We have tested quite a bunch of Allview tablets over the year, with this Romanian brand gaining a strong foot in its region, as far as slates are concerned. We’ve now had the chance to test the device Allview Viva i8 model, that’s a rebranded Teclast P89 Mini and it was truly a huge pleasant surprise for us.
The device was launched in November and it’s the first Intel-based Allview tablet. The product goes for $275, which is very affordable and it adopts the iPad Mini design format. What’s even better is that it’s both thinner and lighter than the iPad Mini, at 7.25 mm and 312.5 grams. The case is made of aluminum and offers good grip, so we really liked this modern design approach.
On the hardware side we get a 7.9 inch IPS LCD screen with 4:3 format and 1024 x 768 pixel resolution, as well as an Intel Z2580 dual core 2 GHz processor, that is also known as the Intel Atom Clover Trail+. The CPU is based on 32 nm technology and it comes with a PowerVR SGX 544 MP2 GPU at 533 MHz. There’s 16 GB of storage on board, a microSD card slot, 1 GB of RAM and a G Sensor.
The good news is that we also get a GPS, Bluetooth 3.0, WiFi, WiFi Display and stereo speakers. On the photo and video capture side there’s a 5 MP back camera and a front 2 MP shooter. The battery here is a 4600 mAh unit, that gave us about 8 hours of HD video playback, that’s a very nice performance. The charging time is 3 hours.
Checking out the speakers, we come across loud volume, but there’s a slightly annoying hissing sound that may bother you. The hissing can also be heard when you exit an app, but if you turn the volume down a bit it’s gone. Overall, we get good bass here and an OK voice in songs, so that’s what matters.
As far as the screen is concerned, the IPS LCD has good view angles, vivid colors, a brightness of 315 lux units and RGP Stripe pixels. It’s a good display with decent contrast and also decent is the 5 MP back camera with OV5465 sensor. It captures Full HD video, panoramas, it has autofocus, but sadly its options feel limited.
If you’re into gaming, you’ll reach about 34 degrees Celsius after playing a game on the slate for about 30 minutes or so, which is pretty OK for an aluminum slate. The OS of choice here is Android 4.2.2 and the web browser included on the device is fast, offers fast scrolling and fast pinch to zoom. There’s absolutely no lag on this device, that manages to score more points than the ASUS MeMo Pad HD 7 quad core tablet in Quadrant, AnTuTu, NenaMark 2, Vellamo and 3DMark.
We compared this model to the E-Boda Revo R85, another Romanian tablet with an iPad Mini format and the Allview won all the battles, by scoring 21k points in AnTuTu, 7417 in Quadrant, 60 FPS in NenaMark 2 and 8427 in 3DMark. The Android experience here is the stock one, aside from the on screen volume buttons and screenshot button.
It’s a shame that device doesn’t come with a HDMI port here. The app list of preinstalled goodies includes All Click, which is a way to implement shortcuts on the screen, Bitdefender antivirus, PDF Viewer, Office Suite and SeeNow. And now it’s time for the verdict!
Here are the Pros related to the slate:
- solid design
- good battery (8 hours of HD playback)
- good display (bright)
- no lag
- good benchmarks
- 3D games look nice on it
- fast browser
- good GPS
- thin and light
And the Cons:
- no HDMI
- not many camera options
- speakers are hissing
- no headphones bundled unlike similar Romanian models
In spite of these few cons, this remains an excellent product, worthy of a 9 out of 10 for design, a 9.3 out of 10 for hardware and a 9.5 out of 10 for OS and UI. The final grade is 9.26 out of 10 and this a kickass tablet, probably the best one that Allview ever sold.
