Having spotted that tablets are an exploding area of consumer electronics, and selling a million of the touchscreen computers in the UK last year from its own stores alone, the catalogue retailer Argos cleverly decided to design and build its own tablet under its Bush brand, as Tesco did with the Hudl tablet.

The result, the MyTablet, is its first entry into the tablet market. It's cheap – but not cheerful.

Argos has clearly built the MyTablet to a set price, and has cut far too many corners in pursuit of that £99 price tag.

Designed in Britain

Proudly emblazoned on the brushed metal back are the words “designed by Bush in the UK”, and from a distance it looks well designed and attractive – like a giant white iPhone 5S. (Remember when people called the iPad a "giant iPod Touch"?). Once you get up close, though, you realise the resemblance is only skin deep.

The metal back is available in pink or silver and it's solid enough, but the front of the device is certainly not. The screen doesn’t fit into metal body: there was a gap clearly visible on the bottom edge of our review unit.

Argos MyTablet review - obvious gapping between the body and screen. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs

The top layer of the display was also warped, and suffered from a very clear separation gap between the top touchscreen layer and the screen below it. Screen taps felt inaccurate and disconnected, which was particularly annoying when attempting to type on the virtual keyboard.

The screen also flexed badly when tapped or pressed; and the review unit came with dust actually embedded under the screen that couldn’t be removed.

It is possible that the poor build quality is an issue isolated to the samples that Argos distributed for reviews. But it's unlikely, given the overall fit and finish of the device. Argos has clearly cut corners to keep the price down, and build quality is certainly one that has been cut too sharply.

The display itself is also low resolution (1024 x 600, 169ppi), which makes text on websites and ebooks look slightly fuzzy. Images also lack detail, while the colours are washed out and dull.

The screen’s horizontal viewing angles are also poor, meaning it can’t be read at an angle, and the odd, elongated aspect ratio makes the display elements look warped. Circles - including the analogue clock display - distractingly appear as ovals. It seems as though the screen pixels themselves aren't square.

Then there's the odd button placement. The power button is on the bottom left-hand side of the device, while the volume buttons are on the bottom right-hand corner. All are easily pressed by accident, yet awkward to reach on purpose.

Specifications

Screen: 7in LCD with 1024 x 600 pixels

7in LCD with 1024 x 600 pixels Processor: 1.6GHz dual-core processor

1.6GHz dual-core processor RAM: 1GB of RAM

1GB of RAM Storage: 8GB plus microSD slot supporting up to 32GB cards

8GB plus microSD slot supporting up to 32GB cards Operating system: Android 4.2.2

Android 4.2.2 Camera: 2-megapixel rear camera, 0.3-megapixel front-facing camera

2-megapixel rear camera, 0.3-megapixel front-facing camera Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, mini HDMI, micro USB

Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, mini HDMI, micro USB Dimensions: 193 x 111.5 x 9mm

Laggy and slow

The MyTablet’s dual-core processor certainly isn’t powerful, which coupled with its limited 1GB of RAM means multitasking suffers.

Webpages are slow to load. Scrolling lags badly. Watching video on services such as BBC iPlayer is an experience full of frustrating stutter on the tablet’s low-resolution display. (It probably wouldn't drive a standard, let alone high-definition, TV display.)

Argos rates the battery life at around five hours. My testing suggests that's an overestimate – I got around four hours of general use sending emails, browsing the web and watching 30 minutes of video.

The MyTablet comes with a proprietary small pin power adapter, but can also be charged via micro-USB – although the fit and finish of the micro USB port is (surprise!) loose and not quite flush with the edge of the device, making plugging in the cable difficult.

Standard Android

Unlike other 7in Android tablets such as Amazon's Kindle Fire family, Argos decided to make only minor additions to the standard Google Android ‘Jelly Bean’ experience.

That means users have unadulterated access to the Google Play Store, including its 850,000 or so apps, plus movies and music services.

For reasons best known to itself, Argos chose to include a screen capture soft key with the rest of the standard Back, Home and Multi-tasking buttons at the bottom of the screen. (Why would you want this on a £100 tablet?) This can be turned off in the settings.

Argos MyTablet review - screenshot button. Photograph: Screengrab

In all, 19 applications come pre-installed on the tablet, including the Argos Android app, a task manager, DoubleTwist music player, a battery saver app and a couple of small games.

Argos has also included a Bush Support app, which contains a user manual and will run hardware tests if there’s an issue.

Strangely, Argos has also pre-installed the 1Mobile Market, which provides an additional way to install apps, although app installations from 1Mobile Market are blocked by default by the tablet’s security settings.

Camera: outlook fuzzy

The 0.3-megapixel front-facing camera produces a relatively narrow field of view, which makes video chats difficult, as the tablet has to be moved to arms length to fit your face into the frame.

The rear 2-megapixel camera shoots so-so photos and video: they're washed out, dull, lack detail and the video isn't particularly smooth.

Price: Cheap

Argos has clearly made the MyTablet to hit a £99 price point, which makes it one of the cheapest Android tablets on sale on the British high street. It's also one of the worst.

The Argos MyTablet is a budget 7in own-brand Android tablet that's available in silver or pink. Photograph: Argos

Verdict: One to skip

The MyTablet is a missed opportunity for Argos. Unlike the Tesco Hudl, it has cut far too many corners to hit its target £99 price tag.

There are low-cost tablets, and then there are cheap and nasty tablets. Unfortunately the Bush MyTablet falls into the latter category. It's best viewed from a distance, turned off. Then the British design - the metal back in particular - looks attractive.

Pick it up and turn it on, though, and you discover that the build quality is shoddy, the screen is terrible, the CPU is underpowered making the device frustrating to use, and the odd button placement makes the tablet awkward to handle.

At this despairing point you may say "but it's cheap for the kids". It could be - but one can't recommend something with such poor build quality. Children (especially young inquisitive ones) could use the gaps around the edge to prise the screen away from the main body, exposing themselves to the internal electrical components.

In all, your £99 is probably better spent elsewhere. You could save up another £20 and buy a Hudl, for example. It's more than £20 better.

Star rating: 1/5

Pros: cheap.

Cons: poor build quality, bad screen, frustrating to use, stretched aspect ratio, poor battery life, slow, poor placement of buttons.