Ramos W7 Android MID Review

The Ramos W7 was announced somewhere late in 2009 and after countless delays, it’s finally released. It’s probably one of the most anticipated devices from China. The specs look good on paper: a 4.8″ capacitive touchscreen, Android and 8 or 16GB internal memory all for a relative low price. Read on to find out if it can live up to the expectations.

Google Android OS RAMOS W7 MP4 8G WIFI E-book Reader Tablet PC MID
Shop price:$174.60 (Free shipping)

Introduction

I ordered the Ramos W7 8GB from HouseOfDAP for $209 with free shipping. The device was shipped the next day, and I received it about a week later. It’s also available at Allpmp for $198.99 without shipping.

Design

It’s quite obvious that Ramos took a look at Apple’s PMP offerings: the Ramos W7 looks a lot like the second generation iPod Touch. The curved chrome backside, black front and a large screen all look quite familiar. However, the screen is bigger and it has more buttons. Besides the power button, there are three Android buttons on the side and two volume buttons on top of the device. These are very useful, but feel cheap compared to the rest of the device. Besides the three buttons on the right side, there’s also a micro-SD card slot. On the left side, there is a non standard port. For some strange reason, Ramos decided to drop all ports and using a LG 12 PIN port for charging, USB connection and connecting the headphones. There is no 3.5mm audio output, which is quite disappointing. 

Google Android OS RAMOS W7 MP4 8G WIFI E-book Reader Tablet PC MID
Shop price:$174.60 (Free shipping)

Touchscreen

The Ramos W7 has hands down the best screen found on a device from a Chinese brand. Screen quality of the 4.8″ 800×480 display is great and it’s the first MID from China that’s using a capacitive touchscreen. Personally, I think this is a must-have feature on a Android device and it works very well on the W7. On the 3.7″ screen of my Android phone I struggle a lot when using the onscreen keyboard, but on the bigger screen of the W7 I barely make any typos.

CPU

The Ramos W7 is powered by the Rockchip RK2808 ARM processor. According to the specifications, the device should be clocked at 600MHz, but according to some system info apps, the Ramos W7 is only running at 299MHz. The CaffeineMark benchmark tool confirms this. The Ramos W7 received an overall score of 554, while my Motorola Milestone (running at 550MHz) got a score of 1000. It’s unclear why Ramos decided to underclock the device. The RK2808 is capable of running at higher speeds, so hopefully Ramos will unleash it’s full power in a firmware update.

you can click here to know more about Ramos W7

Wifi

Besides Wifi, connectivity is limited to a non standard port on the side of the device. It’s used for charging, USB connection and connecting the headset. No Bluetooth, USB OTG, HDMI or GPS on the Ramos W7.
Battery life

You’ll get about 3 hours worth of battery life out of the Ramos W7 under heavy use with Wifi turned on and about 15 hours of stand by time with Wifi turned off.
Accelerometer

The Ramos W7 has an accelerometer which works as expected. It’s sensitive enough to play some tilt based games and automatic screen rotation works fine.
Specifications

Google Android OS RAMOS W7 MP4 8G WIFI E-book Reader Tablet PC MID
Shop price:$174.60 (Free shipping)

Screen: 4.8″ 800×600 capacitive touchscreen, 16 million colors
CPU: ARM 600MHz (currently clocked at 299MHz)
Memory: 128MB RAM
Connectivity: 802.11b/g WiFi
Storage: 8/16 GB Flash, micro-SD (max 32GB)
Battery: 1500mAH NiMH
Dimensions: 120×81x11mm
Weight: About 200g

With Android 2.2 Froyo slowly rolling out, it’s a bit disappointing to see Android 1.5 on the Ramos W7. Nevertheless, besides the lack of multitouch and Flash, there are only few things you’ll miss on the W7. Flash videos still work fine, there are tons of (free) apps available and Ramos added some nice touches. Unlike some other Android devices, the Ramos W7 comes with the application market, so you don’t need to jump through hoops to get some apps. With Android, you can easily change the language although there are a few Chinese apps pre-installed. The keyboard also has some Chinese characters, but you can easily download another keyboard from the app market.

Google Android OS RAMOS W7 MP4 8G WIFI E-book Reader Tablet PC MID
Shop price:$174.60 (Free shipping)

you can click here to know more about Ramos W7

Software

E-book reader

There are several reader apps available for Android, but my favorite is Aldiko and it works very well on the Ramos W7. It looks slick, has some nice animations and a lot of options.

Internet

The default internet browser works very well. Most sites are rendered perfectly and zooming and scrolling is quite smooth. If you want a browser with more capabilities, you can download Skyfire, which adds features like Flash video playback. Opera Mini is also available. It renders the sites less good, but it’s very fast compared to the other browsers.
Besides web browsing, there are tons of apps available for Facebook, Twitter and instant messaging. I didn’t encounter any problems with those.

Google Android OS RAMOS W7 MP4 8G WIFI E-book Reader Tablet PC MID
Shop price:$174.60 (Free shipping)

Audio and video playback

Ramos has created some apps for Android that mimick the looks of the Ramos media players, but with an added cover flow effect. Audio playback is flawless, but video isn’t as smooth as on the dedicated portable media players from Ramos. The Ramos W7 supports high definition videos up to 720p, but while most of them were still watchable there was some jerkiness to be found here and there.

Gaming

There are tons of free games available for Android. Unfortunately, most games currently don’t run very well on the Ramos W7, because of a screen rotation problem, which switches up landscape and portrait screen modes. So games that are designed to run in landscape mode are stretched to portrait, often with elements positioned incorrectly on the screen. Most 3D games also run really slow, possibly because of the low clocked processor. Luckily not everything is bad. Emulators for NES, GBA etc ran suprisingly smooth. The absence of multitouch makes it hard to control most games, but for games that don’t require multiple keypresses at the same time, it works very well. Especially turn based games like Advance Wars work very well and it’s always fun to catch all those Pokémans.

Google Android OS RAMOS W7 MP4 8G WIFI E-book Reader Tablet PC MID
Shop price:$174.60 (Free shipping)

you can click here to know more about Ramos W7

Pros

* Great capacitive touchscreen
* Slick design and good build quality
* Great wifi reception
* Loads of free apps to install

Cons

* No 3.5mm headphone jack
* No Android 2.1+
* No multitouch
* Screen orientation problem in apps
* CPU clocked at 299MHz

Comparison with the SmartQ V5

 

The closest competitor of the Ramos W7 is probably the SmartQ V5 (full review). In comparison, the SmartQ V5 is cheaper, has more connectivity options (USB OTG, Bluetooth, HDMI output, 3.5mm audio output), three operating systems but lacks the larger capacitive touchscreen and 8/16GB internal Flash memory of the W7.
Overall, the Ramos W7 is a slicker and more user friendly device than the SmartQ V5. Android is arguably the best mobile operating system and it works much better on the W7. If you want to read ebooks, easily download apps, browse the web and play some media files and games, the Ramos W7 is the best pick. Everything just works a bit smoother. On the other hand, if you love Linux and like doing more technical stuff, the SmartQ V5 might be the most interesting device with it’s almost endless capabilities. I managed to connect USB drives, control my desktop computer, use decent torrent/FTP applications and even control my camera using the SmartQ V5. The SmartQ V5 basically feels like a somewhat flawed, but very small desktop computer, while the Ramos W7 offers less functionality and is a more polished portable device.

Final conclusion

The Ramos W7 is the first Android MID with a capacitive touchscreen and that feature alone puts it ahead of the competition. The build and screen quality are also very good. Unfortunately, there are a few annoying issues. The most annoying feature is the weird port on the device that’s used for charging, USB and headphone connection. Other downsides are the screen orientation bug, the low clocked CPU and the fact that it runs the older Android 1.5, which lacks multitouch. Nevertheless, when using the device those issues hardly ever ruined the experience. Most tasks were performed smoothly and for browsing, ebook reading and media playback it’s currently the best MID you can buy for this price.


I compared the device to the Motorola Milestone/Droid and while the W7 was a bit slower, it definitely managed hold it’s own. The bigger screen even makes the W7 sometimes more comfortable to use. And that’s a big compliment for a device that’s costs less than half a Milestone.

You can grab the Ramos W7 at Goods of China for $174 with free shipping.

If you still have any questions, feel free to leave a comment!