Zync Pad Z909 Review

The openness of the Android has brought it within the reach of all level of users. Android tablets across all budgets have been surfacing since the iPad made its way on to the store shelf, from renowned makers like Samsung and Motorola to companies you may not have ever heard of. One such low-cost Android tablet, dubbed ZYNC Pad Z909 made its way to our review labs. Priced at Rs.5,200, its price tag reads twice the sum attached to the Aakash and yes, it isn't something we could pit against the creamy layer of the tablet market. Lets find out if the price is justified or the tablet comes with umpteen compromises.

Affordable Zync Pad Z909

Design and Build quality
To begin with, the tablet doesn't meet the trendy slim profile that devices have been trying to show off. Reminding us of the Olive Pad, in terms of the bulkiness, the width of the tablet should be around 1cm. It roughly has a block-like design, obviously not literally!, and the curved back has a glossy finish, which is highly susceptible to fingerprints. The unit we received had a gray backside, while front was embedded with the 7-inch, 800 x 400 resistive touchscreen, VGA front-facing camera and a physical LED lit button with a Back symbol marked on it. The front facing camera takes its position off the center, it shifts towards the left side. The upper edge has the Home and Menu/Power button, while the right edge comes with the charging port, 3.5mm headphone jack, mini USB port, microSD card slot that supports up to 16GB of memory and a standard USB port.

Zync Pad Z909 running on Android 2.2

The package bundles the USB cable, earphones, charger, a mediocre stylus, cleaning cloth and a nifty case. It has 4GB of built-in memory, which can be expanded up to 16GB using the memory slot, which we think, is decent. Sadly, the stylus looks like an antenna found on the older cordless phones, which one had to pull out. Moreover, there is no space crafted within the device to accommodate the stylus and it has to be carried separately. The plastic device has a decent build quality, and didn't come across as too plasticy or fragile.

Features
Interface
The tablet runs on Android 2.2 and is fuelled by an 800 MHz processor with 256 MB RAM. Going by the fact, most of the low- end tablets cannot afford a capacitive screen, the ZYNC is no exception. The tablet equips a resistive touchscreen, featuring 800 x 480 resolution and has a stylus to assist in inputs. To begin with, the device took more than 2 minutes to boot-up. Here ZYNC adds a bit of customization with a column of apps on the right side, along with the apps icon. You can add shortcuts in the form of widgets to the most frequently used applications. On the other hand, just place and hold your finger on an icon and the applications icon transforms into a Trash bin, wherein you can dump the app. The resistive screen kept us annoyed for the most part and the stylus wasn't much of use, either.

Along the notification bar, you will see touch volume controls, sub-menu and back touch buttons.

Not-so-smooth resistive touchscreen

We ran the Linpack test, and the device scores 2.27 MFLOPS for single thread and 2.31 for multi thread. The scores are clearly not very impressive.

Product sourced from Prime ABGB. Contact no: +91 22 6740 2000. Email:  sales@primeabgb.com