It's my first time to review a tablet from the international brand Asus with one of their popular device line-up, the MemoPad. This year, they have the MemoPad ME70CX with 8 GB ROM and 16 GB ROM. I took the one with lesser storage but more affordable. Is this will be one of my top choices for budget tablets this year? We will gonna find out.
The quick settings and system notification are also present on this device which are two of my fave features when I previously reviewed the Zenfone 5. More controls and customization like the smart saving mode and the screen brightness bar really helped me to control the device whether I'm inside or outside of my place. The tablet has only WSVGA but how gorgeous that Asus made that pleasing to the eyes even though that it doesn't have IPS feature.
As expected with the MemoPad, their trusted ZenUI will greet you upon checking the main page and the app drawer. Even though that this device has same processor as used to the Zenfone 5 Lite, I can feel the smoothness in terms of task transitions and my daily usage. Those apps are some of the default apps which you can have 2 "audio" apps like the Music and Google Play Music.
The quick settings and system notification are also present on this device which are two of my fave features when I previously reviewed the Zenfone 5. More controls and customization like the smart saving mode and the screen brightness bar really helped me to control the device whether I'm inside or outside of my place. The tablet has only WSVGA but how gorgeous that Asus made that pleasing to the eyes even though that it doesn't have IPS feature.
On audio, good thing that the tablet has CTIA compliant which is nice to control my tunes without waking uo my device.
On video, there are also no issues except when you're a fan of MX Player which you have to download another MX Player codec app which will be compatible for Intel-powered devices like this one. I had a great movie and podcast marathon on this device. Another plus is the audio is not overpowered unlike when I first encountered the Zenfone 5.
On camera, some of the features from the Zenfone are present except that this device only has 2 MP rear camera and VGA front camera. Nothing much to describe but you can take look at the rear camera's sample shots:
On benchmarks, no surprise from Intel's Hyperthreading technology that this device got over 18,000 on Antutu. On Nenamark, it got less than 53 fps which is good enough for it's specs/price ratio. You can also check my CPU-Z screenshots.
On gaming, I tried Dead Trigger 2 and it is playable with only minimal lags. I'm surprised on what happened when I played NBA 2K14 here and it is also playable with little to no lags at all especially when I did some fastbreaks and counter fastbreaks. I easily noticed that the expected amount of heat will come near at the back of Asus logo. At least, this is good news for NBA fanatics.
On connectivity, I got no problems on connecting to WiFi both via my tethered Android phone and one from the malls within my place. Also no issues on Bluetooth when I paired it to my daily driver smartphone and to my trusted Bluetooth speaker.
On battery test, I was amazed when I played random HD MP4 videos on MX Player with 55% on device's brightness, 8 on MX Player's brightness, 11 on volume on airplane mode and ultra power saving mode. As my review unit didn't have a provided earphone, I used my trusted Mi Pistons here and I got 9 hours and 2 minutes from 100% to 2% which was greater than I expected based on the brand's promise of 8 hours of battery life . In my daily routine like blogging, web surfing, photo editing, some games and videos, I managed to last a day with it's 3,950 mAh battery. I only knew Asus' greatness of battery life on MemoPad line-up on some stories and now I personally witnessed it.
Additional, this device has over 5.7 GB of app storage out of 8 GB ROM which is great news for those who stack a lot of apps for work, productivity and play.
For those who are skipping affordable Android tablets from local brands and with a well-rounded experience from various people (from it's previous models), Asus continues the story of the simple yet elegant, powerful enough for the price and great battery life of the MemoPad with their latest, the ME70CX. The only thing that I dislike is the still thick side bezels. I'll gonna give it a 4.75 out of 5 for this device. If you want more storage, you can add up Php 500 for the 16 GB ROM variant at Php 4,495.
The Asus MemoPad ME70CX is now available in Asus shops and authorized resellers for Php 3,995. (Buy it on Lazada Philippines here!)
