For the price of a 10" cheap Chinese generic tablet, you get an awesome RCA piece of hardware with a screen much wider than the standard 10" tablet, and definitely superior capabilities. It is perfect to run Andropen Office (Open Office for Android) using the keyboard and a mouse, and do the same type of financial and statistical analysis you would do on an Windows or Linux laptop using Libre Office Calc or MS Excel. The 10" screen means it is not comfortable to spend 8 hours working on this, but you can get the job done if needed (as long as you are not using VBA macros or something too weird). This machine beats any other 10" tablet I have ever seen, owned or used.
This is a very good budget tablet that comes with a useful and very functional keyboard that makes it work much like a laptop. It is good for work and better for fun. I will go through a few of the key talking points below that inform my rating:
Responsiveness: at first I was a little unhappy with it, and I saw other reviews comment on this issue. I discovered a setting adjustment that helps to improve screen responsiveness. Go to Settings>Language and Input>Pointer Speed. There is a slider that is probably in the middle. If you slide it to the right, the touch screen becomes far more responsive. I am much happier after this adjustment. The default setting requires a harder touch, and some people prefer this (I assume).
Keyboard: I can type fast on this keyboard, as with a laptop. However, the right side shift key used to make capital letters is reduced in size in order to make room for the page up button, and I often hit this key causing my typing to move to a higher point in my document and this is frustrating. I have to slow down to make sure I do not make this mistake. Other than that, as I said, typing is nearly as fast as a full laptop or desktop keyboard for me. The keys feel solid, unlike the cloth keyboard that comes with some of the surface tablet models (I had the first generation and hated the keyboard).
Productivity: Since I was able to install microsoft office, I can use this tablet as a fairly worthy stand-in for my work computer. I would be comfortable relying on this for most office related tasks and as a college professor, I have many. I would need a back up for heavy lifting, when I have several windows and programs open at once such as statistical programs I use, but this works great for lighter lifting work. I do not see the statistical programs here I need, and they pull me back to the Windows platform. I was pleased to find that I could print with ease after installing the HP printing apps that work with my wifi printer.
Gaming. The ability to play games depends on what games you like. I have an xbox for serious game playing, but I play star wars commander, words with friends, and a few others without too much problem on the Viking. I do see a few crashes with star wars--see my RAM comments.
Memory. I have noticed the limited 1 GB RAM of the device sometimes leads to app crashes. It is not often enough to ruin the general operation of the device. I recommend closing unused apps while working or trying to play a game, in order to prevent crashes.
Storage. At 32 GB, I find storage to be quite ample. I have over 100 apps installed and lots of room to spare. I use onedrive to store my stuff, so I do not rely on large storage to house personal files. Hey, ask yourself how much a 32 GB ipad costs :).
Operating System. Android Lollipop has been solid for me on this device. I am generally a windows guy, but the ubiquity of android and ios has forced microsoft to offer many of their products on these platforms, and importantly for me, that means MS Office. I am very impressed with the range and selection of apps in the google play store and this is a huge plus.
Battery. I had low expectations as this is a budget device, and that usually means worse battery life. My wife's ipad is a total rock star on battery, but I could buy three vikings and when the battery dies on one I would have two more! Kidding aside, the battery is pretty good on this actually, and exceeded my expectations. I recommend powering down the device, charging, and unplugging after a few hours if you are not going to use it. It does take a while to charge. I usually get several hours of use, even with some gaming mixed in.
Value. If you want top of the line, get ready to shell out several hundred to over 1000 dollars. That gets you the best battery life, screen resolution, memory, storage, and performance. This device costs about a tenth of the highest end tablet/laptop hybrids. Sure the camera is bad, the battery is "good" not "great," the screen is pretty but not stunning, the ram and performance are fine and at times annoying, the storage is impressive. Overall, you will probably find the occasional headache to justify the cost as I have. I like budget devices and own two smart phones, a tablet, a desktop, a game console, and a laptop that total less than 1000 dollars. How can any one device replace all that? If money is no issue, then ignore my post completely and buy a galaxy tab or ipad.
I love it.. my lil baby. it's good for me to use in class and carry around cuz its size
I bought this for my wife so she could watch TV and Facebook at the same time. She had a tablet that was nearing the end of it life and kept complaining she kept getting kicked off line. My son (Computer Scientist) did some research and suggested this one was a good deal for the price. The headline says the rest.
I have to say I’m thoroughly impressed with this tablet. I was looking for an affordable option to replace my iPad. I mainly wanted something that I could surf the Internet, watch YouTube, write stuff down, pretty much keep organized. This is more than perfect. I was actually shopping for a small laptop bc I wanted something smaller than my 17” laptop but also needed a keyboard so a tablet wasn’t going to be an option. I hate trying to type on my iPad and the Bluetooth keyboard is just something else I have to lug around. Then I found this! It’s folds up like a laptop or you can unsnap it from it and use it as a regular table. It had all my qualifications, docs app, YouTube, etc. The clarity it really good! Sound quality is to be expected from a smaller tablet but still really good as well! Music might not sound as great as it would if it were playing through a speaker but again, smaller tablet and I personally don’t think it sounded bad. I ordered it 2 days ago and even though it gave a deleivery date of a little over a week, it came in 2 days! It’s the perfect tablet and I only spent $100 which is really impossible when you’re looking for value!
Feature Product
- 1.4GHz MediaTek MT8127 Quad Core Processor, 1 GB DDR SDRAM RAM, Built-in 32GB Memory
- 10.1" IPS LCD Touchscreen Display(Resolution: 1280X800), Dual Camera: 2M Pixel for both Front Facing and rear facing camera
- Android 5.0 operating system, bluetooth, 1xHDMI, 1x Micro-USB, 1xUSB, 1xheadphones mini jack(3.5mm), 1x microSDHC
- Detachable keyboard, 6 hours battery life, 2.29 lbs
Description
BLACK RCA VIKING PRO
EDIT AND UPDATE - 2 years later the tablet is still going strong, very happy with it :)
Little bit surprised there are only 3 reviews for this at the type that I post this ! I guess RCA isn't well known for their tablets compared to say Ipods or Asus so nobody buys them :P
For our purposes the tablet works great.. but bear in mind that the only thing we use the tablet for is so my wife can bring it with her wherever she goes to watch videos on youtube online. The speakers themselves aren't the greatest but look to the " Shower-Mate Water Resistant Wireless Bluetooth Portable Speaker " ... it's very cheap but very effective and paired flawlessly with this tablet with zero trouble and will make the listening experience a LOT better !
Internet connection strength is great ... we can go anywhere inside the house, upstairs, downstairs and the tablet doesn't lose it's internet connection (as opposed to our admittedly 5 year old ASUS tablet which this replaced).... we use Comcast for our internet service.
Having said that, the tablet, as can be expected for this price range, is not so great for surfing the 'net ... it'll get the job done but is slow ... then again the tablet is a fraction of the cost of say an Ipad or high-end ASUS tablet so it's a matter of getting what you pay for. I'm sure a large part of that is due to the relatively low amount of memory in it compared to a higher end tablet but, again, you get what you pay for.
The keyboard is a tad bit difficult to type on but still more handy than having to hunt and peck on the touch screen keyboard... mainly we find the keyboard to work as a great stand to keep the "touch screen" part of the tablet upright... as advertised, you can detach the screen and simply use it as a touch-screen tablet though in our case we find it much more convenient to simply leave it attached to the keyboard tray which also serves as it's stand... it slides off the keyboard tray perhaps a little bit too easily but as long as you lift from "the bottom" (i.e. the keyboard part) you shouldn't have any problems... found the mouse to be a bit stiff and unresponsive but bear in mind even with the keyboard attached you can still touch the appropriate parts of the screen and it will respond as if it was a touch screen (i.e. we often found ourselves ignoring the mousepad and simply touching the part of the screen we had to instead of clicking with the mouse).
You can insert a maximum size 32 GB micro SD card.. the tablet comes with 32 GB of memory which is a lot for most people but no reason why you shouldn't insert another 32 GB micro SD card especially if you purchase this tablet during a Black Friday or Cyber Monday sale.. which we would strongly recommend doing you will save a LOT of money as opposed to buying this fully retail price !
App's that come on the tablet (music player, google play store and so forth) are useful, we didn't have any problems downloading ap's onto the tablet either. Haven't used it to play any games so can't comment on that either.
I'm very good about updating my reviews so if you read this even years later after it was posted assume the tablet is still in heavy use by my wife and it's still working fine ;) .... if you have any questions please feel free to post a comment and will do my best to respond!
Love the tablet and software. No issues there. I have noted one flaw with the keyboard at the end of this review so skip down if you want to see the complaint (and how to fix it) first.
I've had this tablet for two years and rarely use it except for occasional conferences (1-3 times per year). I mostly use it for collaborating on google docs and watching videos on youtube. I have a couple games downloaded on it to pass time on flights and I've used the Kindle app on it as well. For the price, this is awesome. I still can't believe it works as well as it does for the price. It's lightweight and sturdy as well.
If you want a laptop-ish equivalent for online document creation (google docs, etc), light gaming (candy crush, not WOW), social media, and watching youtube videos, this would work just fine. I'm no longer in school, have a desktop both at home and at work for managing and backing up all of my documents and finances, and just wanted something easy to carry on the go. Two years later I'm still satisfied with it.
THE MAJOR FLAW WITH THIS PRODUCT IS:
The touchpad is incredibly sensitive. If you plan to type a lot on this tablet, you should really consider taking it apart and disabling the touchpad and using just the touchscreen instead of the cursor.
HOW TO FIX THE FLAW:
As it turns out, it's CRAZY easy to disable the touchpad. There are youtube videos on how to do it, but I'm apparently prohibited from including the link in my review (one failed attempt) so you'll have to search for it yourself by looking up "How to Disable Touchpad on RCA Viking Pro 10” 2-in-1 Tablet Keyboard Combo," or something like that.
You will need:
a small Phillips head screwdriver
about 1 minute
Overall, I'd say go for it unless you really need more from a tablet or laptop than just the basics, but it connects to wifi well and does everything I've needed it for. Now that I've found the youtube tutorial, I'll disable the touchpad and probably love it even more.
The first one I received was sooooo cracked up that I returned it immediately. So I ordered another one IMMEDIATELY and received it in about 6-hours. The 2nd time around was a charm. The detachable keyboard is very functionable. Screen resolution is great when you are indoors or outdoors in the shade. It downloads fast, opens programs fast and the speakers are good for a low-cost tablet. I don't do any gaming but I do lots of Word and Excel projects, and It works very good. It evens displays PowerPoint projects well with no lag time. So Far I am Completely satisfied with my purchase. As soon as I can, I will purchase another one for a little friend of mine as a gift so he can do his school projects.
I ordered this laptop mainly to browse social media sites. It does the job without any problems. It's easy to use. I love the versatility of being able to detach the tablet from the keyboard!
Highly recommended!
Love this tablet! Great value and does exactly what I need it to. Used mostly for movies, email, and social media. Plus I like that it has a USB port. It can be charged with the included charger or with my cell charger so I didn't have to buy anything new. Again, great value!
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