Arnova 10b G3 quick review [update]

The Arnova 10b G3 tablet is a product refresh of the Arnova 10b G2 best seller, updated with latest Android 4.03 Ice Cream Sandwich and 1 Gb of RAM. The rest of the device specifications stay the same: Rockchip RK2918 processor (single core) running at 1 GHz, 10.1″ capacitive touch screen, front camera.

Arnova 10b G3 specifications

Operating System	Android 4.0.3 (Ice Cream Sandwich) Linux Kernel Version: 3.0.8+ Build fingerprint: Android/rk29sdk/rk29sdk:4.0.3/IML74K/eng.root.20120330.182730:eng/test-keys
CPU	single core Rockchip 2918 CPU running at 1 Ghz Integrated GPU: Vivante Corporation GC800
Flash Storage Memory	Capacity 4 GB Speed: Class 4 range (tested Read 20 300 kB/s, Write 3 847 kB/s)
System Memory	1024 Mb
Additional storage	Micro SD slot (SDHC compatible)
Display	1024×600 TFT LCD 10.1 inches capacitive 2 points screen
Bluetooth	No
Wifi	802.11 b/g/n
Gravity Sensor	Yes
Camera	0.3Mp (front facing)
GPS	No
HDMI	No
Interfaces	Micro USB host 2.0: Mass Storage Class (MSC) MicroSD slot
Battery life	Video playing test: 3 hours check our Archos and Arnova battery tests page
Android Market	No (Appslib application Marketplace) or use our custom firmware to get Google Play / Android Market on the Arnova 10b G3.
Kickstand	No
Dimensions	270 mm x 150 mm x 12 mm (10.6” x 5.9” x 0.47”)
Weight	622 g / 21.94 oz

Arnova 10b G3 4 Gb		AMAZON USA		$ 119.99
		AMAZON UK	Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days	£ 94.95
		AMAZON DE		107.75 EUR
		AMAZON FR	Habituellement expédié sous 24 h	113.76 EUR

Packaging

Packaging is very similar to other Archos and Arnova products, you will find in the box:
– an Arnova 10b G3 tablet
– an USB cable (micro USB format), it does not charge the tablet
– 3 papers that includes: Arnova 10b G3 User Guide, Legal and Safety Notices and a $10 music credit coupon at emusic.com
– a power charger with 3 power sockets (American, English and European type), input 100-240V, outputs 5V 2A

Tablet design

The Arnova 10b G3 tablet shares its design with the previous Arnova 10b G2 model. The outside case is fully made of plastic with a brilliant aspect on the perimeter and the back of the tablet, that easily catches fingerprints. Weighting a little more than 600 g, it comparable to other models such as Arnova 10 G2 or Archos G9, the 10b G3 does not provide a kickstand. The camera (0.3 Mpixels) is located on the front left side of the case, the single speaker is on the other side.

Arnova 10b G3 buttons and connectors

The buttons and connectors are located on the left side of the tablet, we can find: power button, reset pinhole, volume +/- push button, the OTG micro USB, stereo earphone and power connectors.

Arnova 10b G3 benchmarks

October 2012 benchmarks update

Arnova 10b G3 benchmark results

	Arnova 10b G3
Test setup Firmware version	Linux Kernel version 3.0.8+ (root@sc-server-desktop) (gcc version 4.4.0 (GCC) ) #216 PREEMPT Mon Jun 11 09:46 :03 CST 2012 Android version 4.0.3 rk29sdk/rk29sdk:4.0.3/IML74K/eng.root.20120611.162734:eng/test-keys
Antutu Benchmark higher is faster	Total score: 2417 CPU:  743 GPU: 761 RAM: 422 I/O: 491
Linpack Pro v 1.2.9 higher is faster, benchmark run in multi-thread (we took the best numbers we could achieve, there is a lot of variance on these bench results)	15.536 MFLOPS
CF-Bench v 1.1 higher is faster	Native score: 3064 Java Score: 1018 Overall Score: 1836
ArcTools v 0.73 higher is faster	Read: 20 300 Kb/s Write: 3 847 Kb/s
Smartbench 2011 v 1.2.1 higher is faster	Prod. index: 415 Games Index: 791
Quadrant Advanced 1.1.7 higher is faster	Total: 1551 CPU: 1378 Mem: 2735 I/O: 2142 2D: 457 3D: 1045
Vellamo v 1.0.3 higher is faster	745
Nenamark v 2.0 higher is faster	18.3 FPS
Neocore v 1.9.35 higher is faster
GPUBench v 1.0.0 higher is faster	Absolute: 31073 Relative: 21589

Arnova 10b G3 battery life

We ran a battery life test playing Big Buck video (720p, mp4, reencoded sound in AAC format: this file big_buck_bunny_720p_AAC.mp4), brightness was set at 50%, sound at 50% and Wi-FI disabled.
The tablet was running Arnova 10b G3 official firmware from 2012/06/11 and ArcTools battery life test was used to generate the following graph.

With this test scenario, the battery life of the Arnova 10b G3 continuously playing a video was around 10 000 seconds, that is ~ 3 hours. This is one of the lowest battery life we got to see on a 10 inches tablet.

You can also refer the our Arnova 10 G2 review for further information on this 10 inches model very similar to the Arnova 10b G3.