OlivePad VT100 [Review]

FULL REVIEW

Android tablets are fast infiltrating the market, and are poised to become the next big thing after super smartphones. In the middle of the Apple iPad and the Samsung Galaxy Tab lands a model from the manufacturer of low-end phones - Olive. The OlivePad VT 100 comes in at an astonishingly low price, but does it have enough to make a mark against its premium competitors? Read on to find out.

Hardware

The OlivePad comes with a bright 7" display capable of multi-touch input thanks to the capacitive layer, however the low WVGA resolution does disappoint. The capacitive input on the display is fairly sensitive but is not up to the levels of its competitors. A level of pressure has to be applied on the display to register input. The rest of the build quality is fairly good. The front visage of the tablet has mainly the screen and four capacitive touch buttons, which conveniently light up at a touch. A 'chromified' plastic border surrounds the tablet and gives it a slightly cheap look. The back of the device is mirror finish plastic, and is very fingerprint prone.

Powered by a 600Mhz processor , Android 2.2 with its optimised power demands runs fairly smoothly, though it is not uncommon to chance upon a few frame drops along the way. Olive has done well in making this a Google Experience device by licensing the Android Market. This gives the VT100 access to a wide range of applications ranging from document viewers to games. As the resolution (480x800) is very similar to most smartphones there should not be any scaling issues. Stretched out to the 7" display, a few applications do start to look ugly. The in-built RAM is generous at 512 MB, and we never faced any 'Out Of Memory' issues with the Olive Pad.

A very interesting observation is that the VT100 is in-fact a full blown cellphone as well. Just pop in your SIM card and you can not only make phone calls but enjoy 3.5 G surfing as well. There is a GPS receiver in there, to enable navigation using Google Maps. A front facing camera allows for video calling while a 3MP unit on the back allows you to take a quick snap or two.

The quality of the camera is nothing to write home about and is definitely not going to replace your point and shoot but is convenient enough to take a random snap on the go. The camera interface is easy to get by and is surprisingly feature rich, allowing for brightness and exposure adjustment among other settings. Geotagging of images is also supported.

The 3240mAh battery accounts for the heavy weight of the device, but is essential to the requirements of a tablet. While charging over USB from a computer, it took us about 3-4 hours to completely charge the tablet, it lasted us about 2 days of intermittent usage. This included a few hours of surfing, reading an entire novel back to back and playing back a bit of music. I had TweetDeck, Gtalk running in the background and spent about half an hour downloading applications as well. Very decent battery life.

Software

Olive has been wise and has kept the VT100 more or less stock Android. Other than the shortcut bar placed on the homescreen, it is stock Android 2.2. Gmail , YouTube and all other applications work as they would on any other Android smartphone. Using Aldiko, the ebook reader, we actually enjoyed reading a book as the tablet is a perfect form factor for it. It might not replace your eBook reader but is a nice alternative to have alongside.

Coming to the primary use of a tablet computer, web browsing. The OlivePad makes for a very nice way to surf the internet while sitting on a couch. The large 7" screen is a treat and makes it very easy to browse the internet without unnecessary scrolling or squinting. Yes, it did experience slowdowns when loading heavy pages, but once the loading completes, the entire experience is very smooth. We were able to load the Technoholik homepage in under 5 seconds on a 1Mbps Wi-Fi connection.

The onscreen keyboard is a bit tough to get used to due to the large screen size. We were more comfortable using the integrated T9 variant as it involved far fewer key presses.

The screen transitions - be it for orientation changes or application changes are quick and jerk free. Suffice it to say that the VT100 will never feel sluggish under normal use.

Conclusion

Retailing for about Rs 23,000, the OlivePad VT100 is in a very interesting position. It is cheaper than most competing smartphones, let alone tablets. Has a decent feature set, and comes with a leather case and a 16GB memory card. What really makes us recommend this is the fact that the OlivePad actually offers a lot of tablet for a lot less money. Being stock Froyo, you are allowed to customise it to your hearts content. Yes, it makes sacrifices by not having the fastest processor or the best touchscreen experience, but when you look at the price point, it offers tremendous value for money. If you are in the market for a general purpose tablet and one which would allow you to surf the web or watch a bit of YouTube while in bed, the VT100 is a very good option.