Price: £150
Tablets are
like most objects of desire -- you can pay a lot for them, or you
can get them relatively cheap, but ultimately you get what you pay
for. But is that the case with the Disgo 9000, the latest budget
tablet from the one-time flash memory manufacturer?
It's on sale now for around £150.Design
It's about £30 cheaper than the flagship
9104 and shares a few of its features, not least the 9.7-inch
screen that delivers 1,024x768 pixel resolution, which equates to
131 pixels-per-inch. It's HD, just about, but doesn't look quite as
sharp as some of its rivals, though it's sensitive enough not to
need much pressing and poking.
It doesn't have the same £100 software package as the 9104, so
there's no preloaded Office Suite or games, but the main compromise
has been made with the processor.
Features and performance
While the single core 1GHz processor (down from the 9104's 1.2GHz)
is backed by a full 1GB of RAM, it's noticeably lacking in the
speed department. Starting up from sleep mode takes a few seconds
and it never seems to be in a rush to open any apps.
Processing speed isn't an area we felt the 9104 could afford to
lose much ground on, but the 9000 slows things down still further.
Our AnTuTu benchmark test delivered a result of 3,026, which puts
it in line with low- to mid-range smartphones, not full-size
tablets.
It's running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich so it's not quite
the full Jelly Bean, but it's close. Like previous Disgo models,
there's no Google Play when you first switch it on. Licensing
issues mean that's it's not officially allowed to carry it, though
there are a few thousand apps available from Disgo Apps, the
SlideMe Market and the Amazon AppStore.
There is a workaround from wildestpixel.co.uk however,
where you can sideload a program from your computer that gets you
access to Google Play. We tried it and it worked without a hitch --
worth considering if you're suffering from app envy.
Extras are of course not of the first water. The two-megapixel
camera barely passes muster for emergency snaps -- it would have
been more useful on the front for video calls rather than the
grainy 0.3-megapixel camera Disgo actually used.
There's 8GB of memory on board (half what you get with the 9104)
but you can add another 32GB via microSD card, which is something
you still don't get on many tablets.
Conclusion The Disgo 900 is far from the top of the range, and is a disappointment in terms of performance with its underpowered processor. However, the screen's not bad and it's built pretty solidly, so as a low-cost family tool or additional computer, it might just be worth the few shekels. But considering the Nexus 7 from Asus is around the same price, delivering a superior screen and much, much faster performance, it's not quite the bargain it first appears.
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