Boundaries between phones and tablets are blurring fast and everyone seems to want a bit of the action. For the past few days, I got my hands on the Asus Fonepad 7 (FE170CG), the latest in the line of phone-tablet hybrids designed for the bottom tier of the market, and I have tried to moderate the review to reflect the expectations of that particular group.

Pros

Affordable ~LKR23,000
Decent battery
Limited bloat-ware

Cons

Poor camera
Weak display

Design

For a low-cost device, the Fonepad 7 features is a sturdy plastic body. The fidgety kind of user ought to be particularly careful of the port-cover for the SIM and microSD card slots, which seems quite fragile. Compared to the previous iteration of the Fonepad, this device has managed to lose some weight - about 28g - and now comes in at 290g. The screen itself is surrounded by wide-bazels, designed to make handling easier but also have the effect of making the screen look smaller. The device comes in three colours - red, white and blue.

Display

The Fonepad 7 features a 600 x 1024 (~170 ppi Pixel density). For comparison's sake, the Google Nexus 7 (launched in 2013) featured a resolution of 1200x1920 pixels (~323 ppi Pixel density). Plainly this is not a premium quality display. Even on full contrast, it seems the colours were not exactly wonderful. Then again, it would be unfair to measure the Fonepad 7 against a premium device like the Nexus. For the intended market, this seems like a pretty good deal.

Performance

Underneath the hood, the Fonepad features a dual-core 1.2 GHz Intel Atom processor, complimented with 1GB RAM. The Fonepad 7 comes in two memory configurations: 4GB and 8GB (this is the model reviewed), and external memory capacity up to 64 GB. When zooming through the apps and the features, hardly any lag registered, even on performance intensive apps such as Chrome. In addition, the Fonepad comes loaded with the standard sensors such as an accelerometer and proximity sensors.

Camera

The camera quality is baffling. The primary camera is a 2MP shooter and the secondary camera is a 0.3 VGA camera. These specs belong to the digital stone-age and it is safe to say the camera will not be an useful part of this device. Yet, I must stress that this view comes from my exposure to mid-range and premium-range devices. So there is probably a market where such specs may not prevent a device from thriving.

Battery

The battery also surprised because it is non-removable but features a 15Wh battery, which Asus claims provides about 20 hours of talk time (3G). I didn't get a chance to give it such a thorough test but reviews of the battery test online suggest Asus may have got this one right.

Apps

The device reviewed featured Android KitKat and surprisingly little bloatware, which I find refreshing. Unlike the worst offenders - especially Samsung - Asus, has managed to avoid the temptation to create a parallel architecture of apps that virtually no one uses as a substitute to Google's native apps.

Conclusion

It's easy to dismiss the Fonepad 7 as a low-quality device but that's missing the point. The phone is designed for anyone who wants a low-cost hybrid tablet/phone. In this regard, while the specs and the OS remain perfectly adequate.

By Navam Niles