A number of people have been anticipating the release of The Notion Ink Adam. Using its own modified version of Android, a unique user interface, and a Pixel Qi screen, the tablet promised a user experience that could leave the iPad in the dust.

Now Engadget has gotten its hands on one of the devices for a comprehensive review and found that, sadly, it doesn’t live up to its promises. The review notes that hardware, user interface, and software are all fairly lackluster experiences, The display is outdoor-readable, but inside it looks washed-out. The camera is cleverly swivelable to face either forward or backward—but takes fairly low-quality, noisy pictures. The web browser crashes a lot.

Notion Ink truly did come up with a number of fantastic ideas for the Adam tablet. They do show. But so little of their light shines through the muck of buggy software and touchy hardware that we’re afraid even the best of them will be completely dismissed and ignored.

Hopefully they can stay in business long enough to work the bugs out for a second iteration. Maybe the next model will be more worth having.

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