The Allview TX1 Quasar is a 3G tablet with an 8 inch display, that goes for $312, which is not bad for an Android slate with a 3G modem integrated. However, there have been some sacrifices made in order to do that integration. For example, the HDMI is lacking… but more about that in the full review after the break.
The device looks pretty much like the Motorola Xoom 2 8.2 inch media edition and it measures 9.9 mm in thickness. It weighs 435 grams and has some discretely integrated speakers at the back. There’s no HDMI, as I said and the microSD and SIM card slot seem a bit strange without lids on top. The slate has a metal case, made of aluminum and it’s a quality piece of metal, in case you’re wondering.
As far as hardware goes, the Allview TX1 Quasar features an 8 inch IPS LCD display, a capacitive multitouch one with a 1024 x 768 pixel resolution and 4:3 aspect ratio. There’s also a dual core CPU, a Cortex A9 1 GHz inside and a Power VR SGX 531 GPU. We’ve also got GPS, the ability to make 3G phone calls and video calls, 4 GB of internal storage, of which 2 GB are available to the user.
1 GB of RAM is included and the microSD goes up to 32 GB in extra storage. At the back we’ve got a 3.2 megapixel camera and at the front we have a 0.3 megapixel shooter. On the 3G side we’ve got HSDPA with speeds up to 7.2 Mbps, accompanied by Bluetooth 3.0, WiFi, microUSB 2.0, G Sensor and compass. The battery inside the TX1 Quasar is Li-Polymer unit with a 4000 mAh capacity and 3.7V, that should provide 400 hours of standby use, 4 hours of regular use and 5.5 hours of talk time. In our tests, about 5 hours were enough to drain the battery.
This tablet has very good speakers, dual stereo ones, with good volume, nice bass and good clarity, plus lack of distorsion, that’s a common problem on some similar devices. As far as the screen goes, the IPS display offers nice brightness, good colors and good angles. The camera is an aspect you can really neglect, unless you’re fond of the cool 3D effect it adds to the UI as an option.
Allview TX1 Quasar runs Android 4.0.4 and we installed the Apex Launcher on top of it to make it run fluidly. Initially, it was a big laggy, I have to say… On the benchmark side, in Quadrant we scored 2600 points, in AnTuTu 5863 and in NenaMark 2 15.7 FPS. These are pretty underwhelming, especially when compared to other Romanian brand slates, like the E-Boda Supreme X80, with double points in all benchmarks. The phone feature generates good quality phone calls and we also showed you some other common features for modern devices, such as GPS/Maps, YouTube and Facebook, plus the Play Store.
And now the Pros and Cons! Here are the Pros for buying the slate:
- pretty decent battery
- 3G module
- good display
- loud speakers, good quality
- nice design, slid case
- nice 3D camera effect
And the Cons:
- a big laggy with default launcher
- bad camera
- no HDMI
- no full HD playback
- just 2 GB of storage
Overall, we give the device a 9.3 out of 10 for hardware, a 9.5 out of 10 for hardware and a 7.5 out of 10 for OS and UI. The total grade is 8.76 out of 10 and this product is a “nice buy”, not a “best buy”.
