My Lume Pad 2 Review/Thoughts

Lume Pad
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Here are my thoughts on the Lume Pad 2. I’ll be comparing it to the Nintendo 3DS, New 3DS, and Pixel Slate.

General Hardware

The edges of the device are almost a right angle. Consequently holding it is much more uncomfortable compared to a tablet with half circle rounded edges like the Pixel Slate.

I like the inclusion of a micro SD card slot and 120hz display. But I would like to have a least 1 USB C port on each side of the device.

The processor being ARM is something which is not unexpected, but also something I am not a big fan of. I would have preferred an x86 processor such as the Intel i3-N300 like is used in the ASUS Vivobook 13 Slate T3304. The reason for my preference is due to long term OS support. With Android ARM devices you get 2 or 3 years of OS updates, and then that’s it, you just are stuck on the old version. With x86 processors you can run a generic image of the latest Windows or Linux OS on 20 or 30 year old hardware. My Pixel Slate with an Intel CPU released in 2018, 2 years before the Lume Pad 1, and will have OS updates until 2026, while the LP1 is no longer receiving OS updates. And after my Pixel Slate is no longer supported by Google, I will probably just install Ubuntu Linux Gnome on it and be able to use a modern OS for many more years. In my opinion this longevity is well worth the decreased performance in some Android apps not being optimized for x86.

3D Hardware
The defining feature of the LP2, it would need to be good, and it is. I had already experienced autostereoscopic 3D on the 3DS and New 3DS, which looks good, especially in more abstract games like Mario 3D Land of the type Nintendo makes, but they do have low resolution and refresh rate displays. The much higher resolution and refresh rate of the LP2 is much nicer, as you would expect. But the bigger difference is the depth. I would say the 3DS looks like it has 1in of depth, whereas the LP2 looks like 5in of depth. The face tracking is also much better than on the New 3DS. But the 3D experience still is not quite perfect. There are occasional visual glitches or flickers, which I’m not sure if it could be caused by my wearing glasses throwing off the face tracking.

General Software

Regarding the OS and general device user experience, I was hoping that Google’s more recent tablet work would provide an improved tablet experience, but that hasn’t panned out. There are some advantages to Android on a tablet, but it is still a mixed bag compared to Chrome OS as on my Pixel Slate, Windows, or Linux Gnome. My Pixel Slate in the past was a much better experience, but Google, as they have a tendency to do, recently destroyed the Android user experience with ARCVM. I would say there unfortunately still isn’t any OS which offers anywhere close to a good tablet experience.

3D Software

Leia Player
The video player works, but it pretty barebones. There is no media session or keyboard support for example, so I can’t use the play/pause buttons on my keyboard or earbuds to control playback. In my opinion it would be better to focus on creating a fork of existing open source video players like VLC or MPV and just adding LP2 3D support instead of creating a whole video player from scratch.

Leia Flix
It would be nice to have the option to permanently buy movies instead of just temporary renting. Also media session and keyboard support.

Leia Viewer
I don’t have much use for the custom model viewing functionality, but it is the best option to quickly demo the 3D effect, the depth of the models appears much better than preexisting generic 3D content like 3D movies and really showcases the potential of the LP2 hardware.

LeiaTube
The user experience is a bit clunky as a result of needing to share the videos from the original source. Also the previously mentioned video player limitations.

2D to 3D AI video conversion
This feature has received praise from others, but I unfortunately can’t say the same. For me it is so bad as to be unusable. The higher the depth setting, the more the objects appear to be rapidly vibrating, causing videos to only be viewable at the lowest depth setting, which is not much of an enhancement over 2D. This vibration doesn’t occur with native 3D content like movies in Leia Player/Flix. Also, if the video contains any text it will be completely messed up and more unreadable the higher the depth.

General 3D Software
One of the biggest weakness of the Lume Pad 2, the small 3D software and games library. There are a handful of games which are basically tech demos, and the software is mostly just the built in Leia apps. A major problem in my opinion is the lack of cross device compatibility with the Lume Pad 1. There was apparently a 3DS emulator and a MPV video player with support for the LP1, but those and other applications are not available for the LP2.

Conclusion
Ignoring the 3D capability, there are unfortunately for me plenty of issues which limit the appeal of the LP2. The quality and depth of the 3D effect is very good, and a major improvement over earlier devices. But the need to make 3D software and games specifically for the LP2 hobbles its content catalog, which ultimately results in the overall device falling short of what I would hope for.

Lume Pad 2, Nintendo 3DS, New 3DS LL, Pixel Slate
Lume Pad 2, Nintendo 3DS, New 3DS LL, Pixel Slate1920×1203 207 KB

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The virtual boy emulator was released and it looks good on the LP2, I’m waiting on the 3ds emulator now and hopefully it runs better on the LP2 due to having that 888 SD. I hpoe it gets released soon because im on the fence if i’ll be keeping mine due too massive crosstalk i see on my LP2. Every demo on my unit has it, haven’t had the chance to load up some movies i own yet i have to get to that soon. I also like the cameras but i wished it could have also had the option to function like LP1 without the cameras so it wouldn’t just be seen by a single user , i liked the multiview of the LP1 when displaying photos and videos, one good example is that i use my LP1 as a virtual fisth tank by having the AI convert a video from 2d to 3d and it looks kool even from a distance, you cant do that with LP2 the camera has to see you to display 3d. Another thing like you said there a few apps or games on the device, they should have a 3d wallpaper app that displays them in 3d or live 3d wallpapers. The dream app is ok but i would have to learn how to use it, everytime i type in something the picture whatever i choose comes out double.

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It’s an honest review, I do understand what you’re saying, but I’d disagree on a few points. The device is made for 3D viewing and that is the main appeal. Installing Windows or Linux would likely not support the 3D at all, making using the tablet pointless (versus just buying a cheaper 2D Android tablet). ARM is also better supported overall on Android, for example if you want to download regular apps from the Play Store, though I guess these days most popular apps will work fine.

The 3D is very good for me, I guess we agree there. I also wear glasses and I think they do mess with the tracking somewhat. It’s still fine, but I tried it bare and it did seem a little better (though I couldn’t see anything). Also, I noticed I need to wear my driving glasses to see the 3D well. I have computer glasses I wear in the house (for my monitor and phone) but it appears to not focus right on the Lume Pad 2. So you might want to check that depending on the type of glasses you wear.

It’s Android 12, so I’d say the experience is similar to other large Android tablets I’ve tried, I have ones from Lenovo and Samsung. I’d say they are comparable and what I was expecting for an Android tablet. I also have ChromeOS tablet which is interesting and I liked it, but sadly it’s very limited and slow. But it was only like $200 so I can forgive that.

Leia Player works good for me. I’m not sure why I would need a keyboard to play a video on a mobile device. Earbud controls would be cool, though. Leia Flix is cool, but like you I’d like to buy films for a longer period. The selection is also missing some big movies like Ghost in Shell, I hope there are more films released soon. Leia Viewer is cool, I’m a game developer so I use this, but it’s missing many features. It’s sort of a hit or miss if the model will work. When it works it’s amazing, but it needs improvement and better compatibility. LeiaTube is also really cool, but it would be nice to create playlists, or at least save a history or something. The user experience is a little clunky if you just want to browse around.

So, the AI 2D to 3D conversion is some of the best I’ve seen for real time. There are better results from manual conversions (or semi-assisted) like they have done for some films in theaters. But this is running in real time with maybe a few seconds of buffering, which has never been done this well. That said, sometimes there are small artifacts like halos or flickering, I have noticed that. But I would say more often it looks pretty good.

I agree that the app selection is small. I’m a developer, so I’m working on some stuff now, but I’m one person. Hopefully more developers will get the tablet and start making games and apps. There is huge potential but there needs to be a greater eco-system than just the in-house Leia apps.

But I disagree with the conclusion. This is the most amazing thing I’ve seen in a long time, and I can overlook some small faults or glitches (that may be fixed) because the experience is something new and original and there really isn’t anything else like this.

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Absolutely, I was speaking about generic devices regarding the higher longevity and flexibility that x86 Intel or AMD processors enable. I would never install another OS on a 3D device like this unless the 3D was supported. Of course, especially if they used something like the before mentioned Intel CPU, Leia could have chosen to offer Windows or a Linux distro for the device, in which case they would have just implemented their software for 3D on it instead of Android.

Chrome OS, Windows, and I believe Android have translation layers that enable running ARM code on x86, so I wouldn’t expect there to be much compatibility issues with app selection, though there would presumably be some performance penalty.

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I will point out our AI conversion software is highly optimized for the ML-accelerated hardware on the Qualcomm chipsets, specifically using SNPE. There’s no equivalent hardware on Intel chips, we’d have to use Nvidia for the best experience on PC with CUDA which would lead to the product being SIGNFICANTLY more expensive, thicker, and power-hungry.

This doesn’t exactly always work smoothly. For example, the Oculus Quest is an ARM device but there’s absolutely no way to play those games back on a PC. Would be similar for us due to our deep hardware-specific optimizations.

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Yeah, Intel is a bit behind the curve on AI acceleration. At least their next generation will have it. And AMD shipped AI for high power laptops, but as far as I can tell they don’t stock low power processors suitable for tablets.

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