[Review] Acube U25T Hands-On

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It's not easy being a 7-inch tablet these days. With relatively inexpensive devices like the Lenovo A3000 and Kindle tablet offering a whole lot of bang for your buck, budget tablet makers are facing stiffer competition than ever before. Acube's latest offering -- the 7-inch u25GT (quad-core)-- has its work cut out for dominating the lowest end of the Chinese tablet market. With the 8GB model priced at less than $50, the petite U25GT prioritizes performance and screen over its other functions, perhaps in the hopes that its proven RK3188 quad core processor and the power it generates will woo picky buyers. But does the U25GT (quad-core) have what it takes to compete in a crowded market? Read on to find out.


Key Features

◇7 inch PLS display at WSVGA resolution (1024X600 pixels)
◇Weighs 340g, 191*116*10mm in size.
◇Rk3188, 1.4GHZ dual-core Cortex-A9 processor, Mali-400MP4 GPU, 512MB RAM
◇Android 4.4 Kitkat
◇8GB of built-in-storage, expandable by TF card
◇VGA front-facing camera;
◇Stereo speaker
◇USB on the go
◇MicroSD card slot
◇HDMI
◇Standard 3.5mm audio jack
◇1080p video playback
◇2400mAh Li-Po rechargeable battery, 4-5 hours battery life

DESIGN AND BUILD​

The U25GT has relatively big bezel around its 7-inch screen. As much as I know the advantages of the bigger bezel, I am more attracted to the smaller bezel found in the Talk 7X.

To the upper-right corner of screen is the only camera onboard: a front-facing 0.3MP shooter.

All the physical controls and connectors are situated along the right of the tablet, you will find a Power button, which is the only physical key on the U25GT, a 3.5mm audio jack, a Micro USB port, a 2.5mm DC port, a Micro SD card slot which supports cards up to 16GB and, to our pleasant surprise, a Mini HDMI port.

Interestingly, despite there is an independent DC port, the Micro USB port can also be used for charging, making the U25GT easier to bring along while traveling.

The Acube logo and some other information is emblazoned on the lower part of the back shell, though the effect looks somewhat cheap against the scratch-prone plastic backing. Fortunately the branding fun stops right there, as we don’t necessarily need to be reminded that we are holding a low-end Acube tablet in our hands.

The U25GT (quad core) feels remarkably sturdy for a budget device. The dimensions -- 191*116*10mm -- make for a device that's easy to hold and guarantees typing will be a comfortable affair.

DISPLAY AND SOUND

The U25GT features the same display found in the Acube Talk 7X (quad core) and Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0. Considering that the display comes with a paltry 1,024 x 600 resolution (that's a pixel density of 170 PPI), we weren't expecting to be blown away by its visuals, but other than that, it is quite amazing, with wonderful color saturation, decent brightness and wide viewing angle.

Acube tablets are always well-known for their wonderful sound performance, luckily the budget U25GT is no exception. The sound coming from the double aperture in the back is even louder than that comes from my Microsoft Surface RT, although the clarity is not all that ideal.

SOFTWARE

The U25GT ships with the latest version of Android, the Android 4.4 KitKat. Although not really a significantly huge leap over the Jelly Bean, it is nice to know you are now using the most advanced operating system.

Customizations and preinstalled applications are kept to the minimum, a nice approach for a Chinese company which isn’t that good at software development.

 

[fashionluo]

BENCHMARK AND PERFORMANCE

The U25T (quad core) is powered by the Rockchip RK3188 SoC (quad-core Cortex-A9 processor, Mali-400MP4 GPU), paired with 512MB RAM. Well, we all know too well about the RK3188’s full potential, even though the one in U25GT is clocked at 1.4GHZ, which is different from the 1.6GHZ we normally see in other Chinese tablets, it is still able to generate enough power to deal with a pile of applications with ease. The real issue is the RAM, rather than the chip. I remember that the ICOO Fatty 2 was once criticized by many comments for featuring only 1GB of RAM, sadly, the U25GT has only half as much as that.

With balanced and above-average CPU and GPU performance from the RK3188 chipset, the U25GT really did well in most of our benchmark tests, the lack of RAM probably only showed in the notch of the CF-bench test.

Everyday use was not without its flaws, with only around 100MB free RAM after booting, the U25GT really struggled with multi-tasking. I tried to play a video in a pop-up window and browse some web pages at the same time, the touch panel became less responsive than usual, and with more tabs being opened, the pop-up video player simply disappeared. RAM-hungry games such as the Real Race 3 and Need for Speed Could not even be opened on the U25GT.

But normally the U25GT is pleasant to use. 3D games such as Virtua Tennis and Zombie Wood ran without hiccups or delays, and 1080p YouTube videos were also streamed smoothly. As long as you don’t run many big apps simultaneously, everything’s good.

BATTERY LIFE​

The Acube U25GT (quad core) has packed 2400mAh Li-Po battery, which is of less capacity than most of the recently released smart phones. With the brightness set at 50 percent and Wi-Fi turned on, we played an online TV show continuously until the battery gave out and died, and the results were nowhere near the most impressive we've seen. The A1000's 4 and 49 minutes of battery life places it firmly at the bottom of the list of 7-inch tablets I have tested in the past 2 years. During everyday use, you'll be able to squeak out a bit more time from the slate. Depending on how much you rely on your tablet for web browsing, videos, music and social media, you can probably expect something in the ballpark of 5 or 6 hours with conservative use.

VERDICT

The U25GT could have had the potential to rule the budget end of the tablet market, if it had been less price-sensitive. In my opinion, 1GB should be the minimal possible option when it comes to RAM, but somehow Acube decided to cut the cost even harder. And what are they thinking putting a 2400mAh battery into a tablet?




The good:


The 7-inch PLS panel is amazing, with wonderful color saturation and wide view angle, it is really pleasant to look at on a daily basis.
Having the RK3188 as its SoC., the U25GT is powerful enough for running most of the applications smoothly, and its multimedia performance is more than amazing.
HDMI is another wonderful asset the U25GT holds against most of the other entry-level competitors.


The bad:


The U25GT’s potential in performance is let down by the insufficient RAM, which is extremely evident during multi-tasking and web-browsing
The poor battery performance of the U25GT is a constant reminder of why we said “No” to Chinese tablets 2-3 years ago.


As we mentioned earlier, it's not an easy time to be a 7-inch Android tablet. A low price tag simply isn't enough to wow buyers in a market where they can afford to be picky. As appealing as the RMB299 ($50) price tag and the RK3188 chipset could be, the lack of RAM and underwhelming battery life will drive some of the potential buyers away. Also, as Aube lowered the price of the Talk 7X to just RMB399 ($65), it is reasonable to expect that the Talk 7X will cannibalize the share which the U25GT is marketing towards. $15 for larger RAM, full phone functionalities and significantly better battery life, why not?