Cherry Mobile MAIA Smart Tab Review

Table of Contents

Display and Multimedia

The MAIA Smart Tab uses an 8-inch display with a resolution of 1280 x 800 which equates to 189ppi. No mention of IPS but viewing angles are okay with degradation only obvious in extreme angles. Other downsides include no special glass protection but has a screen protector already installed, it’s reflective and suffers from glare as well. On the bright side, colors are good and capable of producing enough brightness.

As for the loudspeaker which is found at the rear, it’s capable of producing decent sounds with just the right amount of bass and treble. It’s a bit weak when it comes to loudness but audible enough. That being said, the MAIA Smart Tab is good enough for watching movies and listening to music. But if you want a better listening experience, better connect it to an external speaker either via wired or Bluetooth.

Camera

The MAIA Smart Tab’s imaging department is pretty basic with a 5 megapixel main shooter and a 2 megapixel front. It doesn’t have auto-focus and other in-camera settings, just Panorama and HD video recording in 3GP format. On the bright side, the resulting images have an acceptable level of color and detail. Take a look at some of the sample shots below.

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OS, UI, and Apps

This is the most interesting part about the MAIA Smart Tab as it is capable of dual-booting to Windows and Android. Out of the box it has Windows 8.1 and Android 4.4.4 KitKat. Managing the dual-boot process is a pre-installed software called Dual OS Switcher.

As Windows 10 has already been released in the public, we didn’t spend a lot of time on the old OS and installed the new one right away. There are two ways to install Windows 10 – via Windows 10 Download tool or you can just wait for Windows 8.1 to automatically download the free upgrade.

After the installation, we cleaned the hard drive of its old OS installation and we got 7.5GB of usable internal storage out of the 17.7GB assigned for Windows. The OS Switcher still works as advertised and boots to Android and back to Windows without any problems. On the downside, it doesn’t have Microsoft Office pre-installed but you can sign up for a 1-month free trial of Office 365.

As for Android, it’s very much vanilla and has 7.53GB of usable storage out of the 7.75GB assigned. We’re glad to report that Cherry Mobile didn’t include a lot of pre-installed apps aside from the basic Google goodies. It also has an OTA updater but no word yet if it will get Android Lollipop.

Storage-wise, the MAIA Smart Tab doesn’t have a lot to go by granted its dual-boot functionality but we’re glad that the device works well on both OS given the limitation. Just don’t expect it to carry a lot of multimedia files or big file apps. On the bright side, there’s a microSD card slot and support for USB OTG.

Next Page: Performance and Benchmarks / Battery Life / Conclusion

21 Comments

Alsop.May says:

5 years ago

If we do or don’t do it, someone will laugh
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joemarie says:

7 years ago

guys help namn nag hard rset ako tapos nawala yong switcher ng tab ko
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Muaad Al-Quqa says:

8 years ago

Battery life if you’re on Windows is about 4 hours, Right?
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bhongski says:

8 years ago

Anyone root the android side of maia smart tab? Ty
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Kan Tutan says:

9 years ago

Can we configure it to run only as a single OS machine?
If we can configure it as a single OS machine, can we assign the full 32gb internal memory to a that OS?
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iantero says:

9 years ago

nakakaba read/write ba to sa mga portable hard disks via OTG cable?
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Erickson says:

9 years ago

Wala syang Free 1 year Subscription ng Office 365? Sabi sa isang site meron. Sayang naman. Gawa naman kayo ng article na listahan ng mga Windows Tablet na may free Office 365. Thanks!
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Bud says:

9 years ago

na try ko mag play ng COC sa android ang tindi ng init at ang bilis ma drain ng bat.. maganda gamitin ang windows nya hirap lang mag install due to small space yun lang tlga mabilis ma lo bat.
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Anon says:

9 years ago

Can this play mmorpg? Ragnarok online for example ?
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alex_corvis says:

9 years ago

it can sana… it has the minimum specs… ang problema is storage. For Windows 10 on Tablet, all apps are installed sa internal disk/card. Di pwede install sa external drive mo (micro sd)

wb says:

9 years ago

cloudfone has dual boot tablets, too. i got the epic 8.9 because of the larger 8.9 in. 1920×1200 screen. thay also have a 7 in. tablet available but other specs are not up to par with the 8.9. the 8.9 has specs similar to this cherry smart tab except for the screen. you also need to turn the power off and reboot in order to switch OS. it’s quite cumbersome and i think cheery’s solution could be better. the epic 8.9 goes for almost P9k. this cherry tablet, granting performance is as expected of its specs and bar other hitches, should give the epic 8.9 a very good challenge. one other advantage of the epic 8.9: it comes with office 365, which allows you to install the suite on three different machines regardless of OS.

the 8.9 is my first windows tablet. i think windows is catching up on the touch screen features but definitely not there yet if compared to android and ios. windows apps developers should also make their contribution in making windows more touch friendly. i know its a tall order and some apps are really going to be better off with mouse and keyboard. but having a tablet that could run productivity apps like ms office acceptably is Godsend on those tight situations.

one gripe i have with the epic 8.9 is that the otg port is also used for charging the battery. would this also be the case for the cherry smart tab? i’ve been looking at the internet for cables that would allow me to use the usb otg and still be able to charge the battery. so, any suggestions?

another thing for the epic 8.9 is that it has a micro hdmi port, which is very handy if you’re gonna use the tablet for presentation using a projector.
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pips says:

9 years ago

Needed one also. found this at LAZADA… http://www.lazada.com.ph/micro-usb-to-usb-otg-cable-adapter-y-splitter-for-android-phones-tablet-and-pc-white-347158.html

baconbriefs says:

9 years ago

Any success with rooting the Android side? Just got my Smart Tab a few hours ago.
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BIKTIMA KAMI LAHAT NG SUN CELLULAR says:

9 years ago

YES WE AGREE… THIS ARTICLE IS MORE SUITED AS A MERE INITIAL PRODUCT IMPRESSION… NOT EVEN CLOSE TO A “REVIEW” … SUPER BITIN !!! DO BETTER NEXT TIME… PLEASE…
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Glenn says:

9 years ago

LOUIE DIANGSON: hopefully make it more visible
Louie Diangson says:

9 years ago

Have you seen the second and third pages?

John Decena says:

9 years ago

I bought one because of the dual boot capabilities, considering its performance this budget tablet is bang for the buck. I can do anything with it specially with emulators, screen angles are quite good. One thing missing in this tablet is the gyroscope though it has an accelerometer but you can’t play games that needed tilt controls. Using windows 10 is a breeze performs just like a normal laptop if you plugged in a mouse and keyboard. They never officially mentioned in the specs that it has gps capabilities.
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Donimus says:

9 years ago

Nice…. Very nice. For a 5k php tablet I’m surprised. Thanks for the review!
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Ji-Soon says:

9 years ago

Ano ba naman ang review na to walang sustansya
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