IconBIT THOR ZX Review: Lone 9-inch Tablet
In the fifth season of The Big Bang Theory, Sheldon Cooper was outraged that at a meeting at the store of train models, instead of discussing the advantages of different scales, it all boiled down to advertising products of 1:87 scale. A few hours later he said: “How have I been wrong all these years. The smaller the engine, the more concentrated the pleasure. ” About the same feeling I had after meeting with the iconBIT THOR ZX tablet with a 9-inch screen. By a strange coincidence, such “pills” generally fell out of my sight. Immediately I will explain the name of the review - simple searches for a set of parameters showed the complete absence of iconBIT THOR ZX direct competitors in the official retail in Russia. Such is the "spoiler", now I ask for the details under the cat.
A box with a black background, colored pencils on the tablet screen - this style iconBIT brand often sticks to in the packaging of their tablets and smartphones. On the back side are the characteristics of iconBIT THOR ZX, in addition to the picture shows the purpose of the keys, slots and connectors on the device.
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In the box we find the instructions, headphones, OTG-cable and network charger.
Headphones made me wonder for two reasons. Firstly, this accessory is in principle not accepted to be bundled with tablets, and even without 3G support. Secondly, pay attention to the manufacturer. Yes, yes, the same Axelvox, which I remember for my budget studio monitors, as well as the inexpensive Axel keyboard Axelvox KEY49j. I can not say that the complete “ears” of iconBIT THOR ZX is really music lovers, but it’s a bit taller than what I’m used to hearing from such ordinary-looking headphones.
It is difficult to come up with something fundamentally new in the design of the tablet, based on a rectangular case. Therefore, iconBIT did not reinvent the wheel, giving a laconic tablet with a “cinematic” aspect ratio and rounded corners. The white frame around the screen, in my opinion, seriously revives the appearance of the device. In any case, in comparison with the dull black colleagues.
Feelings from working with the tablet are the best. The device itself is thin - 9 mm, such an indicator in another 5-inch smartphone can not be found. I will not compare the weight of 475 grams with anything, since I personally was comfortable working, holding the model even with one hand. Clearly, all the operations of management were placed on the other hand.
An interesting situation came out with protective films. By and large, I was more than satisfied with the presence of the “original” film, except that the text, with a call to remove it, could be cut out.
Removing the film ... I found another of her "colleague." Yes, so glued to the edges glued, that it was possible to hook it only after some effort. In general, I welcome such display protection both in smartphones and tablets.
There are predictably no light and proximity sensors or a number of touch keys, with only a single camera eye visible from the front.
Various connectors, buttons and slots are located on the upper end: volume and power keys, microUSB, microHDMI, DC, 3.5-mm audio output and slot for microSD memory cards. The location of the keys is remarkable, if you mostly use the tablet in landscape orientation. In the portrait - I want to see the volume rocker on the side, to flip through the pages when reading books.
The back side (as well as the ends) is made of brushed metal. The probability of keeping fingerprints on the lid tends to zero. Only here it is tactile metal for an amateur, I don’t really like sensations. However, if you carry a tablet in a case, you don’t think about it at all. By the way, in the lower part of the back side there is a plastic insert at the bottom.
Both speakers are installed on the bottom, which is not good - in landscape orientation no matter how you hold it, you still need to block one of the slots. Although I will not quibble, the speaker probably covers up a little without a particularly serious loss of volume.
9-inch display has a resolution of 1280 x 1920 pixels. According to Yandex.Market, only two tablets can boast such a bunch of parameters, besides the one under consideration: Barnes & Noble Nook HD + and Cube U39GT. Both, of course, the case is not officially sold in Russia.
After my own 10.1-inch tablet (800 x 1280 pixels) I did not feel any discomfort. On the contrary - due to the higher resolution, the picture on iconBIT THOR ZX looked clearer, and even when browsing the web pages or PDF magazines there were no “losses” due to a physically smaller display (we recall the resolution again). At the same time, intuitively, I was much more eager to use iconBIT THOR ZX in portrait orientation.
The IPS-matrix has wide viewing angles, the color rendition is good - it was not expected otherwise. A little upset the brightness margin, I would like to see a greater limit value. On average, I had enough position in 60-70% of the maximum. I remember iconBIT NetTAB Space Quad RX with great warmth - everything was in perfect order with brightness.
There are only two modules - 2 megapixels and 5 megapixels, it is clear where a “peephole” is located. The interface of the shooting program is taken straight from Android 4.2. This, oddly enough, looks fresh after my endless series of acquaintance with devices based on MediaTek and the same non-standard interface.
During the testing period, it often rained outside, and the sky was covered with gray clouds all day. In such conditions, far from ideal, the conditions of photography were not particularly impressed. But against the background of colleagues, iconBIT THOR ZX looks much more presentable: there are no blatant exposure debris and a consistently vague picture, regardless of the shooting distance.
The hardware base of the tablet - 4-core processor architecture ARM Cortex-A9 and an impressive frequency of 1.8 GHz. I repent, after I gave the device, I realized that the characteristics of a particular chipset model are not specified. With a high probability, I can assume that we are talking about Rockchip RK3188, which appeared this year and was made according to the 28 nm process technology. IconBIT THOR ZX also comes with a 4-core Mali-400 graphics accelerator with a frequency of 533 MHz. Completes the picture 2 GB of RAM (DDR3). Built-in memory - 16 GB. The picture emerges soundly, for such a set of characteristics especially not reproach. We look that the tablet shows in tests.
In the test video playback model showed itself well. I borrowed the test methodology from IXBT, taking sections of the “omnivorousness” test to formats and checking the playback of clips of different frame rates and image resolution. The tablet reproduced including videos 4k. The triplet of inaccessible video recordings is hardly relevant to the significant disadvantages, in my memory it was not “digested” by many devices even in the IXBT tests.
The behavior of iconBIT THOR ZX in games I liked. The opening scene of the Front-line Commando: Normandy tablet showed so smoothly that I even restarted it several times in search of delays. The same with other titles up to Real Racing 3, gamers can safely recommend this model. In the Epic Citadel, the “tablet” also did not collapse, without scrolling through the FPS, including large-scale scenes of flying over the tents.
The tablet has Android 4.2.2 installed, which is equipped with a couple of additional programs: the APK installer, the RKMultiPlayer video player and the file manager.
This section could have been completed if it were not for one awesome “but”, which I discovered almost by chance. In the settings, you can enable a special multi-window mode, which allows you to work almost as in desktop Windows. Honestly, until the end to understand the management of windows, I could not. So, it was not always possible to change their size. Otherwise, everything is great: you can cascade programs (and then change their position on the screen) or arrange them four (two, three) rigidly along the edges of the display. When the mode is active, on the right side there is a button that, when pressed in the program, places the application in a multi-window environment. Something like parallel web surfing with watching the latest episode of the series - no problem.
Yes, there is also a WiFiDisplay program with a talking name, but due to the lack of a corresponding display I could not test it.
Test autonomy AnTuTu gave 753 points, which is a very, very good result for a tablet with a battery capacity of 5,600 mAh. Other results: HD video (average brightness, maximum volume) - 5 hours and 20 minutes, music - 39 hours, web surfing via Wi-Fi - up to 7 hours. I would not like to give vague wording about the "mixed mode", which is different for each user. Subjectively, three days when used up to two hours a day, one charge is enough.
Considered iconBIT THOR ZX - an attractive device and, most interestingly (for iconBIT), claiming to "monopoly" among 9-inch tablets with a resolution of 1280 x 1920 pixels. That is, if you are now trying to find a PCT tablet with the above characteristics, then only Barnes & Noble Nook HD + on Android 4.0 with TI OMAP4470 (only 2 cores at 1.5 GHz) and much less attractive dimensions will show you at retailers. parameters.
I can say that with great pleasure I would exchange my home 10.1-inch tablet for a similar device. Because of the negative sides only the moderate maximum brightness of the screen rushed into the eyes. In other matters, be it performance or build quality, I did not have any particular reasons for dissatisfaction. According to preliminary information, the retail price of iconBIT THOR ZX will be 7,990 rubles (~ $ 249), the model is about to go on sale.
Contents of delivery
A box with a black background, colored pencils on the tablet screen - this style iconBIT brand often sticks to in the packaging of their tablets and smartphones. On the back side are the characteristics of iconBIT THOR ZX, in addition to the picture shows the purpose of the keys, slots and connectors on the device.
')
In the box we find the instructions, headphones, OTG-cable and network charger.
Headphones made me wonder for two reasons. Firstly, this accessory is in principle not accepted to be bundled with tablets, and even without 3G support. Secondly, pay attention to the manufacturer. Yes, yes, the same Axelvox, which I remember for my budget studio monitors, as well as the inexpensive Axel keyboard Axelvox KEY49j. I can not say that the complete “ears” of iconBIT THOR ZX is really music lovers, but it’s a bit taller than what I’m used to hearing from such ordinary-looking headphones.
Design
It is difficult to come up with something fundamentally new in the design of the tablet, based on a rectangular case. Therefore, iconBIT did not reinvent the wheel, giving a laconic tablet with a “cinematic” aspect ratio and rounded corners. The white frame around the screen, in my opinion, seriously revives the appearance of the device. In any case, in comparison with the dull black colleagues.
Feelings from working with the tablet are the best. The device itself is thin - 9 mm, such an indicator in another 5-inch smartphone can not be found. I will not compare the weight of 475 grams with anything, since I personally was comfortable working, holding the model even with one hand. Clearly, all the operations of management were placed on the other hand.
An interesting situation came out with protective films. By and large, I was more than satisfied with the presence of the “original” film, except that the text, with a call to remove it, could be cut out.
Removing the film ... I found another of her "colleague." Yes, so glued to the edges glued, that it was possible to hook it only after some effort. In general, I welcome such display protection both in smartphones and tablets.
There are predictably no light and proximity sensors or a number of touch keys, with only a single camera eye visible from the front.
Various connectors, buttons and slots are located on the upper end: volume and power keys, microUSB, microHDMI, DC, 3.5-mm audio output and slot for microSD memory cards. The location of the keys is remarkable, if you mostly use the tablet in landscape orientation. In the portrait - I want to see the volume rocker on the side, to flip through the pages when reading books.
The back side (as well as the ends) is made of brushed metal. The probability of keeping fingerprints on the lid tends to zero. Only here it is tactile metal for an amateur, I don’t really like sensations. However, if you carry a tablet in a case, you don’t think about it at all. By the way, in the lower part of the back side there is a plastic insert at the bottom.
Both speakers are installed on the bottom, which is not good - in landscape orientation no matter how you hold it, you still need to block one of the slots. Although I will not quibble, the speaker probably covers up a little without a particularly serious loss of volume.
Screen
9-inch display has a resolution of 1280 x 1920 pixels. According to Yandex.Market, only two tablets can boast such a bunch of parameters, besides the one under consideration: Barnes & Noble Nook HD + and Cube U39GT. Both, of course, the case is not officially sold in Russia.
After my own 10.1-inch tablet (800 x 1280 pixels) I did not feel any discomfort. On the contrary - due to the higher resolution, the picture on iconBIT THOR ZX looked clearer, and even when browsing the web pages or PDF magazines there were no “losses” due to a physically smaller display (we recall the resolution again). At the same time, intuitively, I was much more eager to use iconBIT THOR ZX in portrait orientation.
The IPS-matrix has wide viewing angles, the color rendition is good - it was not expected otherwise. A little upset the brightness margin, I would like to see a greater limit value. On average, I had enough position in 60-70% of the maximum. I remember iconBIT NetTAB Space Quad RX with great warmth - everything was in perfect order with brightness.
Camera
There are only two modules - 2 megapixels and 5 megapixels, it is clear where a “peephole” is located. The interface of the shooting program is taken straight from Android 4.2. This, oddly enough, looks fresh after my endless series of acquaintance with devices based on MediaTek and the same non-standard interface.
During the testing period, it often rained outside, and the sky was covered with gray clouds all day. In such conditions, far from ideal, the conditions of photography were not particularly impressed. But against the background of colleagues, iconBIT THOR ZX looks much more presentable: there are no blatant exposure debris and a consistently vague picture, regardless of the shooting distance.
Performance
The hardware base of the tablet - 4-core processor architecture ARM Cortex-A9 and an impressive frequency of 1.8 GHz. I repent, after I gave the device, I realized that the characteristics of a particular chipset model are not specified. With a high probability, I can assume that we are talking about Rockchip RK3188, which appeared this year and was made according to the 28 nm process technology. IconBIT THOR ZX also comes with a 4-core Mali-400 graphics accelerator with a frequency of 533 MHz. Completes the picture 2 GB of RAM (DDR3). Built-in memory - 16 GB. The picture emerges soundly, for such a set of characteristics especially not reproach. We look that the tablet shows in tests.
In the test video playback model showed itself well. I borrowed the test methodology from IXBT, taking sections of the “omnivorousness” test to formats and checking the playback of clips of different frame rates and image resolution. The tablet reproduced including videos 4k. The triplet of inaccessible video recordings is hardly relevant to the significant disadvantages, in my memory it was not “digested” by many devices even in the IXBT tests.
The behavior of iconBIT THOR ZX in games I liked. The opening scene of the Front-line Commando: Normandy tablet showed so smoothly that I even restarted it several times in search of delays. The same with other titles up to Real Racing 3, gamers can safely recommend this model. In the Epic Citadel, the “tablet” also did not collapse, without scrolling through the FPS, including large-scale scenes of flying over the tents.
System
The tablet has Android 4.2.2 installed, which is equipped with a couple of additional programs: the APK installer, the RKMultiPlayer video player and the file manager.
This section could have been completed if it were not for one awesome “but”, which I discovered almost by chance. In the settings, you can enable a special multi-window mode, which allows you to work almost as in desktop Windows. Honestly, until the end to understand the management of windows, I could not. So, it was not always possible to change their size. Otherwise, everything is great: you can cascade programs (and then change their position on the screen) or arrange them four (two, three) rigidly along the edges of the display. When the mode is active, on the right side there is a button that, when pressed in the program, places the application in a multi-window environment. Something like parallel web surfing with watching the latest episode of the series - no problem.
Yes, there is also a WiFiDisplay program with a talking name, but due to the lack of a corresponding display I could not test it.
Autonomous work
Test autonomy AnTuTu gave 753 points, which is a very, very good result for a tablet with a battery capacity of 5,600 mAh. Other results: HD video (average brightness, maximum volume) - 5 hours and 20 minutes, music - 39 hours, web surfing via Wi-Fi - up to 7 hours. I would not like to give vague wording about the "mixed mode", which is different for each user. Subjectively, three days when used up to two hours a day, one charge is enough.
Conclusion
Considered iconBIT THOR ZX - an attractive device and, most interestingly (for iconBIT), claiming to "monopoly" among 9-inch tablets with a resolution of 1280 x 1920 pixels. That is, if you are now trying to find a PCT tablet with the above characteristics, then only Barnes & Noble Nook HD + on Android 4.0 with TI OMAP4470 (only 2 cores at 1.5 GHz) and much less attractive dimensions will show you at retailers. parameters.
I can say that with great pleasure I would exchange my home 10.1-inch tablet for a similar device. Because of the negative sides only the moderate maximum brightness of the screen rushed into the eyes. In other matters, be it performance or build quality, I did not have any particular reasons for dissatisfaction. According to preliminary information, the retail price of iconBIT THOR ZX will be 7,990 rubles (~ $ 249), the model is about to go on sale.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/200824/
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