Asus launched the ZenPad 7.0 Z370CG, a compact tablet in India back in August at the Zenfestival for Rs. 11,999, after it was introduced at the Computex back in June. It went on sale in the country last month. Is the tablet worth the price? Let us find out in this review.
Unboxing
We unboxed the ZenPad 7.0 recently, check out the unboxing video.
Box Contents
- Asus ZenPad 7.0 Z370CG in Aurora Metallic color
- 2-pin charger (5.2V-1.35A)
- Micro USB Cable
- User guide and warranty information
Display, Hardware and Design
The ZenPad 7.0 has a 7-inch IPS display with a resolution of 1280×800 pixels and a pixel density of 215 PPI. The display is bright, the ASUS Tru2Life Technology offers vibrant color output, and the viewing angles are good offering up to 178 degrees of viewing angle. The sunlight legibility is good too. It also has Corning Gorilla Glass protection. It has 72% screen-to-body ratio, which is decent for a 7-inch tablet. The screen also has anti-fingerprint coating.
Since it is just 110.9mm wide, it is easy to hold for single-handed usage, but there are huge bezels on the top and bottom of the display, so it is 189mm tall. The display is made up of two layers with a one-glass full lamination rather than the conventional six- layer screen. With the Asus TruVivid technology, the conventional air gap has been eliminated and the cover glass and touch panel layers have been combined to offer a higher optical transparency of over 94%, says the company.
Above the display, it has an earpiece for voice calling capabilities that also houses the loudspeaker. There are the usual set of proximity and ambient light sensors below the grill and a 2-megapixel camera with f/2.0 aperture is present next to it. The camera is decent for video chats in bright conditions, but it is not good if the lighting is poor.
There is Asus branding below the display. Since the tablet uses on-screen buttons, you don’t have capacitive touch buttons. Pressing the on-screen buttons offers haptic feedback.
The tablet is 8.7mm thick, and there is a small chrome rim running on sides of the tablet. The metal frame has NCVM (Non Conductive Vacuum Metalization) for a high-quality appearance and it also protects the screen, according to Asus.
The power button and the volume rockers are present on the right side, 3.5mm audio jack is present on the top, the micro USB slot and a primary microphone hole are present on the bottom.
There is a 8-megapixel auto focus camera on the back, along with Asus branding in the centre. The back cover has tiny patterns, which offers a good grip. There is a small ridge on the right side, which has Intel branding.
Even though you can remove the back cover, the 3450mAh battery is not removable.
The micro SIM slot and a microSD card slot are present at the left bottom corner. The slot accepts cards up to 64GB. There is also a small connector that lets you attach the ZenPad 7.0 Audio Cover CA71 to the back of the tablet, replacing the back cover. Overall, the build quality of the tablet is good.
The ZenPad 7.0 along with the Audio Cover CA71 costs Rs. 14,999. It has six speakers (Main x 4, Center x 1, Subwoofer x 1) that promises 5.1-channel surround sound experience and has 2300mAh non-removable battery that promises and extra battery life of up to 6 hours. It also covers the display of the tablet to prevent it from scratches and also acts as a stand for watching videos comfortably.
Camera
It has a 8-megapixel auto focus rear camera with f/2.0 aperture. It has Pixelmaster camera and offers several modes (Auto, Time Lapse, Effect, Slow motion, HDR, Panorama, Night, Low light, Miniature, Depth of field, All smiles, Beautification and GIF animation). We had already these features in the Zenfone 2.
Daylight shots are decent, but the images are too bright and it has white balance issues. Thanks to the f/2.0 aperture, macro shots came out pretty good. HDR shots were good, but you need to hold the tablet steady, otherwise the shots end up blurry. The Low light mode uses different image-processing techniques to reduce noise and boosts color contrast, but it reduces the image size to 1-megapixel. Overall, the Zenpad 7.0 offers a decent camera performance for the price, but it could have been better.
Check out some camera samples (Click the image for full resolution sample)
Daylight
Macro
HDR
Low-light
It can record videos at 720p HD resolution at 30fps. Since it doesn’t have a secondary microphone, audio is not crisp. The video quality is just average without much details. Check out the video sample below.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpueVjIC6-o
Software
Coming to the software, the tablet runs on Android 5.0.2 (Lollipop) with Zen UI on top that adds several new features and enhancements. Asus recently confirmed Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) update for several devices, but the the ZenPad 7.0 or other tablets are not in the list, so this might not get the Marshmallow update anytime soon.
You can add up to 7 homescreens and the customizable quick settings menu has toggles for bluelight filter, PlayTo, WiFi hotspot and more, apart from the usual quick-setting toggles. There are default shortcuts in the first row. All these shortcuts can be interchanged or replaced. It has brightness slider on the top with auto brightness option. Lockscreen has Quick access shortcut to launch camera, dialer and messages easily.
You can adjust the color temperature of the screen and also switch between Balance, Bluelight Filter, Vivid or Customized screen color modes. It has touch gestures that includes, double tap to wake up and sleep. It also has gesture options that lets you draw certain letter on the screen to open the apps in sleep mode. Motion gestures include, shake to take a screenshot, and create a new task in Do It Later and it lets you flip the tablet to silence a call.
Out of 2GB RAM, about 1.94GB of RAM is usable. About 1.4GB of RAM is free when default apps are running in the background. Out of 16GB of internal storage, about 11.07GB is usable. You can also move the apps to the SD card when you insert one.
Apps
Apart from the usual set of Google apps, the tablet comes with a range of apps such as Do It Later, a simple task manager that has integration with Call log, Email and Messaging that reminds you about the tasks that’s coming up next. It also comes pre-loaded with Apps4U set of apps that includes, Clean Master, TripAdvisor, Dr. Safety, Amazon Kindle, Free Games and Zino.
Music and Video Player
The music player has a new UI. You can use the equalizer when the earphones are connected. The tablet has SonicMaster Audio Technology and DTS-HD Premium sound for a better audio experience. AudioWizard has several audio enhancements such as Smart mode, Music Mode, Movie Mode, Recording Mode, Gaming Mode and Speech mode. You can adjust the audio based on your preference. The tablet doesn’t come with bundled headset in the box. Audio quality is decent through third-part headsets and the loudspeaker output is good too. The default video player lets you play videos at 1080p full HD videos, but it is not smooth compared to 720p videos.
Connectivity
The tablet has single SIM support and has 3G connectivity. Since it has an earpiece, you can also make or receive voice calls. It also has SMS support. We did not face any call drops or any other calling issues. It has WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 and GPS. It also has USB on-the-go (OTG) support.
Performance and Benchmarks
Coming to the performance, the quad-core Intel Atom x3-C3230 processor clocked at 900 MHz offers average performance, and there is occasional lags. Thanks to 2GB of RAM, you can run several apps in the background, but the tablet is still laggy since the processor is not powerful. It gets warm when using 3G or playing intensive games, but it doesn’t get too hot. Check out some synthetic benchmark scores below.
Quadrant Benchmark
It scored 9015 points in the Quadrant benchmark, better than the Nexus 7 (2013).
AnTuTu Benchmark 5
It the AnTuTu Benchmark 5, the Zenpad 7.0 managed to score 18268 points.
Geekbench 3 Single-Core
It managed to score 346 points in the Geekbench 3 Single-Core benchmark.
Geekbench 3 Multi-Core
In the Geekbench 3 Multi-Core benchmark, it managed to score 1026 points.
NenaMark 2
It clocked 59.1 fps in the NanaMark 2 GPU benchmark. The Mali-450 MP4 GPU offers decent gaming performance and graphics, but it’s not the best.
Battery life
The Zenpad 7.0 has a 3450mAh built-in battery. The battery life is below average. With heavy usage on 3G, the battery lasts only for three to four hours. Even with average use it lasts for less than a day. Asus promises 8 hours of battery life, but the tablet fails to deliver it. There are several Smart saving modes such as Customized mode, Optimized mode and Ultra-saving mode. These modes can extend the battery life by limiting the CPU use and turning off several things. It also shows the amount of battery used your apps and also detect the apps that are draining the battery.
It achieved a One Charge Rating of 11 hours and 16 minutes, mainly due to brilliant talk time, otherwise the battery life is below average.
Conclusion
Overall the Asus Zenpad 7.0 is an average Android tablet with 3G support, voice calling capabilities and a compact design. The build quality is good, but the performance is just average compared to other tablets in the price range and the battery life, which is an important aspect of every device is not the best in the tablet. If you can compromise on these things, go for it. To summarize, here are the pros and cons of the tablet.
Pros
- Good display
- Compact design
- Good build quality
- Decent camera
Cons
- Average performance
- Battery life is below average
- No 4G support