Review of DOMO Slate X3D

I was recently looking for a tablet and after looking at some reviews, I decided to buy DOMO Slate X3D. Still I was dissatisfied with the fact that there aren't any comprehensive reviews for this tablet. So I thought, I should take the plunge and help people out in making the decision whether this is the one to buy or not.

First impression - the tablet, in terms of build quality looks okayish, but obviously it can't matchup to the iPad and Samsung galaxy tab lookswise. The tablet is a bit thick, reminds me of the old samsung galaxy tab.

The biggest turn down for the tablet is its screen. It doesn't look very pretty, and the reason for that is the colors. Unlike other smart phones and tablets which come with 16 million colors, this has less colors, and it is not specified. But let me take a guess - 256k colors? The screen is also a bit too wide making movies appear a little skewed, and browser in landscape mode leaves less space for viewing, especially when you have the virtual keyboard coming up.

Nowadays most cheap and low end tablets come with resistive touch screens. I have used resistive touch and am convinced that resistive touch is really crappy. So what I say is - if you are tempted to save money by going for a resistive touch screen, please 'resist' that temptation. It is just not worth saving the extra money.  This tablet thankfully has capacitive touch, and it is actually good, almost unexpected after the initial disappointment. The virtual keyboard is really excellent to use, and no touch on any keys is lost - a good typing experience and excellent capacitive touch here.

I tested out the sound card and compared the sound with my other devices like laptop, smart phone and my take is that sound card is exceptionally good, with very good loudness and decent sound quality too. Mind you, I am talking about the output to my head phones, and not the built in speakers. The built in speakers, sadly, are not very loud and are a bit disappointing.

This tab has a front facing camera, appropriate for skype video chats or video conferencing. The camera is good. It takes photos with resolution 640x480 (It is .3 MP camera, a spec that they have not specified anywhere)
On the other hand, the mic is very disappointing. I downloaded some recording software and tried recording, and the mic doesn't register any sound unless you put it very close to your mouth. What this means is - the tablet can't properly be used for skype calls because of poor mic.

OK, this is a gaming tablet, so I got to talk about games as well. I am not much of a gamer, but I don't mind the occasional hurling birds at pigs or slicing some fruits. I also tried a car race on the tablet which came pre-installed. And my take on games is - this tablet really lives upto expectations. There is no lag, the extra graphics processor comes into play and the gaming experience is very nice.

I downloaded adobe pdf viewer on the tab, and opened some comics and was satisfied with the way it rendered them. So this is a good device for reading books and articles.

Battery is nice, gives a decent backup of 5-6 hours as specified, on continuous usage, enough for me who is going to use this tablet mainly at home, not far from a power outlet.

This tablet has the latest android OS, and it comes pre-rooted too. That may not mean much to a normal user, but to a developer that is added convenience. Even if you are not a developer, you are still in advantage because you have many benefits of rooting like ability to make complete backups, and many useful things that a rooted device can do which a non-rooted device can't. Not to say that it is difficult to root a device like Samsung tab, but still, you stand the risk of losing your warranty from the manufacturer if you root, which is not the case here, since the manufacturer himself rooted the device for the user.

I tested times for shutting down and starting up the tablet. It shuts down in a real quick 2-3 seconds, and takes just over a minute to do a complete start of the Android OS.

512 mb ram, 4 gb internal memory is enough to run any app and install as many apps as anybody wants without worrying about space limitations. Not to forget that you can easily add an extra sd card and increase storage space.

This device comes with only a charger, no cables to connect to pc or usb drive (meaning you have to buy them separately). But considering the cost of the device, I am not complaining.

This tablet may be one of the rare ones that is cheap as well as good. Apart from the screen which should have been 16 million colors, and a poor mic, everything is awesome and for a tablet of around 8k range, this is an excellent buy. But I would like to add that if you are not on a very tight budget, do look at Samsung tab 2, which has more features, better build quality, beautiful screen and everything good and prices are expected to goto to about 15-16k soon.