Australian technology company Kogan has built its success on creating cheap but functional products that offer an alternative to premium priced brand names. The
Agora 10-inch tablet is no exception. At AUD$199 (£129), it is by far
one of the most affordable tablets on the market, especially for a
device running the Ice Cream Sandwich
build of Android. The question is whether or not the sacrifices made to
hit that sub AUD$200 price point are too great to justify spending your
hard-earned money on it. With either 8GB or 16GB of storage
inside alongside the MicroSD slot, and all run by a 1GHz ARM processor
and 1GB RAM, the Kogan stacks up pretty well spec wise.
From
front on, the Agora's 10-inch screen is deceptively simple. The front
of the tablet is barren of buttons, with the 2cm bezel surrounding the
screen only interrupted by a tiny 0.3MP camera in the top left hand
corner. In fact, the front of the tablet is so plain that if it weren't
for the camera, it would be impossible to tell which way was up. Turn
the tablet over, and it's a completely different story. The back is
littered with descriptions for the bevy of ports littering the top and
left hand side of the device. The standard volume rocker is partnered
with a small physical back button on the side, while the top of the
device comprises of six different holes, allowing you to plug in things
like headphones, micro USB cables, MicroSD cards, Micro HDMI cables and
5V DC power plugs. Interestingly, there are two micro USB ports on
the device. One connects to your PC and charges the device, while the
other offers a connection to USB storage via an included adapter There's
a pin-hole hard reset button on the back of the device, stereo speakers
and a 2MP rear camera, without flash. And just in case you forget,
Kogan's logo adorns the back as well, a testament to your quest for a
bargain, if you will.
At
545 grams, the Agora tablet feels pretty good in the hand, with the
tapered edges making it easy to pick up and giving the impression that
it's thinner than its 9.8mm. It feels nice and solid, right up until the
point you squeeze the front and the back together a little bit and you
feel the flexibility in the back. It feels like there's a bit of extra
space inside the device, and undermines the perception of a solid build
quality
Display And Interface :
From a purely spec
perspective, the 1024 x 768 IPS display seems like a fantastic addition
to a AUD$200 tablet. Switched on though, the screen seems dull unless
you've dialled the brightness up to maximum.
On the upside,
viewing angles are good, images are sharp and colours are pretty
accurate.Unsurprisingly, the resolution doesn't come close to the
high-end Retina Display of the iPad though, so while images are sharp,
you can still see some jaggedness if you get up nice and close. The
screen may support 10-point multitouch on paper, but in practice it
feels sluggish and unresponsive. Truth be told, that could have a lot to
do with the ARMv7 processor running things, but the end result is like a
hungover soldier, following commands at its own pace instead of when
you shout your orders at it.
Interface :
Kogan is renowned
for its passion of Google products, so it's no surprise that it has
opted for the most vanilla of vanilla Ice Cream Sandwich builds.
Fortunately, vanilla is delicious, so using it feels natural and tasty. The
lock screen offers a simple combination of time, important messages
(like "Connect your charger" when the juice is running low), a battery
and Wi-Fi indicator and the ICS unlock mechanism, which lets you quickly
access open applications depending on which way you swipe the lock. Unlocked,
the customisable home screen maintains the dedicated soft buttons of
Home, Back, Open Apps, Volume controls and Menu across the bottom, while
access to your app collection is located in the top right of the
screen. The top left features a shortcut to Google search, either
through typing or using your voice. The tablet's 1GHz ARMv7
processor appears to be the device's Achilles heel. Despite the 1GHz
clock speed, the 1GB of RAM and the 400MHz GPU, the Agora is sluggish. There's
a very clear delay in responsiveness in almost everything you do on
this tablet, from typing on the keyboard to swiping between home pages.
It can literally take seconds for the typing on screen to catch up to
what your fingers are doing on the on-screen keyboard. Opening
apps takes half a second to start. Frame rates in games like Angry Birds
and Fruit Ninja can only be described as poor, seriously impeding any
enjoyment of the games. Which is itself perhaps the most disappointing
aspect given the price point sort of lends itself as a gaming tablet. High
definition video is refreshingly watchable, given the disappointments
on the gaming front, although it does depend on your video player. With
plenty of detail, the screen isn't perfect with fast motion, but doesn't
judder too much, while images are crisp and clear.
Internet And Connectivity :
Despite
all the connection options littered across the top of the Agora tablet,
Kogan left off one key component: A SIM card slot for 3G connectivity.
That said, given the difficulties the tablet had with basic gaming
tasks, the processor is probably grateful for the lack of 3G.
Being
a vanilla build of Android, the stock browser is naturally competent,
automatically using your Google Login to offer shortcuts to all your
Google services. Pinching and double tapping to zoom work well
enough, but aren't as snappy as other, more powerful tablets. But the 10
inch screen displays websites well even without needing to zoom in,
which is a nice positive for those looking for a web browsing device.
Connectivity :
Without
3G, Kogan has relied on 802.11 b/g/n for its connectivity, and it
works, so long as you're within a fairly reasonable distance of the
router. Bluetooth is equally functional, while the ability to
connect to a USB drive via an included adapter is a nice touch, and sure
to be a useful workaround for anyone frustrated with the 16GB of
internal storage. Although the MicroSD card slot also helps in that
regard.
Camera And Gallery :
They say that the
best camera is the one you have on you. The truth is that while taking a
photo with a tablet is always an awkward experience, taking photos with
the Agora tablet is just disappointing. With no ability to
automatically select your focus target, the Agora tablet requires every
subject to be placed firmly in the middle of the shot.
Rudimentary
exposure and white balance controls give some manual options, although
you would honestly be better off heading to the shops and buying a
dedicated camera. Low light shots are noisy and lack detail. With no flash on the back of the tablet, there's no way around that, either.
Recording
video through the camera app offers a similarly disappointing result,
with a lack of detail matched by washed out colours and noise in dark
situations.
That
said, the rear camera far surpasses the front-facing 2MP camera. Of
course, you shouldn't be using that particular camera for anything other
than video calls over Skype, so its lack of prestige performance isn't
as big a strike against the tablet as you might think.
Battery Life And Storage :
The closed case on
the back of the Agora means there's no real way to tell how big the
embedded battery is without pulling it a part. But we do know that no
matter its size, it's not big enough.
Testing the tablet on full
brightness running an HD video on a loop, the tablet only gave us three
and a half hours worth of playback before demanding a recharge. Given
similar sized tablets generally offer at least seven hours, and without
3G connectivity to drag that number down, we were pretty disappointed
with the result.
Storage :
While the tablet itself only
comes in 8GB and 16GB versions, the inclusion of both a MicroSD card
slot and a USB host port and included adapter make the Agora one of the
better options for Android tablets when it comes to storage. That
said, given the empty 16GB unit we reviewed only arrived with 13GB of
available storage internally, we can't see why anyone would opt for the
8GB model, especially given the tiny price difference.
Verdict :
There's
a really tough decision to be made when considering the Agora ICS
tablet. Is it better to spend more money to have the latest
specifications in a device that will perform your every command at a
moment's notice? Or id it better to buy something cheap, and make do
with its underpowered flaws?
We liked :
The Agora ICS ships
with Ice Cream Sandwich in the box. That means you're already a step
ahead of some of the major tablet manufacturers who still believe in
Honeycomb. For a tablet priced at under AUD$200 (£130), that's enough to
get excited about in itself. A full compliment of connectivity
options - including everything from MicroSD to HDMI output - is a step
beyond what many other Android tablet companies are offering. It's also
nice to see that even with all those ports on the back, not one of them
was a proprietary connection.
We disliked :
The processor
just isn't up to scratch for an ICS device. While the operating system
is mostly fine, having to wait seconds to see the results of your typing
is the kind of thing you'd expect from a Pentium II processor these
days, not a brand new tablet. Battery life is also impossibly
weak. If you can't spend a five hour flight watching TV on a tablet,
it's simply not good enough. The Kogan wouldn't have made the cut. The
screen, while decent enough for the price, also doesn't compete with
the high resolution displays making their way to competitors devices.
It's generally a bit dull and lifeless though
Verdict :
Ultimately,
the decision to buy an Agora ICS tablet is a subjective one. The tablet
is a far cry from being one of the best Android tablets ever created.
Its lightweight processor simply isn't powerful enough to handle the
latest software, and the device itself is built with components that
matches the price point. But it is one of the cheapest tablets on
the market, and in terms of value for money, it certainly competes with
the best products out there. It doesn't have the best
performance, the best specs or the best design, but it does open up the
Ice Cream Sandwich experience to a whole new market. That's a pretty
impressive feat in itself, really.
