Lenovo Tab 2 A7-10

Lenovo is well-known for its handsets, but the Chinese manufacturer also has a wide assortment of tablets, most of which are aimed at the budget segment. The differentiator with tablets such as the Tab 2 A7-10 is that they re better built and boast a brand name that s not as obscure as others in this segment.

As far as the hardware is concerned, the Tab 2 A7-10 is a 7-inch tablet with a screen resolution of 1024 x 600, quad-core MediaTek MT8382M SoC with four Cortex A7 cores clocked at 1.3GHz, 1GB RAM, 8GB internal memory, VGA front shooter, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 and a 3,450mAh battery. There s a microSd slot available should you wish to extend storage.

On the software front, the tablet runs Android 4.4 KitKat, with an update to Android 5.0 rolling out shortly. Lenovo has not overly customized the user interface of the tablet, which is a good thing. you do get the vendor s suite of DOit utilities, but that s about it as far as bloatware is concerned.

The dimensions of the tablet at 189 x 105 x 9.3 mm allow it to be held one-handed with ease, and the weight at 269g also does not cause any strain when using the tablet for an extended duration of time. A nifty addition in the tablet is Dolby technology, which creates virtual-surround sound for more immersive audio.

There are a few alternatives in this segment, most of which are from Indian vendors. The advantage with going with a local brand is that more often than note, you ll get 3G connectivity. That s not available on the Lenovo Tab 2 A7-10, but the tradeoff is that you re getting a tablet that is a better deal overall in terms of the hardware and build quality. And at the end of the day, that s what matters more.