Review on 🔹 ASUS MeMOPad HD 7-Inch 16 GB Tablet in Blue: The 2013 Model (ME173X-A1-BL) by Garrett Flores

So I put off buying a new tablet for a long time. I struggled with the Acer Iconia Tab A100 for a while, and while it was great when it came out, it just doesn't work anymore. But I'm cheap. A year ago someone said that I would get a tablet with a 1.2 GHz quad-core processor, 16 GB of internal memory, cameras, GPS and a micro SD slot with a beautiful 1280 x 800 IPS screen could run Android 4.2. 1 jelly bean - all for $150 - I wouldn't believe them. I've known for a long time that eventually prices would drop enough and hardware and software would catch up, and I waited for the right moment. He came today. Most of the reviews I've read about this tablet say it's basically a solid tablet functionally, but the build is flimsy and feels cheap. To be honest, I don't see it. While it doesn't feel as ultra-solid as high-end (expensive) tablets, it doesn't feel cheap in the slightest. The back panel, although made of plastic, doesn't seem thin to me. The screen looks and feels premium to me. There's a lot of talk about newer resolutions, like the new Nexus 7's 1920 x 1200 display, but in most situations my eyes can't tell the difference. I'll say if you plan on using this outdoors on a sunny day, forget it - the screen is almost impossible to see in direct sunlight. But inside it's great and it has great viewing angles. Some reviews have complained about the button's location, but that doesn't seem like a big deal to me. Some reviews have also said that the back bezel protrudes a bit beyond the top bezel of the screen, but I don't find that uncomfortable, or at least not bad-looking. The tablet is quite light and thin, definitely not cumbersome to hold in one hand for a long time. Tab ships with Jellybean 4.2.1 and has a build update that will most likely run as soon as you turn it on and log in. Engadget says it will receive the 4.3 update in the "near future". Thankfully, the operating system is fairly vanilla, with just a few inconspicuous bloat apps. Asus has a skin that's barely noticeable in my opinion; It's there if you want to use it, but you can pretty much ignore it if you want. It's a pretty sparse implementation of Android and I appreciate it. So far, in my limited testing, performance appears to be very good. I saw very little lag or stuttering, definitely nothing that bothered me. The screen is very responsive and looks great. The browser (Chrome, I'm a Chrome user and the ability to sync between devices pays off) seems surprisingly fast. I tried several games on it including Order and Chaos, Shadowgun, Dungeon Hunter 4, Anomaly HD and Modern Combat 3; everything played almost flawlessly, only occasional slight stuttering, hardly noticeable. I'd say it's a perfectly capable gaming tablet, while not the highest end it plays everything I've tried so far. I experienced a bit long loading times for games, but that doesn't bother me; I don't mind waiting 5 seconds more to complete a level. ETA: I just downloaded and played NOVA 3 on Tab and was surprised how well it works. I've read that MeMo is almost impossible to play, but that's not true. The first level took a REALLY long time to load (a little over 2 minutes) but once loaded the game ran pretty well. I could detect a little stuttering here and there, but it's definitely playable. If he reproduces that, then he reproduces everything I'm likely to throw at him. The battery life is pretty good. With normal use I can easily go unplugged all day and still have some power left at the end of the day. I just played Dungeon Hunter 4 for about 4.5 hours and saw that the battery was still at 47%. It's pretty amazing. The battery also charges very quickly, around 4-5 hours from a dead battery in my experience. The camera is sufficient. It's not bad, just nothing to write home about. It works, but that's no reason to buy this tablet. The same goes for the front camera - it works, but there's nothing special about it. If you want a great camera, you should probably be looking at camera reviews, not tablet reviews. I can confirm that the tablet has its own standalone GPS and doesn't need a wireless connection to work (although Google Maps and Earth do). Turning off Wi-Fi and turning on GPS didn't let me block indoors, but in my house this was always a problem (something in the walls or roof); as soon as i go on the balcony the gps status app tells me i have blocked 7 satellites, not bad. With a standalone mapping application like Mapdroid, it works great as a GPS device in your car. WiFi is very fast. I ran a few speed tests with it and consistently got speeds above 22-24Mbps, which is very fast for my network, much better than my other devices. I find the floating apps feature quite useful. I can open the calendar, calculator, video player, internet browser, and several other "widgets" in the window with a click of a button, without leaving what I'm doing. Very handy to quickly check something, ideal for multitasking. I recently bought my son a Hisense Sero 7 Pro to play with, and while it's a great device for the money, it feels more reliable and smoother. In addition, additional internal storage will be extremely important. I believe Asus supports the MeMo Pad HD 7 better than Hisense. I'd say if you're really into gaming but don't need many games on your tablet at the same time, go for Hisense, but for everyone else, MeMo is better. Hisense's internal storage is really limited at 8GB. I thought about the new Nexus 7, but two things broke it for me: 1) the cost (obviously, the less you pay the better) and 2) the new Nexus 7 STILL doesn't have a microSD card slot. I have a large collection of music and offline movie files and don't want to be constantly uploading and downloading stuff, so a microSD card slot is a must for me. I need this internal storage for apps and for everything else I need an external card. Maybe the next Nexus 7. I wanted a black tablet but the closest thing they have is blue. It is a very dark blue color and appears black most of the time. I have a black TransCover (a very nice case btw, it looks and feels like a premium tablet and is worth the money in my opinion) and now it looks like a black tablet in every way, which makes me happy . Impressions are extremely positive. The more I use a tablet, the more surprised I am that something in this price range can be so functional. As a rule, the old axiom that you get what you pay for is true, but in this case, you get almost everything you'll get with a premium tablet in a slightly inferior package for A LOT less money. This tablet gets 5 stars from me, not because it's the best tablet, but because it's a solid tablet AND it offers the best value for money you're likely to find anywhere. For the price there is no real competition in my opinion. ETA: 9/4/13 - Today I tried to play a NOVA 3 multiplayer game over Wi-Fi. It did not work. I think I found the tab limit. My son's Hisense loaded just fine, but my MeMo couldn't join without losing connection. It will play solo - although it takes a long time to load - but there will be no multiplayer. I'm trying to push this to the extreme, of course; NOVA 3 is currently the reference game for Android. Hisense is definitely the best gaming tablet. But it still suffers from small storage space and lack of support. It took me an hour to download NOVA 3 on Hisense and I had to uninstall half of my son's games to install it. Again, 8GB of storage on Hisense is really limiting. So if you're looking for a powerful gaming tablet, this isn't it. However, it will do everything except powerful games very well. I have absolutely no complaints other than the fact that it doesn't support multiplayer for what is currently the most graphically intensive Android game. :) Expected arrival: 03.10.13. Asus released a firmware update today that, among other things, fixes issues we've encountered when using Netflix. It's always worked fine for me, but apparently some people have had issues with it. But that's one of the reasons I chose this one over Hisense or other tablets; I trust Asus to support the device. Obviously, he listens to users' concerns and responds. The fact that the Tab received a firmware update shortly after launch to fix issues bodes very well for future support. I'm still very happy with mine.