HCL ME Tablet G1 Review

Large screen budget Android tablets seem to be gaining momentum and dual-core processor-based tablets are in higher demand. HCL has introduced a new large screen dual-core Android-based budget tablet for the masses and it seems it can give the other manufacturers a run for their money. Here’s why.

Video Review

Video Review

Design and build

The ME Tablet G1 closely resembles the iPad second generation to quite an extent. The front panel looks identical except for the camera placement and the missing home button. The edges and curves are similar and so is the thickness. The chassis is made firm and strong thanks to the IPS panel on the display. The rear panel is made of a very glossy white plastic and it can be tarnished in no time. The entire tablet looks very aesthetically appealing and anyone would definitely want to opt for one. The only place where the looks get a little compromised is the rear panel where the manufacturer has printed a large ME logo in the centre and a few other details of the tablet on the bottom half. It would have been nice if the tablet was entirely black with minor etchings about the product instead of the print.

9.7- inches IPS panel, 1024 x 768 resolution

Moving on, the G1 has a uniquely placed power button unlike any other tablets—it is placed alongside the rear camera and neatly camouflaged. The rear panel sports a mono speaker grille and a port flap that opens up to the microSD card slot and the micro USB and mini HDMI interfaces. The right side of the tablet is the only business end—a power and audio jack along with four buttons for Back, Menu and volume control. We found a minor flaw here—the control and volume buttons are identical to each other and placed in close proximity to each other. Also, the buttons are a bit tiny. This cuts down on the ergonomics and also creates confusion between the buttons while operating the tablet.

Looks closely resemble an iPad 2

Features and performance

The ME Tablet G1 from HCL is a powerful large screen tablet built using a Cortex A9 dual-core processor clocked at 1.2GHz. Coupled with 1GB of RAM and a MALI-400 GPU, this tablet seems very promising on the performance front. The display featured here is just short of a 10-incher—it's an odd 9.7-inches. It sports an IPS panel and a resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels. The G1 runs on the Android ICS operating system, however, we did expect to see the latest Jelly Bean installed on it. Hopefully, the manufacturer will release the update sooner or later. 

1.2GHz dual core processor overclocked to 1.6GHz.

The storage within the tablet is 8GB and this can be extended using the microSD card all the way up to 32GB. There are two cameras featured here—the rear camera is a 2 MP while the front facing video calling camera is a 0.3 MP. Connectivity options on the G1 are micro USB interface for PC connectivity, wireless 802.11 b/g/n for Internet, USB OTG for 3G data cards and USB peripherals and a Bluetooth interface for data and audio. Lastly, the tablet incorporates a 7000 mAh battery, which promises a good battery life. The manufacturer has bundled a few accessories along with the tablet in the packaging. A micro fiber cloth for cleaning the glossy surface, a pair of earphones, an OTG cable, a USB cable, a charger and a protective sleeve. 

Volume, Back and Menu buttons, power and audio jack on the right

As usual, we did the battery of tests on the tablet to analyse the performance and compare it to other similar products in the line. AnTuTu scored 12032, Quadrant scored 4424 and NenaMark2 gave us a result of 54.3 fps. Linpack scored 45.711 MFLOPS in the single-thread tests and 80.779 MFLOPS in the multi-thread tests. The tests revealed that the tablet performs almost four times faster than conventional single core tablets. Though these scores are from tests run on an overclocked processor (overclocked from 1.2GHz to 1.6GHz), as long as the tablet works without any glitches, the  performance is what matters. We hope the manufacturer has thoroughly tested the device after overclocking it to confirm that it works best at the set speed.

As slim as an iPad, looks sleek too