A budget tablet sporting Ice Cream
Sandwich and a wide range of attractive pre-loaded software
Versus makes a wide range of electronic
products and the Touchpad 9.7 isn’t its first venture into the budget tablet
market. Unboxing the tablet shows an uninspiring, but familiar black slab.
Within the wide bezel that encompasses each side of the device, there are
minimal features to note.
Versus
Touchpad 9.7
While in landscape you’ll find a front facing
camera located at the center, and three buttons on the top-right. There’s a
great deal of comfort from the matted backplate that helps the tablet feel good
in the hand, and there’s no doubting that the build quality is impressive
throughout, despite the tablet being ridiculously fingerprint friendly. On the
side of the tablet you’ll notice that all the various ports have been placed in
one corner. There’s a mini USB port, micro HDMI port, micro SD slot, as well as
the usual volume rocker and power toggle. It soon gets cluttered when using
more than one of the ports at any one time.
On
the side of the tablet you’ll notice that all the various ports have been
placed in one corner.
The Touchpad 9.7 runs Android 4.0 from the
beginning, and when navigating the device, you’ll find all the predominant
features of Ice Cream Sandwich are featured. There’s also a varied amount of
apps pre-loaded, including BBC iPlayer, Flash Player and DoubleTwist, but the
1,024 x 768 display isn’t the best for watching videos on. The lack of GPS
means there’s no Google Maps, but you can download it from the Play store.
Despite the amount of media-based apps included, you’ll only have access to 5GB
of the internal storage, so an SD card will be necessary.
The
lack of GPS means there’s no Google Maps, but you can download it from the Play
store.
Lag is a major issue with the Touchpad 9.7
and even moving between the home screen and app drawer is a stuttering
experience. Angry Birds works like a charm, but don’t expect to play any
high-end games on this tablet. Lag is at its premium when you start to use the
two-megapixel camera on the rear of the device. Images suffer from the poor
camera, but the Camera application is near impossible to open.
Images
suffer from the poor camera, but the Camera application is near impossible to
open.
From the outside, the Touchpad 9.7 is a
well-built and somewhat pleasing budget tablet offering. But dig a little
deeper and you’ll soon see the ugly problems that plague these budget tablets
rear their ugly head. That Nexus 7 changed everything.
