Videocon VT10 review

By Surbhi Chawla | Updated: 2 April 2013 15:14 IST

The tablet market in India seems to be booming and most Indian smartphone makers are eager to get into this lucrative opportunity. Videocon is no different. The company has recently launched its first tablet in the form Videocon VT10.

It comes with a 10-inch screen with a resolution of 1280x800 pixels. The tablet runs on Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) and is powered by a 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. The tablet is priced at Rs. 11,200. So what you are getting is a 10-inch tablet for around Rs. 10,000 market price. Is this a good deal? Let's find out in our review

Hardware/ Build & Design
The Videocon VT10 is a 10-inch tablet, which comes with a white and silver casing. The device looks very plasticky. The silver colour on the back is a bit glossy and makes the tablet looks very tacky. Most of the front is taken up by the screen with white borders all around. The front facing camera lies just above the screen.

The screen is a fingerprint magnet and one needs to constantly keep cleaning the tablet.

The right panel houses the tiny power button, microSD card slot, HDMI port, reset pinhole, USB port, 3.5mm audio jack and power cord. There is nothing on the left panel.

The back panel has the back camera and the speakers. The dimensions of the tablet are 257.3 x 176 x 10.3 mm and at 650 grams it is certainly not one of the lightest tablets around.

The build quality of the tablet too is nothing to rave about either.

Display
The 10-inch screen of the Videocon VT10 offers a resolution of 1280x800 pixels. The surface of the screen feels a bit rough and the touch sensitivity could have been better.

The screen is bright and the experience of watching YouTube videos and reading e-books is pretty average. The screen is reflective and the viewing angles are bad.

The under sun visibility is also poor.

Software/ Interface
The tablet runs on Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) and that is one of the USP of this tablet. The device comes with a stock Android on-board.

The tablet's on-screen controls are on the bottom left instead of the centre, and the notification panel and quick access settings (for Wi-Fi, Screen rotation, brightness, sound and shortcut to settings) are located at the bottom right.

Though the tablet is running on Android 4.1.1, it is not clear whether Videocon will be rolling out an update to Android 4.2.

The tablet comes pre-loaded with plenty of applications such as Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, E-Book, Echo, Go Weather, Documents To Go, nexGTv, Nimbuzz, PhotoFunia, Saavn, Skype and Zomato. There are also a host of popular gaming apps that come pre-installed with the tablet such as Paper Toss, Bubble Break, Temple Run, Temple Run2 and Where's My Water.

The E-Book application as the name suggests helps in reading e-books. The app supports .txt, .pdf and .epub. There are no pre-installed e-books on this tablet but there is a service manual in a pdf format, which lists out name and addresses of the Videocon service centers. However, one does have an option to download e-books through Google Play store.

For browsing, there is a choice of three browsers - the native Android browser, Chrome and Opera.

Camera
This tablet houses a 2-megapixel camera in the front as well as on the rear. There is a native Android app for the camera and it only offers basic functions such as switching between front and rear camera, white balance and scene mode.

The pictures and videos clicked through both rear and front camera are very grainy and sub-par. The quality of the clicked images deteriorated even further when the pictures were clicked indoors.

Performance/ Battery Life
The tablet is powered by a 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor along with 1GB RAM.

The tablet offers just 8GB of internal storage, which is a bit less when compared to what the competing tablets are offering. However, one does have an option to expand the storage by up to 32GB through a microSD card.

You will experience plenty of lags while playing around with this tablet. Forget multi-tasking, Videocon VT10 was not even able to play back a recorded video smoothly.

Videocon VT10 comes with a 6800mAh battery. In our experience the tablet took way too long to get to 100 percent charge (not sure if the issue is restricted to only the review unit we have got or if it is a universal defect). Also the battery runs out of juice in no time. We were barely able to get 2.5 hours, at most 3 hours of video playback from Videocon VT10.

There are three browsers available for the users of this tablet, the native Android browser, Chrome and Opera. The browsing experience through native Android browser is good. Even browsing through Chrome or Opera is enjoyable and breezy.

The experience of playing games such as Temple Run was average mainly due to lags and the device would run out of battery pretty soon.

The sound quality of videos played back through speakers is average.

The device does not support SIM calling or 3G, which means one can only use only when there is access to Wi-Fi. The more disappointing bit is that Videocon VT10 does not offer Bluetooth support.

Overall, we think that in terms of performance, the tablet is not able to deliver much. There are frequent lags and the tablet also drains out of battery quicker than what one would desire. The only thing that you can actually do with this tablet is browse the Internet. Thankfully, we encountered no crashes while watching YouTube videos or while surfing around.

Verdict
Videocon VT10 is a pretty mediocre tablet, which can be used at best to surf the Internet or watch YouTube videos. Even the experience of watching YouTube videos will be jarred thanks to the underwhelming display of the tablet.

The major issue with the Videocon VT10 lies in its battery. The device runs out of battery very soon but also takes forever to get to charge. Even on the camera front, there is a lot to be desired.

If you are looking for a 10-inch tablet and will not mind shelling out a couple of thousand bucks more, then Spice Stellar Mi-1010 (Review|Pictures) is worth considering. The Spice tablet is a bit heavier than the Videocon VT10 but has a better screen and also supports voice calling.

Also if you don't mind a smaller screen, then the Acer Iconia B1-A71 (Review|Pictures), which has a 7-inch screen and is available for Rs. 7,999, is also worth a look.

Pros

Decent browsing experience
Jelly Bean

Cons

Poor build quality
Display is underwhelming
The device runs out of battery very quickly

Ratings (Out of 5)

Design: 2
Display: 2.5
Performance: 3
Software: 4
Battery Life: 2.5
Value for Money: 2.5
Camera: 2.5
Ecosystem: 3.5
Overall: 2.5

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Further reading: Android 4.1, Android Jelly Bean, Android tablet, Videocon VT10, Videocon VT10 price, Videocon VT10 price in India, Videocon VT10 review, Videocon VT10 specifications, tablet

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