Asus had
been on a new product streak lately with their ZenFone and MeMo Pad series.
Locally, they announced the MeMo Pad 7 but have not announced the MeMo Pad 8. But
I was able to get the 8 from Amazon, so again let’s list down and specs and see
if I liked it.
Specs:
· AndroidTM 4.4
· 8" LED Backlight WXGA (1280x800) Screen
IPS Panel with 10 finger multi-touch support
IPS Panel with 10 finger multi-touch support
· Intel® Atom™ Z3745 Quad-Core, 1.33 GHz
· 1GB RAM
· 16GB eMMC
5GB Life Time ASUS Webstorage Space
with an additional 11GB for the first year
5GB Life Time ASUS Webstorage Space
with an additional 11GB for the first year
· WLAN802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth V4.0
Bluetooth V4.0
· 2 MP Front Camera ( 720p Video Recording )
5 MP Rear Camera with Auto focus( 1080p Video Recording )
5 MP Rear Camera with Auto focus( 1080p Video Recording )
· Stereo Speakers with SonicMaster technology
· 1x Micro USB
1 × 2-in-1 Audio Jack (Headphone / Mic-in)
1 × 2-in-1 Audio Jack (Headphone / Mic-in)
1 × Micro SD Card Reader,up to 64GB
· G-Sensor
· 9 hours; 15.2Wh Li-polymer Battery *3
GPS & GLONASS
Design and Performance:
I think Asus has really done an
amazing job in terms of design for the
new MeMo Pad line. Just to make sure there's no confusion, the models I’m
referring here are the newer ones based on the Intel Atom processor. The older
models are based on a different processor. I really like the slim design of
this tablet. It’s light and can easily be held in one hand. The back is made of
a textured plastic material which feels grippy and also less prone to
fingerprints. Asus actually also makes a 7-inch model with very similar design
and specs and with only minor differences like cameras, etc.
MeMo Pad 8 vs Note 3 |
This time Asus decied to go with am Intel
Atom processor instead of the usual Mediatek or Qualcom. I think Intel has been
very aggressive in their pricing as even Acer, Lenovo and Dell have decided to
use Intel. Perfromance is actually very good. The benchmarks alone will blow
you away. Though all they really do is give a picture of how it
compares to other devices. I had no problems using my usual apps and games as
most of them ran rather fast. When I say most of them, I mean about 95% of the
apps I used worked well. There are still a few apps and games that would either
hang or would not load at all. An example is the game, Edge of Tomorrow. I’m
guessing it has something to do with the Intel chipset. However, to be fair I received about 3 system updates since I got this tablet so I’m hoping Asus will
fix the bugs soon. The screen is 1280x800 IPS which is vivid and bright and
with very good viewing angles. Do I wish it had a full HD screen, yes of
course, but you have to realize that Asus had to cut some corners to make its
price point. On the upside, it probabaly performs better as the processor does
not have to work so hard. Battery life is also great. Asus claims 9 hours and
so far, I’m getting pretty close to that number.
Verdict:
There are many choices when it comes to
Android tablets and more and more manufacturers seem to be using Intel as their
choice of processor. In the end, it all
comes down to price versus performance. For the price, it’s really hard to beat
the Memo Pad series. In fact, the best bang for your buck is the MeMo Pad 7
which sells on Amazon for just US$125 and that’s the 16GB. For some
strange reason Asus Philippines only
sells the MeMo Pad 7 locally for Php
6,995 but it has only 8GB of memory. For US$150 it’s still hard to beat the
Asus MeMo Pad 8.
The Good:
-
Price and Performance
-
Slim and light
-
Battery life
-
Nice IPS screen
-
Loud speakers
The Bad:
-
Some app compatibility issues
-
Screen is not full HD
-
New model coming soon
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