[Windows 8 General] Stewart Davidson:
Teclast X80h Experience

Here is my experience of 1 week's use of a Teclast X80h:

Overall: Very good dual boot 8 inch tablet, particularly on Win 8.1 (Seems to run any Windows App pretty smoothly). I chose it principally because it has 2Gb RAM (Essential) and the fact it has a metal back that makes it more rigid and probably thinner than rivals.

Tips:

* Play with it before considering rooting etc. My experience on other phones/tablets is that rooting almost always results in a less stable system for doubtful benefits. Equally, only open the tablet if you really have to. Chinese tablets are not noted for their ability to cope with dismantling.

* Install Bluetooth mouse if you want to use legacy windows apps like MS Office or if you want to calibrate the touch screen in Windows (see below)

* Beware Windows touch screen calibration: You must keep the tablet in portrait mode throughout the calibration or you risk effectively bricking Windows because no touches will be recognised. (I only managed to get the screen reset using the mouse)

* The installed Android skin is rubbish - no Play Store - do not despair! Go to Update button and click the left of the pair of orange buttons on the Chinese screen that will appear - bottom right of landscape screen (you must be connected to the Internet). This should get you an update that sorts a number of Android issues including Playstore - best to have the tablet powered up and set to not sleep. Don't touch the tablet while it downloads & updates (takes quite a long time)

* Take it slowly when you change between Android and Windows. Let everything close down properly even if the screen goes blank, before pressing any buttons. Otherwise it may lock up or refuse to change OS. If you have a problem - Power and Volume+ should get you to the "Choose OS" screen (Select OS & then press button below the two OS. If that fails, try Power and Vol-. If that fails, leave it for 5 minutes and start again.

Having set up Android and Windows to my liking, I now do not see any need to root. The only issue is that there are a number of Chinese buttons left, but I now know what they all do. The Android skin is poor but there is not too much Chinese bloatware and installed Apps appear to run smoothly. For my use - a compact dual OS bridge between an Android phone and a windows 8.1 netbook, it is ideal & I only paid £70 for it on eBay (About the price of the Windows OS alone!)

A couple of posts have asked about the hardware configuration: The only sensor is the gravity one for screen orientation. It has a good Bluetooth receiver. No GPS. Wifi performance is good - about 5 db better than my 5 inch phone which is what I would expect,given the larger antenna. I have not yet tried greater than 4Gb SD cards but I believe it will support 64Gb cards (& possibly 128Gb). I will use 32Gb for cost reasons (£10.50 for Samsung Class 10).

I do not have any experience of any other 8 inch dual boot tablet but I would be surprised if there is anything out there, as good, for under £130 and there is nothing out there, at any price, that would persuade me to part with more than £130.

Thanks to all the posts that have given me a few days fun finding out the above.