Cherrypad America Review (Part2)

The Good... The Android market that is available along with Android 2.1 is fully functional. I had purchased a game on my phone that was available as a free download on the tablet. It's good to see they moved towards one purchase for all devices. The aluminum back is fairly sturdy and gives the device a better feel than I expected.

The Bad... The resistive touch screen takes some getting used to, having been using to capacitive for my first touch experience. At times scrolling can get absurd, forcing me to exit or go back to lists as it opens things seemingly at random. With time and experience, resistive is perfectly acceptable all things considered. Lack of multi-touch also makes this screen feel sluggish and frustrating at times. I tend to disable almost all sound on computing devices due to a personal hatred, so the fact that the speakers are of a lower quality means little to me.

The Ugly... You get what you pay for. This isn't meant as a negative statement towards the manufacturer. They've spent countless hours designing a device that is both functional and affordable. It's not the first Android tablet on the market, but it's likely the cheapest we'll see, unless a larger manufacturer begins to realize the potential niche that does exist. It's my belief that many reviewers are not taking into account the fact that this device runs you $188 plus shipping and taxes. For a tablet.

The Overall Experience... Why buy a cheap Android tablet? Coupled with a sufficiently-sized MicroSD card, this device can be used to watch mp4 converted video files and the battery holds up great, considering there's no 3G technology constantly draining it's power. While it's no replacement for a laptop, it's considerably smaller and more compact for travel purposes so that along with access to the Android Market make it a good purchase. One could also tether it to a phone or laptop with internet if WiFi is not an option for you. I have to also say that my experience overall with Cherrypal is a positive one. They are moving away from their growing pains, so I'm confident others will share in the good experiences I have had with them.

Cherrypad America Review (Part1)

This part of my review will entail my end-to-end experience with finding the cheapest Android tablet I could find and prove to both myself and critics that this was in fact a real tablet and how powerful a Google search can be. If you are after the technical aspects of the device and my initial impressions, you can jump to Part2 when it comes available.

On Oct 13, 2010 I Googled "$99 android tablet". Sometimes you need to search for insane things to see if they exist. This led me to the closest result I could find at that time. A $99 laptop was not what I was looking for, but at that price I had to check it out. In doing so, I learned it was a dated article made by a Green company who was convinced the world needed affordable technology. I whole heartedly agree and learned they made a new tablet as well.

There are accounts of them being a scam, but I can only relate my dealings with their tablet which was brand new as of Oct 7, 2010. I felt $188 was a small price to pay to squash my curiousity of whether I could get Android 2.1 and on a tablet for that matter. When I placed my order on Oct 13, the online retailer Zecosi was handling the payment transaction. My total cost for this device was $213.07 (shipping, taxes & US to CA included). I instantly received a Zecosi confirmation email and one week later a second indicating that my order had been shipped. It contained a tracking number and link to the USPS website. Cherrypal had indicated that the average time to deliver their products internationally was two weeks.

On Oct 26, I received an email from a Zecosi rep, which had been sent to all Cherrypal customers. They had been receiving the queries regarding shipment of their orders, but unfortunately it was not made clear during the order process that they do not handle shipping. They are closer to a shopping cart store or as they call themselves an online marketplace. Sellers offer products on the Zecosi website who offers the payment methods and handles the transaction. The seller ships the order and informs Zecosi who, in turn, emails the customer their tracking information. Receiving the email helped me immensely as I had concerns over my tracking number not working at the USPS website.

I had tried contacting USPS directly a few times, but they kept giving me the usual "that order must be new, it's not in our system" script. I have experience with multi-vendors and supply chains. It should not take weeks for a tracking number to move from an internal system to a publicly searchable one. I replied to Zecosi and thanked them for explaining how the process worked as I was new to this type of online ordering. I expressed my concerns over the tracking number and they immediately reached out to Cherrypal on my behalf. I was impressed that it only took the Zecosi rep three days (Oct 29) to reply and action my email. I can't imagine how many other replies they may have had to personally handle.

Within one hour of hearing back from Zecosi, I had a new email from Cherrypal with apologies as the tracking website link was different than initially provided. I can only speculate that their process was adjusted to include a different shipper to help keep up with the demand or to resolve a problem. The new link worked along with my original tracking number and I could see at that time my order was in the hands of China Post in Shenzhen as of Oct 20. A few more Google searches later, I learned that orders coming out of China generally could be held up for 1-3 weeks and the tracking site I was given generally never indicated whether an order leaves their borders. It is more of an authenticity indicator, I presume.

Nov 2 @ 11am EST, my tablet was delivered to my door, but sadly my roommates weren't home and I sleep during the day. This happens every time and is generally unavoidable as getting orders delivered at 7pm EST isn't something the world is willing to do outside of food. Later that day I went to the local post office to pick up my order without issue.

I can only hope that my account of this process is as informative and helpful as possible to help both Cherrypal and Zecosi to continue to deliver their services. Cherrypal may have experienced growing pains in the past, but if that was the case, they certainly have worked hard to improve and provide great customer service.

As of today, the Cherrypal website has a note stating all orders were shipped up to Oct 29, 2010 and as of Oct 30, 2010, shipping would be handled by UPS. Hopefully this helps lend further credibility to their offerings.

Disclaimer: I don't work at any of the companies mentioned herein and was not paid to write these observations.