The Posh Mobile Equal Max S900 is promising in theory: There aren't many other Android tablets with 4G LTE support for just $149.99. But you get what you pay for. The screen is low-res, performance is sluggish, the camera is poor, and you only 8GB of internal storage. You can add a microSD card, but the slot is difficult to access. The Wi-Fi-only Nvidia Shield Tablet K1$199.99 at Amazon is our Editors' Choice, with a much sharper display and power to spare for only $50 more. If you're looking to spend even less, the inexpensive Amazon Fire$49.99 at Amazon remains a top pick.
Design
The Equal Max Pro S900$84.99 at Amazon comes in either black and silver or white and gold; we tested the white and gold version. The 9-inch tablet is a bit larger than most midrange options, which makes sense, since others tend to fall in the 8-inch range. The S900 measures 9.4 by 5.4 by 0.4 inches (HWD) and weighs 14.88 ounces. The 8-inch Nvidia Shield Tablet K1 is a bit more comfortable to hold at 8.7 by 5.0 by 0.4 inches and 12.5 ounces.
The S900's 9-inch, 1,024-by-600 display is dull and reflective. Most modern tablets have higher-quality screens, including the Nvidia Shield K1 (1,920-by-1,200) and the Amazon Fire HD 8$149.99 at Amazon (1,280-by-800). Both of these screens are much sharper, and have richer colors, than you get with the S900.
Above the screen is a microphone and a front-facing VGA camera. On the right side of the tablet, toward the top, are power and volume buttons. There are no buttons or ports on the left side, while the top houses the micro USB port and headphone jack. The back is a brushed gold plastic, with white plastic panels at the top and bottom. There are two small speaker grids near the bottom (which sound hollow and tinny) and a 2-megapixel camera at the top.
The Equal Max S900 has dual SIM slots, which is helpful for frequent overseas travelers who don't want to juggle SIMs. But in order to add a SIM card or a microSD card (up to 64GB), you have to remove the cover at the top of the back panel, which is no simple task. There is a small slot on the side to help pull the panel off, but it doesn't offer enough support. I cut myself trying to pry it off when my finger slipped. Once you manage to get it off, though, you have access to two full-size SIM slots and the microSD slot. Not many devices use full-size SIM cards nowadays, so you'll need to make sure to ask for them specifically from your service provider. The S900 supports quad-band (850/900/1800/1900MHz) GSM and 2100MHz 3G, so you should have no trouble using it on AT&T or T-Mobile.
Software
The tablet runs a lightly skinned version of Android 4.4 KitKat, which is now about two and a half years old. Most Android tablets, including the Nvidia Shield K1 and the Lenovo Tab 2 A10£149.00 at Amazon, run at least Android 5.0 Lollipop, which brings with it a number of visual and performance-related enhancements. Posh has made some modifications to the UI, including new flat and uninspiring app icons. And instead of one notifications bar where you can select the settings, there are separate interfaces for notifications and settings. The former is accessed from the top left and the latter from the top right. All in all it's a useable interface, but anyone hoping for the latest Android software need not apply.
There is a confusing array of preloaded software. You get some Google apps, as you would with almost any Android tablet, but not all of them. For example, you get Google+, but not Chrome or YouTube. Thankfully you can download them, and there's not much bloatware of which to speak. You're left with 6.7GB of internal storage, so you'll likely want to add a microSD card.
Performance
Thanks to a dated 1.2GHz Mediatek MT8312 chipset and 512MB of RAM, performance on the S900 is slow at best, and aggravating at worst. Loading and switching between apps, for example, takes seconds at a time. Video playback is stilted. And occasionally, apps simply give up and crash.
The tablet scored 319 single-core and 561 dual-core on the Geekbench 3 benchmark, which measures overall system performance. Even the Amazon Fire has no trouble besting this, with scores of 357 and 1,152 respectively. The Nvidia Shield K1 blows both of these away, with 1,132 single-core and 3,608 dual-core results. If you're looking to do a lot of gaming, it's a much better choice.
Camera performance is similarly lackluster. The 2MP rear-facing camera has poor autofocus and mostly takes hazy, unfocused shots. This transfers over to video, which is often blurry. And the front-facing VGA camera stutters far too much to be useful for video calls.
Battery life on the tablet is average. In our rundown test, which streams video over Wi-Fi at full brightness, the 2,600mAh battery lasted 5 hours and 3 minutes. That's about an hour less than the both the Amazon Fire (6 hours and 5 minutes) and the Nvidia Shield K1 (6 hours and 13 minutes).
Conclusions
The Posh Mobile Equal Max S900 might only be $150, but it feels like it should cost even less. While it offers 4G support, that doesn't make up for the low-res screen, the hazy camera, and downright sluggish performance. You'll get far more for your money with the Nvidia Shield Tablet K1, which boasts a much better camera, display, and performance for only $50 more than the S900. And at the other end of the spectrum, the Amazon Fire offers solid performance and easy access to multimedia content for just $50; you can buy three for the price of the S900. Both tablets are Wi-Fi-only, but you can always use your phone as a hotspot.
No comments:
Write comments