Is the Ainol Novo 7 Mars the Aurora II Tablet in disguise?

March 31, 2012 - PRLog -- "Should I buy the Ainol Novo 7 Mars or Aurora II?" is the question many people are asking.

Well I beg to ask, "To be or not to be?"

I have been reviewing  Ainol Tablets ever since they released the Android 3.2 Honeycomb Advanced II and the Paladin.  Both tablets were a bargain for their price and feature list and were fairly popular.  

Next the Ainol Novo 7 Elf was a hit as it was the first Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sanwich (ICS) with capacitive screen and web camera.  The Elf suprised the world but not much more than the Aurora.

Ainol's Aurora release has been plagued by a shortage in IPS touch screens fro Hitachi. Basically, the Chinese government has stopped the import of foreign components, such as 7-inch and 9.7" IPS touchscreens to encourage the domestic manufacturing to become reliant onf 100% "Made In China" technology.

While I can understand the ideology of being a very proud Nation, I cannot understand hurting domestic producers by not allowing them to import components that are vitally need to assemble a fully working tablet PC, or, other electronic device.

Ainol has a horrible PR and marketing team (if one at all). Botched releases, shortened product life (they discontinue a model after 3 months), and unrealistic product releases (get pushed back many times), have made some once patient customers, very discouraged and confused.

If I were the CEO of Ainol, I would release a new line of tablets bi-yearly. Product specifications are known and product pictures are taken. Ainol currently only does this.

What they are best at is stirring up hype. The most anti-climatic aspect of their marketing is they do not officially announce why they are pushing release dates back by months. Nor does Ainol privately tell its Authorized resellers the reasons for delays.

This all aside, I wrote this article as many people have been speculating that the Aurora with Hitachi IPS screen and Allwinner A10 CPU has been discontinued for the Aurora II.

My inside source at Ainol says that there is no near term plan to release the 2nd generation Aurora II. There are certain mystery models and it sounds like the "Novo 7 Mars" is a legit tablet.  No confirmation if it will have the LG IPS screen or if it will keep the Hitachi screen. The CPU is also a mystery.

To be or Not to be?  I think that the Aurora II will be released by Ainol as the Novo7 Mars. ChinaGrabber.com  has this tablet on pre-order sale for $189.99

The specs are totally not complete:

"The Ainol Novo 7 Mars aka Aurora II is a pre-order item only. It is known the Aurora2 will have an IPS screen but whether it is an LG or Hitachi IPS screen is still unknown. Tablet will be available in the 8gb black version first.

This Novo7 Mars Aurora page will be updated regularly so make sure to check back with ChinaGrabber. We will be following a strict pre-order queue. Those who ordered first will get shipped out their orders first according to order number. To be fair, We will not bump any people who email us daily infront of the queue.....


English language manual will be known as 'Mars' and will not be available for another 2 months."

It looks like only time will tell or "answer" the question I begged to ask.

More Novo 7 Mars and Aurora 2 reviews, answers to questions, and where to pre-order can be found here:


http://www.apad.tv/apadforum/showthread.php?2556-Ainol-No...