7 inch is the most popular screen size in tablets and they sell in huge numbers. Samsung has been ruling this segment for the past couple of years with popular tablets like Galaxy Tab 2 and Galaxy Tab 3. But the competition is lot stronger now. Asus Nexus 7 and iPad Mini are great devices but they miss out one of the most asked about features in India, calling facility. Asus has launched a non Nexus 7 inch tablet in India which comes with 3G and calling facility as well. Here’s the Asus Fonepad 7 Review. It comes with features better than the popular Galaxy Tab 3 and is priced at Rs 14,000. Is it worth the buy? Let’s have a look.

Asus Fonepad 7 Review

The device comes with an all plastic body. Along with a 7 inch screen, there are stereo speakers and the secondary camera on the front. The back features a concentric circular pattern. The power button and volume rockers are present on the right while the SIM card tray is on the left. The headphone jack is on the top while the microUSB port is on the bottom. The whole device feels solid but at the same time very glossy and a complete finger print magnet.

The screen is decently sharp due to HD resolution but it isn’t as bright as it should be. The display feels sunk in to the surface and it is very reflective while using it outdoors so the overall experience isn’t that great. Touch screen accuracy is very good and it can detect 10 fingers at once. Display colour profile can be adjusted such as colour tone and all through an in-built app called splendid. The sound through stereo loudspeakers is good and you get a variety of 3D sound effects through Audio Wizard app but the volume level isn’t high. Wi-Fi signal reception is good too. Voice calls experience was really nice due to clear voice and good signal reception.

Asus Fonepad 7 Review : Technical Specifications

We’re yet to see a great camera in any tablet but the 5MP camera used in the Fonepad 7 is decent by tablet standard. It has autofocus but no LED flash. It can record full HD videos which are smooth. The speed with which it clicks images is very fast. There is no lag whatsoever. The camera interface is very easy to use yet has all the necessary options and controls. There are various shooting modes such as HDR and Panorama. The GIF animation mode lets you instantly create fun animated images. The All Smiles is very useful while shooting group images. Activating this mode will only click image when everyone in the image is smiling. The front-facing 1.2MP camera is good enough for video calls.

The dual-core 1.6GHz processor with Hyper Threading from Intel does its job very well. The device works without any hint of lag. Be it UI or high-end games such as NOVA 3, everything works as it should thanks to a dual-core GPU. The web browsing was very smooth and pinch to zoom worked flawlessly. This device scored close to 19000 points in the benchmarks which is better than the Galaxy S3 in spite of having the same screen resolution, thanks to better processor.

Asus Fonepad 7 Review : Technical Specifications and Price Review

Android 4.3 JellyBean comes pre-installed and the design of the UI is almost stock with just the design of the icons changed. The onscreen keyboard has a very clean and nice layout. It comes with a variety of mini apps such as calculator which can very useful at times. There is an inbuilt file manager. There is an offline dictionary and a dedicated reading mode which makes the display suitable for reading books. Super Note is a great application for storing notes or drawing stuff. The custom calendar application has a nice layout as well where you can see all the event details without clicking much. Parental lock can be activated for a set period of time so that your kids can only access those apps and games which you choose.

Apart form usual connectivity options like 3G, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, this tablet also comes with Miracast which is used for wireless screen mirroring to compatible televisions. Once you fully charge its 3950 mAh battery you can use it for 3-4 days of light to normal usage. But it can be increased to a week by activating the Smart Saving Mode. The Ultra Saving mode disconnects the 3G, Wi-Fi networks once you turn off the display but the Optimised Saving Mode will keep the device connected to data networks even when the screen is turned off.

The 8GB variant is priced at around 13000 rupees while the 16GB variant is priced at 16000 rupees. If you are ready to buy a microSD card, it becomes a great value for money tablet. Overall, according to us, the Asus Fonepad 7 is the best 7 inch tablet with calling facility right now.

I hope you have liked Asus Fonepad 7 review. You can buy Asus Fonepad 7 at flipkart . Get all mobile deals here.