Vizio VTAB1008 Reviews
Product reviews for this Vizio item
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haroldpeters.... June 12th, 2012
Limited usage of external SD card
I bought 2 VTAB1008s fro my wife and myself for Christmas. Since I expected to install a lot of apps, books, etc., I installed a 32GB micro SD card in each, and it reports 31.24GB Total Space and 31.24GB Available Space.Carefully following the instructions in the manual, I tried to transfer as much as possible to the SD card. It reports that it has made the transfer, but I suddenly received an "internal memory full" message. It turned out that it treats 2.4GB of internal storage as if it were an SD card and all transfers go to that; it transfered absolutely nothing to the 32GB card. It still reported 31.24 GB as "available space" but was unable to use that memory for storage of apps or app data.
Vizio's website claims: "Flexible Storage No need to pick favorites, the VIZIO Tablet has room for all your media. In addition to the 4GB of internal storage (approximately 2GB is available for user storage), you can add additional storage with the MicroSD™ slot. Now that's entertainment freedom."
This claim is grossly misleading, since apps are unable to access the MicroSD slot for data storage. Apparently the only use for the MicroSD card is to download audio or video files while attached to your computer. Using the app "Astro" to access those files one can then use the VTAB for playback of those files--not very convenient, but doable.
Certainly it would only require a simple firmware modification to enable the VTAB user to select the MicroSD card as the default for app storage, rather than the 2.4GB internal storage that is erroneously called "SD card" storage. Undoubtedly a qualified programmer could effect such a simple change in an hour or less. Better still, set up an automatic link between the internal user storage and any installed external Micro SD card storage. Unfortunately, despite several firmware updates, this serious problem remains unaddressed.
The VTAB1008 has the potential to be very competitive in the tablet marketplace, but the inability to use the external SD card for applications and applications data significantly limits that potential for the serious app user. Unless and until Vizio corrects this fault with a firmware upgrade, do not expect to gain any benefit for your apps from the installation of an SD card!
For my purposes this defect in storage usage changes my product rating to two stars from what would otherwise have been a five star rating. Too bad! It has the potential to be a great tablet if only it worked as advertized by Vizio!