I got the tablet, keyboard (German layout, as QWERTY was not available), and Volla pen/Stylus.
One of the security labels on the tablet’s box was broken, but the device seemed new …
Setup was quick and easy. Installed a data SIM, entered my Murena credentials, and all synced except the Notes (will look into that later – I have the same issue with my Murena Fairphone 6 and had to use Nextcloud Notes as a workaround).
The tablet’s build quality is good, though not quite Samsung or Apple level; I can live with decent but not stellar hardware if I can have more privacy and autonomy. The screen is bright and vibrant. The tablet came with a screen protector already applied, which was good to see. The 4G modem might not be the newest, but speeds of 35 Mbps download and 28 Mbps upload are good enough for what I need (syncing documents, browsing the web, and watching videos).
Most of my everyday apps work, but I cannot get Nebo Notes to sync (sadly that needs to sync to Google; but I can convert my handwritten notes to text in Nebo and then copy them to Joplin or Nextcloud Notes). The Volla pen stylus works fine in Nebo and promises to meet my needs for jotting down quick notes.
The combined keyboard and case make for a somewhat clumsy and heavy unit at 696 grammes, but then it fully protects the tablet. For me, a keyboard is necessary as I intend to use the tablet for writing and light text editing on the go. The keyboard is OK, and the touchpad works as expected, but I seem to get some ghost clicks; I will monitor these over the next week. Even when properly attached to the tablet, the keyboard sometimes fails to wake up from sleep. At this early stage, I am disappointed with the keyboard experience.
The chief obstacle to using this tablet as a laptop replacement is the limited app window management features: there is a split-screen facility, but no desktop mode that I can find. Without a keyboard, I find 12 inch and above tablets to be too big for touch-only input. For these devices, some kind of window management is essential when using a keyboard. I expect this will improve in subsequent e/os updates. Indeed, my tablet got updated to e/os 3.7 as I was setting up, and this version seems to be specific to the Murena Volla tablet, so this gives me hope that the tablet and keyboard experience will improve over the coming months.
My initial impression is 6.5/10. I will write a longer review after I have used the device for a week.