UPDATE: My iRulu device stopped working shortly after this review. It is a poorly built tablet that has an unreasonably locked up operating system and poor performance overall. When my device stopped booting, I went over to iRulu’s website to download the original firmware. I was very frustrated when I found out that the tablet I bought merely 3 weeks ago wasn’t even supported by the company that made it. My advice to you: do NOT get this tablet, or any tablet under $100. While the price is attractive, you’ll soon be staring at yet another price for a different tablet because the one you just bought has just stopped booting up.

Original Review:

Whether your looking for a tablet to play around with, buy for your kids, or are simply trying to save cash, you may have considered buying the iRulu 7″ Android Tablet.

iRulu is one of those companies that give you what you paid for, nothing more – in this case a cheap tablet.

When I received my iRulu, it looked pretty decent. I got several accessories, including a case, stylus, keyboard, and headphones along with it.  Upon startup, you get the iRulu logo, then an annoying song and an iRulu animation (which is an effect of the iRulu ROM).

After using the tablet for about an hour, i’ve concluded that:

• The tablet works at a reasonable speed. Apps barely crash, although there have been 1-2 instances in which they have.
• The operating system, which is a modified android for iRulu is absolutely terrible. The home screen doesn’t properly change to landscape. (My attempts to change the ROM below.)
• You can’t update google search, as you keep getting a signature error (which is hard to fix if you’re just an android beginner or average user.)
• The screen is also terrible. It’s not as smooth as most devices are and at times you can get uncomfortable playing games or typing.
• The battery drains real fast – about 15% in 20 minutes of average use.

Later that day I went deeper into the tablet, trying to root it and install Cyanogen Mod on it (Which is a different ROM).

• Rooting the tablet was unsuccessful. Barely any rooting software works with this tablet, and if it does it only installs superuser, but doesn’t give it root permissions.
• The standard POWER + VOLUME UP method doesn’t work in order to get into recovery. You need to reboot to recovery in settings, which is basically useless if android gets bricked, or is simply corrupted.
• In recovery (after rebooted from settings), you can’t select any options via the volume buttons – making the recovery basically useless.

In general, the tablet is great for android beginners and users such as kids or just doing one task, such as searching the web. If you’re an android hacker looking for a challenge, this tablet is also for you (if you get a custom ROM please reply and let me know). For average and professional tablet users, I recommend looking for a higher quality tablet, preferably more than $100 dollars – the price at which many tablets are produced by better companies, making them last longer and work more efficiently.