MSI Primo 81 review

MSI’s latest Android tablet should look familiar to anyone that has ever picked up an iPad Mini. The Primo 81 is has a strikingly similar design, near identical dimensions and even the same LG-manufactured display.

At 7.8mm thick, the Primo 81 is only 0.6mm thicker than the iPad Mini, but once you pick it up the differences become a little clearer. Build quality is by no means poor, but MSI’s choice of materials simply can’t match Apple for quality. The raw aluminium rear feels rougher and the display coating on the front picks up far more fingerprints.

Even so, from a glance you could easily mistake one for the other. From the outside, the only visible differences are the lack of a home button (like many Android tablets, the Primo 81 uses onscreen buttons rather than physical ones) and the selection of ports across the bottom edge. In this respect MSI actually comes out on top, as you get Micro USB with On-the-Go support to support flash drives, cameras and other external devices, mini HDMI and a microSD card reader as well as a 3.5mm audio jack.

The rear-firing speaker is easily blocked when you grip the tablet, muffling the already basic audio. It sounds tinny at best, with absolutely no bass and a mid-range that’s often dominated by the sharp high-end. This is definitely one tablet where headphones are essential, not just recommended.

Things improved once we turned our attention to the screen. The 7.9in display uses the same 1,024×768 resolution panel as the iPad Mini, which we loved when Apple first revealed it. The 4:3 aspect ratio results in much more physical screen space than on competing Android tablets, even if the total number of pixels is less. Colour accuracy and image clarity were both on par with the iPad Mini, which is no mean feat for a budget tablet, and viewing angles were also very good. It didn’t blow us away like the Full HD Nexus 7 and you won’t be able to watch 720p video at its native resolution, but it’s still a step above most of the similarly-priced competition. MSI’s choice of screen coating also seems to attract a lot more fingerprints than the iPad.

The two-megapixel camera sensor on the rear of the tablet is basic at best. There’s no tap to focus, no built-in flash and it initially appeared that the focal length was much higher than in other budget tablets, meaning we had to stand about a foot further back to fit an entire subject in the frame. However, the photos themselves have a different focal length to the onscreen viewfinder, which is a little baffling. Quality is poor outdoors, with even a small amount of sunlight causing our test shots to appear blown out. There’s not a lot of detail and even bright scenes produced a lot of noise.

Despite borrowing so heavily from the iPad Mini in other areas, the Primo 81 has a vastly different set of internal hardware. The Allwinner A31s might be a quad-core processor, but it only runs at 1GHz and is paired with just 1GB of RAM, so it should come as no surprise that Android 4.2 Jelly Bean often feels sluggish. It struggled through the SunSpider JavaScript benchmark taking 2,169ms, putting it firmly at the bottom of our results tables for 7in tablets. Synthetic benchmarks didn’t fare much better, suggesting the Primo 81 is best used for basic tasks, such as web browsing and Facebook.

MSI’s choice of pre-installed apps is somewhat baffling, with some glaring omissions such as YouTube, but old music and news apps that Google had retired for the Jelly Bean Android update. There are several leftover apps from the Primo 81’s original Korean release, including a messaging app that can’t be uninstalled. The stock video app is laughably called 4KPlayer, but seeing as some high bit rate 1080p videos caused the Primo 81 to drop frames we can’t see how MSI can justify its choice of name.

Surprisingly, the Primo 81 coped well with the demanding 3DMark benchmark, scoring 4,602 overall. That makes it one of the fastest budget tablets we’ve tested when it comes to graphics, although it’s not a patch on the 2013 Nexus 7. This means that 3D gaming isn’t out of the question, but frame rates were still inconsistent in more demanding titles. You will be fine with more casual games, such as Plants vs. Zombies.

With less than potent hardware, we were expecting the Primo 81 to at least be relatively frugal when it came to power consumption. Unfortunately it actually turned out to be quite power hungry, draining its battery in 5h 43m during our video playback test. That’s disappointing, even at this price.

We’re frankly amazed MSI has managed to get away with a tablet that looks so similar to the iPad Mini. In doing so, the Primo 81 undoubtedly has the edge in terms of looks when compared to other budget Android tablets. At £140 it is at least reasonably priced, even if build quality can’t match the tablet it tries to mimic so badly and the underpowered processor struggles with apps and games. If you’re on a budget we would sooner recommend the Asus Memopad HD 7, or suggest you save up some more cash and buy the vastly superior Nexus 7.