We did a review of the Aurora’s sibling a couple of months ago, the Ainol Paladin and that got a lot of attention for being the first one to have ICS pre-installed out of the box. Not to mention the really affordable price. The Ainol Aurora brings this up a notch by offering a sleeker design and better hardware configuration. Check out our full review of the Ainol Novo 7 Aurora after the jump.
7-inch tablets are a blessing. They’re big enough for large screen internet browsing, gaming, and movie playback, but small and light enough to be carried inside a clutch bag. Device manufacturers are aware of the advantages and produced these devices in different styles and forms. One contender in the 7-inch division is the Ainol Novo 7 Aurora, a fairly new player in the local market.
Design
At first glance, the Aurora looks simple yet well-built. You can easily spot that it has a plastic body but doesn’t totally look cheap. Put the tablet in your hands and you’ll notice its light weight and slim form factor. If you come from a thicker and heavier device such as the Kindle Fire, it’ll feel awkward at first but you’ll adjust to it eventually.
The Aurora is filled with ports and jacks which are all located on the left side. There you’ll find the charger port, mini USB (USB charging is supported), mini HDMI, microSD, and the 3.5mm headset jack. The mic is also located here if you need to know. On top are the power button, volume rocker, and a back/return button for a quick app exit. On the front is the 2 megapixel camera for video calling. Turn it on its back and you’ll find the speaker.
Although I like the glossy plastic build on the Aurora, it doesn’t actually feel solid. Tap it and it’ll sound like the entire case is hollow. Tighten your grip around it and you can actually hear the plastic creak. Not really a plus for me.
UI
The tablet runs Android version 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich and runs it well. It’s very responsive, animations and transitions are smooth even when running multiple apps in the background. You’ll notice some lags every now and then but not to the point that it becomes annoying. In a nutshell the Aurora will give you the best Ice Cream Sandwich experience it can offer. By the way, formatting the Aurora will cause it to revert to its stock language which is Chinese. Since I have no internet access at the time of the formatting, which means I can’t Google a “how-toâ€, it took me almost 30 minutes just to navigate the language setting and change it to English.
Display
The Aurora’s 7-inch display at 1024×600 resolution is a treat. Details are sharp, colors are vibrant, has great contrast, and HD images and videos appear superb. It also has IPS so you get great viewing angles but I won’t suggest using it under direct sunlight as the display throws a lot of glare. The display also supports multi-touch, sensitive, and of course, a fingerprint magnet.
Camera
The front-facing camera works fine for self-portraits. For 2 megapixels I didn’t expect much in terms of quality. I also tried video calling via Skype but the camera doesn’t work properly. I can see my caller clearly but I appear pixelated and discolored on the other end. It’s probably a software issue than a hardware one.
Apps
Apps are not a problem. In fact, the Aurora will give you apps you might haven’t even seen before. I don’t want to call it bloat ware since I haven’t figured out yet how some of the apps work because they’re in Chinese. As a plus, games such as Fruit Ninja and Angry Birds Rio come pre-installed as well as a couple of file explorers and task managers. You won’t see the Gallery icon here since it’s replaced with QuickPic and Super-HD Player to handle your photo and video files. For other apps that you need, I’m sure you can find it in the Play Store and the Aurora will run it just fine as long as it’s compatible.
I downloaded Temple Run to test the gyro sensor on the device. The Aurora was able to run the game smoothly, swipes are working but unfortunately the character is always tilted to the left. It’ll only tilt to the right if you turn it on its landscape position which I think is a stupid way to play.
Multimedia
Like most Android tablets, multimedia is never a problem. Music playback is a breeze and the Super-HD Player app handles my AVI files very well but the speaker is a little bit on the soft side. It can deliver some oomph though and fill a small room but only if you max it out. If you’re planning to play music and watch a movie in a location with lots of ambient noise, may I suggest using a headset instead. I also downloaded the YouTube app to play some HD videos and so far no problems and plays smoothly.
Benchmarks
While over-all performance is very good, our synthetic benchmarks will categorically show you which other devices will perform closely like the Novo 7 Aurora.
The Quadrant Standard score is 1541 beating the score of the Nexus S while the Antutu Benchmark score is 2,843 putting it almost putting it very close to the Galaxy S and Nexus S. Lastly, the Nenamark 2 score gives it 24.1fps which is pretty decent.
Battery Life
In my regular use which includes normal internet browsing, light gaming, app downloading, eBook reading and some movies, the Aurora lasted two days before it completely ran out. I was able to keep it alive for three days if I let go of the games and movies. Overall, the Aurora’s battery life is sufficient enough to last a day without charging if you don’t go heavy on it. Should it run low on juice, just plug it to your computer through its mini USB port or use the DC charger.
Conclusion
The Ainol Novo 7 Aurora is a tablet that you’ll surely enjoy and appreciate. On the downside, I don’t like the plastic build of the Aurora. It feels hollow and I don’t like a tablet that makes a creaking sound when I grip it. It gives me a feeling like it’s going to break the moment I lose my temper. You can also hear the plastic buttons rattle when you shake the tablet.
I also noticed that it has a very, very small gap on the left side between the screen and the bezel where you can partially peak at the ports. It’s not really noticeable at first but it gets annoying once you know it’s there. Overall, the Aurora is a good (but not great) budget friendly tablet. It has good display, it’s slim and light compared to other 7-inchers and can handle most of your media needs without any serious hiccups. If you’re not too picky, then I don’t think the cons will discourage you from buying this.
Ainol Novo 7 Aurora specs:
7″ IPS LCD @ 1024×600, 170ppi
1.2GHz Allwinner A10 processor (ARM Cortex A8)
Mali400 GPU
1GB RAM
8GB internal storage
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
2MP front-facing camera
3,700 mAh Li-Ion battery
Android 4.0 ICS
189mm x 120mm x 9.9mm
325g
What we liked about it:
â— Slim form factor
â— Light-weight
â— Decent to good display quality
â— ICS out of the box
â— Affordable
What we didn’t like:
â— A bit poor plastic build
â— Separate DC charger (not microUSB)
â— No rear camera
â— No Bluetooth
The Ainol Novo 7 Aurora is available at Widget City for a retail price of Php8,950 (check it out here).
Disclosure: Widget City provided the review unit. They are a display banner advertiser here in YugaTech.
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bagongsaing says:
Hi, mr. abe. Can you make a full review on ainol novo cyrstal or flame? Thanks!
teslasgenerator.net says:
Hello there! I know this is somewhat off topic but I was
wondering if you knew where I could find a captcha plugin for my comment form?
I’m using the same blog platform as yours and I’m having problems finding one?
Thanks a lot!
Pia says:
where can I have mine repaired? Ayaw mag on.
kitoy says:
uhm sir ask q lang po about sa aurora kung magkano po ung price now in the market.. thanks!
Edwin says:
sir Abe, already got my aurora 2 from Lazada…. 1st things 1st, so amazed!!! oa na kung oa but the feeling is heaven….
the only problem is there are more than a lot of apps that are not compatible with the device.. not even android YouTube is not working, too.. I’ll consider all those incompatibilities BUT NOT YOUTUBE!!!
please sir, if you have some recommendations / suggestions etc… please share it sir Abe…
(desperate lang, jijijiji:D)
does it have to do with the OS like it’s ICS that is a mainstream for smartphones and not on tablets???? or should i go honeycomb???
really got no idea… thanks sir Abe :)
thank you so much…..
Wayne Ponz says:
Hi Yuga, any more reviews of this device?
The battery, other functionalities, scores, etc? :) Hope there would be an update for this :)
Edwin says:
guys guys!! aurora II is out in the market!!! i’ve placed my order @ Lazada but still waiting for my item…. specs are a bit upgraded i believe..
with 1500Ghz,
still with IPS capacitive screen.
when yuga said that it has no front camera, well aurora 2 has.
and the battery at 4000mAH, don’t have any idea what the number is all about but by this review, maybe it might stay longer than 2 days..
anyway, i don’t have any idea what is that rom customization you were discussing here… can you please expound it a little bit more…
and also, can you play movies from usb devices without transferring the file to the tablet??? like plug and play???
thank you!!!
mm says:
pero mas ok Aurora II kesa dito dual core na, sna my review na.:)
haydee says:
Pwede ba tong gmitan ng Sun Broadband stick?
Thanks a lot
Gian says:
sir naginstall po ba kayo ng bagong ROM for this? kapag bumili po ba ako nito di ko sya magagamit unless iflash ko sya? sorry. newbie po.
jepoy says:
Hello mga friends,
Newbie lng po ako. Pano po ba magdownload ng mga games at apps sa Aurora 2? Pwede po ba muna sa pc mag-dl then copy sa aurora 2? Anung website po?
Thanks.
q says:
meron bang pre installed office?salamat
rojan says:
Guys. Available na siya sa cashcashpinoy. Php 5999.00 lang. :-)
Wii says:
soft touch po ba to di po ba to gaya ng APAD na sa una lang soft yung touch screen na later on titigas at so hard i touch?
Piping Dilat says:
I bought my Ainol Aurora (16GB) two weeks ago. The only reason why I bought it is that it CAN play my MKV movies ( > 8GB in size ) directly from my 1TB WD portable hard disk w/o any problem. As a matter of fact, it played all of my movies in the format that I have in that HD ( flv,mov,avi,mp4,mkv… ). No need to convert files to mp4 ( Apple Ipad ) and God knows how long it take to convert mkv files to mp4.
Jcc says:
Available to sa aweseomegadgets.multiply.com or if you know university mall beside la salle Taft, they have a small shop at the third floor. Sila mismo yung distributors dito sa philippines.
B@tman says:
Guys san store kaya makakabili ng ganito ..
The Best Android Tablet says:
This Blog is going places, the people, the layout, amazing to see such dedication and focus…..
jamie says:
To those who bought ainol novo 7 aurora, do you experience some phantom/ghost touches in it??? Just keeps opening apps, playing games, typing on its own (a bit scary though) bought my unit 6days ago. It came out on the 2nd day, went to normal on the 3rd-5th day. Just came out again today.. anyone who experienced this and were you able to find whats causing that behavior and how to fix it? Please HELP! Thanks!
kim says:
Sir, Just asking if you have this kind of thing coming out from the side of the display?
http://i1259.photobucket.com/albums/ii546/kimbardiente/LCDproblem.jpg
IS THIS OKAY?
andres bonifacio says:
how many hours runtime video playback 50% brightness?
sorry but saying “3 days” doesn’t really mean anything…
Martin says:
Hi, Good review. I just bought an Aurora and I found a fix for the Temple Run tilt problem you mention above. Go to
Settings/Display/Accelerometer and select ‘Default coordinate system’
I am updating a blog page here on the Aurora if interested: http://mjdenham.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/ainol-aurora-7-tablet-1ghz-arm-1gb-ram.html
boom says:
i love this tablet and sadly though the customer service of widgetcity is awful..
and worse, i thought the product of widgetcity was cheaper, for only P8,950, only to find out that the one i saw which i thought was more expensive priced at P9,995 on awesomegadgets was the 16GB version (even with a free 16gb microSD & HDMI cable).. and recently they posted the 8GB version of only P6,455.. i feel robbed.
going back to the gadget though, i agree with abe on the casing, the screen has a gap and i have to remove it and place a double adhesive to help it stay intact. gladly that worked though. i didn’t try returning it though for some reason…
@abe: try installing a custom ROM you’ll get all the instructions you need at http://www.slatedroid.com/forum/280-ainol-novo-7-aurora/
ICS has a problem and is not yet stable but the aurora and elf can handle all those changes, my aurora has been like a programming machine already, lol.. all games including temple run runs smoothly, the HDMI output is superb on your HD TVs..
i guess the only prob with this tablet is the case. for the price at less than 7k, if everybody can try it, they will hesitate on buying a galaxy tab. =)
p.s. it has almost the same specs to a galaxy tab p1010.
(sorry for the long comment, i think these people need to be informed)
sherwood says:
thank you for the long comment and for the info as well. it helps .:)
NoypiGeeks says:
Wow, I’m pretty impressed with the battery which lasted 2 days. Arguably the best android tablet at its price.
Jp says:
Where can I buy one?
sol says:
Saw this at greenhills V-Mall yesterday at the Game Gizmo Store, apparently they are the official distributors in the Philippines. Price is around 10,300 and cash discount price is 9,800 comes with 1 year factory warranty. Getting really tempted to buy this….
Jp says:
Thnx guys for the replies :) I’ll just have to find it myself
madaaa says:
@JP di ka ata makakakita talaga ng nagbebenta sa mga malls and shops sir. Pick-up sa widget city na ang best choice mo kung ayaw mong magpaship from abroad o ng mga seller sa online stores etc.
Jp says:
@lawrence my parents have phobia of buying online, no matter how many good feedback the site has. I’m asking for a retail store.
lawrence says:
It was mentioned towards the end of the post:
“The Ainol Novo 7 Aurora is available at Widget City for a retail price of Php8,950”
kikokix says:
I personally own this tablet and used it’s stock firmware for a few days and it’s just fine, upon reflashing to the latest feiyu custom ROM it’s snappier, there are a few performance hiccups but overall I am a satisfied user and a happy camper.
louwe says:
may access ba itong aurora sa google play store? kasi po according sa ibang article na nabasa ko wala naman daw? pangit kasi kung wala din lang access.
madaaa says:
the older aurora versions, wala.di ko sure sa review unit na to, baka ito ung may new displays. kung wala man, may mga google play script namang available para magkaroon. pwedeng iedit ung build para marecognize as either gtab or s2 ;)
Note says:
I just recently tried the the Ainol tablet my cousing bought a few weeks ago. Contrary to the review here, it is definitely NOT SMOOTH. It lags all the time. The browser that comes with it crashes most of the time. The games take forever to launch. The slowness of rotating the screen from portrait to landscape will annoy the hell out of you. Avoid Ainol at all cost. You’ve been warned.
mistermobile says:
Anong specific model ng AINOL?
Note says:
Bakit? Importante bang mag-expect? You pathetic cretin.
madaaa says:
@Note: Kelangan bang masubukan muna bago mag-expect?I think it goes the other way around. Haha in your face, idiot. :P
Note says:
I didn’t expect anything from it because i dont even know what to expect. That is why i TRIED it out. Idiot.
madaaa says:
..and the fact that you expect too much from an ENTRY LEVEL tablet and complain without even trying out available options to make it more functional is pure stupidity ;) peace out :)
Note says:
The fact that you have to flash a custom rom just to make it ‘smoother’ makes this device more worthy inside the garbage bin.
madaaa says:
@Note: You just don’t know how to maximize the tablet. Tell your cousin to flash a custom ROM, either ECR or Elvish. Mine works as good as a Galaxy Tab, no lags, no random boots or crashes. Ainol tabs are the best among the entry level ICS Chinese branded tabs. You’ve been informed :)
maico says:
A viewer arguing to a reviewer.
PJ Reyes says:
hi abe, have you encountered this product? saw it on a group buying site: an Android Epad – http://www.metrodeal.com/main.php?dealId=MTQ0OQ==
mat says:
Metrodeals tablet is epad, i think its the lousy resistive screen, :)
Edwin C says:
Aba, makabili nga.
droid says:
Does it come with Google play store out of the box?
Abe Olandres says:
Yes, it does.
Supyo says:
Being a chinese product, question is, could it withstand the test of time? Noticeably, the first part that gives out on Chinese products is the battery. Could you keep us updated with the status of the battery after a few months sir abe? If it holds out I’ll be very interested :D
uchiyas says:
the best talaga ang ainol brand… di po ito 2nd gen.. meron 2nd gen na novo advance 2…
i got my 1st n7a a last year december.. i gift to my self ^^ the best features for a cheap price…
you wont regret buying this unit…
Vekou X Aitenshi says:
Is this the same as the Cherrypad Advance?
r41 says:
Quite a promising tablet! Compared to the famous Amazon Kindle Fire, this one actually allows memory expansion via microSD. Not bad at all, with only the build quality having a question mark.
JAL says:
Is this the 2nd gen of Ainol Novo 7 Aurora that has an LG IPS Panel with 4.0.3 ICS?
Ainol Novo 10 Hero says:
I agree with you dear. Ainol Novo 7 Aurora is obviously an awesome designed well feature Android Tablet PC. Its touch quality is really wonderful.