, the battery life is sub par and the screen is of a lower resolution.  The screen looks OK when on the desktop or browsing the web, but starts to show its graininess when watching video.   Another frustrating aspect is the lack of support for android market applications.  There are some alternative sources to get many of these applications but certain ones are simply out of reach.  It also seems to be notoriously difficult to hack or upgrade the firmware.  For app geeks and those that like to stay on the cutting edge, this makes the Cruz T301 a waste of money.

Another con is the poor audio quality from the 3.5 inch headphone jack.   The audio from the speakers is basically not listenable , but I expected the audio from the headphone back to be at least decent.  Upon plugging it into the aux of my car stereo, or a set of USB speakers,  the audio  sounds unnaturally bright and thin, making it almost unusable as portable audio device.

The front facing camera/video camera is useful but the video/picture quality is quite low, producing a low resolution grainy image.  I tried using skype on the tablet and was fairly disappointing by the quality of the picture.

Overall, the Cruz T301 will make for a useful, lasting device for those with little money that simply want a tablet.  It works fine as a portable internet browser but is not an option for those with a larger budget that seek a device with long future and upgradeable hardware and software.  I am quite impressed by the speed and stability of the tablet for the price but that’s about all that is has going for it.  Hopefully, Velocity Micro will bring it’s tablets closer to the standards it has for its PCs, while still keeping the price on the lower end.