Hannspree HANNSpad SN70T3 review

If there are three words to strike terror into the hearts and minds of the portable-computer-buying public, they’re: budget Android tablet. Previous models have been universally terrible, running out-of-date versions of Android and lacking important features, such as access to Google Play.

With the Hannspree HANNSpad SN70T3 things appear to be looking up, as this budget 7in Android tablet runs Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) – a proper tablet OS. Removing the tablet from its box, we were pleased to see that the HANNSpad didn’t look particularly cheap, either. The rear, mottled plastic casing looks like it’s made from the same plastic as an 80’s car dashboard, but it feels well made with no creaking or bending in the case.

The plastic back looks a little cheap, but the tablet feels well made

Turning it on for the first time is where things start to go a little bit wrong. To keep the price down, the HANNSpad uses an 800×480 resolution screen, which is the same as on a lot of smartphones. While this is fine on a sub-4in screen, on a 7in screen the resolution is a touch low and text looks a little blurred.

We could forgive this if the screen quality was fantastic, but it’s quite a let-down. Viewing angles are so poor that you really have to have the tablet square-on to be able to see what’s going on. It doesn’t help that it’s dim and reflective to the point that we found it hard to use inside with daylight streaming through a window. Even in a dimly-lit room, the HANNSpad feels like it is part mirror, part display.

As for the benefit of having Android 4.0, it’s slightly let down by the fact that there’s no Google Play store. Hannspree confirmed that this isn’t installed on the tablet. With the previous HANNSpad budget tablet, there were ways to unofficially install Google Play, but we couldn’t get any of these methods to work here. Hannspree also won’t confirm that any unofficial way works. It’s frustrating, as Google Play is essential, particularly if you already own an Android phone and want access to all of your existing apps.

Also missing are the standard Google apps, including Gmail and Google Maps. These can be installed from the alternative markets Hannspree has installed – 1MobileMarket and CMarket – but there are a lot of big apps missing, such as Sky+ and BBC iPlayer. Out of the two markets, 1MobileMarket is the better, but it’s not as easy to use as Google Play.

Storage for apps and data is split between 504MB for programs and 2GB for data, although you can move applications that support it to the 2GB of internal flash memory. There’s also a Micro SDHC slot, so you can add extra storage to your tablet.

There’s only a 1GHz ARM Cortex A8 processor inside. It manages to run the OS pretty smoothly and switching between homepages is fast and fluid. Websites are mostly smooth to render, but more complicated ones with a lot of Flash and graphics can be a tiny bit jerky to navigate. It can also take a while to fully render a page – we measured the BBC homepage at 18 seconds.

Transitions from landscape to portrait, or vice versa, aren’t pretty. On the home screen, the HANNSpad seems to flick half of the screen first, before continuing with the other half. On web pages it’s a bit better, but the tablet still has to ‘think’ about it. The very similar Fineslate has a 1.2GHz processor and its transitions are a lot smoother.

You’ll need the headphone socket, as the speaker’s not loud enough to be heard clearly

You can play most video files through the built-in video player. It can be slow to start taking a while to load a video, although once playing we found movies smooth and we managed to play a 1080p MKV video with no problems. You’ll definitely have to put a pair of headphones on, though, as the mono speaker on the rear is really quiet and very tinny. Battery life isn’t too bad and we managed 4h 54m playing a video. This will give you a decent amount of time away from a power socket for general use.

There’s no rear-facing camera, just one on the front for video calling

The HANNSpad has no rear-facing camera, just a 0.3-megapixel (640×480) front-facing camera. Quality is abysmal and the final image looks more like it’s been painted. To be fair, it’s not really designed for photography, but for video calls. Skype recognises the camera, but warns that it’s not certified although it will work. We didn’t spot any problems, beyond the fact that the video quality is quite poor because of the low-resolution.

We have to take the HANNSpad’s low price into the equation, but even at £85, it really isn’t good value. The Fineslate T01 is very similar, but has Google Play, a USB host port with 3G dongle support, a faster processor and an HDMI output. It’s also hard to ignore that the Google Nexus 7 will be out soon for just £159. Based on our hands-on review, it’s a considerably better choice.