First review of Bocheng P07 - Back to Techtrack

Background

News about Bocheng P07 made the day on the 7th of November. I did not know about it as I was on vacation in Hong Kong and do not like to stare at computer screen all the days. At the same time my vacation trip also included Shenzhen that is definite center of computers/gadgets in china. Yes, I'm a gadget freak, so I like to spend hours in Hua Quang Lu area where all the technology sellers are gathered. For us Europeans it's like usual vegetable market, only thing is that instead of vegetables they sell computers/phones.

This time I thought it would be good idea to get a Android tablet for use while sitting on sofa. Unfortunately every Android tablet that's being sold on market in China somehow lacks one or more functionalities that I like to have. So I started searching for windows tablet instead.

And there I found it. It was only two places there Bocheng P07 is sold. And one of them got my money.

About Bocheng P07

Compared to other Windows tablets that were sold in Shenzhen Bocheng P07 was quite different. I think it quite has all the aestetics that's needed. Also the build quality is not bad. It's weird to look at windows tablet that looks exactly like oversized iPhone. But Bocheng P07 is different :). In news it's called iPad copy but in my opinion the first time you see it you do not think about iPad instantly. It's true that all tablets kind of look similar. Take for example new Samsung Galaxy Tab.

Price and features

I got Bocheng P07 for 2050 Chinese Yuan. It's aproximately 308 US Dollars or 228 Euros. I would not call it dirt cheap. For this money I got 16GB SSD, 1GB of RAM, 1.66 Mhz Atom processor and no 3G built in. One feature that makes Bocheng P07 stand out is capasitive multitouch display. It's really working. I can zoom in and out in web pages and images with two fingers. Screen resolution is 1024x600 pixels.

SSD should make tablet silent. In reality there's a fan that quite often kicks in and makes some noise. It's not too annoying though...

What comes to tablet speed and disk capasity then thanks to SSD it works quite fast. Web pages download fast and programs open fast. Sometimes it will of course pause for some seconds... As SSD is 16GB there's not that much memory available. When I got Bocheng P07 it had 7GB of disk free. But as I bought it mainly for web surfing and not going to store music/videos/photos then it's ok for me.

What comes to videos then Bocheng P07 can play back normal video files but till this time I haven't got it play 720p files without skipping frames.

Windows 7 on a tablet???

In my opinion Windows 7 is quite far from being really good tablet operating system. But (un)fortunately same is true for Android. Windows 7 has too much screen estate that goes to scrollbars/dialog captions and so on. Android at the same time lacks the controls to use multiple programs at the same time with ease. Yes I know - Android can do all this (I'm android software developer sometimes). But here I'm talking about USABILITY. There is no USABILITY.

Lets take a look

I took following images to give you the idea of how it exactly looks.

Left side of Bocheng P07

On the left side there is one USB connector, one headphone connector and switch for switching on/off bluethooth and wifi. There's also place for switch in case 3G modem is installed. I beleive that 3G module is standard minipci module that can be installed manually.

Top side of Bocheng P07

On top side you see volume rocker that sometimes acts as display brightness rocker. I think it's kind of bug. Next to volume rocker there's button for enabling/disabling screen rotation. Screen is rotated automatically with the help of sensor. Next to screen rotation lock button is slot for minisd card. Then there's power/sleep button and slot for 3g SIM card in case 3G module is installed.

Bottom side of Bocheng P07

Nothing special here except two screws. I guess it's possible to open up the computer by removing these screws. Maybe later :).

Right side of Bocheng P07

On right side you see on USB connector, power connector (19V) and HDMI connector THAT IS NOT HDMI CONNECTOR :). In all news they are talking about "hdmi port thrown in". It's not true. If you look closely on markings on top of this slot you see phrase "HDMI" that has been striked through. This connector is used for connecting propertiarity adapter that is used to connecto ethernet and vga. So NO HDMI.

Adapter for connecting VGA and ethernet

Here we see connected adapter for vga and ethernet. VGA is on one side , ethernet on other side.

Cheap keyboard/sleeve combo for tablets

I also managed to buy keyboard/sleeve combo. It costs 80 Yuan (9 USD) and feels quite cheap :). At the same time it works well.

Contact

If needed then you can contact me on email address : toomas - AT- i-systems DOT ee.