An affordable and handsome 8-inch tablet

Today we’ll be reviewing a budget 8-inch tablet, the Evo Litepad 8. The Evo Litepad 8 has respectable specs for the price point that it’s asking for, as well as a generally handsome design that’s reminiscent of the iPad Mini and overall solid build quality. The Evo Litepad certainly has an attractive price, and as we found out during the review, it’s a capable gaming tablet as well.

Evo Lightpad 8 specs

• 1.2GHz Quad-core Processor A31s (Allwinner)
• PowerVR SGX544MP2 GPU
• 1GB DDR3 RAM
• 16GB Internal Storage, expandable via microSD Card up to 32GB
• 7.85-IPS Display, 1024 x 768 resolution
• 2.0-megapixel primary camera
• VGA secondary camera
• WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth, 3 Axis Gyro, Accelerometer
• Mini HDMI 1.4 to HDMI Output
• 4k Video Playback
• Aluminum Shell
• USB OTG Capable
• Android Jelly Bean 4.2
• 4,000mAh Battery

Design isn’t original, but beautiful nonetheless

Like many budget Android tablets, the Litepad 8 looks a lot like Apple’s iPad Mini. That’s not really a negative to be honest – the iPad Mini’s design looks great, and so does the Litepad 8.

The attractive aluminum back on the Litepad 8 makes the device look and feel more premium than it actually is, and considering the price, is a nice addition to the overall design.

On the right side of the device lies the home button and the volume rocker, while the top of the Litepad 8 holds the power button. On the top of the tablet lies the different I/O ports, namely an HDMI and micro USB ports, 3.5mm jack and a slot for a microSD card. We were initially confused as to why the Litepad 8 would have a home button on the side when there’s already the standard navigation buttons on the display.

While the build quality of the Litepad 8 is pretty solid, we did notice small gaps in the right side of the device (when oriented sideways).

One thing that we did notice was that the Wi-Fi reception for the Litepad 8 was less than stellar. In our one floor bungalow, the Litepad 8 completely lost wireless reception around 3 rooms out from where the Wi-Fi router is, even though another tablet, the Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 still had full bars in comparison. We attribute this to the aluminum back used in the design of the Litepad 8 – Asus’ Transformer Prime had Wi-Fi problems on the outset because of its aluminum body, and this may be the same issue here.

The 7.85-inch IPS display isn’t the best looking (or the sharpest) display in the world, but considering the price point it’s not bad at all. Colors are slightly muted, and there’s some definite light leak coming from the right side of the display (when oriented sideways).

Surprisingly a very capable gaming tablet

We never really thought the Litepad 8 as a gaming tablet, considering the specs. As we encountered a some lag during normal navigation and use, we thought that the  Litepad 8 would be a mostly productivity and multimedia focused tablet. Indeed, its 10865 AnTuTu score did not give us a whole lot of hope for the device’s gaming potential, but we went and installed Dead Trigger 2 anyway to see how the device would fare.

Surprisingly enough, the Litepad 8 is a very capable gaming tablet. There is a bit of lag to be expected from Dead Trigger 2, but overall its performance in the game was very good, even with multiple zombies on the screen. Just for giggles we turned the graphics to high and even then the Litepad 8 performed well, with just the same amount of lag as when we ran it on low, though we did start to notice screen artifacts here and there. Pushing our luck, we installed Asphalt 8, another intense game and like before, the Litepad 8 managed to run it well on high settings, with occasional lag spots of course – something that other, higher scoring devices failed to do. Of course, the tablet didn’t run both games perfectly – aside from the screen artifacts on Dead Trigger 2, we did notice missing particle effects for both games when the graphics is set to high. One possible explanation for the device’s good gaming performance is the PowerVR SGX544MP2 GPU, which has 8 shader cores and perform generally better than Mali 400 MP4 processors that are more prevalent in other devices. Combine the good performance of the processor with the low processing requirements of the 1024 x 768 resolution screen (compared to a higher resolution display) and you get a capable gaming tablet.

The Litepad 8 is also advertised as capable of running 4K video, though aside from the pre-installed videos (two actually) in the player we didn’t have content to test this out. We don’t see the point to be frank – the resolution of the tablet is too low to actually enjoy 4K content properly. The Litepad 8 was able to play most of our full HD movies without any issues, though like most tablets the speakers on the Litepad 8 kinda suck – if you plan on using this as a multimedia tablet, pairing it with a good pair of speakers is a must.

Use the camera as a last resort

The camera on the Litepad 8 is typical of what you’d find on a budget tablet. In short – don’t bother. The image produced by the 2-megapixel camera is grainy and muddy, and performs terribly if there’s not enough light available. Use as a last resort.

Respectable battery life

The Litepad 8 has a respectable 4000mAh battery inside its plastic and aluminum frame. We used our standard video loop test (where a video is looped over and over to drain the battery of the Litepad 8) with the brightness on medium and Wi-Fi on. We managed to get around 4 hours of playing time before the device completely died, which is respectable, considering the battery capacity.

Verdict: A nice budget multimedia and gaming tablet

The Evo Lightpad 8 certainly surprised us with its solid gaming performance. While it’s not the best gaming tablet out there, the performance that you get for gaming is well worth the Php 5,999, sticker price. Sure, there’s a few issues concerning Wi-Fi reception because of the aluminum design, but if you’re looking for a good bang for your buck tablet for gaming, the Evo Lightpad 8 may just be it.