Review: Vodafone Tab Prime 7

Tablets aren’t something we get much hands on with here at MTT. So when I got the email to say that Vodafone were releasing a new tablet, I jumped at it straight away, asking if they would send me a unit out for review. Sure enough they sent me one out. This is my full review of the Tab Prime 7.

As usual Vodafone only sent out the unit for review and have NO input into to the review. 

Specs

So lets get the specs out the way.

• 10.1 inch IPS LCD display 1920×1200
• 5mp rear camera @720p
• 2mp front camera
• Android 6.0 Marshmallow
• Snapdragon 430
• 2GB RAM
• 16GB internal storage
• MicroSD card up to 64GB
• LTE
• WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
• Bluetooth 4.2
• Micro-USB
• 5830 mAh battery

Unboxing

The unboxing experience is a standard Vodafone affair here. Popping the lid reveals the device itself. Pulling the tablet and tray out reveals the paperwork, plug and micro USB cable.

Tour of The Device

Starting at the front you’ll find the 10.1 inch display sandwiched between the the dual front firing speakers. Heading round to the left side of the device you’ll find the micro USB cable, headphone jack and microphone. There’s nothing on the right. Up top there is the the volume rocker and power button. Just like the right side there is nothing on the bottom. Around back you’ll find the SIM and SD card slot in the middle and on the right the rear camera.

Software

So as you could guess it’s pretty much stock Android here, with some small Vodafone tweaks here and there. One of my favourite features being the notification tray. Just drag down on the screen and it appears were dragged. Dragged it on left, it’s on the left. Did it on the right, yep you guessed it. No matter where you drag, it’s there. The other thing is that since this has a SIM tray you can use it for data and SMS (like most Android tablets) but Vodafone also include a dialer. Nothing fancy but it just works. Whilst it isn’t ideal since it just blasts the call through the front firing speakers, just whack in a set of weird buds or Bluetooth ones and Bob’s your Uncle. Simple yet effective.  

Camera

The cameras aren’t the greatest but what do you expect really? It’s a tablet isn’t it? They had to cut cost somewhere and the camera on a tablet is probably the easiest place to start. Starting with the rear camera you can quite quickly tell is that it has to have the right amount of light. Whilst you wouldn’t use this camera to take pictures of kids, animals or anything that you would use a phone camera for, but for a of a document, now that would be fine. Take a look at some samples.

Rear 1

Rear 2

Rear 3

Rear 3

Front 1

Front 2

Video Sample

Video is pretty simple really. Okay at best. Like with the Turbo 7, as soon as you hit record the camera zooms in and then records. Rear is okay and the front camera isn’t bad but it’s only good for a quick video call. In my opinion that’s all you should be using a front facing camera for on a tablet.

Audio

As I said previously the Tab Prime has dual front firing speakers. Whilst I was glad to see this, I wasn’t happy to find that they were below good. What I mean is that whilst they did the job of firing the sound in your face, they didn’t sound all that good when you turned them up to about half volume. The back also started to vibrate. In all honesty it’s nice to have them nice but they weren’t quite there yet. I preferred the P9 Plus’s speaker.

Display

The display is a 10.1 inch IPS LCD display with a resolution of 1920 x 1200. There is no way on earth Android needs this big a screen. No way is Android optimised for that! The good thing is how apps can auto-scale to the display though, with Slack for example using the increased real estate to show your channels on the left hand side, with the main content being to the right. Super nice and convenient. It can also be super annoying. Besides that it handles like stock Android, what else can I say.

Battery, Benchmarks and Performance

So battery is a bit of a grey area for me here. I’ve not used a tablet in what feels like a few years now so trying to fit in a way of bench-marking a tablet’s battery is a bit awkward so I couldn’t get an exact time. However I did observe that I could charge the device and use it for a couple of hours at a time and it would last 3 days. Geekbench have also removed the battery benchmark tool so there’s that benchmark gone.

When it comes to the Geekbench 4 benchmarks it scored 608 on the single core and 1775 on the multi-core out performing the Vodafone branded phones (that I’ve used). Also day to day performance was great too. No need to unlock developer settings and turning the animation speed down. It felt great. No hanging, no stuttering. Thumbs up.  

Conclusion

So to sum it all, yes I have enjoyed playing with the Tab Prime 7. Whilst it isn’t the best device in the world it does a job and it does it well. Sure Android isn’t perfect on this sized screen, but it is fine once you get used to it. The feature with the notification shade is definitely appreciated. The speakers are okay but nothing to write home about. To me this tablet would be great for a senior who wants a big screen and does not want to spend much. £175 it’s not pocket money but the device does work well, and for the size of device it’s not too bad. The screen resolution is great, the cameras are pants but the front will do to have a quick Skype chat with the family, plus the inclusion of a dialer is by far my favourite feature.

With all that said the Tab Prime 7 didn’t really do it for me. Yeah it was nice to have big screen to watch YouTube and Twitch streams but I’ve not used a tablet in a while and it was hard for me to get back into using it and adjust during the review period. Your mileage may vary though and if you are looking for a cheap tablet, you could do an awful lot worse than checking out the Vodafone Tab Prime 7.

If you have any questions feel free to comment or tweet me @chriswallace959. Also if you own one let us know your thoughts.

Vodafone Tab Prime 7

£175

7.4

Build Quality

8.0/10

Performance

7.5/10

Camera

5.0/10

Battery

8.5/10

Value

8.0/10

Pros

• Great price
• Good display
• Good battery
• Great software tweeks
• Great performance

Cons

• Screen is to big for android
• Front firing speakers lack qaulity
• Camera zoom in when use it for video

BUY FROM VODAFONE