Is Asus Fonepad 7 tablet worth buying?

If you are looking to invest in a tablet enabled with the voice calling feature, this can be a good option, says Harsh Vardhan.

Voice calling tablets seem to be the new rage in the growing smartphone/tablet market in India.

The latest addition to the segment is the refreshed version of the Asus Fonepad. This one, known as the Fonepad 7, comes with an Intel processor. 

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Design/ build

The comes with the same design as that of the original Fonepad, but this one lets you down with an all-plastic body as it makes the device look poor and lends major hindrance to the grip.

The 7-inch display of the device, surrounded by a black bezel, is positioned between the front-facing dual speakers. It is devoid of physical buttons on the front panel, which renders a good look to it. The gadget weighs 328 gm. 

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The power/ lock screen and volume rocker buttons are on the right side (in portrait mode), largely inspired by smartphones.

A small outlet for microSD card is located beneath the volume rocker buttons. Fonepad 7 being a voice-calling tablet comes with SIM support; you need a pin to insert or take out the SIM.

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Display

The Asus Fonepad 7, features a 7-inch IPS LCD display with a resolution of 1280x800 pixels, which translates to a pixel density of 216ppi (pixel per inch). Sunlight legibility was average.

The touch sensitivity was not as per our expectation.

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Camera

Fonepad 7 sports a  5-megapixel rear autofocus camera (without a flash) , which can ...

The camera performance is impressive when compared to competitors in the same price range.

In addition, the rear camera shots were comparable to some mid-range smartphones.

The Fonepad 7 also packs a 1.2-megapixel front-facing camera, which is quite usable.

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Software and performance

The Asus Fonepad 7 tablet runs Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean and has a 2.0Ghz processor. 

Like the original Fonepad, the new offering also comes preloaded with some apps like Amazon Kindle app for e-books, App Backup to take backups of apps and their data, Audio Wizard to set sound playback modes, BuddyBuzz to browse social networks like Twitter and Facebook, a File Manager app.

The Fonepad 7 tablet is powered by a dual-core 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z2560 processor.

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Moreover, it has 1GB of RAM and 16GB of inbuilt storage, which can be expanded up to 32GB.

At Rs 17,499, the Fonepad 7 scores better than most of its competitors in the price bracket. 

So, if you are looking to invest in a tablet enabled with the voice calling feature, this can be a good option.

Price: Rs 17,499