ASUS MeMO Pad HD7 Review: $149 Nexus 7.1 Successor & Our First Look at MediaTek's MT8125
by Anand Lal Shimpi on July 29, 2013 3:55 PM EST- Posted in
- Tablets
- Asus
- Mobile
- Android 4.2
- MeMO Pad
NAND, WiFi & Camera Performance
My MeMO Pad HD7 review sample included a 16GB SK Hynix eNAND eMMC 4.41 solution on-board. Internally there are two 64Gbit NAND die (2y nm class, 20 - 30nm), likely 2bpc MLC given Hynix's position on waiting for TLC until the 1y-nm node.
The eMMC is new enough to support TRIM, however the MeMO Pad HD7 ships with Android 4.2.2 which doesn't include support for fstrim. Presumably once the HD7 gets updated to Android 4.3 we'll see fstrim enabled as the hardware should support it. We really need to see better eMMC solutions focusing on improving random write performance. Even when constrained to a 100MB space the random write performance of pretty much every modern Android device is horrible at best. And what you're looking at here is best case performance. Fill the eMMC and you'll see significantly worse performance over time. The only recommendation I can offer is to keep at least 25% of your internal storage free. I haven't done much digging to see how these bargain basement eMMC solutions behave over time when given tons of spare area, so it's possible that the 25% recommendation may not be enough. I've started some experimentation with the Nexus 7 and I hope to have something to report in the not too distant future.
Quite possibly the biggest tradeoff/drawback, the MeMO Pad HD7 only features a single antenna 2.4GHz 802.11n WiFi solution. WiFi is provided courtesy of MediaTek's own MT6628 WiFi/BT/GPS/FM combo chip.
Its peak performance is actually really good though:
Although GPS is supported by the MT6628, GPS isn't enabled on the HD7. Update: I was very wrong here. GPS is supported and enabled on the MeMO Pad HD7. Sorry!
The 5MP rear facing camera is a nice addition over the original Nexus 7. Image quality is reasonable in a pinch. ASUS' camera UI is nice and quick, with a high framerate downsampled preview. As always, toss enough light on the subject and the results can be pretty decent:
I threw some sample images in the gallery below. Video is encoded at 17Mbps H.264 main profile.
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skeighter - Tuesday, August 20, 2013 - link
these are great little tablets. bought one for my wife. she was constantly playing with her phone to access facebook, twitter, instagram, etc. All on a tiny screen. Bought her a nice Lenovo 10" tablet, but she never used it. This is just the right size. Very fast, runs circles around both of my two year old dual core tablets. Liked it so much I bought another for myself.MarkWebb - Tuesday, September 17, 2013 - link
Just got one, very zippy (surprised), 3 issues: it downloaded, installed and rebooted with 4.2.2 but About still shows 4.2.1 and I tried checking for updates but it now says I am up to date even though About is not reporting it; it seems to occasionally register a single tap as a double; and Kindle dims the brightness! By about 20%. Got this for the micro SD slot.Asus Memo Pad HD7 - Monday, October 7, 2013 - link
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mfox - Thursday, November 14, 2013 - link
I have only had it for a few days, and have not had much time to really run it through its paces yet, but I am most likely going to return it. The display, especially. in regard to video, does seem really good. I have not found the device to be generally laggy so far, although I haven't really used it with many apps, under significant "load." My real complaint is with what I saw in some other reviews and was concerned about, the build, fit and finish and overall quality. it does seem creaky, the screen does seem like it is made from plastic, and the one I got had a little glue in the seam between the screen and the rest of the body. That seem seems to be of uneven width around the device and most likely will get other gunk caught in it. I really haven't had a chance to see if it has problems or works well with various apps, but will probably return it. I have ordered, believe it or not, a Dell venue 7, which has 1gb more internal memory, a decent (from what I have read) processor, and an equivalent screen. It runs stock android and is right now at 4.2 (like the asus), rather than 4.3, I think. And it is at a similar price point.danbc - Saturday, February 1, 2014 - link
Indeed, the presence of SDHC slot is a good option.Even on Nexus 7, you can use a stick over otg cable, it's not the same thing, because, on his Asus tablet, and all devices with sd slot, with proper software, like directory bind, you can efectively extend your sotrage space on the SD card .
I have a question for the writter: what is the name of the cpu usage monitor you used?