I wasn’t able to capture video for this. Both flanking tablets had tethers that were too short to reach. And my camera continues to be MIA, now presumed gone for good.
The usual Google Books PDF test subjects. Foxit Mobile PDF app.
The People of the Abyss:
Those first two screensnaps show a problem immediately.
The damn bottom iconbar won’t retract!
It will in other apps, but not with Foxit Mobile PDF. I don’t know why. But I recall the iFive Mini 4 had a similar persistent iconbar (probably the handiwork of platform supplier Rockchip) and they tried to solve it by adding a Shrink button.
And no, I don’t think my adding the Screensnap icon made it persistent. Because if everything was working properly to begin with, the damn iconbar would disappear just before a screensnap was taken.
How did the tablet do? It was — in accordance with its higher AnTuTu score — faster than the Asus ZenPad S 8.0 shown in this video:
The American Magazine (condensed “iOS Edition”):
Surprisingly it was faster than the Dell Venue 8 7000/7840 — which was running an older version of Foxit, but still, see the video of the Dell:
Surface Japan:
Surface Japan was a surprise. Here it is on the iPad Mini 2:
The Insignia Flex Elite kicked the iPad 2’s ass. There wasn’t that multi-second delay for each page. At most, one second.
Fairy Tales from the Far North:
And here’s that on the iPad Mini 2:
Again, the Insignia tablet was faster.
For reference, I’m looking for the kind of speedy and fluid Google Books PDF experience as seen here on the iPad Air 2 with iBooks:
The Insignia Flex Elite doesn’t deliver that, but I have to say for the US$150, it offers more than twice the power of prior iPad Mini clones Best Buy has stocked, like the Acer Iconia A1-830 and the current two Trio craptabs (at US$79 and US$99, respectively).
Given all the hype last year over the Rockchip 3288 and the new Mali GPU, I really expected some power. When it came to Google Books PDFs, it could beat the iPad Mini 2, but overall the experience was that of what someone should expect for a tablet selling for US$149. I’d recommend this tablet only to someone experienced in hacking Android, with the possibility of loading a custom ROM that would include Rockchip’s MultiWindow Android. Otherwise, for US$50 more, the current basic Asus ZenPad S 8.0 offers peace of mind.
Previously here:
Google Books PDFs category
Best Buy’s Insignia Flex Elite iPad Mini Clone Is Almost The iFive Mini 4
Best Buy Insignia Flex Elite iPad Mini Clone: AnTuTu
Best Buy’s Secret RK3288 iPad Mini Clone: Part Three
Best Buy’s Secret RK3288 iPad Mini Clone: Part Two
Best Buy’s Secret RK3288 iPad Mini Clone
Mike Cane’s xBlog 