REVIEWS / TABLETS / IBALL

iBall Slide Android Tablet Review

20 Sep, 2011, 12:56 pm IST | by Shayne Rana | Tablets

Tablets

Not the slimmest tablet around

Not the slimmest tablet around
Fluid UI
1GHz keeps things moving
Could have used a bit of customization
No rear camera but one heck of a speaker
Plenty of extra apps

in-the-labs-iball-slide-tablet

PRICE IN INDIA

13,995

TECH2 RATING

6.0

AVERAGE USER RATING

6.5

How we test

CONTACT

iBall

 sales@iball.co.in

 +91 22 3081 5001 / 5100 / 5204

 www.iBall.co.in; www.iBallmobiles.com

With the budget tablet segment taking off, another new entrant is the Slide from iBall. The brand has been quite popular in the PC peripherals business for a long time and only recently entered the mobile phone field. Taking things up by a notch, they’ve launched the 1GHz infused, Android Gingerbread toting ‘Slide’ tablet. Keeping the Indian price low has never been an issue with the company with the iBall Slide priced at Rs. 13,995, and here’s what you get for that price.

 

 

On video: iBall Slide



Form Factor
The Slide looks quite like the typical low-budget tablet that lacks the certain curvaceous styling like higher priced models, but still manages to come across as being neatly put together. The first thing you’ll probably notice is the lack of a rear camera, which is a bit of a downer seeing at a 2MP camera lens is staring at you in the face for video VoIP calling support. The 7-inch capacitive display is actually quite bright and the though resolution i.e. 800 x 480 is identical to the likes of the Beetel Magiq or the Reliance 3G Tab, images appear much sharper and colors a little more dense.

 

Not the slimmest tablet around

Not the slimmest tablet around

 


Unlike the afore mentioned devices, the Slide is sealed and doesn’t support SIM cards for data connectivity. Instead, the Slide offers USB-on-the-go with support for a data dongle (for lack of a better term). An adapter cable has been provided. On one side of the device is a microSD card (up to 32GB supported with 8GB of onboard storage), mini HDMI out, USB ports for data transfer and on-the-go separately, a power switch to shut off the device, a 3.5mm handsfree, DC charging socket and a microphone. The Menu, Return and screen lock keys are placed on the top. A singular Home button is placed right in front beside the display. It’s a light weight device, but feels a bit delicate.

Features and Performance
Interface
Running on a 1GHz ARM Cortex-A8 processor with Android Gingerbread (2.3) the iBall Slide offers no customized UI. The stock interface is very responsive, though and from animations to accessing and opening apps, it’s an extremely speedy performer. The UI worked out to be much more fluid compared to the others in its segment with enough juice to play full HD (1080p) content almost flawlessly.

1GHz keeps things moving

1GHz keeps things moving

 


Linpak MFLOPS scores clocked it in at 17.357 (Single Thread) and 15.906 (Multi Thread), which seems just a little low and yet oddly it was a far better performer than the others. AnTuTu’s coring put it in the same league as HTC’s Desire HD mobile handset.

Media
The audio capability of the Slide was not very impressive. Neither were bundled handsfree (in-ear style) comfortable to use, nor were they very capable of handling the audio too well. Unfortunately, even with a better set of earphones the quality was not much better leading us to believe that the audio engine on the device was not really a priority. It features the stock Android player with no frills and even with more enhanced options available off the Android Market place, the quality was a big issue.

Fluid UI

Fluid UI

 


The device played all video formats we threw at it with ease. The only format that had an issue with playback was .FLV. If the native player didn’t play the file, the secondary, pre-loaded UTPlayer came to the rescue. If it weren’t for the low quality audio, watching videos on this device would have been fantastic. There’s no FM radio, but there is an iReader app for eBooks.

Page 1:

Design - UI - Media


Tags:

iBall Slide , iBall Slide Review , iBall Slide India , iBall Slide Price , iBall Slide Price in India , iBall Slide Indian Price , iBall , Slide Tablet , Google Android , Android Gingerbread , Tablets

Would you buy it?




 


How We Test

The Tech2 Labs receives many products every single week and each of them is tested with the utmost care and highest level of objectivity. There’s a constant effort to reduce and totally eliminate subjectivity. Each product is tested according to set test processes so the same test scenario is used.

Verdict
The ratings awarded to a product are derived from a number of tests and calculations, keeping certain important factors in mind. These factors consist of features, performance, quality and value for money. In case of software and some other categories, build quality might be replaced with ease of use or ease of installation. Products are compared with other products in a similar price range or product category.


Features
The features component of the score is rated based on the kind of features present on a particular product. Features are a big part of what people look for when they’re buying a new product such as a phone or a camera.

Performance
The performance score is derived from the benchmarks and tests run on the product. In case of the subjective scores, an average of the scores given by the group of reviewers is considered.

Build Quality
The build quality of a product is important so that it doesn’t fall apart after some use. The build quality scores from the way the product is designed and the kind of materials used in the product.

Value
Value for money comes from the fact that a cheap product is able to provide most of the performance of a higher priced product. Once again, value for money is judged by comparing pricing and performance of products in a particular price range or category. 

There are many other aspects of the product that are looked at such as the bundled software and accessories. All of these scores are aggregated together to form the final score.

What do the ratings mean?

Ratings are simple - higher the score, the better the product. A brief listing of the features and what they mean are given below.

1 - 3

The product is bad in almost every aspect. We strongly advise against purchasing this product.

4 - 6

An average product that isn't the best you can buy, but isn't the worst either.

7 - 8

Product with this rating is highly recommended because it's priced sensibly, has a good set of features and performs well.

9 - 10

Exceptionally excellent product with features and performance unlike any we've seen in the past. A must-have for everyone!

What is the Average User Rating?

We at Tech2 take product reviewing very seriously and every product is tested with the utmost care and level of objectivity. The end user who buys a particular product and uses it over an extended period of time has his own take on a product and there might be nuances that he or she can shed light on. The Average User Rating is present to help readers get the complete picture of how good or bad a product is. The Average User Rating is calculated by averaging the ratings by the thousands of readers visiting Tech2.com every single day. To record your own rating of a product, simply click on the user rating bar. If you disagree with our ratings or our community's product rating, please don't hesitate from voicing your opinion in the comments section below the review.

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