Tomorrow's Technology: Flipkart Digiflip Pro XT712 review: Fails to impress

Sunday, 31 August 2014

Flipkart Digiflip Pro XT712 review: Fails to impress

The biggest online retailer in India, Flipkart recently launched its first

tablet under the Digiflip brand. The Flipkart tablet, named Digiflip XT712,

is the company's attempt to tap into India's huge market of content

consumers, and if it gets to sell a few more ebooks and a few more products...

then all the more better. At least what the effort seems to be aimed at.

We review Flipkart's Digitflip XT712 tablet to see whether it is indeed the

best option you can get in the market now at the price of Rs 9,999.

Design and display

Flipkart's Digiflip XT712 is a plain-looking tablet, lacking the design flair

that rivals like HP Slate VoiceTabs tout. Since the bezels around the screen

are quite small, the tablet is pretty small in size for a (7-incher anyway)

and can be held in one hand without much problem. On the back, you will

notice stripes at the top and bottom, and the rest is just plain plastic.

Talking about build quality, this tablet is pretty well-built. It looks sturdy

and the fit and finish are pretty nice, giving it a place among the few quality

products under Rs 10,000. The back panel is not removable, and you need

to pry open the cover in order to put in the sim cards and microSD card.

The volume and power buttons of the tablet seem a little stiff, but still give

decent feedback when pressed.

Flipkart has opted for an all-plastic build, so there is no hint of metal on

the device, which makes it harder to distinguish when set beside any stock

Chinese tablet. Moreover, the absence of the Flipkart branding on the body

makes it just another run-of-the-mill tablet for potential buyers.

The display quality of Flipkart Digiflip XT712 tablet is pretty good. It offers

nice contrast and colours are very good for a tablet under Rs 10,000. Being

an IPS panel, the display offers decent viewing angles as well. However, it is

hard to discern most text under direct sunlight even when the brightness is

conked to the maximum.

Hardware

Flipkart is playing the hardware game with Digiflip XT712 tablet. It is

offering better hardware than other tablets priced under Rs 10,000, such as

Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 Neo. Dell's Venue 7 offers competing hardware, but

it does not have voice calling and is, therefore, not really an option for the

consumers that Flipkart is aiming for.

The tablet has a HD display (1280x800p resolution) and runs on a quad-core

1.3GHz Mediatek processor with 1GB RAM. It comes with a 5MP rear

camera with LED flash and a 2MP front camera. You get 16GB of built-in

storage and can add storage via microSD cards of capacities up to 32GB.

It is powered by a 3,000mAh battery, which is rather small capacity

compared to that of rivals'. There is no LED notification light.

Connectivity suite of the tablet is the standard fare: 2G, 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth

4.0 and microUSB 2.0. As mentioned above, it is a voice calling tablet and

can support two sim cards simultaneously.

Software
Unlike Amazon, whose tablets have a heavily customized version of Android

in order to sell its content and products on Kindle tablets, Flipkart's

Digiflip XT 712 has stock Android. And it's Android 4.2, the version that was

released in late 2012. It is hard to determine why Flipkart went for such an

old version of the operating system, since the difference between the performances

of Android 4.4 and Android 4.2 is apparent.

As you would expect, Flipkart and Flipkart Ebook apps are preloaded on

Digiflip XT712 tablet. Apart from these two, you get MX Player, File Manager,

Bluetooth Proximity apps etc. The Home, Back and Task Switcher buttons are

on the screen, displayed on a black band at the bottom. The black strip looks

pretty ugly, and it is not going to change unless the Flipkart tablet gets the

Android 4.4 update.

Performance
Though Flipkart's Digiflip XT712 tablet offers better specifications compared to

rivals, it is still not a good performer. Though apps do not hang much, they do

take a lot of time to open, much more than what you would expect from a

device with quad-core processor. Even commonly-used apps like Facebook and

Twitter take their own sweet time to start.

Graphics, on the other hand, are rendered pretty nicely on the tablet's display

during gaming sessions, considering the price. Playing Angry Birds, Jetpack Joyride

and Temple Run 2 on this tablet is a breeze. However, games like Dead Trigger 2

and Injustice: Gods Among Us show noticeable lag and shut down more than

once due to lack of memory during our review period.

As a voice calling tablet, Flipkart Digiflip Pro XT712 is supposed to offer a good

calling experience. However, the reality is much different. If you put the front

speaker next to your ear, you will be hard-pressed to make out what the other

party is saying. The voice is nearly inaudible! This was a problem all the time,

not just in areas where signal strength is usually weak. However, while using

the tablet with earphones and Bluetooth headsets, voice clarity is good.

One of the reasons you are picking a 7-inch tablet over a large screen

smartphone is media consumption — you probably have a large media

collection and you want to enjoy it on the go. Flipkart Digiflip Pro XT712 is

decent for media playback and can play HD (720p) videos with ease. However,

1080p videos are not its cup of tea, as Full HD files refused to play without

stuttering. Audio quality is a little tinny, so you better go for a set of decent

earphones.

Battery life delivered by the tablet is decent, lasting approximately 12 hours with

moderate usage. However, with more active usage — consisting of 2 hours of

video playback and internet browsing each, half an hour of gaming, and an

hour of calling — the battery life decreased to less than 7 hours.

Camera
Flipkart Digiflip Pro XT712 tablet has a 5MP camera on the back, complete

with LED flash.