In my personal opinion, I think that there are way too many tablets in the world of smart devices these days – but I’m not complaining. Having more tablets in the market means that manufacturers will innovate new things and implement them in their brand new tablet. Then, they have to include enough features and price it competitively to really capture the customers.
Maybe this time, the ASUS ZenPad 7.0 Z370CG version managed to do that, and let’s take a look at how.
Bragging : This entire review was typed on Google Keep using the ZenPad 7.0 Z370CG itself while paired to Bluetooth keyboard. Only these 3 things. Probably a stand too.
ASUS managed to keep it as simple as possible, with only the simplest packaging for the table with the bare minimums – but it does come with a surprise.
Yes, the retail packaging does come with one extra back cover and that’s what you’re getting when you make your purchase for the ASUS ZenPad 7.0 Z370CG. Only difference is, we got 2 more other phone back covers for review!
[nextpage title=”Design”]The design isn’t something particularly fancy – it’s simple and it works, but also with some of the most peculiar designs that I’ve seen on a tablet.
Detach the back cover and you’ll see a micro SIM card slot, a microSD card slot, and what seems to be some gold contact pins – more on that later.
The microSD card here is expandable to up 128GB too, that’s definitely more than enough for all sorts of media storage – and can even be a storage media.
Remember the other box I showed in the video? It’s easily changeable with the one that was included. Just pop it out and then pop the new one in. Done!
On the other parts of the tablet, there’s an 8MP rear-facing camera, a 3.5mm audio jack at the top, both volume rocker and power button at the right side, and at the top there is a 2MP front-facing camera beside the earpiece/speaker. Yes, the earpiece doubles as a speaker.
[nextpage title=”Performance”]First of all, it should be highlighted that the ZenPad 7.0 Z370CG is a mid-range tablet, so there aren’t going to be a whack-tonne digit for its benchmark score with unicorns, rainbows, and chocolate sprinkles. It’s running a quad-core Intel Atom x3-C3230 processor with Mali-450MP4 graphics.
There are certainly some promising results from Epic Citadel, scoring a decent average FPS on its highest-available graphical settings. This is interesting since ASUS seems to have scaled the performance equally with its hardware.
Then comes Vellamo, which tells a completely different set of story. It’s not the fastest or the slowest, but rather somewhat confusing. The scores are very low.
Although one thing I should disclose is that the ZenPad 7.0 is currently using a pre-released firmware, so it’s buggy here and there – and many times it kept asking me to send error reports.
Then again, all these horsepower are powering up …
[nextpage title=”Display”]…a 7-inch IPS LCD display with 800×1280 resolution, which clocks in at a rough 216ppi.
It has a fully laminated display with 94% transparency. Seriously, all these great features are found on a mid-range tablet.
Some of the more interesting things that the ZenPad 7.0 brings is something called Tru2Life. I think ASUS explains it the best – it’s like a real-time HDR, 24/7 on your screen under whichever menu or app you’re in. It makes texts much clearer, improves contrast in images, and balances the brightness of the entire picture – which explains the explanation of HDR.
A disclaimer here being that this feature is still unreleased, and is currently only able to run in demo mode. Though through the demo mode, it’s quite promising.
[nextpage title=”Exclusive Features”]Other than audio alone, ASUS definitely had multimedia in mind and included. It has DTS audio, and I believe it wasn’t highlighted enough. In short, the ZenPad 7.0 has DTS-HD decoding and virtual surround sound.
Craving for an even better audio? ASUS also included its very own SonicMaster and AudioWizard technology to fine tune the sound produced even further.
Remember the part about swappable back covers? We covered the demo where an Audio Cover was in place, and that’s exactly what it sounds like. A flip cover for the ZenPad 7.0 that has speakers on it. Not just any speakers, it’s an entire soundbar with 6 speakers and 1 subwoofer. Also acts as a stand!
Tru2Life is something that I really would love to show you guys, but I guess we’ll have to wait till the official final release to put a true test among other competitors.
But hey – if those aren’t exclusive enough for you, what about some free storage for your favourite cloud storage service? Free 100GB of Google Drive when you purchase this device and log in. Boom.
[nextpage title=”Battery life”]Now I’m not a particular fan of tablets to begin with, but to live with one in my daily life sort of changes how I see tablets. For the screen to be turned on for an hour and a half typing this review did suck up about 30% of battery out of its 13Wh battery. Based on what I can find though, the Z370CG model uses a 3,500mAh Li-poly battery, but there are no official specifications on that.
The battery did last me through my day of reading notes and materials from Google Books, with still about 20% left at night for some Spotify goodness before charging. And oh – I’m using it as a tablet, so there is no SIM card in it.
Speaking of charging, the ZenPad 7.0 comes with a not-so-standard 5.2V, 1.35A charger. It doesn’t have any sort of fast-charging capabilities, making the charging time extremely lengthy. Again, I’m not complaining because I plug in my devices when I go to sleep every night anyway.
And yes, the battery life does get a pass from me even though there are many things for ASUS to fix first.
[nextpage title=”Wrap up”]
It makes calls and the battery is long-living. And no, it doesn’t suck. I personally love it as a book reader. Seriously my palm can grab the entire tablet and still scroll through pages using volume rocker. Reading documents doesn’t lag at all, and to be honest I actually enjoyed the experience. Exchangeable back covers means I can mix and match the ZenPad 7.0’s colour with what I feel like, and has some cooler accessories that work as a back cover too (hint : the Audio Cover).
The ZenPad 7.0 Z370CG is a phablet, and it’s a definite upgrade for those who like the FonePad series, and now has even more features and more bells and whistles! Even if you don’t plan to use it as a phone, it’s still one heck of a magnificent tablet at this price!
Which leads us here! We got no price for this device yet, but we’ll keep you updated. All we know is that the price is RM750! We’ll keep you posted!
Till then, stay subscribed and always come back for more bytes on Nasi Lemak Tech!
Like our Facebook Page here at NasiLemakTech.com for more news and in-depth reviews! Also, join our Facebook Group for insightful information and memes!
Subscribe to our YouTube channel too!
