Asus ZenPad S 8.0 :Review:what's bad?
Asus ZenPad S
8.0 The Zenpad S 8.0 is also very, very thin at 6.9mm and quite
light at 319g. While we're not sure many would sell at £300, this Asus could pass pretty
convincingly for something around that price.The Asus ZenPad S 8.0 is
affordable, lightweight and thin, with a sleek design. Its brilliant screen is
razor sharp and can be color-corrected with preloaded Asus software. Adjusting
the screen's color balance, saturation and sharpness is a breeze thanks to its
user-friendly UI, and its microSD card slot expands up to 128GB. That screen is a QXGA (2048 x 1536 pixel) IPS LCD.
It's sharp, but also shares some unwanted traits with the ZenFone 2: it won't
get terribly bright and the colors skew on the cooler side. Neither of those
things will ruin your Netflix or gaming experience. Most of the time you
probably won’t notice, but the screen is clearly one area where Asus cut costs. The ZenPad
S 8.0’s powered by a quad-Core, 64bit, Intel Atom Z3560 CPU, 2GB RAM and IMG
PowerVR Series 6 G6430 GPU.
The chip is a serious step up from the Intel Atom X3 CPU
used in Asus’ cheaper 8-inch Zenpad 8.0.
The ZenPad S 8.0’s benchmarking reflects this. The tablet
scored 2,409 on Geekbench and 40,952 on Antutu. On the GPU focused 3DMark
Icestorm Unlimited test the ZenPad S 8.0 ran with a 19,142 score.
This puts it well above its cheaper Zenpad 8.0 sibling,
which scored 854 on Geekbench and 3,293 in the 3DMark.
The score does still put it well below more expensive
flagship Android tablets, such as the Galaxy Tab S2 8.0. The Galaxy Tab S2
scored of 4,206 on Geekbench and 19,306 on 3DMark’s Ice Storm Unlimited
test. The ZenPad S 8.0’s matched its benchmark scores with
real world testing. It opens applications in milliseconds and is capable of
playing demanding games, like Shadowrun, Banner Saga and Baldur’s Gate Enhanced
Edition stutter free. The ZenPad's 4,000mAh battery only lasted for 4
hours and 16 minutes in our rundown test, which streams a video over Wi-Fi with
the screen set to maximum brightness. Compared with similar tablets like
the Galaxy Tab S 8.4 (11 hours and 52 minutes) and even the larger iPad Air 2
(5 hours and 15 minutes), this is a rather disappointing result.
The front-facing speakers are weak, and the cameras
takes underwhelming photos.
THE BOTTOM LINE The
Asus ZenPad S 8.0 is an attractive alternative to better-known models from
Samsung and Apple, and packs in an impressive array of bells and whistles which
you might expect to find on a more expensive tablet. The Asus ZenPad S 8.0 is one of the best Android tablets
around, with a price that belies its impressive quality Price:$199
to $299
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