Cube U55GT-C8 Octa Core Tablet Firmware Flash

If you happen to have bricked your Cube U55GT C8 then you might well find the guide below, and the links provided, to be of some use. While it is a fine device with a great screen my particular one really didn't like factory resets as they essentially broke Android, causing there to be little or no UI left once the resetting was complete. It was very strange and many tech people were confused by it. While I never found out exactly why that used to occur I did find out how to reflash Android on to it even when it seemed as if the device had become bricked (dead). Much of the appreciation for the information below should go to a friend of mine called Nick for going above and beyond the call of friendship to help me out with fixing mine, which in turn has allowed me to put together this guide.

Tools you may need:

Before you follow the steps below it is assumed you have a knowledge of SP Flash Tools and of how to replace drivers within Windows Device Manager. This is not meant as a full tutorial so please refer to other widely available guides on these matters before proceeding with this if you are unsure. This guide is for Windows only I'm afraid!

A - Firmware and SP Flash Tools software: http://chinagadgetsreviews.blogspot.gr/2014/10/download-latest-android-kitkat-442_1.html or http://www.mediafire.com/download/22yzk4cpkc7ebck/U55GT-C8_V1.0_20140902.rar

B - Detailed guide on Mediatek USB drivers: http://laurentiumihet.ro/technology/sp-flash-tool-mediatek-mt65xx-drivers-download-and-installation-guide-including-bricked-devices/

C - (This page was very useful as well even though the author refers to Windows 10: http://laurentiumihet.ro/technology/windows-10-mtk-vcom-usb-drivers-for-32-64-bit-drivers-installation-tutorial/)

D - Nirsoft USB Devices viewer is free and allows you to see what USB ports are active and connected. It proved very useful for this as it also tells you the name of the connections in a handier way than Windows own Device Manager: http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/usb_devices_view.html

Follow these steps:

1 - Make sure you have the right Mediatek drivers installed on your computer. The ones on the website link B, specifically one named MDMCPQ (for Windows 7), worked for me. If you downloaded the firmware from the Mediafire link the drivers are included within the folder "MTK Drivers 32 bit and 64 bit..." Search for "Alcatel xxxxxx" in Device Manager as Windows installs a driver for the tablet automatically and it is, obviously, the wrong one. Replace that driver with the Mediatek driver.

2 - The connection will appear and disappear frequently within Device Manager but this is normal. On my install it came up as Mediatek MTK (Com 13) or something like that under Network. You can check more details using Nirsoft USBDevices software through the website link D above. If all is going well you should see "Mediatek DA USB VCOM Port" and "PreLoader USB VCOM (Android)". 

3 - Open SP Flash Tools, ensure it is set up correctly with the right scatter file etc. The scatter file is located in one of the folders in the Firmware folder you will have downloaded from web link A above. You may have to look for it yourself - it is a text file (Notepad format) called MT6592_Android Scatter). 

4 - Keep the tablet plugged out and when the scatter file is loaded up and ready to go click on the dropdown menu below the scatter file address bar. Select "Format+Download".

5 - Click on the big "Download" button and then connect the USB cable to the tablet. Ensure that you do this when the device has appeared in the Device Manager window (remember it will appear and disappear every few seconds so keep an eye on it). 

6 - Watch the progress bar until complete, disconnect the tablet, power up (it will take longer than usual for the first boot).

7 - The tablet will now be in Chinese but you can switch back to English easily by swiping from the top-right-corner of the screen and going into the menu structure (you'll find it eventually!).

8 - If the tablet had previously been rooted you can download the KingORoot apk (not available in the Play Store but available from kingoroot.com) which will root it for you once again (it may take a couple of attempts and ensure to keep the screen awake while it works) and allow you to uninstall any bloatware from the system using App Master or a similar app.

Further resources which may be of assistance (they were to me):

1 - XDA Developers thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2674459

2 - China Phone Arena on Youtube, video on using SP Flash Tools to unbrick a device like above (extremely useful to watch): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVh5koB5ky4

Cube Talk79 U55GT Tablet Review

Have you been looking around for a tablet for some late-night reading, watching a few clips on Youtube, or perhaps even writing a few short pieces on Google Docs? Well these were some of the reasons I was on the lookout for a cheap tablet. After hesitating for a long time I began to do some research into tablets from various Chinese OEM manufacturers and ended up buying the Cube Talk79. For less than €150 it's hard to go wrong with it.

This picture from www.cngadgets.com gives you a good idea of the overall look of this tablet. It's not all that different, from the front at least, to an iPad Mini but the back is distinctly different. It's very thin as you can see from the side profile.

The technical details of the tablet are here: http://www.cube-tablet.com/cube-talk79-octa-core-u55gt-c8-phone-call-tablet-pc-mtk8392-bt-gps-fm-3g-7-85-inch-retina-2gb-16gb.html

The Talk79 is a slightly smaller version of another Cube tablet, the Talk9X which was released a few months ago and was billed by some as China's best Android tablet. The specification of the Talk79 which I bought, is very similar to it's larger brother and will leave most users very satisfied with its performance.

Because tablets spend so long being held I always think that how they feel in the hand is very important and this one feels properly solid, almost in the same way that an iPad would feel. The similarity with Apple's products doesn't end there, as you can see from the pictures in the link above, it looks quite similar (at least from the front) to the California-designed products. The buttons on the right side, controlling volume and power, are fairly solid but there is more movement in them than is the case with a real top end device. At the same time it is not something I am worried about, I am confident they're going to last the lifetime of the tablet.

Turning on the tablet is easy and running through set-up is also easy. Cube kept the Android OS fairly clean with very few pre-installed apps so it's a clean slate for you to work from. It's a very sharp slate to work from too, the screen resolution and colour production are very good. Apparently it uses the same display as the iPad Mini and it shows, especially when watching HD videos or looking at sharp hi-res pictures. Indeed it is really useful for watching TV shows on if you like to do that with a tablet. The one thing which is noticeable is that brightness is not very adjustable, especially on the "auto" setting, but again it is no great problem and especially so for those of you used to phones or tablets which do not dim/light-up abruptly depending on ambient light. This is not to say that it doesn't work, it's just not all that sensitive.

I rarely use a tablet's, or a phone's own speakers as you can never expect much from them in the way of bass or sections of midrange due to their physical size. In saying that the speakers on the Cube are decent, clear, and loud without being too tinny. They do their job well but linking it up with some speakers or headphones (you can use the 3.5mm jack for this or use Bluetooth) makes a huge difference, obviously. Sound, in this regard, is clear, loud, and far more customisable through an EQ manager.

But what about the overall user experience? Is it smooth, flowing? Is it a joy to use or is a frustrating package of lag and force-closures?

Overall the Talk79 has been very smooth running your usual array of apps such as a music player (Google Music in my case), Chrome, VLC, Pocket Casts (for podcasts), Pocket (for text), Mightytext, Gmail etc. It can handle all of these apps easily and can run them all simultaneously without any hiccups. The screen's touch sensitivity is very good and typing on it is surprisingly easy (I use the Swiftkey app). There have been the odd time when I have pressed the power button the wake the tablet up and have not had a reaction for a few seconds but this has since mitigated (no idea why but maybe the power button was a little stiff from the factory).

Another very important aspect in tablet usage is battery life and the Talk79 did not initially impress me in this field seeing just about 8 hours of usage before it would need to be recharged. However, as I have cycled the battery through a few charges now, that has improved somewhat but a much bigger change resulted in much greater battery gains. This tablet can accept a nano-sim for phone services, and at 13cmx20cm (approx) it is just about small enough to hold in one hand if you DID want to use it as a phone. I've never seen the appeal of that though and rooted the tablet with a PC programme called KingOroot. This allowed me to install "App Master" which will allow you to delete apps which are usually not deletable. I made sure to get rid of all apps to do with phone services in order to save battery life. Even without a sim card the tablet will attempt to search for mobile networks either way and in Android's built-in battery monitor this was taking up quite an amount of battery. In deleting the phone services I can now squeeze out about 12 hours of battery or more.

One caveat to all of this - I don't play any games on my phone or tablet so cannot comment on any of that sort of stuff and I have yet to bother with the camera on it but reviews elsewhere say it is quite good.

Overall, for less than €150 this is a very good 7.9" tablet which will handle all that is thrown at it. I'm not an Android fan-boy but I do wonder why so many people spend so much on Ipad's when they will never use the full capabilities of that device. They could save so much money with something like this and still never use this device's capabilities! If you're looking for a decent tablet on a budget this is a great choice.