Aristotle Chess Computer?

I was wondering if anyone here has actually used one of these:

Aristotle Chess Computer

It is an Android-based tablet, customized with chess computer functions.

It doesnt seem to me to be worth it, since you can likely get plenty of chess software on an Android tablet that would give you the same functions.

But I was wondering if there was some "wow" factor I am missing.

Thanks!

I think it is a bad sign that their US site is still listing a whole selection of 10 year old computers like the Saitek Kasparov Maestro. Included in the description: Estimated rating 125 BCF/1600 Elo which is enough for the strongest club player.

Clearly, they are not a manufacturer nor are they a major seller of chess computers.  They have no shop location. This is somebody's chess hobby store that has been sadly neglected for many years. (They also sell have a fine carved jewelry box business which is perhaps how they make most of their sales.)

For about $200, they are offering a cheap tablet that they have figured out how to load Stockfish on and included a link to chess.com. (PDF instructions include a clearer picture with Stockfish visible and details about playing on chess.com.)  I see tablets for sale for under $100 at Walmart. Do you think you could figure out how to load Stockfish?

Kinda funny since Aristotle never played chess.

Hi. This is Baron from ChessBaron UK.

Yeah - our USA web store needs a little updating - the main store is on the UK, which has many new products continually. We also make the enhanced Citrine pieces (http://www.chessbaron.co.uk/chess-X4001.htm).

But... yes...  the Aristotle (http://www.chessbaron.co.uk/chess-CM2028.htm). It's not just a normal tablet guys. It's a quad core machine and has the best apps for a chess player to want. Those apps cost money too - so each Aristotle includes the price of the apps. Put together a very high spec tablet with the cost of the apps - it's not a bad buy. Try buying an economical tablet in ebay - how many tries before you get a decent spec machine? We've gone through several suppliers and we now have a great tablet to use as the basis for our product. Our tablet is as good as the Nexus 7 which you can't buy for under $200.

Notmtwain - it's not $200, it's £99 (which is $155). UK shipping is free.

Kleelof - umhh, good point. But if we call it Kasparov we hit copyright issues. All the same, good point.

However, it's true to say that if you have a decent tablet, you don't need our Aristotle - you can get the apps yourself. We don't make any secret of that, and even when customers call up we say that.

We also stay on top of the apps. We don't do stockfish any more because it's not good for weaker players. We now have a suite of superb apps that are the best in the market. Good chess players will know these and probably use them - but most people don't know which apps are the best and which can be used for all playing levels, and which don't annoy with ads. 

Take care guys!

Baron

Hi Baron, you could include Stockfish with a warning as to its strength. I think most buyers would like to have the strongest engine available, maybe for analysis.

When I saw Aristotle advertised on eBay I was so impressed that I decided to finally fix the password for my iPad so I could download all the great chess apps. They are great!!

Are there any Aristotle owners in the D.C. area?  Being new to apps, I could sure use a tutorial.

Thanks.

Mark

The overweight Canadian Polar Bear actually said something intelligent!!! I am flabbergasted.!!!!!

I say to all here what about if as me you don't actually own a mobile = cell phone or tablet of any kind but like me i'm a chess enthusiast looking for hand held chess computer that has a wide strength range and is easy to use and has a good range of features for beginners and experts alike !!

Then you want to stay away from this thing.

There is no reason to look for a dedicated chess handheld. Anything you can find will be old or weak or both.

So what's the cheapest tablet that would do an equivalent job? Would the Amazon Kindle 7 be a good buy at £39.99? The most attractive feature specified for Aristotle is:

"Now ChessBase is included with a database of millions of Chess Games"

Is there a good free equivalent to ChessBase? Is bturner correct in saying that stockfish isn't a good engine for beginners? If so, what is?

The Chess Baron Aristotle page is dated 2018 and says "Now upgraded to a QUAD CORE processor!" So it appears, possibly, up to date. But I reserve judgment on that... which processor is it exacly? Is it as up to date as the latest tablet processors?

The Kindle 7 advert says: "The fast quad-core processor consists of four high-performance 1.3 GHz cores for quick app launches, smooth games and videos and great overall performance." So is it as fast as Aristotle?

BUT Kindle 7 is accused of being sluggish by tech experts. Is the Aristotle any better? How does it compare to the £99 Tesco Hudl 2

It seems strange that it can't be used as a general android tablet as it's... er... running android. If it could do that, enhanced by ChessBase, and other chess friendly features, and matches the Hudl 2 for speed, it would be a more attractive proposition. 

I think you'd be happier with remote access to your PC.  Those Android tablets/phones have terrible IO latency/bandwidth to RAM and eMMC (actually even their processors are terrible, barely any onboard cache so you are magnifying the above problem); low power, small packages, and high performance just don't work all that well.

For something like $100 you can buy a 5 years old Intel i5 based PC with 4-8GB RAM that'll way out perform anything tablet in any type of database/file-based searching application (i.e. chessbase).  Setup a remote access to it on your tablet/phone, and you'll have high speed and low battery drain.