December 2014 when it was introduced thru their website. Even though it was already over a year ago, it is one of the few available octa-core powered Android tablets that you can find right now but is it worth it? Here's the Cloudpad 700 FHD.
Here are the front and back views of the box. As expected, the yellow and white colors will be the main attractions aside from the key specs
Front: 8 MP front camera with f/2.8 aperture, 7 inch IPS 1920 x 1200 display resolution with pre-applied screen protector, front speaker, pin hole mic
Back: 13 MP AF rear cam with f/2.2 aperture and flash, Cloudpad logo, non-removable back cover
Internals: Android 4.4 Kitkat, 1.7 GHz Mediatek MT8392 32-bit octa-core processor, HotKnot, 3G capable, WiFi, Bluetooth, 1 GB RAM, 16 GB ROM, 3,500 mAh non-removable battery
For this review, I featured this silver color which is kinda prone to dirt which you need to find a protective case for this device.
You can find the volume rocker and power/unlock button at the right side. If you flip it at the back, you can find the micro SD and single micro SIM slots at the right section. 3G is compatible for both Globe and Smart.
Top: Non-CTIA 3.5 audio jack
Bottom: OTG capable micro USB port
The box also includes user manual, warranty card, earphones, micro USB to USB cord, OTG cable and 1 ampere travel charger.
On display and form factor, it has a wow factor on me as this is one of the thinnest local Android tablets that I handled so far. The device is also light. The display is eye candy for me with it's high display resolution. As it has Android Kitkat OS, the usual UI was there with only minimal amount of bloatware which you can either disable or uninstall. One thing that I don't like, Google Now launcher is not working properly after I installed it.
As this is a call and text capable tablet, I've done my tasks there and I had no problems. On 3G mobile internet, it was not the sharpest in terms of connection as I checked both telcos in my hub compared to my main driver. WiFi is a-ok. HotKnot feature is also good when I tested it on one of my upcoming phones on review.
Going inside, I found out that out of 16 GB ROM you can only have 6.7 GB of app storage. The UI seems not that optimized into more than Full HD resolution as sometimes I got some lag in some simple tasks like copy and pasting files in the file manager. The rest of the usual activities that I had there like word processing via WPS office, web browsing, some gaming is a lot better compared to other non-Intel based Android quad-core (we include the dual boot ones) .
On audio, it was basic for me but not bad except that the tablet doesn't have a CTIA-capable audio jack - a downer for me. The video is superb with ClearMotion feature and it has almost zero gap in between the glass and display.
When I found out on the processor and display resolution, I had a little concern on the battery. Well, my video battery rundown test got 7 hours and 56 minutes from 100% to 1% is very good. I had days that I treated this tablet like my main driver phone (thanks to it's call and text feature) and I got a max. of 16 hours with 4 hours of screen time, 20% brightness and CPU power saving on.
The camera is one of the best that you can find right now in a local Android tablet and good thing, both cameras are at 16:9 aspect ratio. I'm a bit surprised that the AF feature is quite working
Cloudpad 700 FHD 13 MP rear camera samples
Cloudpad 700 FHD 8 MP front camera sample
Extras: Thru the stock charger, it charges around 4 hours which can be a bit better if supplied with a faster charger.
Pros: Overall display, Mediatek octa-core processor, nice battery life, thin and light device
Cons: Back cover prone to dirt, Slow charging, non-CTIA audio jack, a bit of lag sometimes.
The price of Php 6,999 for the 700 FHD will be challenge especially for those tablets mainly with Intel Atom Z3735F quad-core (which is a lot better) which is more capable in more heavy games and even for less (example is Cloudpad's own Epic 7.1) but this SoC is quite cooler based on my experience. You also need to consider the overall physical looks, better camera output, very good battery lif and higher than Full HD of this tablet. I'll gonna rate this one at 4 out of 5 for the Cloudpad 700 FHD which you can still buy at Cloudfone stores, kiosks and dealers.
