I've had this tablet for about a week. I own two tablets already: A nexus 7 and a 4th generation iPad. This one makes three. The Nexus 7 has been my absolute favorite, but the sensors quit working (GPS, rotation, etc). I looked for an tried many a solution to this problem and had no luck. Money is fairly tight, so I settled on this tablet due to it's relatively low price/great reviews. It's not the cheapest tablet available, in fact I am well aware that I could have gotten a $49 tablet.
I was intrigued by the Intel Atom processor, so thought I would give it a try. I won't go into specs and processing power too much, because ultimately if the tablet you purchase does what you want it to do then it's a great purchase. I also do like the fact that you can plug in a micro SD card. I have a little point and shoot camera, and use a micro SD card in that camera (with a full size SD adapter). This will be great when I want to delete some photos from my SD card to make more room...or when I just want to review my photos on a larger size screen. They always used to put card slots in tablets, then quit for a while and I'm so happy they are starting add that ability back.
One thing you will notice when you get this tablet home is that there is NO auto-brightness. I'm ok with that. Just drag down the menu from the top and you have a place to adjust brightness. The auto-brightness never seems quite right on my other tablets anyway so I really don't miss it.
I'm not a huge game player and mostly look at apps, photos, read books and magazines, youtube, netflix. I quite often carry my tablet in my purse and we had a long wait in a restaurant the other day, I used the free wi-fi and downloaded glow hockey and between the 4 of us, we had a little glow hockey tournament while waiting for out food. Worked great.
The screen on this tablet is really nice. It's only 1280 x 800 which is not as dense as my Nexus 7 but it is in no way fuzzy or grainy. I can't see individual pixels and have not had a problem switching from this to the nexus 7. I don't find myself thinking "wow, this screen is terrible" the thought has not even crossed my mind.
I do notice it is a little laggy when loading web pages, I think Asus could totally add 1 more gig of Ram here and things would be amazing. I don't generally take photos with my tablet, but I did take a few and the rear camera is good enough for taking little snapshots. I would NOT use this tablet as my main camera, but it works, it does a good enough job and if it's the only camera you have on you and you need to take a photo...it works.
Battery life is plenty good. I have not yet done a Netflix binge on this tablet, but I do actually play my music through it's speakers and it's about what you'd expect from a tablet. It's not a high-end stereo system by any stretch, but then I grew up listening to AM radio on a little Raggedy Ann transistor radio so sound quality is fine. I own a little $20 bluetooth speaker which works fine....and if I'm really in a "mood" and want a great listening experience sound is really decent with headphones.
The 8" screen is also a GREAT size. Unless you are really looking for something that fits in your pocket (7" tablets actually don't fit in my pockets...but I think they do in some), the 8" size is absolutely the sweet spot. Not too big, not too small, it's just right!
So bottom line: This is a fabulous tablet for the price. There may be some tablets out there that cost 2-3 times as much as this tablet and have a better processor, better resolution, and better built-in speakers. However, if you are looking for a tablet that works great, won't break the bank, and has all the features you need, then this is the one. I purchased an IVSO case for this tablet, and most of the time I carry this in my purse. If you are looking for a "best of the best" in tablets this may not be the tablet of choice for you, but if you want a great working tablet which doesn't feel cheap, looks great, and won't break the bank this is the one to check out. Enjoy!
| Standing screen display size | 8 Inches |
|---|---|
| Screen Resolution | 1280 x 800 pixels |
| Max Screen Resolution | 1280*800 Pixels |
| Processor | 1.33 GHz intel_atom |
| RAM | 1 GB DDR3 |
| Hard Drive | 16 GB |
| Wireless Type | 802.11bgn |
| Number of USB 2.0 Ports | 1 |
| Average Battery Life (in hours) | 10 Hours |
