Lava
launched its first Android 4.1 Jelly Bean-powered tablet, the Etab
Xtron, earlier this year. The company has now added a rear camera, an
HDMI port and updated the OS to Android 4.2, and launched the Etab
Xtron+, the successor to the first Etab Xtron tablet. We try to find out
if the budget tablet delivers value for your hard earned money.
Build
The
Lava Etab Xtron+ comes with the same design and build as that of the
Etab Xtron, exuding a feeling of durability. The 7-inch tablet looks
compact, yet sturdy. The front of the tablet features a 7-inch screen,
which is surrounded by a large bezel. You'll also spot a VGA resolution
front-shooter right in the middle.
The back of the tablet is made
of polycarbonate but has been given a brushed aluminium finish. The
frame extends to the front, and adds to the design of the tablet. A
microSD card slot and a 3.5mm headphone jack sits at the top edge at the
right side while the speaker grill is located towards the left. There
are no ports on the bottom edge.
The
power button, a volume rocker, and a refresh/ 'return to home screen'
button and a microphone are located at the right hand side of the
tablet.
The Micro-USB, micro-HDMI and a 2.5mm proprietary charging port are located at left hand side.
Turning
the tablet over, there's some Lava branding at the bottom right corner
and ETab Xtron+ branding in the middle. The 2-megapixel camera lens is
placed towards the upper part.
Display
The Etab
Xtron+'s 7-inch IPS TFT display comes with a resolution of 1024x600
pixels, which is not that great but given the price of the tablet, we
can live with it. Images and videos look good but text, specially with
smaller font size, is not very legible.
The screen brightness is
below average, and the screen is extremely reflective, resulting in
poor visibility under sunlight. It's very difficult to read a book or
click a picture in sunlight. Viewing angles aren't great either.
The
touch sensitivity is good, and we didn't encounter any issues while
using the device. Overall, we were not satisfied with the quality of the
tablet's display and it feels like a downgrade from the Lava Etab
Xtron.
Software/ Interface
The Lava Etab Xtron+ runs
Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, the latest iteration of the operating system at
the time of writing this review. It's a near stock build of the OS
bundled with a few third-party apps including music streaming app Saavn,
a file browser, an app for Video-on-demand service, BigFlix, education
app EduKart, a video player and a local deals and search app, UAhoy. We
like the fact that there's no bloatware.
Similar to the Nexus 7, the tablet's onscreen controls are located at
the centre. However, instead of one there are two slide-down trays at
the top, one at the left, with the date, time and notifications, and
another one at the right with toggles for Brightness, Settings, Wi-Fi,
Screen rotation, Battery, Airplane mode, and Wireless Display (an
Android 4.2 feature).
The tablet offers five customisable home screens that can be filled with app shortcuts and widgets.
During
our use, we didn't notice much lag while navigating through menus, and
Google's much touted 'Project Butter' makes the overall experience more
responsive than tablets running Ice Cream Sandwich.
The
other major feature that Jelly Bean brings is 'Google Now', a
voice-based information assistant and an extension of Google search. You
can ask questions and the tool returns answers or search results. It
uses 'cards' which are essentially small boxes that offer different sets
of information ranging from weather forecast, directions, traffic
information, scores, appointments, and currency conversion, among
others. Google Now collects information based on the user's behaviour,
location and even email to offer information, automatically.
The
tablet also includes another Android 4.2 feature, lock screen widgets.
You can choose from the Clock, Camera, Gmail, Google Now and Messaging
widgets in addition to widgets offered by third-party apps installed on
your tablet. These widgets offer glance-able information from the apps
and allow users to perform certain app actions even when the tablet is
locked.
Another Android 4.2 feature for tablets is multi-user
accounts i.e. different profiles and access for different users.
However, this tablet doesn't include this functionality, which is a
pity.
It
also offers another Android 4.2 feature, Daydream, that displays photo
albums or the clock while the phone's charging. The option to wirelessly
mirror the phone's display with an HDMI enabled device through a
wireless display adapter is also present.
Camera
The
Etab Xtron+ tablet comes with a 2-megapixel rear camera and a VGA front
camera. Personally, we're no fans on using tablets for clicking needs,
but some people may use a rear camera for taking casual shots or just
for scanning some documents.
The camera app is pretty basic,
offering Still, Video and Panorama shooting modes. Each mode just offers
pre-set white balance settings for Incandescent, Daylight, Fluorescent,
and Cloudy conditions.
The fixed focus camera doesn't take great pictures but it can save the
day when you need to share a picture quickly and don't have any other
camera device. Pictures shot indoors turned out to be grainy, though.
Videos shot with the camera were also average but it saves them in .MP4
format.
The pictures that we clicked with the front camera,
indoors, were strictly functional, but it does a decent job when used
for making video calls over Skype or other video chat apps.
Performance/ Battery Life
The
tablet is powered by a 1.5GHz Cortex A9 dual-core processor, a Mali-400
GPU and 1GB of RAM. We did not encounter any crashes while working on
this tablet and multitasking was comfortable.
We did notice some
minor lag specially while switching from portrait to landscape mode but
other than that we were able to play tablet optimised games and HD
video clips, without a hitch as the bundled video player supports all
major video file formats.
The
tablet comes with the native Android browser and renders all webpages
well. Adobe Flash is pre-installed allowing the browser to display
Flash videos, banners and other elements.
The speakers deliver
average sound that distorts a bit at high volume levels. The output
through the speaker grill was not very loud.
There's no voice
calling but the major omission is Bluetooth connectivity. We're not sure
why Lava had to exclude it since most major Android devices offer this
functionality, and consumers might use it for wireless file transfers or
for connecting a wireless input device. However, we see a lot of budget
tablets these days ship without Bluetooth and we're not convinced it's a
good trend.
The tablet comes with a 3,700 mAh battery and we were not very happy
with the backup that it offered, specially when playing multimedia
files. We were able to get around 4 hours of video playback, with the
display at full brightness levels. The standby time with push
notifications and emails on was decent, though. With intermediate usage
during the day, we were able to get a day of backup.
Verdict
The
Lava Etab Xtron+ is an above average tablet for its price. At a price
of Rs. 6,990, it offers a good package with decent hardware, compact
form factor and the latest version of Android Jelly Bean. It's
interesting to look at if you're looking for a device for browsing the
Web or playing casual games and are on a budget.
However, the
highly reflective screen and underwhelming battery backup are some of
the problem areas. You'll not be able to use the tablet under sunlight
for reading, viewing content or for even taking pictures. Despite
running Android 4.2, the lack of multi-user accounts is a disappointment
as well.
Though the Etab Xtron+ adds a rear camera, it
downgrades the front facing camera compared to its predecessor. The rear
camera is also nothing to talk home about. So if you're looking at a
tablet with a good camera performance, this one won't fulfil your
appetite.
Looking at competing devices, the Acer Iconia B1-A71
is also an interesting 7-inche tablet, which also offers Bluetooth
connectivity, but is inferior in terms of build quality and costs more.
If you're looking for a tablet that also offers voice calling, the
Micromax Funbook P360 is another good option available at a price of Rs.
7,049. The Wickedleak Wammy Desire and Desire Tab 2 are other 7-inch
tablets running Jelly Bean worth considering.
Price: Rs. 6,990
Pros
- Runs Android 4.2 Jelly Bean
- Decent performance
- Good build quality
Cons
- Highly reflective screen with poor viewing angles
- Battery life could have been better
- No Bluetooth
- Underwhelming camera
Ratings (Out of 5)
- Design: 3.5
- Display: 2.5
- Performance: 3
- Software: 4
- Battery Life: 2.5
- Camera: 2.5
- Ecosystem: 3.5
- Value for Money: 3
- Overall: 3