IconBIT NetTAB THOR ZX 3G Tablet Review: 9-inch Full HD Worker
In this review, we will focus on the 9-inch tablet iconBIT NetTAB THOR ZX 3G, which is remarkable how trivial, just as "working" the formula of a good device with an adequate price. In the metal case fit, among others, Full HD display and module 3G / GSM. The resulting "all inclusive" is sold for about 10,000 rubles (~ $ 285) - let's see how successful the novelty turned out to be.
On the packaging of the tablet, nothing special can be said - the usual (even too) design in the style of iconBIT. The accessory kit is limited to a microUSB cable, a charging unit, an OTG cable (a nice addition), brief instructions and a headset. Given the ability to receive calls and make calls, the latter had to be very helpful.
')
This is the second time I've come across iconBIT tablets with an Axelvox headset - a manufacturer who likes to produce low-cost counterparts (and by design - sometimes almost copies) of musical equipment from studio monitors to MIDI keyboards. Immediately, I note that the sound is not “music lovers”, but I didn’t have a desire to immediately use alternative “ears” in the course of the tests.
Completes the list of "key" with a small pin to extract from the SIM card holder. The thing is very compact, can easily be lost. Fortunately, finding her an alternative in the form of an unfolded clip is easy.
It is difficult to say something new about the appearance of the model. Apparently, for the majority of its tablets, iconBIT chose a combination of such “exterior” features as a white frame around the screen and an almost all-metal cover for most of its tablets. I see this not for the first time, and again I can only greet. The black “front” in the tablets seems to me somewhat boring, variations of different degrees of plasticity of the plastic back cover also do not impress me.
Ergonomics is generally similar to the 9-inch iconBIT NETTAB THOR IZ , but this guest is much more comfortable to hold - there are no right angles between the ends and the back side. A slightly rounded surface allows you to get rid of the unpleasant "abrasion" in the palm of your hand, regardless of the orientation in which you hold the model. In 9-inch tablets, I like the fact that from time to time I enjoy working with them in the porter position and can read while holding the iconBIT THOR ZX 3G in question with one hand.
For the quality of the assembly I put the four - when squeezed, barely audible squeaks can occur, and in some places the lid could better resist pressure. The materials used once again pleased, the metal from the rear is stronger than plastic, and it is more resistant to scratches. Although I personally from a tactile point of view is still not thrilled with a slightly rough matte finish. But there are no more fingerprints left than completely.
On the front side you can see two peepholes, one from the camera, the second from the light sensor. The presence of the second at the same time directly confirms the presence in the settings of the screen the ability to automatically adjust the brightness level. There is no proximity sensor - we are waiting for the speech speaker to be installed in the 9-10-inch tablets from the front. I could call it humor, but 7-inch, and for some time 7.85-inch tablets do not give me such a reason.
The control buttons are set most competently - at one end, on the right. The volume rocker and the power key are a classic set, I do not consider the absence of the optional “home” button a serious omission. By the way, like the back cover, the keys are made of metal.
On the same side there are slots for microSD memory card and SIM-card.
The audio output is attached on top, although just for the overall tablet, I would prefer to see this connector below. However, this is my nagging, because no one has canceled the dynamic change of orientation of the picture in Android.
On the opposite side, we observe stereo speakers and a microUSB connector. I praise the speakers for a decent volume and, as far as possible, good sound quality. Scold for ambiguous placement. If you hold the device in the landscape position, the palm will always overlap one of the two sources of sound.
The back side due to the characteristic plastic insert, as well as the location of the camera on the left and the audio output on the top right, makes the tablet very similar to the latest model of a well-known manufacturer with a headquarters in Cupertino. Good or not, let everyone decide privately. I myself am not against such borrowings, if the device is generally performed at a high level.
I pointed out the main characteristics before kata - 9 inches with a resolution of 1920 x 1280 pixels, a wonderful combination. I admit, I don’t tremble with the PPI value and I still remember that a couple of years ago I didn’t suffer from mental anguish when working with TFT readers and 7-inch tablets with WVGA resolution. Be that as it may, image clarity in iconBIT THOR ZX 3G left a good impression in 3D games, and when working with text content, in particular, in PDF magazines and web pages.
The screen cover is plastic, so you should handle the tablet carefully. In a good way, I would recommend not to remove the protective film pasted on by default. Only the protruding part of the paper “spine” should be cut off :) I adhered to this opinion until I removed the film with the sticker - it turned out, it is under it ... Another copy of the screen film protection. Display - capacitive type, with multi-touch support. The sensitivity is high, if there were delays in response or the need to re-touch occurred, then it was only the fault of the system.
On the official page of the tablet, it is first stated that the PLS matrix is ​​installed, and then the IPS. Interestingly, at the time of testing, I had a new tablet of one of the B-brands on hand. The model is equipped with exactly the matrix that was used in the iPad mini of the first generation. So, the iconBIT THOR ZX 3G screen turned out to be just as good, in some images with a “frontal” comparison the “torus” picture seemed to me a bit more saturated. As it should be in the IPS-matrix, at an angle the picture may acquire a bluish tint.
In terms of a set of camera modules, tablet manufacturers generally prefer to limit themselves to “eyes” with a more or less acceptable level of shooting. Although, in my opinion, this is not entirely justified. In the end, if a device like iconBIT THOR ZX 3G is intended to replace, including a smartphone, then I would like to see photography just above the observed “tablet” level. However, this is just thinking out loud - the reality is that the main 5 megapixel camera here is at least not lost against the background of competitors. First of all - in the presence of autofocus. Not the smartest, but still. In fact, the user chooses himself to patiently prepare the frame or immediately press on the "shutter" for a snapshot. I didn’t like the fact that “smoke” is sometimes seen in the pictures. But the camera does not literally seek to blacken any object in low light conditions or on frames with contrasting light. A real surprise for me was the focusing at a distance of 5-7 cm, and even without much loss of detail.
I think the shooting program needs no introduction - we all have seen it repeatedly in devices with the latest MediaTek chipsets. My opinion regarding the application has not changed: a great solution with a double shutter / start button for recording video and an annoying lack of customization of the panel on the left. In the context menu, I would like to group the items in a slightly different way, although in this form they do not cause any special questions.
The tablet is based on last year's Mediatek MT8389 - a budget chipset of 28 nm process technology, with the four cores Cortex-A7 and the graphics accelerator PowerVR SGX 544. The processor runs at the maximum available for this model at 1.5 GHz. RAM - 1 GB (DDR3). In principle, some conclusions suggest themselves right away - for example, iconBIT THOR ZX 3G should have no problems with tasks like web surfing and video. But demanding games can be a serious test for a tablet, with its high resolution screen.
Previously, I did not work with devices on the Mediatek MT8389, the more interesting it was to get acquainted with its capabilities. For starters, I used the IXBT test video suite. The results are standard positive. That is, a couple of clips that did not start up equally refuse to play on most of the smartphones and tablets I have tested. I checked the 4k video "optional", because the work with it was not documented by any chipset or this tablet. There was no problem with the personal video archive, except that I used mostly software decoding - sometimes the sound disappeared from the hardware.
* HW - hardware decoding
"Dodgy" in terms of graphics "Iron Man 3" - a difficult test for the graphics chip, starting with the hero's high-polygon figure right on the menu. I look forward to when Gameloft will add flexible graphics settings, but for now we are playing with approximately 15 FPS. In Robokop, the tablet handled the load well, only in script scenes there were sometimes frame drops. Wonderfully worked Modern Combat 4: Zero Hour - and watch, and play was a pleasure. Riptide GP2 “flew” when the graphic settings were set to maximum, with the exception of the “Shader Complexity” item - the “Low” value came up best with the sampling method. Strange, but Google Play flatly refused to show the presence of Dead Trigger 2, and Shadowgun: DeadZone preferred to hide it. Well at least that the game GLU under the "censorship" did not fall.
The speed of work in the system is normal - just like that, no more. Occasionally, but still the slowness of menu transitions, task switching, etc. is found. I would like to see higher speed, but if a person acquires a tablet for the first time, he is unlikely to have serious questions about the performance of the tablet. Yes, and the observed rare delays are critical to the overall comfort of using the model did not affect. However, I hope that future firmware updates will speed up iconBIT THOR ZX 3G.
The tablet uses Android 4.2.2, not burdened with an abundance of additional applications. But there are such important things for out-of-box stuff as the file manager and Flash Player. In principle, iconBIT could not skimp on useful utilities - in the tablet, after all, 16 GB of memory. No special interventions in the system were carried out, except that the mandatory wallpapers for each tablet and smartphone iconBIT with colored pencils were added.
In the settings it is clearly seen that the Mediatek MT8389 allows the use of two slots for SIM-cards. The interface of the program calls and text messages is not adapted to the tablets, exactly the same organization of programs can be observed on smartphones. There is no inconvenience in this - on the contrary, it was much more comfortable for me to type text or a phone number on the big screen.
There was no force majeure with a cellular signal - if necessary, I always dialed to the subscriber, and the callers also did not receive any information about my “disappearances”. When making calls, I used the complete headset. Of course, she lacks a little bass, because the voice of the interlocutor, depending on the timbre, sometimes sounded "dry." However, I did not feel any discomfort, by and large I were interlocutors, and they heard me normally.
Capacity of the built-in battery - 5 300 mAh. I did not engage in synthetic tests and preferred to test iconBIT THOR ZX 3G in a purely practical plane. HD video played 5 hours and 10 minutes (average brightness, maximum volume), music - 43 hours, a telephone conversation through the headset took almost 19 hours, Internet 3G - 4 hours and 50 minutes, Wi-Fi - 7 hours and 20 minutes. I myself used a tablet at home exclusively with Wi-Fi, I exploited the browser ten times a day, periodically launching Asphalt 8. On average I put on charging once every three days.
I can not single out any of the leading features of this model - this is not the case when the emphasis is placed on a certain “chip”. IconBIT has turned out in all respects a balanced (as if clotting it would not sound) tablet, which will replace the netbook at home, and on the road it will be useful due to the presence of a SIM-card slot. All important parameters of the model are normal, both “on paper” and in reality. Probably, I would like to see less obvious borrowing of design elements, and a slightly better build. However, both points are not critical and if I considered a model like iconBIT THOR ZX 3G for purchase, they would hardly have influenced the final choice.
Equipment
On the packaging of the tablet, nothing special can be said - the usual (even too) design in the style of iconBIT. The accessory kit is limited to a microUSB cable, a charging unit, an OTG cable (a nice addition), brief instructions and a headset. Given the ability to receive calls and make calls, the latter had to be very helpful.
')
This is the second time I've come across iconBIT tablets with an Axelvox headset - a manufacturer who likes to produce low-cost counterparts (and by design - sometimes almost copies) of musical equipment from studio monitors to MIDI keyboards. Immediately, I note that the sound is not “music lovers”, but I didn’t have a desire to immediately use alternative “ears” in the course of the tests.
Completes the list of "key" with a small pin to extract from the SIM card holder. The thing is very compact, can easily be lost. Fortunately, finding her an alternative in the form of an unfolded clip is easy.
Design
It is difficult to say something new about the appearance of the model. Apparently, for the majority of its tablets, iconBIT chose a combination of such “exterior” features as a white frame around the screen and an almost all-metal cover for most of its tablets. I see this not for the first time, and again I can only greet. The black “front” in the tablets seems to me somewhat boring, variations of different degrees of plasticity of the plastic back cover also do not impress me.
Ergonomics is generally similar to the 9-inch iconBIT NETTAB THOR IZ , but this guest is much more comfortable to hold - there are no right angles between the ends and the back side. A slightly rounded surface allows you to get rid of the unpleasant "abrasion" in the palm of your hand, regardless of the orientation in which you hold the model. In 9-inch tablets, I like the fact that from time to time I enjoy working with them in the porter position and can read while holding the iconBIT THOR ZX 3G in question with one hand.
For the quality of the assembly I put the four - when squeezed, barely audible squeaks can occur, and in some places the lid could better resist pressure. The materials used once again pleased, the metal from the rear is stronger than plastic, and it is more resistant to scratches. Although I personally from a tactile point of view is still not thrilled with a slightly rough matte finish. But there are no more fingerprints left than completely.
On the front side you can see two peepholes, one from the camera, the second from the light sensor. The presence of the second at the same time directly confirms the presence in the settings of the screen the ability to automatically adjust the brightness level. There is no proximity sensor - we are waiting for the speech speaker to be installed in the 9-10-inch tablets from the front. I could call it humor, but 7-inch, and for some time 7.85-inch tablets do not give me such a reason.
The control buttons are set most competently - at one end, on the right. The volume rocker and the power key are a classic set, I do not consider the absence of the optional “home” button a serious omission. By the way, like the back cover, the keys are made of metal.
On the same side there are slots for microSD memory card and SIM-card.
The audio output is attached on top, although just for the overall tablet, I would prefer to see this connector below. However, this is my nagging, because no one has canceled the dynamic change of orientation of the picture in Android.
On the opposite side, we observe stereo speakers and a microUSB connector. I praise the speakers for a decent volume and, as far as possible, good sound quality. Scold for ambiguous placement. If you hold the device in the landscape position, the palm will always overlap one of the two sources of sound.
The back side due to the characteristic plastic insert, as well as the location of the camera on the left and the audio output on the top right, makes the tablet very similar to the latest model of a well-known manufacturer with a headquarters in Cupertino. Good or not, let everyone decide privately. I myself am not against such borrowings, if the device is generally performed at a high level.
Screen
I pointed out the main characteristics before kata - 9 inches with a resolution of 1920 x 1280 pixels, a wonderful combination. I admit, I don’t tremble with the PPI value and I still remember that a couple of years ago I didn’t suffer from mental anguish when working with TFT readers and 7-inch tablets with WVGA resolution. Be that as it may, image clarity in iconBIT THOR ZX 3G left a good impression in 3D games, and when working with text content, in particular, in PDF magazines and web pages.
The screen cover is plastic, so you should handle the tablet carefully. In a good way, I would recommend not to remove the protective film pasted on by default. Only the protruding part of the paper “spine” should be cut off :) I adhered to this opinion until I removed the film with the sticker - it turned out, it is under it ... Another copy of the screen film protection. Display - capacitive type, with multi-touch support. The sensitivity is high, if there were delays in response or the need to re-touch occurred, then it was only the fault of the system.
On the official page of the tablet, it is first stated that the PLS matrix is ​​installed, and then the IPS. Interestingly, at the time of testing, I had a new tablet of one of the B-brands on hand. The model is equipped with exactly the matrix that was used in the iPad mini of the first generation. So, the iconBIT THOR ZX 3G screen turned out to be just as good, in some images with a “frontal” comparison the “torus” picture seemed to me a bit more saturated. As it should be in the IPS-matrix, at an angle the picture may acquire a bluish tint.
Camera
In terms of a set of camera modules, tablet manufacturers generally prefer to limit themselves to “eyes” with a more or less acceptable level of shooting. Although, in my opinion, this is not entirely justified. In the end, if a device like iconBIT THOR ZX 3G is intended to replace, including a smartphone, then I would like to see photography just above the observed “tablet” level. However, this is just thinking out loud - the reality is that the main 5 megapixel camera here is at least not lost against the background of competitors. First of all - in the presence of autofocus. Not the smartest, but still. In fact, the user chooses himself to patiently prepare the frame or immediately press on the "shutter" for a snapshot. I didn’t like the fact that “smoke” is sometimes seen in the pictures. But the camera does not literally seek to blacken any object in low light conditions or on frames with contrasting light. A real surprise for me was the focusing at a distance of 5-7 cm, and even without much loss of detail.
I think the shooting program needs no introduction - we all have seen it repeatedly in devices with the latest MediaTek chipsets. My opinion regarding the application has not changed: a great solution with a double shutter / start button for recording video and an annoying lack of customization of the panel on the left. In the context menu, I would like to group the items in a slightly different way, although in this form they do not cause any special questions.
Performance
The tablet is based on last year's Mediatek MT8389 - a budget chipset of 28 nm process technology, with the four cores Cortex-A7 and the graphics accelerator PowerVR SGX 544. The processor runs at the maximum available for this model at 1.5 GHz. RAM - 1 GB (DDR3). In principle, some conclusions suggest themselves right away - for example, iconBIT THOR ZX 3G should have no problems with tasks like web surfing and video. But demanding games can be a serious test for a tablet, with its high resolution screen.
Previously, I did not work with devices on the Mediatek MT8389, the more interesting it was to get acquainted with its capabilities. For starters, I used the IXBT test video suite. The results are standard positive. That is, a couple of clips that did not start up equally refuse to play on most of the smartphones and tablets I have tested. I checked the 4k video "optional", because the work with it was not documented by any chipset or this tablet. There was no problem with the personal video archive, except that I used mostly software decoding - sometimes the sound disappeared from the hardware.
- watch-1920x1080-60p.mp4 - HW * / excellent
- watch-1920x1080-50p.mp4 - HW / excellent
- watch-1920x1080-30p.mp4 - HW / excellent
- watch-1920x1080-25p.mp4 - HW / excellent
- watch-1920x1080-24p.mp4 - HW / excellent
- watch-1280x720-60p.mp4 - not reproduced
- watch-1280x720-50p.mp4 - not reproduced
- watch-1280x720-30p.mp4 - HW / excellent
- watch-1280x720-25p.mp4 - HW / excellent
- watch-1280x720-24p.mp4 - HW / excellent
- watch-4k-30p.mp4 - HW / noticeable frame drop
- watch-4k-25p.mp4 -HW / noticeable frame drop
- watch-4k-24p.mp4 - HW / noticeable frame drop
* HW - hardware decoding
"Dodgy" in terms of graphics "Iron Man 3" - a difficult test for the graphics chip, starting with the hero's high-polygon figure right on the menu. I look forward to when Gameloft will add flexible graphics settings, but for now we are playing with approximately 15 FPS. In Robokop, the tablet handled the load well, only in script scenes there were sometimes frame drops. Wonderfully worked Modern Combat 4: Zero Hour - and watch, and play was a pleasure. Riptide GP2 “flew” when the graphic settings were set to maximum, with the exception of the “Shader Complexity” item - the “Low” value came up best with the sampling method. Strange, but Google Play flatly refused to show the presence of Dead Trigger 2, and Shadowgun: DeadZone preferred to hide it. Well at least that the game GLU under the "censorship" did not fall.
The speed of work in the system is normal - just like that, no more. Occasionally, but still the slowness of menu transitions, task switching, etc. is found. I would like to see higher speed, but if a person acquires a tablet for the first time, he is unlikely to have serious questions about the performance of the tablet. Yes, and the observed rare delays are critical to the overall comfort of using the model did not affect. However, I hope that future firmware updates will speed up iconBIT THOR ZX 3G.
System, calls and 3G
The tablet uses Android 4.2.2, not burdened with an abundance of additional applications. But there are such important things for out-of-box stuff as the file manager and Flash Player. In principle, iconBIT could not skimp on useful utilities - in the tablet, after all, 16 GB of memory. No special interventions in the system were carried out, except that the mandatory wallpapers for each tablet and smartphone iconBIT with colored pencils were added.
In the settings it is clearly seen that the Mediatek MT8389 allows the use of two slots for SIM-cards. The interface of the program calls and text messages is not adapted to the tablets, exactly the same organization of programs can be observed on smartphones. There is no inconvenience in this - on the contrary, it was much more comfortable for me to type text or a phone number on the big screen.
There was no force majeure with a cellular signal - if necessary, I always dialed to the subscriber, and the callers also did not receive any information about my “disappearances”. When making calls, I used the complete headset. Of course, she lacks a little bass, because the voice of the interlocutor, depending on the timbre, sometimes sounded "dry." However, I did not feel any discomfort, by and large I were interlocutors, and they heard me normally.
Autonomy
Capacity of the built-in battery - 5 300 mAh. I did not engage in synthetic tests and preferred to test iconBIT THOR ZX 3G in a purely practical plane. HD video played 5 hours and 10 minutes (average brightness, maximum volume), music - 43 hours, a telephone conversation through the headset took almost 19 hours, Internet 3G - 4 hours and 50 minutes, Wi-Fi - 7 hours and 20 minutes. I myself used a tablet at home exclusively with Wi-Fi, I exploited the browser ten times a day, periodically launching Asphalt 8. On average I put on charging once every three days.
Conclusion
I can not single out any of the leading features of this model - this is not the case when the emphasis is placed on a certain “chip”. IconBIT has turned out in all respects a balanced (as if clotting it would not sound) tablet, which will replace the netbook at home, and on the road it will be useful due to the presence of a SIM-card slot. All important parameters of the model are normal, both “on paper” and in reality. Probably, I would like to see less obvious borrowing of design elements, and a slightly better build. However, both points are not critical and if I considered a model like iconBIT THOR ZX 3G for purchase, they would hardly have influenced the final choice.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/212273/
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