Details
Price: $280
Manufacturer: DisGo
Website: www.disgo.com
We're fairly clear about the thinking
behind the DisGo 9104, which addresses the tricky problem of delivering a
budget 10" tablet for less than $320 that offers decent performance.
DisGo's answer is this conundrum is to
combine a 9.7" IPS panel that is, apparently, the same as the screen in
the iPad 2 along with Android 4.0, and to then wrap the thing up in a silver
aluminium chassis.
In fact, the specification of the screen
(295cdm brightness and 720:1 contrast ratio) suggests the panel is similar to
iPad but not identical.
It's impossible to miss the superficial
resemblance to an iPad, and when you turn the tablet on, the initial effect of
the bright, clear screen is very impressive and the colours are simply
stunning.
The DisGo iPad/9104 screen uses a
traditional resolution of 1024x768 with a 4:3 aspect ratio that works well for
displaying web pages and photos, but is less successful at widescreen movies.
As it happens, we feel that documents look peculiar when displayed in a
widescreen letterbox, so we have no problem with the iPad look.
You are unlikely to confuse the DisGo 9104
with an iPad for more than a few seconds, as one edge of the screen is
positively studded with buttons and connectors. With the screen held in
landscape mode these connectors are positioned on the right side and consist of
the power button, volume controls, a power jack, micro-USB, micro-HDMI,
headphone jack, a micro-SD slot and the microphone. The two slots for the
speakers sit either side of the main 2MP camera and there is a front 0.3MP
camera for video chat.
That's an impressive list of goodies so you
may be wondering how DisGo has managed to keep the price down to $280. Also,
the 9104 doesn't have Bluetooth, which presumably saves a few pennies, but the
main sign of cost cutting is the use of 1.2GHz single-core processor with Mali
400 GPU. These days, we expect a dual-core or quad-core processor so DisGo has
definitely sold us short on hardware to keeps costs down. We found that the
keyboard suffered from lag and it was horribly painful filling out search boxes
in YouTube. It wasn't quite like a reversion to the days of hunting and pecking
with a stylus, but it certainly wasn't the smooth and fluid motion that we've
come to expect from a modern tablet.
We cannot point the finger at the installed
Android 4.0.3, so we have to assume the processor and graphics core are
responsible.
Once you start to watch a video or make a
Skype call, you'll find that things work just fine, but getting the software
you need might be a struggle. DisGo doesn't include an icon for the Google Play
Store and instead pushes the Slideme Market, which contains an awful lot of
software that is quite forgettable. We had no trouble visiting the Google Play
website, signing in and downloading Angry Birds, so it's a shame that DisGo
didn't play its part by fully supporting Google Play.
Samsung Galaxy Tab 27.0 Wi-Fi
Details
Price: $344
Manufacturer: Samsung
Website: www.samsung.com
Say what you like about Samsung, it really
does have a Galaxy for every size or pocket and pretty much every thickness of
wallet. Okay, that last part doesn't work so well in a world where we buy our
gadgets with a credit card rather than cold hard cash, but initial impressions
of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 27.0 are extremely favourable. The dark silver casing
feels lovely and solid with the minimum of protrusions and connectors to
disrupt the smooth flow of the shape.
It feels natural to hold the Galaxy Tab 2
in either portrait or landscape mode, but whichever way you hold the Samsung
you'll want to use both hands to avoid accusations that you have bought the
most ridiculously large mobile phone. As we're talking about a widescreen
device, we'll plump for landscape mode, which means that the power button and
volume control sit at the top of the screen with the headphone jack on the left
and Samsung's proprietary USB connector on the right.
On the bottom bezel, there's a covered
micro-SD slot. Samsung supplies a USB cable that doubles up for charging and
data transfer duties. While we cannot deny that the charging connector is
slender and fits in admirably with the svelte nature of the casing, we find the
concept of proprietary cables to be rather annoying.
As the name suggests, this Galaxy Tab 27.0
is an update of the original Tab 7 and it's very much a refinement of the
original design, rather than a radical overhaul. The screen remains the same
size and retains its 1024x600 resolution, so you can forget about HD video. If
you want to watch 720p video, you might consider a Google Nexus or Kindle Fire
HD instead.
The PLS (Plane Line Switching) technology
in the screen panel is impressive and results in lovely bright colours, a
decent contrast ratio and impressive viewing angles. While the screen cannot
match up to a retina display, it still manages to do a fine job.
Inside the casing Samsung has changed the
processor for a 1 GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon and doubled the memory from
512MB to 1GB. The casing retains the original footprint but has slimmed 12mm to
10.5mm, which makes a surprising difference to the feel of the tablet, and the
weight has been reduced slightly from 380g to 345g.
Using the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 was a delight
and delivered a lovely balance of speed and snappy response. The Samsung
TouchWiz interface adds a different feel to the Android 4.0 installation. There
is no denying that a quad-core processor and higher resolution screen would
improve the experience, but we were very happy with the way the Galaxy Tab 2
7.0 delivered.
We found the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 Wi-Fi
on sale at quite a wide range of prices but came to the conclusion that the SRP
of the 16GB model appears to be $360 and if you shop around you can find it on
sale at $336 while the 8GB version is only slightly cheaper at $302.4.
This is a lovely tablet and while it may
well be bested by the Nexus or Fire HD, we hope that simply means Samsung will
drop the price even further.
