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Home > Smart Living> Innovation > Review: Ambrane A3-770 Duo tablet offers calling at entry level price

Review: Ambrane A3-770 Duo tablet offers calling at entry level price

The tablet is ideal for users with very basic requirements

The Ambrane A3 may be handy for users looking for an ultra-affordable tablet that can also double up as a phone<br />
The Ambrane A3 may be handy for users looking for an ultra-affordable tablet that can also double up as a phone

Even though there are so many budget tablets in the market, genuinely good ones are still hard to find. And even more so if you are looking for something below the 5,000 price point. Since popular brands such as Samsung or Asus don’t even look at this category, an Indian company, Ambrane, manufacturer of tablet and smartphone accessories, is hoping to fill the gap. Its A3-770 Duo ( 3,699), we realise, is the closest we have come to a genuinely affordable all-rounder tablet at this price. You may also consider the Windows tablet, the iBall Slide i701 ( 4,499), which offers slightly better performance, though you won’t get calling capabilities with it. While Ambrane is an Indian company, the tablet has been manufactured by a Chinese company called Shenzhen Sungword Electronics.

Design: Uniqueness isn’t a lost art

The tablet doesn’t necessarily have the slickest ergonomics. It feels a bit bulky (280g) and looks thicker than many 7-inch tablets. Though it has a plastic body, the material used is of a good quality, and feels quite durable and well-built. The SIM and micro SD card slots are accessed by opening a part of the back panel, instead of the entire thing coming off. We find this rather neat, and unique. The leather-look back panel, with the faux stitching, is decent. The A3-770 Duo tablet is dressed completely in white, and while it may get dirty rather quickly, it does stand out in a crowd of black-coloured rivals.

Display: Big but suffers from poor visibility

The Ambrane A3’s 7-inch display has a screen resolution of 1024x600 pixels which isn’t bad as most tablets in this range have similar or even lower resolution displays. The screen size is perfect for gamers and movie buffs, but the visibility is a bit of a problem if you are looking at it from an angle because the contrast and colours tend to get washed out. This should do the job for web browsing, some games and the typical video-watching routine.

Performance: There are limitations

Ambrane has used an entry-level MediaTek MT8132C dual-core processor to drive the tablet and has paired it with 1GB of RAM. It provides 8GB of internal storage, which is expandable to another 32GB via a micro SD card. The tablet feels sluggish while switching between apps and multi-tasking. However, all is not gloomy. You can run games such as Temple Run 2 without any problems. What is impressive is that it supports 3G mobile networks and can be used for making calls. The 2,650mAh battery lasts over a day on modest use.

Software: Runs Android 4.4

The tablet runs Android 4.4.2 (KitKat) OS with a plain Android interface. The OS used is three years old. At this price it isn’t a deal breaker as we are yet to see a tablet priced as low as this offer the newer Android 5.1 (Lollipop). The good bit is that unlike most other entry-level tablets, this doesn’t come with a host of pre-loaded apps that you may never use but still take up a lot of space. There is more internal storage at your disposal so you can install apps and games of your choice.

Verdict

The Ambrane A3-770 Duo is a decent bet for users looking for an ultra-affordable Android tablet. Despite its many limitations on the spec sheet, it works.

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