A few weeks ago we reviewed Hisense’s Sero 7 Lite, a new budget Android tablet that isn’t very good until you consider that it costs $99. The tablet that Hisense really wants you to see, though, is the $149 Sero 7 Pro. This tablet runs a quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 SoC. It comes with a 1280×800 7-inch screen, 1GB of RAM, and Android 4.2. If these specs sound familiar to you, it’s probably because they’re identical to what's in the Nexus 7 tablet that Google and Asus will sell you for $199.

Using the Sero 7 Pro is very similar to using the Nexus 7 with Android 4.2 installed, so for this review we’ll be focusing on a side-by-side comparison with the tablet that Google has been selling for about a year now. If you’re buying a 7-inch Android tablet today, should you stick with the Nexus or save yourself the $50?

What does it share with the Nexus 7?

Specs at a glance: Hisense Sero 7 Pro Screen 1280×800 7" (216 ppi) IPS touchscreen OS Android 4.2.1 "Jelly Bean" CPU 1.2GHz Nvidia Tegra 3 (1.3GHz in single-core mode) RAM 1GB GPU Nvidia Tegra 3 Storage 8GB NAND flash (expandable via microSD) Networking 802.11a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0, NFC, GPS Ports Micro USB, mini HDMI, headphones, microSD card Size 7.87" × 4.95" × 0.43" (199.9 x 125.7 x 10.9 mm) Weight 0.79 lbs (358 g) Battery 4000 mAh Starting price $149 Other perks 2MP front camera, 5MP rear camera, power adapter

The screen, the SoC, and the RAM are probably the three biggest hardware components that will affect your tablet experience, and the Nexus 7 and the Sero 7 Pro share them all: a five-point 1280×800 IPS touchscreen, a quad-core Tegra 3 SoC that can run at up to 1.3GHz, and 1GB of RAM. The Sero 7 also includes the same 8GB of internal storage as the original entry-level Nexus 7, but Google's more recent $199 model has since been bumped to 16GB of storage.

The Sero's screen looks slightly warmer than the Nexus' to our eyes, but otherwise they share most of the same properties: good viewing angles, good (but not amazing) colors and pixel density, and a tendency to ghost somewhat when used after a few hours of disuse. Our review unit also had some very slight light bleeding around the edge (and a single stuck pixel) that the Nexus 7 didn't have. It's not distracting in normal use, but it's the sort of quality control issue you can expect to see from tablets in this price range. It looks as though the distance between the top glass and the actual screen is a bit larger than it is in the Nexus, which makes colors and text pop just a bit less (you can sort of see this effect in action in the side-by-side shots—the blacks in particular look blacker on the Nexus).

Where the Sero 7 Lite was pretty barebones in its networking capabilities, the Sero 7 Pro actually edges out the Nexus 7. The Sero has a GPS, Bluetooth, and NFC just like the Nexus, but it also includes 5GHz 802.11n where the Nexus is limited to the 2.4GHz band.

Moving on from the hardware, both tablets also run Android 4.2, though the Sero 7 Pro runs version 4.2.1 instead of 4.2.2. Aside from some Walmart-specific preloaded applications and some changes in the settings to accommodate hardware features that the Nexus doesn't have, the interface is almost entirely stock. There’s a software screenshot button at the bottom of the screen and a panel in the settings that controls HDMI output, but otherwise the differences between the Nexus 7 and the Sero are inconsequential. The Sero runs about as well as does a Nexus 7 running Android 4.2, generally smooth but punctuated by periods of choppiness (probably related to the storage speeds, as we'll talk more about later on).

Finally, the Sero 7 Pro’s acceptable specs combined with its low price have made it a prime target for the hacking community. There are already resources available on the XDA Developers forums if you’re looking to make this tablet do stuff that it shouldn’t be able to do.

So what’s different?

Obviously the visual design of the Walmart-exclusive Sero 7 Pro differs from the Nexus 7, though they share some of the same design ideas. The back of the Sero is a brownish, rubberized plastic with a rough texture that makes it easier to grip. The Nexus has a similarly rubberized, textured back, but the effect is less pronounced. To our eyes, the bumpy brown of the Sero isn’t as attractive as the understated black-and-silver of the Nexus.

The glass coating the Sero's screen feels similar to the glass on the Sero 7 Lite's, which is to say that it appears to lack the fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating that the Nexus and most other touch devices have these days. This adds to the resistance you feel when you drag your finger across the screen, and it makes fingerprints and smudges much more difficult to clean. The bezels are shaped and sized similarly, though, and the tablet's front-facing camera is still the kind of thing you'd only ever want to use for short video chats.

The Sero also has a rear-facing camera with LED flash and two rear-facing speakers on either corner, where the Nexus has no rear camera at all and two speakers set more closely together behind a single grille. Since they're still tablet speakers and they're still on the back of the device, they don't produce sound you'd write home about. Still, they're a small step up in quality and volume. The pictures are surprisingly not terrible if you have enough light—they're certainly not great, but if you're outside and the Sero is the only camera you've got with you, it's not the worst thing we've ever seen. It supports the standard Android 4.2 camera features, including Photo Sphere and panoramic shooting.

The Sero even adds some useful port options that the Nexus doesn't have, including a microSD card slot for storage expansion (which helps to offset the 8GB of internal storage) and a mini HDMI port for playing video and photo content on your TV or monitor. None of these are what I would consider killer features, but they're some nice value-adds over what the year-old Nexus 7 offers.