Unboxing the 7-inch Android 4.0 Haipad priced at Php4,289

Meet the Haipad

Lazada sent us a demo unit of one of their best-selling devices, the 7-inch Android 4.0 Haipad. Initially I was skeptical but after playing around with this and taking into consideration the ridiculously low price tag of Php4,289, I have to say the Haipad is a solid contender in the budget friendly tablet category. We’ll do a full review in a couple of days but for now we’d like to share our unboxing and initial impressions.

Before anything though, let’s quickly go over the specifications of the tablet.

Haipad Spec Sheet

Cortex A8 1-1.5GHz
DDR III 512MB
8GB Internal Storage, Up to 32GB via microSD Card
WiFi 802.11b/g
3G module supports USB external
7-inch Capacitive Touchscreen, 800×480 resolution
Hdmi Output
1.3-megapixel camera
1800mAH Battery
Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich OS

Unboxing the Haipad

I wonder who named this thing the “Haipad”, lol.

The Haipad comes in a white printed carton box. Strangely missing on the box though is the “Haipad” branding. The only thing printed on the box is the photo of the tablet at the front and the text “MID” at the side, which I find weird. I gave this some thought and the only explanation I could think of was that the Haipad is basically a generic Android tablet made in China that was meant to be sold at affordable prices and companies that would opt to distribute them would have the freedom to brand it as they please.

Anyway, opening the box is pretty straightforward as usual. Just peel off the tape at the side and flip it open. You’ll immediately be greeted by the Haipad. The tablet comes in different colors and the one we received was color blue. Other colors available are Red, Black, and White.

Other than the tablet you’ll find the wall outlet charger and a micro USB cable. We didn’t find any manuals or papers inside the box.

Hard, durable, thin, and lightweight plastic body

When it comes to the actual build, the Haipad is actually good especially again if you consider the price. It’s made from hard plastic but it still manages to maintain it’s slim 7-inch form factor. The screen dominates the front but you’ll see the color you picked after the bezel, at the sides, and at the back.

With the Haipad you get all the usual ports – the volume rocker on the side, the sleep/wake button at the top, an audio jack, a micro-USB port for data transfer, a TFT/SD card slot, and a dedicated port for the power adapter (which is weird since you can charge it via the micro-USB port anyway, lol). There are no physical buttons at the front since Android uses on-screen buttons.

Initial Impressions

So how does Android 4.0 ICS run on this device? Surprisingly okay. I won’t go as far and say that it’s blistering fast because it’s not. There are lags and delays every now and then but it’s not as bad as you’d think. We’ll cover this more during the full review but we pretty much were able to do most of the stuff we wanted on it: social networking, browsing, watching videos, listening to songs, and playing Angry Birds (lol).

Pricing and Availability

Interested? Hop on over to Lazada and order one now. By the way if you don’t have a credit card you can still get one from them. They do cash on delivery.