Full description not available
A**S
Disappointing, But Usable
This device really falls into the "phablet" category with it's 8" display and it's ability to be used as an actual (oversized) cellphone. As an oversized cellphone it isn't bad, but as a tablet it falls far short of expectations. Here are some of the high/lowlights.- THE DISPLAY is certainly better than that of your average cellphone with a very bright and easy to read HD display. What completely ruins it for me is the touch screen quality though. To put it mildly,m the touchscreen sucks. It is completely unreliable when it comes to being able to touch on-screen buttons and getting them to work. With some apps the edges of the screen are not responsive at all. For example, trying to get individual tabs in Chrome to close is pretty much impossible. Trying to use a rubber tipped stylus is extremely frustrating as well. It is impossible to use a stylus to sign your name anywhere. It is difficult to even write your name in print. Even using your finger as a stylus does not help. Using the on-screen keyboard is almost as frustrating as the screen is horribly calibrated.- MEMORY I bought this tablet primarily because I needed one with at least 3GB of RAM, which is what this tablet is advertised as including. As it turns out, the CHUWI Hi9 Pro comes with exactly 2.62GB of RAM. I only found this out AFTER I bought it and installed a utility to measure the amount of available RAM though. There is nothing about this in the advertising and nothing about it in the manual. I am pretty upset about this false advertising to put it mildly.-STORAGE The amount of internal storage is also considerably less than advertised. This unit is listed as having 32GB of internal storage. Obviously, this figure would be the maximum amount of storage available before pre-loaded apps and the Android operating system. However, using a number of different utilities I found that the device only has a maximum of 24.76GB BEFORE apps and the OS are loaded. I mainly used CPU-Z as my source of information for this review. I also used the Pro version of Android Assistant as well for verification.- PROCESSOR I have also noticed that the CPU percentage is often pegged at 100%, despite having 10 CPU cores and having NO apps running, other than what comes pre-installed. I have not been able to figure out what is causing the CPU to max out at random times. It seems to have some sort of "hidden" app running in the background.- DOCUMENTATION There really is none to speak of. You get a tiny little manual with tiny little print that tells you what the buttons do. That's about it. Don't expect to find any more detail online from the company either unless you understand Chinese.- AUDIO The audio is pretty weak and the volume UP/DOWN buttons are very cheap and unresponsive.- OVERALL CONSTRUCTION Cheap plastic. Cheap feeling plastic buttons. There is a thick piece of plastic film that covers the screen. I can't tell whether this is just a cheap screen protector that can be removed or is non-removable. Either way, it gets smudged very easily. Build quality is not good. I would highly suggest getting a case for this model. Unfortunately, they are very difficult to find. The only ones I have seen are available only by ordering straight from China, which takes a few weeks for delivery. The quality of these is pretty bad as well and is only available from third parties.- BATTERY LIFE is acceptable, but definitely has room for improvement. I can get through most of the workday without the battery going completely dead, but I usully find myself needing to recharge after around 8 hours of average use. Using the included charges it recharges fairly slowly. Even using a high capacity car charging outlet it doesn't charge much faster. It does much, much better if you are not using cellular data or wifi. Streaming drains the battery fairly quickly as does doing large uploads or downloads. One good thing that I can say about the battery is that it does not seem to get hot or even warm when it gets a lot of use.- BLOATWARE Thankfully, there is almost no pre-installed software on this tablet other than the mandatory apps that come with any Android distribution. There is no spyware or malware to speak of and nothing that is impossible to uninstall outside of Android apps. Those can at least be disabled.- USING APPS If you are using one app at a time this tablet is pretty speedy. If you attempt running multiple apps at once it can slow down to a crawl though. This really should not be the case considering the amount of RAM and number of CPU cores that it includes. It's performance is definitely a disappointment though.- CAMERA The rear camera is 13MP, but the quality of photos you can take on this is pretty disappointing. Getting it to focus is a PITA. Even getting it to take a picture to begin with is often a pain as pressing the red button often does not work due to its amazingly bad touch screen. You often have to press the button over and over again very hard to get it to take a picture. Pressing the screen this hard usually makes the tablet move round, which ruins the shot. There is also a very significant delay after pressing the button before the picture is taken, which messes up your shot more times than not. I will not say that the camera feature is completely useless, but it's pretty close to it.- PHONE AND TEXTING This is probably it's best feature. I was able to fire up both SIM slots at once with this tablet and it performs well making phone calls and sending texts. I have used it successfully with SIM cards from T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon in the LTE mode. It integrates well with Contacts to make calls and texts. You can also choose which carrier to use for texting or voice or internet each time a call is made or set each type in advance. Loading both SIM cards and micro SD cards is easy once you figure out how they should be inserted. Unfortunately, the documentation includes no information on how to insert them.This tablet is definitely not what it is advertised to be, but is usable if you are mainly using it as a phone and checking your e-mail, etc. Considering it's extremely cheap price tag you really are getting a lot for your money. I just wish that they did not exaggerate the specs and overhype this as some sort of gaming tablet. This is a very entry level device at an entry level price.
C**S
Good Budget-Friendly Phablet
One of the things I've been wanting for quite a while is a 7-8 inch tablet that could make phone calls. Such a device would make it so I don't have to carry a tablet and a phone. After checking the reviews, I decided on this one. It was too replace my old similarly-sized tablet, so if it couldn't handle the dual-purpose functionality, it should at least replace one of them.The size is just right. It was a little taller than my old 8" tablet, but slimmer. The screen-to-body ratio is better, which I like. It also came with a screen protector already installed, which was also nice. After charging it up, inserting a SIM and microSD card, and going through the initial setup (including manual APN change), it was good to go.The Android experience is good. The default launcher is quite basic, so I switched to Nova (which I used on my previous tablet), which makes it a much better experience. It does have Google Play Store, so my it off my apps installed without issue. Amazon Appstore took some effort to install (their site would display the download link), but once I got it in place, apps I have their installed as well.For basic apps (browser, Gmail, reading, writing), it works quite well. It handles all those as expected. Gaming is hit or miss. Some games work really well. Some lag terribly (which may be due to the screen hardware and refresh rates another reviewer noted). It hasn't been a deal-breaker since they still work on my phone. The video apps I've tried also work, so no complaints there.Next up was testing the phone. Since it has a Mediatek processor, I want sure how this would do with USA frequencies. It has most of the T-Mobile frequencies, but not all of them. I'm right on the edge of their coverage range, so it could go either way. Once I had APN configured properly, it worked fine with phone calls and text messages. Since it doesn't have all of the T-Mobile frequencies, it does hunt and peck at times. It doesn't find 4G at my house, but it does find 3G, and when I head into town, it does switch to 4G without issue. I always use a headset, so I don't look like someone with a 70s boom box on my shoulder when on a call. It is also able to handle WiFi calling, which is a plus. Since it keeps hunting for 4G at home (the searching eats up battery), I switch off the mobile radio at home and just use WiFi, turning on the radio when I leave.Battery life is interesting. First charge didn't last long, since I was loading up all my apps, which is to be expected. It also goes through the battery quickly if it searches for mobile network. If it is on 4G, then the battery does well. If it is on 2G/3G, it constantly searches for 4G and the battery doesn't last long. There's a setting to limit it to 3G, but I haven't used that. There are times when it seems like the battery drain faster than expected, even with the mobile radio turned off, but it happens infrequently, and is probably a specific app. It takes a tiny bit of effort, but I'm happy with the battery life. If you're not using it as a phone, you'll probably have a better experience then me.A slight downside is the case selection. I don't like cases where the leather-ish substance covers the front of the device, making it difficult to use the edges of the screen, so I found a universal case that works. I would prefer one made specifically for the Hi9 Pro, but I'm happy with the one I chose.All-in-all, I'm pleased with the device. The radio frequency selection keeps it from replacing both my phone and tablet, but as a tablet that can use 4G data (and phone capabilities) when away from WiFi, it does what I need.
Trustpilot
1 day ago
3 weeks ago
