Review of RCA 7" tablet Voyager-How do people type on such small keypads?

[mnorian]

Couple of weeks ago I bought an RCA Voyager 7" tablet to see if I could serf the net, get email, post to CF, etc. if my laptop finally gave up the ghost and died; and the short answer is: no. Try as I could; I just couldn't get used to the virtual keypad they use in the Voyager. Just typing in my router password took me an hour to finally get my fat fingers to not hit two keys at once. But it wasn't just my large fingers that was the problem; no matter what i did when it was on letters (abc) if i tried to type in an "8" it would either hit a "u" or an "i" so the only way to insert an "8" was to switch to the number(123) key board and then back to the letters to finish the password. Things didn't get any better when I got online; because I had to sign up to Google to get on; so the internet is filtered thru Google; if I had known that I would had never bought it. Are all tablets run through some proprietary site like Google or amazon? This tablet is the size of a lot of smart phones; is this why people now days are so nervous; from having to type on the little virtual keyboards or are other higher end tablets, smart phones easier to use? The video picture the 7" screen had was pretty clear for what it is but makes my 17" laptop look like a wide screen movie theater. After 3-4 hours of nerve racking bumping around on the tablet; I was so glad to go back to my LT; the keyboard was so nice to use; I will never complain about the small scrolling keys again.

P.S. Oh yes; please post in the poll, thanks.

 

[mnorian]

Oh, I didn't say but I returned it before the 2 week limit was up and have got an early Christmas present of a new Lap top; so I for one will never go to the small screen world. Thank you veddy much.

 

[Wookiee]

If you want a convenient to use screen size, 10" is much better. 7" is a really awkward form factor that fits inbetween "I need something smaller than a laptop" and "I need something bigger than a phone". I would never personally get a 7" device for myself.

You'll probably find yourself a lot more comfortable using a keyboard on a 10" tablet. But as a general rule, if you're going to be typing on it several times a day, I generally recommend people stick with a laptop unless they need the battery life and portability of a tablet (even then, if you're going to do a lot of typing, get a Bluetooth keyboard).

Things didn't get any better when I got online; because I had to sign up to Google to get on; so the internet is filtered thru Google; if I had known that I would had never bought it. Are all tablets run through some proprietary site like Google or amazon?

You can skip Google registration when you setup the tablet. The reason it needs it is because you need a Google account to download apps from the Play Store. It's no different to needing an iTunes account to download apps on an iPad.

Once you have setup the tablet (with or without logging into Google) you're not obligated to login to anything. The default browser may prompt you to login to Google to setup account sync, but again, that's optional. The closest thing to "filtering" through Google is the search engine will default to Google (you can use whatever you want) and it may use Google's DNS servers to lookup web addresses.