Exclusive: Along with the 10-inch tablet I tested last week, Kogan also launched an 8-inch model for a little less model. Despite the size disparity relative to price, I think it’s a better buy.
I wasn’t exactly thrilled by Kogan’s 10-inch tablet, all things considered, but then it’s a non-premium product sold at a non-premium price. Most of what’s true for the 10-inch tablet is still true for the 8-inch model. It’s still just a Wifi-only Gingerbread tablet, not a 3G Honeycomb one. It still feels like mass-produced plastic, not engineered metal in the style of a Galaxy Tab 10.1 or iPad 2. I didn’t get enough time to review it entirely; these are merely a collection of observations.
The thing is, having spent a little — but not a lot — of time with the 8-inch, I reckon the compromises it makes are less of a problem.
For a start, the volume control works in a portrait orientation — so up is volume up and so on — whereas the 10-inch reverses that, which only works well in landscape. This is still Gingerbread, though, so portrait is the way the menu is always presented.
As with the 10-inch model, the ports include a DC power in, so you can’t charge via USB.
The smaller tablet does bring some technical compromises; while the processor remains the same 1GHz model and internal storage is set at 4GB, the screen resolution dips to 800×600 and the battery shrinks to 3600mAh. It’s still also rather twitchy when it comes to screen flipping, although the smaller size makes this easier to bear as it’s smaller. I didn’t get enough time to properly exhaust the battery, but it’s not going to be a true long-life tablet.
The 8-inch and 10-inch side by side.
It may have just been a quirk of the preproduction samples I was sent, but the 8-inch model also felt a little less rough around the edges.It’s still very much a value proposition to ponder on; at the time of writing the original Liveprice $149 estimate was up to $155 with an eventual end price of $229. That’s not expensive for a basic tablet, but this will never be anything but a very basic tablet. Like the 10-inch tablet, it’s not a model I’d spend my own money on, but despite the 10-inch not being that much more expensive, I reckon the 8-inch is the model to buy if you’re keen.[Kogan]
Welsh Dog
Monday, October 17, 2011 at 10:37 AMI bought the original iteration of this device when it sported a resistive screen and still use it regularly. Had these models been released prior to my purchasing a Lenovo Thinkpad Tablet I would have bought one without question.
Kogan machines *are* inexpensive but not ‘cheap’. They simply do the job they were built to do, and do it at a *very* competitive price!
One way to look at their offerings at this end of the market is that you can try out the formats without spending up big. This tablet will cost a max AU$229. My Lenovo has set me back over AU$1,000. Ok the Lenovo has longer battery life etc… but are those ‘extras’ really worth 5 times the price?? The cheapo model let me try out a tablet at a reasonable cost and is still a useful tool!! No complaints here about Kogan tablets!! :)
Adam
Monday, October 17, 2011 at 11:18 AMthe look of these reminds me of the flytouch tablets from ebay:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Tablet-10-2-Flytouch-III-SuperPad-Wifi-GPS-4GB-Android-/160637685377?pt=AU_Tablets&hash=item2566c08e81
I’d probably go a flytouch over these agora things. about the same, but cheaper.
lamul
Monday, October 17, 2011 at 11:32 AMI have had an opportunity to play around with a flytouch tablet and “balls” is the only word that comes to mind.
I’ll pick the Kogan any day.
Reyanimator
Monday, October 17, 2011 at 11:40 AMIt occurs to me that if I had kids, say for instance a 10-14 year old, this would be an ideal tablet for them – when I was a kid I had the familys 486, and my parents had a pentium – I learned how to use dos, how to program in basic and a bunch of other things from that pc, including how to clean viruses and how hitting the case when kintaro beats you for the fifty millionth time in mk2 will probably destroy your hardware. This is similar to how you give a p plater a 30 year old bomb that wont pass the next rego, because it doesnt matter so much if it gets scratched and dented.
Husky
Monday, October 17, 2011 at 1:17 PMKids is a good idea for these. I like the idea of a cheap tablet as I’ve often found myself working in scumy areas and having to leave my stuff unattended, meaning I don’t want to get out my iPad, one of these I wouldnt be as pissed if it got stolen.
Penmonicus
Monday, October 17, 2011 at 11:47 AMI’ve got a bunch of store credit to use on the Kogan site, and I’m looking at getting one of these – though there’s only the older, 7″ version available. But it still seems to run the same OS.
I pretty much only want it for reading comics in bed.
Adam
Monday, October 17, 2011 at 3:50 PMaka, looking at porn in bed
Danny Allen
Monday, October 17, 2011 at 6:22 PMaka Hentai?
Matt
Monday, October 17, 2011 at 11:21 PMI don’t think touchscreens and porn mix.
Vince
Saturday, March 10, 2012 at 4:36 PMI just bought the 8″ Agora & for the price its ok for me to test a tablet with Android. Funny thing is the Android app i wanted to test wont download onto it & adobe flash is not compatible on this os Android 2.3.3! Is it the machine or simply the nut behind the wheel?
Clancette Clift
Monday, April 30, 2012 at 7:38 PMDoes anyone know which is the best Word-type program to install on a 7″ Agora?
I have been given one, and wish to type on it, and then send somehow to my PC.