Swipe Telecom MTV Slate Review

2013 was a year which saw a lot of newly launched tablets. These tablets, if we are specific, were Android tablets, as Android, being an open source mobile operating system offers more compatibility than any other operating system.

A California based firm, Swipe Telecom in partnership with MTV, an icon related to youth launched an Android tablet dubbed as Swipe MTV Slate which was targeted towards the Indian youth. The Indian market follows the ‘less price, more features’ principle and that’s what Swipe Telecom has tried to achieve with this tablet. We reviewed the tablet and have got the pros and the cons jotted out which have been detailed below.

Build:

The MTV slate has a very iPad Mini alike design but with completely different build as the material is not even close. The company has aimed for a budget tablet and not a luxury like iPad Mini with the MTV Slate Android tablet.

We have recorded an unboxing video which details about the hardware and built with better insight.

Display:

The MTV Slate comes with a 7.85-inch “HD” display with a 1024×768 pixels resolution. It has 187 pixel-per-inch density but was comfortable while watching movies or playing games. Although the outdoor visibility is poor, because the screen is a bit reflective, which makes it unfit for e-book reading experience.

Hardware:

MTV Slate features a 1.2 GHz quad-core processor with 1GB of RAM and 8GB internal memory. It comes with an expandable memory option with microSD card up to 32GB powered with 3200 mAh battery. It supports mini SIM card with support for video calling. It also has support for 3G /Bluetooth /WiFi 802.11 b/g/n /micro USB for connectivity. It comes with USB OTG support which can also run a wireless keyboard and mouse.

Software:

Swipe Telecom runs Android mobile operating system on all of their products. This tablet runs Android 4.2 Jelly Bean with minor tweaks to support the usage. It comes with minimal customization and runs pure Android mobile operating system.

It has an assistive touch-like floating icon which can perform the task of the bottom four touch keys with any application.

Camera:

The tablet comes with a 5MP rear camera and 0.3MP front facing camera. The rear camera is just there to enable support for photography but does not perform very well. The front-facing camera is there to support video calling and video chats. Zoom is not that effective as it increases the noise with each level.

Performance

The tablet was able to perform just alike any MediaTek supported device with the 1.2GHz quad-core processor and 1GB RAM. Multimedia experience was not too bad. The tablet bagged an Atuntu benchmark score of 13074 with the hardware combination. The battery can last a day with medium use involving half an hour of call and an equal time gaming and browsing and e-book reading with medium brightness.

Verdict:

Swipe Telecom’s MTV Slate is a balanced tablet with pretty common specifications after the widespread use of MediaTek chipsets because of it’s low manufacturing cost. This isn’t any bad but it is just that everyone seems to be on the same power which makes it difficult for customers to differentiate between them. The hardware specifications make a usual performance combination and makes it a competition for Micromax tablet and Lenovo IdeaPad. MTV slate is available for Rs. 12,999 from online retailers like Flipkart.

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