Review: the Double Power (DoPo)Tablet

Everyone has gone head over heels this past Christmas with giving the gift of a tablet or buying one for themselves.  I fall on the latter.  But if you’re like me, you don’t know a thing about tablets, let alone which one to buy or what you want/expect in one.  With that being said, I was going to go for one of those 7″ tablets on the cheaper end like a Velocity Cruz, Colby, or Pandigital.  The problem was the reviews pretty much sucked on all three of those models.  Anything that wasn’t an Amazon Fire or a Nook Tablet was pretty much crap.

Not anymore. 

Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like to introduce to you the Double Power tablet (a.k.a. DoPo) that only seems to be sold–and usally sold out–on Wal-Mart online.  If you don’t have a lot of money to spend and you don’t know where to start in the tablet market, the DoPo is the way to go.

It comes with some interesting apps line NetFlix and Shelves for all of your books.  It also comes with an Amazon app that links you directly into the apps store.  That alone is dangerous, if you ask me.  I’ve already downloaded a bunch of stuff like weather, alarms, games, etc.  I’m not usually into games, but the few I have are somewhat fun.  I don’t get addicted to them very easily, so it’s not a big deal to have them.

Two things I bought it for were movies and as an ebook reader.  I’ve tried both and they’re awesome! No lag time outside of what you’d normally get from your ISP.  Movies come through clear.  I wish there was more to the volume controls, but at least they have controls.  Not only that, it’s not like the volume is a whisper either.  It’s built more so if one person were in front of the tablet and using it and not three or four.  As for the eReader part, the screen is what you’d expect of a computer screen.  So, if you’re looking for more of an e-ink device, this is not for you.  The pages have the flip-turn thing where you actually see them flip.  You can also zoom in and out on the text.  My only draw back is the Shelves app doesn’t allow you to pick up where you left off…or not that I can tell.  But there are so many other eReader apps out there that do, it’s not that big of a deal to me.

The only fault I have with the device–and it’s probably a fault I would have with any tablet–is my fingers are fatter than I thought.  It’s really easy to tap something you don’t mean to tap, which is why the zoom comes in handy.  I’m learning to get around it by making sure the my fingerprint is squarely on the link or button that I mean to press and not the one beside it.  The keypad works best if you have the device turned horizontally, but if you prefer vertical, go right ahead.  Oh, and if you want to buy a protector case for it, I’m using one designed for a Nook Tablet and it works just fine.

And since I started this post off talking about price, let’s go there.  The DoPo costs $139.  Trust me.  For the extra $40, it’s worth it.  The horror stories I’ve heard about the other 7″ tablets that I’ve mentioned above aren’t worth the $99 headache.  I’m not saying it’s like an Amazon Fire ($199) or a Nook Tablet ($249) and I’ve tried both of those.  What I am saying is if you’re looking to save some cash on a nice little starter tablet and to get a feel for what you might want in your next tablet, then the DoPo is for you.  Play with it, have fun with it!  I might have to break down and buy a new netbook this year.  At least, I can do it guilt free because I didn’t pay $500 for an iPad.

4.5 out of 5 stars.

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