Since the new Coby Kyros MID1060 was just announced at CES 2013 less than a month ago and it does not seemed to be available for purchase yet, I was more than a little surprised on Monday, when I picked up the Spar store flyer from my mailbox. There it was – the Coby Kyros MID1060-8 (8GB version) – available for purchase from Wednesday Feb 6 2013 at Spar stores in Slovenia for EUR 169 ($228), with an included 8GB microSD SDHC card, for a total of 16GB storage. The 169 EUR includes VAT tax at 20%, so an equivalent US price (without sales tax) would be around $199.

I was checking the web on Tuesday, but found almost no info about 1060 – only the FCC documentation and an article mentioning it was just announced at CES. I checked the specs mentioned in the flyer and comparing them to similar devices on Amazon.de, the price seemed more than OK. I decided to buy one.

I got to my local Spar in Ljubljana at 11 am and they still had enough of them…

First impression
The unit is sturdy, quite good looking and quality built. About 10 mm (0.4 in) thick, relatively heavy. Screen is bright and crisp, stereo sound from dual speakers is quite loud. Compared to MID1060, the MID7022 I bought last year is a piece of plastic crap… 1060 really does look and feel like a $400+ device.  Image of the box taken with MID1060 2 MP main camera:

Powering up
Turning the MID1060-8 on revealed the fact about zero Google apps installed (no surprise, a standard for Coby) – Clockwork is installed though, hint, hint ;-). You get into recovery mode by holding “-” volume button while powering device on. WLAN works OK, Bluetooth was able to pair with my phone and laptop, HDMI output works great in 1080p (50 Hz) mode with my Panasonic plasma, both cameras work OK (main camera is 2 MP fixed focus only, no LED…), Skype video works, FullHD movie playback over HDMI works…

I installed GT Racer HD app, but it says not compatible with device – lack of acceleration sensor I guess? Angry Birds Star Wars works great though… UPDATE: MID1060 does have an acceleration sensor!

Device charges through micro USB, which was a surprise (MID7022 only charges through power jack), but the charging through main power connector is faster – about 25 % per hour for a total charge time of 4-5 h. Battery life seems quite good. 75 minutes of video, browsing, photos, video Skype, etc. drained the battery to 80%. 5-6 h battery life could be expected (with low screen brightness), which is quite OK. BTW: mine was set to Polish language out of the box…

MID1060-8 specs and features
10.1″ 1280 x 800 multi touch capacitive touchscreen
Dual core A9 CPU, 1200 MHz
1 GB RAM
8 GB Flash (2 GB for Apps)
VGA front camera – works OK
2 MP fixed focus main camera – works, but no surprises about quality…
Mic and Stereo speakers, 3.5 mm headphone jack
Micro USB – also charges device (main power jack is separate)
MicroSDHC (up to 32 GB)
Mini HDMI (up to 1080p)
Volume and reset buttons
Android 4.0.4

Pros
– metal housing, sturdy, no gaps, heavy, good looking
– USB charging + “standard” Coby round plug
– Bluetooth
– 2 cameras
– HDMI
– microSD expansion slot
– quite fast at 1.2 GHz, dual core (AnTuTu benchmark: 8000)
– recovery mode built in (sort of; no backup/restore though)
– has accelerometer (test it with Fire truck driver from GetJar)
– good battery life – around 6 hrs of use (browsing, some gaming, video playback)

Cons
– no accelerometer (most probably), only screen tilt sensor
– no GPS
– no compass
– no Google apps (can be solved)
– could not transfer files through Bluetooth – don’t know if file transfer is even supported?
– only 4.0.4 Android – will be upgraded I guess as older Coby tablets were

Conclusion
A nice device, much better than MID7022 (and not that much more expensive), sturdy, quality built with right feature set. At this price, it is a bargain 🙂

2 Images taken with MID1060 2 MP camera:

Some more images of coby Kyros MID1060-8