We’ve looked at several tablets in the last few months and found some good options, but nothing quite matched the screen quality of the heavy hitters like Samsung… until now. Today, we’re looking at the Alldocube X. It was an IndieGoGo success, earning more than 10x its funding goal. It’s custom built for entertainment and features the same AMOLED screen as the $649 Samsung Tab S4 for only $265. Read on for our full review.
Specifications
- Current Pricing: $265 - 275 (AliExpress, Official Site)
- Screen size: 10.5-inch
- Screen technology: SAMSUNG Super AMOLED
- Resolution: 2560×1600
- Touch: 10-point multi-touch
- CPU model: MT8176(2.1GHz)
- Processor Graphics: IMG PowerVR GX6250
- RAM: 4GB LPDDR3
- Storage: 64GB eMMC
- USB ports: 1×Type-C slot, (Support fast charge PE2.0, Support data transmission)
- Speakers: 2×Stereo Speaker
- Microphones: 1×Microphone
- Headset jack: 1×3.5mm
- microSDXC card: 1×microSDXC card slot
- Rear camera: 8MP
- Front camera: 8MP
- Battery capacity: 8000mAh
- Battery life: Up to 8 hours of battery life (Dependent on workload)
- Wi-Fi: IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac compatible (2.4GHz+5GHz)
- Bluetooth: Bluetooth Wireless 4.0 technology
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I’ve been following the Alldocube X project for quite a while. It first came to my attention as a promoted IndieGoGo campaign. I’ll admit that when I first saw it, it looked nice but a lot like a million other tablets I’d seen. After reading through the campaign, though, I knew that it was something that we’d need to take a look at. In fact, it was the Alldocube X that started our whole exploration of Eastern tablets available through sites like AliExpress and now that it’s finally here, I can say that it was worth the wait.
The biggest selling point of the X is its beautiful fully laminated, 10.5-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 2560 x 1600. In fact, this is the same display found in the much more expensive, brand new Samsung Galaxy Tab S4, and, to my knowledge, is the only other tablet other than Samsungs to offer an AMOLED. It’s bright, vibrant, and excellent for watching movies and playing games - an all around excellent display - for $400 less.
The tablet is also remarkable thin and lightweight. It’s 6.9mm thick and weighs only 496g, making it even slimmer, though a bit heavier, than the Tab S4. The S4, by comparison, has a depth of 7.1mm and weighs 482g. For portability, it’s a bit of a wash between the two, but I remain impressed that Alldocube was able to trim the X down so much without compromising battery capacity or durability.
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Alldocube has definitely upped their game in design, too. For that much less, you would expect the tablet to feel cheap and it really doesn’t. It’s a clear step-up from the last model we looked at, the M5S, which was good in its own right. The face is glass, not plastic, and the rear is aluminum. The buttons are all metal, which is a big step up from the wiggly plastic we’ve seen on other tablets, and the plastic piece which previously hid the SIM and MicroSD trays has now been swapped out with more traditional hidden trays with pinhole releases.
The bezels on the display are thinner along the sides, which encourages using it in landscape orientation (though, portrait works just fine) and offers a more unique look. The edges have also been ground to a reflective angle for an extra bit of flair. I’m a fan of the white and silver look, especially when there’s colorful content on the screen. The contrast really makes the display pop.
A brief tour along the edges shows us two other updates arriving with the Alldocube X. The charging port has now been upgraded to USB Type-C, and thank goodness for that. Micro-USB is officially out-of-date and has always been too easy to wear out. The right side now features a fingerprint reader, as well as the 3.5mm headphone jack. Unlocking the pad with the fingerprint reader isn’t the fastest at about two seconds but is snappy enough to not feel laggy. At this price point, I’m not going to complain about single seconds of delay; it’s the kind of sacrifice that comes with this kind of purchase and a fairly reasonable one at that, given that most don’t feature a fingerprint reader at all.
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The front and rear cameras may be a bit more meaningful. The camera app is extremely basic and only offers ISO levels of 100-200, which means it struggles in even moderate light conditions. The picture above was taken in my office with the lights on. The camera would swap between the brightness you see above and over-exposing the image. If you’re using the X for basic Skype calls, a little graininess won’t make much of a difference but if you’re into hobby photography, I’d suggest using something else.
All of that said, Alldocube has been careful to position the X as a media consumption device. It’s really not intended to do more than the basics of photography, which it can successfully do.
Looking to the internals, the X uses the MediaTek MT8176 hexacore CPU clocked to 2.1GHz, 4GB of RAM, and features 64GB of built-in storage, expandable up to 128GB. This combination offers respectable performance in gaming, which we’ll get to soon. For connectivity, the device supports dual-band 802.11ac WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, but lacks NFC.
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When it comes to software, the tablet ships with Android Oreo 8.1 and seems to be free of any kind of bloatware. Like other budget tablets we’ve looked at, you’re getting a fairly stock Android experience which, in our opinion, is a good thing as there won’t be any unnecessary apps running in the background, chewing through your battery. On the downside, you’re not getting any extra flair with a custom skin. If you’re looking for extra flash, we recommend you look into a separate launcher that you can customize to taste.
So, with all of that out of the way, how does it perform? When we test tablets, our biggest concern is gaming; though, we spend some time doing experimenting with the other things you might be likely to do: watch Netflix, browse gaming and tech websites, scour social media, and even getting a little work done. Let’s start with gaming.
I’m an RPG nerd, so the first thing I loaded up was Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition. Turning all of the graphics settings to their highest, I was able to play smoothly at the default camera zoom. It was only when I zoomed all the way out that I began to drop frames. Zooming even slightly restored things to a playable state, which was very reasonable.
The next game I tried was Battlelands, a cute little battle royale designed for tablets. This game played flawlessly. The multi-touch worked well for controlling the virtual joysticks. Battlelands isn’t the most graphically demanding game but played smooth as butter.
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Switching over to something more challenging, I loaded up PUBG Mobile. It ran decently, not the best but still easily playable. When there was lots of action on the screen, like particle effects and smoke, I could tell that I was losing framerate but I wasn’t handicapped. This was mainly an issue with smoke rather than firefights.
For movies and music the Alldocube X was great. The AMOLED screen just looks fantastic. It’s the best display you can find on a tablet for this price and it shined when streaming season 2 of The Punisher. It’s also able to stream YouTube at full 1440p resolution on videos that support it, which is nice to see.
For browsing, we found that the tablet responded smoothly navigating web pages and text-entry forms. Scrolling long web pages did result in very minor stuttering and slight delays when loading pictures but nothing that really interfered with our use. Working in Google Drive, our results were much the same, though I do wish there were a way to dock the keyboard to a dedicated keyboard. Still, our aftermarket bluetooth keyboard worked fine and writing emails and editing spreadsheets was fairly seamless.
The speakers aren’t great and, as we expected for their tiny size, lack bass. Alldocube has used an AKG hi-res audio chip, however, so definitely plug in a set of headphones if at all possible. The default output tends toward treble, which is common on devices tuned for high resolution audio, but is easily re-tuned if you prefer more bass. I wouldn’t say the audio here is amazing, a decent gaming motherboard will outperform it, but is very good for the price and compared against other budget tablets in its range.
The battery life is also quite good with one caveat. The screen is very bright with a 300-nit peak brightness. That kind of luminance is enough to drain any battery if cranked up to max. For indoor use, I didn’t find it necessary to turn it above 70% and found that the battery lasted for around 5 hours. This was disappointing but enough for a couple movies and a bit of browsing.
Final Thoughts
For a tablet like this, you have to take the good with the bad. Here, the battery life is underwhelming and the camera isn’t good for more than the basics. On the other hand, you get a great screen with excellent brightness, rich colors, ample RAM and storage, a quality audio chip, solid glass and aluminum design, and a fingerprint sensor, plus support for 4G LTE if your carrier supports it. Considering that the Alldocube X is almost $400 less than the Samsung Galaxy Tab S4, it’s hard to argue against those trade-offs for the price. For our money, if you’re not planning on taking lots of pictures or gaming for 5+ hours at a stretch, this is a solid choice and a great value tablet.
Pros
- Samsung AMOLED Screen is bright and vibrant with excellent blacks
- Snappy performance in normal use
- Solid gaming performance with modest settings
- Ample RAM and onboard storage
- Improved design from previous Alldocube models we’ve looked at
- Excellent value
Cons
- Battery life is only so-so
- Poor low light camera performance
- Some lag in high detail games like PUBG and slight stuttering when scrolling fast web pages
The product described in this review was provided by the manufacturer.
