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Odd Tech : Sylvania SLTDVD9220-C – A Portable DVD Player that Doubles as a Android Tablet

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I often have a hard time passing up odd or unusual tech when I find it. While on vacation visiting family, we popped into a Wal-Mart in a small Texas City and I spotted one of the most unusual pieces of technology that I have ever seen – The Sylvania SLTDVD9220-C is a sub $100.00 portable DVD Player with a average (for a portable DVD player) 9 inch screen and a sub-par 4 hour battery. Where the SLTDVD9220-C falls short, it makes up in a big and strange way – it doubles as an Android Tablet!

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Before I go into a more detailed review, let me get this out of the way real quick – this thing is way too thick to use as a day-to-day Android Tablet. You would look silly pulling this thing out in a meeting or using it to do some heavy web browsing. This tablet really excels at one thing – consuming media. If you want a tablet that does more, it is best to look elsewhere.

Sylvania is not really a brand that most people are familiar with and to be honest they are easy to overlook as they manufacturer a lot of accessories for stores like Wal-Mart. I remember seeing Sylvania Universal TV Remotes, AM/FM Radios and other small electronics. I have never owned a Sylvania Tablet but they do make a few of them.

Under the hood, the SLTDVD9220-C has the specs one would expect to find in a budget tablet. It packs a unidentified “QuadCore-A64” processor, 1 GB of RAM and 8 GB of storage (4.6 GB usable). The screen resolution is 1024×600 with the same viewing angle issues I recall from older portable DVD Players. The SLTDVD9220-C has a small selection of ports including a MicroUSB Port (for charging), Headphone Jack and a full-size HDMI port to allow you to connect the tablet to a TV. You will also find a MicroSD card slot on the side to allow you to augment the built in 8 GB of storage with up to 32 GB. The tablet has WiFi (b/g/n) and Bluetooth. The battery life does not impress with a maximum of 4 hours of use but you are better off keeping this plugged in. It is worth saying that the 4 hours is of “Tablet Use” and you can expect about half of that when playing DVDs.

The battery charges via a typical MicroUSB cable which is included in the box but the charging speed is incredibly slow – about 7 hours for a full charge.

Thankfully Sylvania opted not to include any cameras on this device. Tablets should not have rear cameras and front facing cameras on budget tablets are often unusable.

Although the online listings show the tablet with Android 5.1, it has been updated to Android 7.1.1 and even has the July 2017 Security Patches which is impressive for a budget tablet. The Android build on the tablet is an un-skinned build with a very small number of pre-installed applications including ES File Explorer, Videos and Sylvania’s Online Help System. You will also be pleased to know that the Google Play Store and all other Google Play Services are pre-installed and work as expected. Feel free to install Netflix and other streaming media applications on this.

Sadly the build of ES File Explorer is essentially addware and you will see several popups while using this application. It is honestly best to disable the application and resort to Android’s built in file manager.

The DVD functions are accessed via the “DVDPlayer” Application in the launcher. The DVD Player supports a large number of formats including DVDs, DVD+R/W and VCDs. It can also play audio CDs and MP3 CDs as well.

The box includes everything needed to get started including a MicroUSB cable, 5v@2.5a Wall Charger, 5v@1.0a Car Charger, HDMI cable and Car Mounting Straps. You will either need a 2nd MicroUSB cable for the car or lug around the one included in the box with the player. This DVD player does not have any remote control included in the box but you can use a third party bluetooth controller if this is needed.

In all honesty, this device is not a bad buy for entertaining kids on roadtrips. The STTDVD9220 can be purchased for around $89.00 from several retailers including Wal-Mart and Amazon.

The odd thing about the box is that all of the screenshots show classic Android 3.0 HTC Sense Clock Widgets on the tablet UI. How many clocks does one person actually need?

Below are several screenshots I have taken from the device. I do need to note that it is not possible to take screenshots of the DVD Player Application.