Asus has been capitalizing on voice-calling tablets for quite some time. It launched the Fonepad 7 last year and followed it up with an improved version of the tablet. The Taiwanese giant has now launched a dual-sim version of the same tablet in the Indian market, priced at Rs 12,999. While there's demand for dual-sim phones (evident from a large number of companies launching them), it's difficult to guess if the same holds true for tablets. Asus is one of the first international brands to launch a dual-sim tablet and we put it to test to find out if it's worth your money.
Build and design
The tablet does not look very different from the earlier versions of the Asus Fonepad. It is essentially made of plastic and follows a conservative, utilitarian design philosophy.
The front of the Fonepad 7 is dominated by a 7-inch IPS display. The display is surrounded by a wide, black bezel sporting glossy finish. A chrome earpiece and the 1.2MP front camera are placed above the display, while the Asus branding is located below it. The slightly curved back panel sports a matte grey finish and looks good.
The 5MP camera lens is located at the middle, along with the silver coloured Asus logo at the back. Also located at the back are the Power and Volume Rocker keys, which are positioned on the left and sport matte finish; the keys offer good tactile feedback and are easy to reach despite the unusual positioning.
The right side houses a flap that hides the two micro-sim card slots and a microSD card slot. The plastic flap appears to be a little flimsy but does the job well and is not as fragile as it looks.
The speaker grill is located at the back of the tablet, towards the bottom. This leads to sound getting muffled when the tablet lies on its back, which is a problem area. We wish Asus had placed the speaker at the front, as is case with the single-sim Fonepad 7.
Display
The Fonepad 7 Dual Sim comes with a 7-inch IPS display with 1280x800p resolution. Despite not being a Full HD display, we did not notice much pixilation. We feel that the screen is not too bright and this reduces the sunlight legibility of the tablet. However, viewing angles were good, and images and text appeared crisp and sharp.
User Interface
Asus Fonepad 7 Dual Sim runs Android 4.3 Jelly Bean with a custom user interface running on top. Asus has skinned UI elements like the notification tray and has added another button with the three Android on-screen navigation keys for launching widget-like utility apps. The widget-like mini apps take advantage of the big display and can run on top of other apps.
The improvised notification tray offers quick settings toggles for Wi-Fi, mobile data, airplane mode, among others and these can be customized as well. We also found the floating apps/widgets to be handy.
Asus offers a number of pre-loaded apps with the tablet including an app to calibrate the display and tinker settings like temperature, saturation and hue, and App Lock utility to password protect apps (a very useful feature) and the Asus WebStorage app. Asus also offers 16GB cloud storage space with the tablet.
Some of the default apps such as Email are optimized for landscape mode and utilize the screen's real estate well when the tablet is tilted. Overall, the Fonepad 7 Dual Sim offers a good software experience, though not much has changed if you compare it with the previous iterations of the device.
Camera
Asus Fonepad 7 comes with a 5MP rear camera and a 1.2MP front-facing camera. There's no LED flash at the back making it difficult to take photos in low-light conditions.
The tablet ships with a custom Camera app that includes the ability to tinker with granular settings for attributes like White balance, ISO, and Exposure Value, among others. The app also offers burst mode and face detection.
The quality of pictures shot with Asus Fonepad 7 Dual Sim is functional at best. These pictures can be used for social sharing and casual use but nothing beyond that. The front camera is good for video chats and takes average quality selfies.
The rear camera can capture 1080p video and the quality of videos captured by the tablet was just decent enough.
Performance
Fonepad 7 Dual Sim is powered by a 1.2GHz Intel Atom Z2520 dual-core processor (Clover Trail Plus) and 1GB RAM. We did not notice any lag while navigating between the home screens or app launcher and switching between apps.
In synthetic benchmarks, the Fonepad 7 Dual Sim scored 14,749 in Antutu, 6,661 in Quadrant and 60.5 in Nenamark 2 tests. The scores are better than what the Nexus 7(2012) and Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 7 tablets clocked but we'd not recommend a tablet based solely on benchmarks as real world performance is different, at times.
The tablet offers 8GB internal storage, out of which 5.21GB is available to users. Storage can be expanded up to 64GB with the help of a microSD card. It offers Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and GPS connectivity options. It does not offer FM radio.
Fonepad 7 Dual Sim offers good call quality and signal reception and we did not encounter issues while making calls even in areas where cell signal is relatively weaker. The tablet was able to lock to GPS without any issues.
The external speaker on the tablet offers loud sound output but its placement is awkward as the sound gets muffled when the tablet lies at its back.
The tablet was able to play HD video clips very smoothly, supporting all major video file formats.
Fonepad 7 Dual Sim comes with a 3,910mAh battery and will last you more than a day even if you put the screen brightness at the highest level and use 3G data all the time. You'll be able to make about 2-3 hours of phone calls, play some casual games and browse the web in this time period. The tablet can play video continuously for 7 to 8 hours.
Gaming
We were able to play games like Temple Run 2 and Subway Surfers without any hiccups. While playing graphics intensive games like Riptide GP2 and Asphalt 8(with Visual Quality set to High and Engine at 100%) we encountered a slight lag with minor frame drops.
Verdict
While more multinational brands are offering dual-sim variants of smartphones for emerging markets like India, it is interesting to see Asus launching a dual-sim tablet. A number of Indian brands offer dual-sim tablets but the Fonepad 7 is one of the few that boast of decent hardware specifications, good build quality and above average battery backup.
But do you really need a dual-sim tablet? If you're planning to use your tablet for voice calling as well as an internet access device then a dual-sim tablet gives you the option to choose a mobile operator that offers the best (read pocket friendly) mobile data plan while retaining your own phone number. If you're comfortable using it as a phone, even then it offers the convenience of easily juggling between two phone lines.
At a price of Rs 12,999, the tablet offers good value for money considering the connectivity options it offers along with relatively new software.
If you do not want 3G connectivity or voice calling then the Google Nexus (2012) tablet is a better alternative, if you can get your hands on one. It comes with a better display and the latest version of Android.
Build and design
The tablet does not look very different from the earlier versions of the Asus Fonepad. It is essentially made of plastic and follows a conservative, utilitarian design philosophy.
The front of the Fonepad 7 is dominated by a 7-inch IPS display. The display is surrounded by a wide, black bezel sporting glossy finish. A chrome earpiece and the 1.2MP front camera are placed above the display, while the Asus branding is located below it. The slightly curved back panel sports a matte grey finish and looks good.
The 5MP camera lens is located at the middle, along with the silver coloured Asus logo at the back. Also located at the back are the Power and Volume Rocker keys, which are positioned on the left and sport matte finish; the keys offer good tactile feedback and are easy to reach despite the unusual positioning.
The right side houses a flap that hides the two micro-sim card slots and a microSD card slot. The plastic flap appears to be a little flimsy but does the job well and is not as fragile as it looks.
The speaker grill is located at the back of the tablet, towards the bottom. This leads to sound getting muffled when the tablet lies on its back, which is a problem area. We wish Asus had placed the speaker at the front, as is case with the single-sim Fonepad 7.
Display
The Fonepad 7 Dual Sim comes with a 7-inch IPS display with 1280x800p resolution. Despite not being a Full HD display, we did not notice much pixilation. We feel that the screen is not too bright and this reduces the sunlight legibility of the tablet. However, viewing angles were good, and images and text appeared crisp and sharp.
User Interface
Asus Fonepad 7 Dual Sim runs Android 4.3 Jelly Bean with a custom user interface running on top. Asus has skinned UI elements like the notification tray and has added another button with the three Android on-screen navigation keys for launching widget-like utility apps. The widget-like mini apps take advantage of the big display and can run on top of other apps.
The improvised notification tray offers quick settings toggles for Wi-Fi, mobile data, airplane mode, among others and these can be customized as well. We also found the floating apps/widgets to be handy.
Asus offers a number of pre-loaded apps with the tablet including an app to calibrate the display and tinker settings like temperature, saturation and hue, and App Lock utility to password protect apps (a very useful feature) and the Asus WebStorage app. Asus also offers 16GB cloud storage space with the tablet.
Some of the default apps such as Email are optimized for landscape mode and utilize the screen's real estate well when the tablet is tilted. Overall, the Fonepad 7 Dual Sim offers a good software experience, though not much has changed if you compare it with the previous iterations of the device.
Camera
Asus Fonepad 7 comes with a 5MP rear camera and a 1.2MP front-facing camera. There's no LED flash at the back making it difficult to take photos in low-light conditions.
The tablet ships with a custom Camera app that includes the ability to tinker with granular settings for attributes like White balance, ISO, and Exposure Value, among others. The app also offers burst mode and face detection.
The quality of pictures shot with Asus Fonepad 7 Dual Sim is functional at best. These pictures can be used for social sharing and casual use but nothing beyond that. The front camera is good for video chats and takes average quality selfies.
The rear camera can capture 1080p video and the quality of videos captured by the tablet was just decent enough.
Performance
Fonepad 7 Dual Sim is powered by a 1.2GHz Intel Atom Z2520 dual-core processor (Clover Trail Plus) and 1GB RAM. We did not notice any lag while navigating between the home screens or app launcher and switching between apps.
In synthetic benchmarks, the Fonepad 7 Dual Sim scored 14,749 in Antutu, 6,661 in Quadrant and 60.5 in Nenamark 2 tests. The scores are better than what the Nexus 7(2012) and Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 7 tablets clocked but we'd not recommend a tablet based solely on benchmarks as real world performance is different, at times.
The tablet offers 8GB internal storage, out of which 5.21GB is available to users. Storage can be expanded up to 64GB with the help of a microSD card. It offers Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and GPS connectivity options. It does not offer FM radio.
Fonepad 7 Dual Sim offers good call quality and signal reception and we did not encounter issues while making calls even in areas where cell signal is relatively weaker. The tablet was able to lock to GPS without any issues.
The external speaker on the tablet offers loud sound output but its placement is awkward as the sound gets muffled when the tablet lies at its back.
The tablet was able to play HD video clips very smoothly, supporting all major video file formats.
Fonepad 7 Dual Sim comes with a 3,910mAh battery and will last you more than a day even if you put the screen brightness at the highest level and use 3G data all the time. You'll be able to make about 2-3 hours of phone calls, play some casual games and browse the web in this time period. The tablet can play video continuously for 7 to 8 hours.
Gaming
We were able to play games like Temple Run 2 and Subway Surfers without any hiccups. While playing graphics intensive games like Riptide GP2 and Asphalt 8(with Visual Quality set to High and Engine at 100%) we encountered a slight lag with minor frame drops.
Verdict
While more multinational brands are offering dual-sim variants of smartphones for emerging markets like India, it is interesting to see Asus launching a dual-sim tablet. A number of Indian brands offer dual-sim tablets but the Fonepad 7 is one of the few that boast of decent hardware specifications, good build quality and above average battery backup.
But do you really need a dual-sim tablet? If you're planning to use your tablet for voice calling as well as an internet access device then a dual-sim tablet gives you the option to choose a mobile operator that offers the best (read pocket friendly) mobile data plan while retaining your own phone number. If you're comfortable using it as a phone, even then it offers the convenience of easily juggling between two phone lines.
At a price of Rs 12,999, the tablet offers good value for money considering the connectivity options it offers along with relatively new software.
If you do not want 3G connectivity or voice calling then the Google Nexus (2012) tablet is a better alternative, if you can get your hands on one. It comes with a better display and the latest version of Android.
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