Ampe A10 3G Quad - a tablet with a telephone heart

Using the Qualcomm 8625Q mobile chip in the tablet gives us several advantages at once: built-in 3G, GPS, Bluetooth, as well as long battery life. But how will this affect overall performance? In this we try to understand the example of the Ampe A10 3G Quad.

In fact, this is not the first attempt from Ampe to use a Qualcomm chip in the tablet. Before that, there was an Ampe A10 3G Dual core on a dual-core MSM8625 chip with 768MB of RAM. The results were mediocre in terms of performance, but excellent in terms of battery life. Let's see how the use of Qualcomm MSM8625Q 4-core chip will affect the usability of the device.

Specifications

10.1-inch IPS screen with a resolution of 1280x800
Video accelerator Adreno 203
Qualcomm MSM8625Q quad-core processor on the Cortex A5 architecture
1 GB of RAM
Android 4.1.2 operating system
4 GB user memory + microSD card slot
2 cameras: rear 7 megapixel and front 0.3 megapixel
Connectivity: Wi-Fi (802.11 b / g / n), Bluetooth, GPS, 3G
Optional: USB OTG
8600 mAh battery
Dimensions, weight: 266 x 177 x 10.3mm, 640 grams.

If you do not pay attention to the big screen and the battery, then you might think that this is the characteristics of a mobile phone.
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Complete set and appearance

The tablet comes in a large white box:

The box is very heavy and dense. Even if you step on top - it does not bend!

From the accessories we are offered: OTG-cable, USB-cable, headphones, cable for the charger device, as well as the charger itself.


2A charger:


Details of the manufacturer of the tablet on the side of the box:


The back cover is made of plastic:


Manufacturer logo:


Rear camera:

Declared as 8Mp, but in practice it removes very badly.

From the interfaces are present: a headphone input, a SIM card slot, a microSD memory card slot, a microUSB port and a charger input.

HDMI is logically absent, as the MSM8625Q is targeted for phones that usually do not have such an output.

The volume and on / off buttons are not directly on the frame, but slightly behind, which prevents them from being accidentally pressed when carrying the tablet in the case:


2 speakers are located on the left side:


Mesh protected:


The sound is certainly not very good, too many highs and practically no bottoms. The location of the speakers on the left is very good when using the tablet as a navigator - the sound will be directed towards the driver.

Screen

10.1-inch screen is made by IPS technology, the resolution is 1280x800. Permissions are more than enough for comfortable use. If you keep the tablet at a distance of at least 20-30 cm no problems with the realization that the pixels are large - no. Fonts on web pages also look great.
The color rendition is good, the maximum brightness is at a high level:


But in the sun the screen will go blind, like other tablets.

Viewing angles correspond to the IPS screen:

Wifi

Despite the completely plastic back cover, it does not work very well, just after 1 wall, the signal falls into the yellow zone:

Performance

The Ampe A10 3G Quad is equipped with a Qualcomm MSM8625Q chip, which consists of a 4-core 1.2-GHz Cortex-A5 processor and an Adreno 203 GPU. The chip is made using a 45nm process technology. The amount of RAM is 1 GB.

Let's look at the results of synthetic tests:
The Antutu test scores almost 10,000 points:


In Quadrant, the result, as for a mobile processor, pleasantly surprises:


In the test of the graphics subsystem Nenamark2 clearly shows the effect of the weak graphics core Adreno 203:


In the test of the performance of HTML5 processing, the results are at a good level; there is no need to worry about problems with the speed of returning web pages:


According to the test results, we can conclude that MSM8625Q has very good processor performance.

Software

In Ampe A10, Android 4.1.2 is pre-installed with its own interface theme.


The cumbersome built-in launcher with Chinese applications may slightly spoil the overall impression of the device, as it noticeably slows down.




A strange trend of many manufacturers who are trying to make a beautiful launcher, but at the same time forget to optimize its work.

To increase performance, you can install a third-party launcher, such as Nova Launcher. The system starts to work smoothly and please the eye.

Games

Adreno 203 - this video accelerator is not created for gamers. But entertain with arcade games can.


And even some 3D games:


And you can drive on machines:

Web

I thought that viewing web pages would be a problem, but no - everything works surprisingly fast! That, in principle, is confirmed by good results in the Vellamo test.

Video

With the 720p video chip, the MSM8625Q does an excellent job, but on the FULL HD slight slowdowns are already noticeable.

3G

Unfortunately, through the integrated engineering menu I was not able to see at what frequencies the 8625Q chip can operate. GSM and UMTS-2100 work exactly. According to the Wiki, this chip even supports CDMA: CDMA / UMTS (GSM, GPRS, EDGE, HSPA, 1 × Rev.A, 1 × EV-DO Rev.A / B). But there is a high probability that CDMA networks are not supported in this tablet.
If someone can tell you how to look at the list of frequencies in a device with a Qualcomm chip, I’m happy to post here screenshots of the results.
The tablet can work as a full-fledged phone - make calls, receive and send SMS messages.

GPS

Often there are discussions on the Web that Qualcomm GPS chips work better than MTK. I did not attach any importance to this before I turned on the GPS while lying on the sofa, away from the window, where no MTK phone could ever catch satellites. And what do I see? Just a few seconds and the tablet connected to 2 satellites at signal level 25.
I went to the window, and what do we get in literally 20 seconds?

8 active satellites!

I go out and continue to rejoice: 10 satellites!


But to use as a navigator on the windshield, I would not dare. With a navigator in the front seat with a tablet in hand, this is a more reasonable solution.
But if you really want, then you can on the glass:


From the back seat looks like a small TV:


I used a universal mount on the glass, but for such a large tablet it is clearly a weak solution. It is necessary to mount with "feet".

Working hours

The tablet has a battery with a capacity of 8600 mAh, which even some tablets, which are built on modern Rockchip RK3188 or Allwinner A31 chips, cannot boast.
Let's look at the results of the synthetic test Antutu Battery Tester:


The result of a total of 573 points looks strange, perhaps the reason for a poorly calibrated battery. In actual testing, the results are more predictable:
1. When playing video at 75% brightness, the sound through the headphones, Wifi is turned off, the tablet worked for 8 hours and 40 minutes:


2. In the mode of viewing web-pages through the EDGE connection and a few games - the tablet worked for about 7 hours:


As expected, the tablet has excellent battery life.

findings

Built-in Bluetooth, 3G and GPS
Excellent GPS reception
Long battery life
Weak video accelerator Adreno 203

Ampe managed to develop the idea of ​​its previous experiment, and now the Ampe A10 3G Quad can easily be used to solve various problems. This tablet is great to help pass the time watching movies on a long trip. Prompts the way using GPS and will be able to take your calls and SMS. A big screen and a reasonable price are also a good argument for buying such a device for a child.

Price

Retail price in China is $ 225-230, taking into account the cost of delivery.

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