Asus MeMO Pad ME172V in the flesh

Along with the FonePad, ASUS also formally announced the MeMO Pad ME172V which has caught the attention of consumers because of its very competitive price tag. Check out our first impression after the break.

Unlike its voice call-enabled sibling, the FonePad, the ME172V’s body is entirely made of plastic. Fortunately, its inexpensive make doesn’t give the tablet a cheap and flimsy feel when held. The grooved back plate also allows a firm and solid grip regardless of the orientation.

It bears the same button layout as the FonePad where in the trio of buttons for Power and a pair for volume controls are placed on the left side. The front is devoid of any physical keys, thus navigation is possible through the four on-screen buttons.

Speaking of the screen, we’d like to point out that ME172V’s display didn’t quite meet our standards in terms of quality. The display lacks sharpness and the use of reflective material on top of the TN (Twisted Nematic) screen makes it a terrible outdoor companion. Good thing, the display’s 300-nit brightness counteracts some of the disadvantages that the reflective screen has. The screen also lacks the wide viewing angle that IPS displays can offer.

As far as performance is concerned, the MeMO Pad performed well on the simple tasks we’ve tried on it. Casual games like Temple Run and Angry Birds are very much playable, but its modest configuration can’t quite handle apps like Shadow Gun.

Asus MeMO Pad ME172V specs:
7” TN LCD @ 1024×600 pixels, 170ppi
1.0 GHz VIA WM8950 processor
Mali-400 GPU
1GB RAM
8GB, 16GB internal storage
Expandable up to 32GB
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
Li-Ion 4270mAh battery
Android Jellybean 4.1

We’ve also done some benchmark tests with the MeMO Pad. It got 4,452 from AnTuTu, while Quadrant Standard scored it 1,965. Here are the screenshot of those tests:

Since its international debut back in January, the MeMO Pad ME172V has been making quite a buzz in the industry and has been tagged as the cheaper Nexus 7. However, ASUS had to cut some corners to keep the price at the lower end of the spectrum, Php6,995USD 119INR 10,105EUR 114CNY 868 to be exact. So the question now is if the cuts that the Taiwanese manufacturer made are just enough to convince consumers to consider this tablet instead of other affordable tablets from other brands. Find it out soon with our full review in the next coming weeks.