Asus Zenpad 7.0 – Quality tablet at affordable price [Review]
Asus has been consistently releasing value for money products that are easy on pockets and great on specifications. Inline with this formula, Asus has now released the Zenpad series of tablets. The Zenpad 7.0 is available in India for Rs 11999. I am not sure if people would still be interested in buying tablets. But there exists a small market that prefer tablets to phablets. Asus is specifically targeting that segment which needs large display and keen on using the tablet as an entertainment consumption device.
The Zenpad 7.0 is a 3G and WiFi enabled device. When you have a micro SIM in it, it can be used to access the internet and also make calls. In the past, Asus has experimented with different form factors for a tablet with calling feature, like the Asus FonePad or the PadFone. But a tablet with calling feature just couldn’t help being weird. Anyways, lets forget about the calling feature in the Zenpad 7 and concentrate on it as a media and internet consumption device, which makes sense.
Design
The Zenpad 7 is a 7 inch tablet as the model number suggests. The bezels around the display is optimally thin and that makes this 7 inch tablet very comfortable to hold and use. It weighs 272 grams and is 8.7 mm thin. The display is 7 inch diagonally. On top of the display is the speaker for calls along with the proximity and ambient light sensor. It also has a 2 MP front facing camera. The android menu keys are onscreen. Below the tablet is the micro USB port. On the top, the 3.5mm audio socket is placed conveniently. The back over is removable and it has a nice texture which gives a good grip to this device. The back has the 8MP camera with no flash. The volume and power keys are placed at the right. The speaker grills are no where to be seen. The chrome rims and the thin bezels give it a stylish look. Though the material used is plastic, it does not feel cheap and the device feels solid in the hands.
Hardware and performance
The Zenpad 7.0 is powered by an Intel Atom X3 C3230 quad-core processor. It has a Mali 450 GPU processor. The tablet has 16 GB of internal storage and 2 GB of RAM. The memory can be expanded upto 128 GB using microSD card. Frankly, I feel that microSD cards are extinct. I dont have any microSD cards lying around and hence I couldn’t test this device’s performance with a SD card on it. But with the available 16 GB memory, the Zenpad had no performance issues. The ZenUI sits on top of Android 5.0 and the device was able to handle the UI with ease. Not just the OS and the UI, the Zenpad was a breeze with intensive gaming applications as well. It is not the fastest tablet we have seen, but it does the job for you. The UI did show some signs of lagging when the internal memory was filled.
The highlight of this device is its bright display. The screen is 7 inch diagonally and suppoerts 800 x 1280 pixels, resulting in 216 ppi of pixel density. It is protected by Corning Gorilla glass. From the specs, it may not be the sharpest displays around, but in reality the display is very soothing and comfortable to read or consume media. I loaded my USB pendrive with loads of TV episodes and books on my way to US. It was a long 16 hours flight, but this device proved to be a good companion.
Additionally, the device is DTS certified. For an extra Rs 3000, you can buy an Asus Audio cover for the tablet. The Audio cover has 5.1 speaker system with DTS surround system. It fits seamlessly with the device and it converts your tablet into a kickass multimedia device. If you are presenting a video clip or a slide deck to a small group of people, the Zenpad with the Audio cover will blow them away. The sound from the audio cover is loud and clear and good enough for a small party. The Audio cover charges along with the tablet and the connection between the tablet and speaker is hardwired. The battery indication on the notification tray was not very intuitive as I was not able to figure out the remaining capacity of the tablet. It was a bit confusing. A cover with battery backup is also available, but not yet in India. For now, the Audio cover is a “must buy” along with the Zenpad 7.0.
Software
The Zenpad 7.0 runs on Android 5.0 out of the box with the Zen UI on the top. The Zen UI has a long list of pre-installed applications. Most of these apps have better alternatives in the Google Play store and these apps cannot be uninstalled. So I would call them bloat ware sitting on the tablet and eating the space. I like the Zen Mini movies and SuperNoteapps out of all these bloat wares. Asus has also tried to reinvent the Notifications UI. But this has already been done by the Native android lollipop and I don’t see a pressing need to redesign it. When the Native android experience is really good these days, I don’t see a need to force fit a skin on top of it. Zen UI has very little customization possibilities. But overall the UI is fast and snappy.
Camera
The Zenpad 7.0 has a 8 MP primary camera and I am not a huge fan of clicking photos with tablets. But for testing this device, I did click a few pictures with the primary camera. The front facing 2 MP camera is good for video calls and selfies. But it could have been better than just 2 MP. Zenpad has a sensible Camera application which we have seen in the other Zen devices. It is both simple and powerful. In the auto mode, the UI controls are simple. Though there are different preset modes, the HDR and Low light mode are automatically suggested based on the light conditions. The gear button reveals the menu for both camera and video. Overall, the camera is there in this device, because it has to be there. The camera is not the highlight of this device. The images from the camera were decent and were good enough for sharing moments occasionally on social media.
Battery
The tablet offers decent battery backup. On continuous usage, the tablet lasted for little over 7 hours with out the audio cover on. Also I had my headphones on all the while. Anyways, for a device with a 7 inch display, 7 hours on continuous usage is an achievement.
Verdict
If you are looking to buy a tablet for comfortable internet browsing and pleasant media experience, the Zenpad 7.0 is the one. It has got a mediocre camera but its a tablet and its not supposed to be used as a camera. I would have prefered if the 8 MP primary camera was on the front as it would have made more sense for the video calls. I own a Nexus 7 2013 and I felt that the Zenpad 7.0 is on par with the Nexus tablet in terms of performance. Also it costs just Rs 11999. At this price the Zenpad 7.0 is a 3G enabled tablet with decent performance and interesting extensions like the Audio cover, and it would be a good buy.
