Comments on: Chinese Ainol Novo 7 Venus Looks Eerily Familiar to the Nexus 7, But For Only $140

By: George Kountouris

George Kountouris — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 23:01:00 +0000

I just got my Ainol Novo 7 venus tablet today. Nice tablet. I got my wife the Nexus 7 for Christmas. I benchmarked the 2 tablets using quadrant standard. The Ainol was 2295 while the Nexus 7 was 3646. The Ainol tablet (per quadrant) reported a 4 core processor ARMv7 with a current clock of 1008 MHz and a max clock of 1200MHz (I don’t know how accurate that reporting is though). The action on it felt smooth, but not like the buttery feel of the 4.2.1 Android on the Nexus 7. I think that if updated to 4.2.1 the Ainol would have a similar feel to it. The Ainol does not feel cheap it has the back camera, no GPS (but I won’t miss that), no bluetooth (I would miss bluetooth tethering until I root my Rezound to get wifi hotspot)micro SD slot, HDMI, it came with a micro host mode OTG adapter, so I can plug a USB thumb drive, or keyboard into it. It will charge from the micro USB port (but so will the Nexus)- albeit slow charging. The display is as nice as the Nexus 7. All in all I was pleasantly surprised for the $140 I paid (includes shipping)- it works as an easy replacement to the Nexus. Now we have to wait to see how well it holds up- but I’m impressed so far, and I usually hate off brand Android like Archos,Coby and stuff like that. Oh…it comes rooted already.

By: Rick Martin

Rick Martin — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 06:01:00 +0000

Wow – a lot of people are really ditching this company – I have two of their products, the Novo Flame and the Hero – both solid devices — for $140 the Venus looks like a great deal for what you get – Ainol is probably the best of budget tablets, they keep the OS up to date, include microSD and HDMI – which the Nexus 7 doesn’t even have, and are set up to work with a 3G usb connector, which is a great way to get 3G on the cheap without spending $300+ on a tablet device.

By: HA Potter

HA Potter — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 05:50:00 +0000

I bought a Novo 10 Hero- 10 Inch tablet in December and it’s a great device for the price ($225) – quality is good and screen and performance is as good as Nexus or iPad – has Google store preinstalled and common apps as well – I think this company has come a long was since they started making tablets a few years ago – they have another full size tablet coming out in February with a Retina ipad quality display for about $250 -

By: theblakjak

theblakjak — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 05:07:00 +0000

depends on what your looking for in a tablet and the mileage that you can get will vary. i have the aurora 7 … which is an ainol tablet… and it was purchased during a time that tablets of its stature were several hundreds of dollars. @$120 i figured the gamble was fine for my first foray into the tablet market and at the time the newly released android ICS. i was also fine with tweaks and mods which this tablet needed to be a properly working tablet, it still works for me and is a nice beginning in the arena of tablets. at this point gambling on a 7 inch tablet at this price range isn’t worth it, but there are 10 inch versions that are also quite cheap and if your up for the gamble then it may be worth your while, just don’t expect a flawless diamond when your buying a simple saphire.

By: Kris

Kris — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 22:01:00 +0000

Do your research before writing an article on it. The website you have linked is not even an official website…it is a store of a reseller.
Second rate writers here.

By: Raven

Raven — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 21:39:00 +0000

No bluetooth is really a killer for me, but on the other hand it does include a MicroSD slot, HDMI out, and a rear camera.

If I hadn’t just bought my daughter a Nabi 2 tablet, I might go for this. But, now I am using her tablet (when she isn’t) for playing video on my big screen via a 15′ HDMI cable.

By: Raven

Raven — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 21:33:00 +0000

They have a pic on their site. It has a very similar dimpled finish like the Nexus 7.
http://www.ainol-novo.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1//9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/n/o/novo_7_venus_2.jpg

By: Simon Belmont

Simon Belmont — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 19:06:00 +0000

Haha! Ainol Fire sounds like what happens after a trip to a badly reviewed Mexican restaurant.

Or imagine the Street Fighter character, Dhalsim, using that as his special move. Ainol fire, Ainol Flame!

By: Simon Belmont

Simon Belmont — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 19:04:00 +0000

So, your wife does Ainol. You sly dog.

Sorry. That was awful.

By: Simon Belmont

Simon Belmont — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 19:03:00 +0000

The lack of GPS and Bluetooth is pretty much a deal breaker. I mean, this could be a decent tablet for your grandmother, but not for a serious user.

I’m sure the quad core CPU they use does not perform as well as the Tegra 3 in the N7, though I’d have to see benchmarks and real world usage to verify that. It boils down to, you might as well spend the extra $60 and get a 16GB Nexus 7. Not only because you get known quality, GPS, and Bluetooth. But also because you have direct updates for years to come from Google.

By: DrewNusser

DrewNusser — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 18:15:00 +0000

Haha, oh wow.

By: middlehead

middlehead — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 18:14:00 +0000

I thought about buying one of their other tablets last year, just so I could take it places and make people ask what tablet I had.

“Oh this? This is just my SEVEN INCH ANAL TORNADO.”

By: bmedic1999

bmedic1999 — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 17:54:00 +0000

dont buy this crap. I paid for one and it worked 2 weeks before it would no longer address the internal storage……which left me with less than a half a gig to work with….such crap

By: Dustin Yohe

Dustin Yohe — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 16:31:00 +0000

I bought my wife the Ainol Nova 7 last year for Xmas and it was exactly it’s name! It was a big piece of anal! My mom now has it and I had to to a couple factory data resets because of it messing up. I’d never waste my money on another Ainol product again!

By: owan

owan — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 13:57:00 +0000

Buying this to save 50$ doesn’t make sense to me.. The Onda V972 with the retina screen for $240 might be worth a shot to save $150 over an iPad or Nexus 10, but this is just too much to give up for the small price difference