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Teclast T10: My impressions so far

Hello. Having had my first Teclast T10 for 9 dyas now I wanted to share my experiences in the hope of helping others.

Ordered a Teclast T10 from a seller in France, where I live. I paid about $15-20 more than I would have from a chinese site, but got the tablet delivered within a couple of days and was sure that I would not have customs to pay (which would have cost me more). Got a E3C5 version. First thing I did was go crazy and install my apps... then did an OTA. This was an unwise move: Always update first, then install apps and data. If something goes wrong during the update, you won't have wasted time. Anyway, a fe ghost touches noticed, I think I even had a strange restartm but OK... it's a cheap chinese tablet, I know what I bought here... So, OTA update installs, tablet reboots, I try the fingerprint sensor: it says needs PIN after reboot, so OK......touch screen dead. Cannot do anything with the tablet, but am 95% sure this is software issue and not hardware, so try flashing with SPFlash tool.

If you have issues with SPFlash Tool, on a western windows computer.... rename the folders in the SPFlash tool to western names. Our windows systems cannot handle the chinese characters and will give problems when trying to flash unless you change the names.

I did not know this as it was not clearly stated in instructions for SPFlash tool flashing. (I'm going to write a full guide to T10 flashing etc later). SO, while trying to flash, I must have disconnected the tablet, and it was semi bricked. THe power button did not do anything. I could hold it down for 3, 6 10, 30 60, 120 seconds... nada. The tablet had about 80% battery, and it was "powered on" - I could see the Mediatek VCOM USB COM port in windows device manager - but it would not respond to flash or anything - impossible to get to bootloader - could not do anything. I was going to return this tablet and decided to order another, this time about $10 cheaper, still from France.

In the meantime, I got a proposal from the vendor of the first tablet. It was to reimburse me %75 of the purchase price, and I would get the tablet repaired. In the end I accepted the sellers offer, as I had an idea that the tablet was stuck, and just needed the battery unplugging to be able to flash again. SO I took the risk and got the tablet for a good price... I got the T10 for €50 (~$60)... as long as I could get it running!

Opened up the Teclast T10 (very easy to do... no tools required. Got fingernails between the screen and the metal camera protrusion on the back of the tablet. Then gently pry all the way around, and be careful removing the back, the fingerprint sensor is attached... Then I find the battery is soldered!!! SO I unsolder the battery, leave 10 seconds and resolder. YES!!!! My tablet starts... OK, so I still have not touch screen, but I can power on and off. So, eventually I find out about renaming the chinese named folders in SPFlash, and I flash the 1.35 firmware. Great! Takes it and my touch screen is working again. I have no more ghost touches (maybe one in a week), but a hell of a lot of reboots, and tablet turns off. In fact, the time reset at each reboot, which led me to be suspicious....

In the meatime, the tablet works well. Google play works well (although impossible to use Google play in a browser on a PC to then choose the install device... the teclast does not show unlike all of my other Android devices? Maybe a certification thing....? However, GPS works great, the screen is great 4K videos play smoothly with such detail... blacks are black on screen... but...getting frustrated now as the tablet is good when it works, but is more and more temperamental and shutting down frequently. Interestingly, when left alone (without touching it) it behaves. I can pick it up and use it - it never froze / restarted if I left it.

Got my newly ordered Teclast T10 on Wednesday. This one was a E3C6... good _ It had a genuine Teclast charger (EU) - the E3C5 had a generic one. (In fact the E3C5 had been opened before it was sent to me. It has been used, and probably returned by someone before I got it. Not surprising hte vendore offered me a €75 refuns pretty much straight away for me to keep the tablet...)

SO, tried charging the E3C5 with the original Teclast charger supporting Mediatek Pump Express charging... great, fast charging... up till 62%, never got any higher than that.

Anyway, back to my E3C6... It took me a long long time to get TWRP and Root on the E3C6 tablet. it did not want to play ball. Eventually realised that I had to format data after flashing TWRP to get the rom to boot. Then Root got there in the end. It seems a lot trickier to get the E3C6 to go into bootloader mode... it wants to be in fastboot. The two tablet behave differently to power / volume button commbos from off, and the E3C6 also has a security warning once the bootloader is unlocked... unlike the E3C5 which boots normally without the warning message. Anyway, got root and Titanium backup installed and my restored my E3C5 backup on my E3C6...apps resinstalled.... I can now compare the two.

No ghost touches on my E3C6... no random reboots... OK - I did get one, but fairly intensive use and I am happy with one reboot for 4 days intensive use.

So easter weekend. I can open my E3C5 up again to check whats going on... Wow... in my haste I had not properly soldered the red battery lead back on... so I take care of that. In fact the contact was barely being made and held by a piece of sticky tape. I resolder the wire on correctly, and start up again, plugged into the charger and tried again... From 63% (it was only 62% when I opened the case up and separated the wire from the connector) it got up to 72% in about 15 minutes! A good sign. Since then it has been behaving well, and I am happy.

This morning both tablets have been playing funny. Both had restarts... and I am a little suspicious of the behaviour. SO, I am ploughing the threads and read about SanDIsk vs Hynix storage memory... I check both, both have SanDisk... OK. I then start to think about the possibility of a trojan / virus in view of what people have experienced in the threads...

So I decide to install some benchmark testers for memory etc. and to install and scan with V3 Mobile Security from AhnLabs. The benchmarks show that the Sandisk eMMC storage is SLOW. VERY SLOW. But heh... I can watch $k videos, the tablet is smooth, has 4GB of RAM and it works well.. what do you expect for $200.

Anyway, MAlware scanning. It scans and reboots at some stage. Around 25%. From here I want to investigate further and will try to scan in Safe Mode - anyone know how I can do that?

So my experiences:

I like the T10. I think its a good device for its price. It is not a public consumer device, you need to know a little bit about Android tech if you want to own one of these, if not you pay more for a Samsung, Apple or Huawei, good for you. Do not expect a smooth consumer experience from a small chinese brand like this. Most of the gripes people have... well, I have got over them. I just want to get these reboots out of the way, and Iw ill be 120% satisfied with what I have for $200. Correct that, two T10s for $260, that's $130 for a recent Nougat Tablet with a 2.5K screen. Hell Yes.

BUT its not for everyone.

Pleas help me boot in safe mode, I will write a clear step by step concise guide to flashing, rooting and troubleshooting the issues with the Teclast T10, but in the meanwhile, I hope the above is useful.