The ZTE Light Tab 2 is one of the
cheapest 3G tablets on the market, but the lack of apps and tinny audio are
major limitations
THE ZTE Light Tab 2 looks like a typical
budget tablet, with its compact-yet-chunky black frame and Android Gingerbread
OS, but it’s fully 3G-enabled so you can make calls and browse the web wherever
you roam. Unfortunately, a single killer flaw ruins the show and makes it hard
to recommend over rivals.
THE
ZTE Light Tab 2
3G ready
Although the 400g Light Tab 2 isn’t quite
candy for the eyes, its firm frame is solid enough to take a few knocks and the
soft-touch rear feels good. You can prize the back off to access the removable
battery - almost a unique feature for a tablet - and the SIM card slot. That’s
right, the ZTE Light Tab 2 uses 3G to make calls, send texts and surf the web
on the move, but you’ll need an active SIM card, otherwise you’re limited to
Wi-Fi networking.
Power up the tablet and you’re presented
with the bright, almost cartoony ZTE interface over vanilla Gingerbread. The
1.4GHz processor keeps everything running smoothly, and you get all kinds of
cool transition effects as you scroll through menus and the customizable
desktops. Five swappable shortcut buttons sit at the bottom of each screen,
while the lock screen gives you fast access to your camera, dialer and text
messages. Overall, it’s a fun and well-designed refresh of an ageing platform.
Although
the 400g Light Tab 2 isn’t quite candy for the eyes, its firm frame is solid
enough to take a few knocks and the soft-touch rear feels good
Net fiend
If you’re a Web-Coholic, you’ll be glad to
hear that websites load quickly and scrolling through even complex, photo-heavy
pages is a smooth and satisfying experience on the seven-inch screen. Flash
video isn’t supported in-browser, which normally isn’t much of an issue as you
can just download a 4OD or BBC iPlayer app. Unfortunately, the Light Tab 2 has
one major failing, namely its lack of Google Play support. That means no access
to the hundreds of thousands of Android apps and games, a key selling point for
any tablet.
You do get quite a few pre-installed apps,
including some basic time wasters like a Frogger rip-off, although some of the
apps on our review model featured Chinese text and were impossible to
understand.
Tinny audio
You get naff-all built-in storage, but a
microSD slot gives you up to 32GB of space for your photos, films and tunes.
Movies look reasonably sharp, but the audio was particularly tinny through our
earphones - we had to use the built-in speakers for video and music, which is
an obvious limitation when travelling.
As is now standard for tablets, there’s
also a built-in rear camera. You can fiddle with the exposure, saturation and
ISO balance of your shots, but this smacks of overkill on a basic
three-megapixel camera, and we’d be surprised if anyone actually bothered to
use these settings. You can also shoot rather grainy video footage but more
useful is the front-facing camera, which allows you to keep in touch via Skype.
It’s
impressive that the ZTE Light Tab 2 offers 3G browsing at this low price, and
it’s a solidly built (albeit rather chunky) device
The verdict
It’s impressive that the ZTE Light Tab 2
offers 3G browsing at this low price, and it’s a solidly built (albeit rather
chunky) device. However, the lack of Google Play support and a couple of other
niggly issues make it difficult to recommend.
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The ZTE Light
Tab 2
·
Web: www.clove.co.uk
·
Price: $376
·
Size: 202x122x12.6mm
·
Weight: 402g
·
Display: 7 inches
·
Resolution: 1024x600 pixels
·
Camera: 3 megapixels (rear), VGA (front)
·
Video recording: Yes
·
Video streaming: Yes
·
Video player: MP4
·
Internet: Wi-Fi, EDGE, HSDPA, HSUPA
·
Browser: WAP, HTML
·
Memory: 512MB, 4GB, microSD
·
Music player: MP3/WAV/AAC/OGG
·
Email: Yes, push
·
Video calling: Yes
·
GPS: Yes
·
3.5mm audio jack: Yes
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