Tesco Hudl Tablet - A Valuable Competitor of the Ipad Mini and Google Nexus 7 (2nd Generation)

I was intrigued by the move of Tesco to launch their Hudl Tablet for a mere £119. It shares many up to date specifications of a modern tablet eg: quadcore chipset, HD screen, 16GB of internal memory with the option of increasing the storage to 48GB in total by inserting a 32GB memory card, stereo speakers and two cameras (one in front of the tablet and another, at the back of the tablet).

I am of the opinion that Tesco might not be able to make a huge profit by selling the tablet at such a low price but this issue will be dealt with later. As for this article, I will begin by providing a review on the Hudl's hardware and also on the software before comparing it with the Ipad Mini and the second generation of the Nexus 7.

The chipset found in the Hudl is not a yesterday's item. The 1.6Ghz quadcore cpu coupled with 1GB of memory and featured a respectable Mali-400 gpu with 16GB of storage space is a direct competitor to the Amazon Kindle HD, the Apple Ipad Mini and also the Google Nexus 7 (2nd generation). Apart from that, the Hudl have a pair of loud speakers but the sound may be distorted if put on too loud. It comes with a primary 3MP digital camera for the back and a 2MP for video calling or video conferencing. I am also impressed with the weight of the device which comes in around 380g. The IPS HD screen is bright and I have no problem in using it under direct sunlight. It comes with bluetooth, GPS and external memory storage for up to 32GB. Consumers can choose up to four colours when ordering for the Hudl tablet. 

So far, I have no issues with the hardware of the Hudl although the quadcore Mali-400 gpu seems to be quite old right now. The same gpu was featured in many mobile devices including the Samsung Galaxy S2. Nevertheless, I could not complain due to the price of the tablet in question.

In relation to the software made for the Hudl, it comes with the Android 4.2. When you boot up the device, it will ask you to upgrade the firmware to 1.2. You would need to have a wifi connection to update the firmware though. The whole process would not take a long time. It took me around 10 minutes to download and install the new firmware. The tablet will then reboot after installing the new firmware.

In respect to the user-friendliness, I have to be critical in the sense that the response when you touch on the screen is not as quick as you would have imagined on a quadcore tablet. However, I would not hesitate to start returning the tablet to Tesco because it does the job. I always use it for browsing and do presentation which has no problem at all.

There is only one thing which annoyed me a lot which is the location of the charging port and the location of the camera. The charging port is smacked right in the middle of the tablet so it is really difficult to use it while you charge the tablet. Apart from that, the location of the front video camera is in the middle - landscape mode. I am so used to the front video camera being at the side when you put the tablet in landscape mode but that is just my preference.

In using the tablet, I have not encountered any forced reboot of the software due to severe lagging of the device. In fact, it is serving me quite nicely. Moreover, the device can take in an external memory card up to 32GB which is really convenient. You can store your videos and pictures on the memory card instead of inside the device. Best of all ,you have a stereo speakers at the back but it will be covered when you use a cover so you would have to increase the volume if you are using a cover.

In conclusion, despite many shortcomings, the Hudl tablet from Tesco is worth a try. The nearest rival, the Google Nexus 7, is almost £80 more. I am satisfied with the customer service offered by Tesco in relation to the device itself. Kudos to Tesco in this occasion.

Update:

30 May 2014 - Tesco has announced recently that the successor to the Tesco Hudl will be launched soon. I wonder how much improvements will the successor receive this time around.