Huawei MediaPad 7 Lite Review

It’s been out for quite a while now, and we’re here to give you an insight of what it beholds. The Huawei MediaPad 7 Lite comes with 1GB RAM, a 1.2GHz CPU and all the other things you would expect with a tablet of this class – a tuned down version of the original MediaPad. Read on our full review after the break.

huawei mediapad 7 lite

Design & Construction

The MediaPad 7 Lite is basically sized like any other 7-inch tablet. It’s quite heavy compared to some competitors out there, but we like it since it adds a premium feeling to the device. The back is made out of plastic and aluminum, and it really feels high-end all-in-all. The aluminum part attracts dirt however, so you’re going to need to clean up frequently.

construction

The top side and the left side are free from any buttons, but on the left side, you’ll find the power button, the volume rocker and the slots for the micro SD card and the SIM card. On the bottom, you’ll find the micro USB port and the place for the 3.5mm audio jack. The volume buttons are set to work properly on landscape mode. Pressing the right side button will turn the volume up while the left will turn the volume down. However, on portrait, the functions do not change (pressing up will turn the volume down) so it might lead to some confusion.

back

The back part hosts the 3.15 megapixel camera and the speakers. The tablet is one solidly designed tablet, and we have no other complaints about it except the dirt-attracting back casing and the confusing volume rocker.

Display

The 7-inch IPS LCD display shows off a resolution of 600 x 1024, and creates quite some obvious pixelation up to a certain distance. On the other hand, viewing angles are great on the Huawei MediaPad 7 Lite thanks to the IPS treatment.

display

The same can be said about color reproduction. It gave out vibrant colors and there was a good amount of fidelity. The screen was fairly responsive with occasional lags which are probably brought upon by the hardware, but more on that below.

OS, Apps & UI

The device runs on Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich which is good compared to the Honeycomb-powered Mediapad of last year. Huawei has done very few customization with the tablet, and it’s quite a good thing. The software buttons below could disappear if you want them to, but that isn’t very useful in itself.

SCREENSHOT

The Huawei MediaPad 7 Lite has a few apps pre-installed like Kingsoft office and Foxit Reader, including a messaging app and a phone app. Most of the manufacturer tweaks involve visual elements only, and we had no problems with the interface since it’s pretty much vanilla Android from top to bottom.

Camera & Multimedia

The tablet has a 3.15 megapixel camera on the back which captures vibrant shots and great photos in proper lighting, but just like any other tablet camera, it’s nothing special. The same can be said about video capture – fair and mediocre.

camera

The MediaPad Lite’s 7-inch display will suffice for watching videos and reading ebooks. Speakers work well; it’s fairly loud and clear, but only just enough for most user’s needs.

Performance & Battery

Performance is the deal-breaker for us here. The benchmarks gave us results that are lower than the first Galaxy S, and that is evident with real-world performance – even with the 1GB RAM.

benchmarks

The tablet managed to get 1,297 on Quadrant, 2,993 on Antutu & 20.8 on Nenamark 2. We expected more from the tablet, but sadly it isn’t enough to keep us going with all the lags and dropped frames. Moreover, first we thought it was the display, but all throughout the interface, it wasn’t responsive.

On the bright side of things, battery life did good as it managed to get us a day’s use and a lot more than that if it was on standby. The tablet is 3G capable, so expect the battery to drain faster if you’re heavy on mobile data.

Conclusion

The Huawei MediaPad 7 Lite is quite hard to consider for us, especially at a price tag of around Php10,700. It packs decent hardware and software for the most part, except for one major flaw – the CPU. It’s not enough to push everything to its full potential with hiccups here and there. However, if you’re after an affordable 3G tablet, you may want to check this out.

huawei

Huawei MediaPad 7 Lite specs:
7-inch IPS LCD display (600 x 1024, 170ppi)
1.2GHz Cortex A8 CPU
1GB RAM
8GB internal memory
micro SD support up to 32GB
3.15MP camera, 720p HD Video
Front-facing camera
3G
Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich
4,100mAh battery
193 x 120 x 11 mm (dimensions)
370 g (weight)

What we liked about it:

Clean user interface
Vibrant display
Premium construction
Affordable for 3G capabilites

What we didn’t like about it:

Very slow and laggy performance

Bob Freking

Bob Freking occasionally contributes articles to the website. He is a UST Graduate of Commerce & Business Administration, Major in Marketing Management, and a full-time Sith Lord with three dragons.

8 Comments

Chris chew says:

11 years ago

We have the revamped version of this from PLDT telpad. The differences from what we have is that it’s quad core, no Sim card slot and has a dock port.
Antutu benchmark around 15,200
- Reply
escaflowne says:

11 years ago

got mine just this week, offered by PLDT as the tab for TelPad service. 3days palang sakin
- Reply
anon says:

12 years ago

A 16gb n7 still offers better value for money. Lacks sd,rear cam and 3g though.
- Reply
Freeje says:

12 years ago

Too lite! Next please.
- Reply
spinach says:

12 years ago

Awesome! 10k+ for roughly the same specs as the asus memo (7k, with jellybean)

Please use a simple looping video playback for battery test with specific brightness. A day’s use is quite vague.
- Reply
IC DeaDPiPoL says:

12 years ago

seems to be the same tablet being offered by PLDT (Telpad) which is quite heavy and comes with a POTS Telephone + Dock for charging/dialing
- Reply
Renz says:

12 years ago

Give us naman good, Android devices, Huawei! Para naman mabili kayo at ma-consider kayo ng mga tao noh!!!!!
- Reply
BLACK says:

12 years ago

buying this is a waste of money!
- Reply

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