Coming in even cheaper than the previously reviewed Linx 10, the £100 Hannspree Hannspad looks like it might be the best value Android tablet on the market. Or is it?
This 10.1" tablet with an IPS LED screen has a maximum resolution of 1280 x 800, a quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 1.3GHz processor, 1GB of memory, and 16GB of NAND flash storage with Android 4.4 KitKat installed.
In addition to the above, you also get 802.11 b/g/n wi-fi, Bluetooth 4.0, a front 0.3MP camera and 2MP front camera. Connectivity is standard, with micro-USB, mini-HDMI, a micro-SD card slot with support for up to 32GB cards, and there’s also the usual G-Sensor and threeaxis accelerometer.
The Hannspad measures 179.9 x 9.8 x 263mm and weighs around 620g. It doesn’t feel too heavy and could be used as an e-reader but probably not for long. However, it’s reasonably well built, with a brushed metal finish and not too cheap feeling plastic surrounding the screen and outer rim of the case.
On paper, it all sounds pretty good, but the problems arise once you power it on. For whatever reason, the Hannspad is incredibly slow. The home screen struggles to display properly, and swiping around the tablet reduces it to a series of stutters and short freezes. If you then take to having several apps loaded at the same time, the tablet goes into meltdown and takes even longer to respond.
It’s a little odd, to be honest, as the specifications should be generally okay. Fair enough, 2GB would be a far better choice for Android 4.4, and there doesn’t seem to be much extra added onto the OS from Hannspree. In fact, there were a few members of the Android cast missing, such as Google Music and Chrome.
As well as the poor performance, the battery life is also pretty dire. We only managed a meagre four and a half hours off a full charge when using the tablet for basic office duties, with a few nonintensive games thrown in for good measure.
Despite the terrible battery life and performance, the Hannspad screen looked really quite good. Images were bright and clear, and text was perfectly readable. We’d like to say the same for video, but the stuttering was simply too bad to watch anything.
The Hannspree Hannspad may well only cost £99, probably even cheaper if you shop around, but considering the problems we had, it’s probably not worth the expense. Of course, those problems could just have been with the model we had for testing, and not something that’s inherent with the entire range. In that case we recommend you try to take one for a test drive before committing to buying it.
Otherwise, the Hannspad is just too painfully slow and has an awful battery life. It’s worth spending a little more for a better model.