Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Hands on Hisense Sero 7 Pro tablet review

This tablet is available at Wallmart for $150 and it is a very nice tablet. The reviews are starting to hit the web and every review that I have encountered is positive.
The tablet comes in a simple box, with charger, usb cable and a simple manual included. Nothing else is in the box, which is to be expected at this price point. The tablet itself is very well made. I had access to Nexus 7 for a few days and I can tell that the Sero 7 Pro is built just as well. The case has a rubbery feel to it with textured back and it does not feel slippery at all. The case does not have any give or does not creak as some people say. It feels very solid and well made.  The tablet has a 5MP camera with flash on the back and 2MP front facing camera on the front. On the back in the bottom part of the tablet there are 2 speakers. All connectors are concentrated on top and the buttons are on the right side. I personally like connectors being on top since it is more comfortable to read and listen to the music although any tablet can be rotated this way.

The screen quality is excellent. Pictures are vibrant and videos are very nice. The screen is a bit too bright on minimum setting when reading in total darkness even in the night mode. Maybe I should find a reader that can adjust brightness lower than FBReader by putting overlay over the text. Reading experience is very pleasant, similar to my Galaxy Player 4.2 but better because pages do not have to be turned as often. The tablet is not too heavy especially comparing to iPad and it is comfortable to hold over long periods of time. Overall this makes an excellent reading tablet.

Camera quality is reasonable. Better that the one on the Galaxy player. LED flash is OK and the whole setup works in a pinch. I would not use it for anything important since any $100 camera would blow this tablet away. Any dedicated camera would blow away iPad or iPhone as well so this is not surprising. Front camera is good enough as well, for a tablet that is. Camera app has a stock panorama feature which may be useful for a realtor or someone who wants to make a quick panorama in good light.

Battery life is amazing to say the least. I am not sure if this is new Android or processor or anything else. My Galaxy player is loosing about 6% of charge a day even if not used. It can go about week and a half with about 30 minutes of reading every day with the screen at the minimum brightness and all communications off. The Visio 8 inch tablet performed the same way. The Sero tablet only looses about 1% of charge a day when not in use. I have not had long enough usage to estimate how long I can read on a single charge but initial numbers are very good. I will update this post when I get firm numbers. Please note that most of my battery measurement are done with display brightness at the minimum. I read in the low light environment and minimum brightness is all I need.

Internet browsing is very good - pages load fast and render correctly. It is OK to use for browsing but I still prefer my PC. For quick stock check, traffic check or weather forecast it is fine. WiFi signal strength is shown to be less than the Galaxy player in the same location but the network works fine. I have tried few simple games and they work well. Other people report that 3d games run OK. My main interest was in reading books and playing videos for which it works really well.

There are no accessories designed specifically for this tablet but I am sure that this should be forthcoming. Over all I am very pleased with this tablet and would recommend it for any use. I would especially recommend it if you want a good quality tablet on the cheap.

 Battery Life Update

After 5 days of standby with 40 minutes of reading the battery is down to 87%. This is much better than Galaxy Player 4.2. The player shows 77% of battery after 2 hours of reading and 2 days since the last charge. The standby consumption of the Sero 7 appears to be very good.

 Battery Life Update 2

After 19 days of standby battery level is at 43%. The conclusion is that standby time is excellent. I expect it to last a month on standby. My next tests are to use it for reading.