The Teclast X98 Air 3G tablet test: the Chinese dual OS that surprises |
Continuing our partnership with the accessories and electronics site Banggood, it’s time to test a tablet. With a simple appearance, but with quality in the finish, the Teclast X98 Air 3G is a Chinese tablet that surprises by the performance. At 9.7 inches, it’s thin but with very powerful hardware for its price range. Check here for my impressions of the device.
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The Teclast X98 Air 3G. / © ANDROIDPIT
Design
The Teclast X98 Air 3G “draws” a lot into the design of the iPad. Its unibody housing has the back made of plastic imitating brushed aluminum and the edge connecting the panel to the back is made by a thin strip of metal. Its top left side brings the power button above the volume button. The front is very minimalist, presenting only the sensor of the front camera, and I must say that the utilization of the panel for the screen could be better, because the top and bottom white frames are somewhat wide.
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The top left of the tablet with the power and volume buttons and the rear camera. / © ANDROIDPIT
The lower left corner brings all the concentrated tablet inputs: memory card, SIM, microphone, micro USB, headphones and HDMI. With a weight of 498 grams, it is a hundred grams heavier than the Xperia Z4 Tablet for example, ie no lightweight. Even so, it is pleasant to the touch and very ergonomic.
Tablet inputs are concentrated on the lower left side. / © ANDROIDPIT
Screen
The 9.7-inch screen of the Teclast X98 Air 3G doesn’t disappoint, with an impressive 2048 x 1536 pixels resolution. The colors are rich and vibrant, with a bright display that makes showing movies a pleasure for the eyes. Unfortunately, the speakers are positioned on the lower back of the tablet, and by holding it or supporting it on a surface, the sound gets muffled.
The tablet with the Android UI. / © ANDROIDPIT
Software
One of the peculiarities of the tablet is its dual boot function, running with both Android 4.4 and Windows 8.1. When the tablet starts, we have the option to choose the operating system:
Your tablet runs on Android or Windows. / © ANDROIDPIT
Running with Android, I believe that Teclast has sinned a bit, installing several factory applications that remain in Chinese even with the change of language of the system, but most can be uninstalled without the need to root. The native browser does not work well with internet videos, but this problem is easily solved by installing another browser like Google Chrome, FireFox, etc.
The notification bar on the tablet. / © ANDROIDPIT
Windows 8.1 comes with no unnecessary applicationinstalled, except for those that come pre-installed by Microsoft.
The tablet with the Windows interface. / © ANDROIDPIT
Performance
With a 2.16GHz four-core Intel Bay Trail processor, the Teclast X98 Air 3G performs well. The startup is not very fast due to the choice of OS to be rotated, but it’s nothing that it’s going to be. Application installation and use occurs quickly and flawlessly.
In the item games, the tablet did very well, although occasionally crashing into games with very heavy graphics. It is worth mentioning that these crashes do not happen often and have not hindered my user experience much.
The tablet in the AnTuTu Benchmark test. / © ANDROIDPIT
The Teclast X98 Air 3G surprised in the performance test running graphics games weighed for hours. After three hours of uninterrupted testing the tablet did not overheat, but crashed once in the execution of the game. I restarted the tablet and resumed the test without further problems.
Dual boot is an interesting function and a differential of other tablets on the market, despite dividing the 32GB of storage capacity by 2 between Android 4.4 and Windows 8.1. This detail becomes irrelevant since the Teclast X98 Air 3G has a micro SD slot.
The tablet worked perfectly with the Brazilian SIM card, and when inserting the carrier’s chip, it immediately connected to the 3G and made connections.
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Camera
The Teclast X98 Air 3G camera disappoints photos in low light conditions. The photos go out with noise and slow autofocus producing blurry images.
In brighter conditions, photos improve significantly. Even in an era of 16 megapixel cameras, the rear camera of the Teclast X98 Air 3G with a mere 5 megapixels captures well what one’s seeing. The front camera has only 2 megapixels and does not produce very good photos, which can be a problem for fans of selfies.
Tests with the front (left) and rear camera of the tablet. / © ANDROIDPIT
Battery
The Teclast X98 Air 3G has an 8,500mAh battery. During the tests with heavy sets the battery lasted about one day, already with the normal day-to-day use, the battery lasted about two and a half days.
The only downside of a battery with this capacity is the total charging time, which lasts approximately four hours.
Technical specifications
| System | Android 4.4 / Windows 8.1 |
|---|---|
| Screen | 9.7-inch IPS LCD, 2,048 x 1,536 pixels |
| Processor | Intel Bay Trail-T Z3736F Quad-Core 2.16GHz |
| RAM | 2GB DDR3L |
| Internal memory | 32GB (expandable by microSD) |
| Battery | 8,500 mAh |
| Camera | 5 megapixels (rear)/ 2MP (front) |
| Connectivity | 3G, OTG, HDMI, Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11b/g/n |
| Dimensions | 240mm ×169mm ×7.4mm |
| Weight | 498 grams |
| Price | R$ 675,00 |
The back of the tablet. / © ANDROIDPIT
Conclusion
We Brazilians often still feel insecure when buying Chinese electronics, but the Teclast X98 Air 3G can change its concepts. It is powerful, stable, beautiful and in my opinion has a good cost/benefit ratio. It proves to be a perfect device for everyday use and video playback, losing points only with speaker positioning and photo quality. You can find the Teclast X98 Air 3G for R$ 675.00 on the Banggood website.
Stay tuned, you can win this tablet in our promotion over the weekend!
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