Yesterday we got our hands on the Advent Vega tablet announced last week: a budget tablet that will only set you back £250. At that price, we were sceptical about the Advent Vega. Something that cheap must have cut some pretty big corners right? Well, not really. After having a play around with the Advent Vega, we’re convinced it’s a real bargain.
The Advent Vega runs Android Froyo 2.2, but it’s been stripped back by the folks at Advent and tweaked to make it suitable for tablet. The Advent Vega has a 10.1” capacitive touchscreen, and a 1GHz processor powering it too. The home screen is built with shortcuts to social networking sites Twitter and Facebook.
Advent Vega unboxed: photos
The Advent Vega has two key weak spots. Firstly, (and this is the corner that’s been cut) the camera, which is a 1.3MP front facing camera, will be pretty useless. Secondly, it has no 3G, yet. The Vega tablet we saw had a 3G slot, and while it has nothing in it now, that’s something that Adam Lockyer, the category manager for Advent, said would be added, and an Advent Vega would be available in early next year with 3G capabilities.
It has a HDMI output, USB dock, and microSD slot, which can take cards up to 32GB. Out of the box Advent will give you a 4GB card too. The screen is good too, perfectly suitable for watching movies on the go.
So what’s the battery like on the Advent Vega? We asked Lockyer how far you can push it before it conks out, and he said that him and his team had played the A-Team three times over to put it through its paces, and after three full plays it had around half the battery left. He estimated that you’d get around ten hours of playback with the Advent Vega, which is not bad at all.
The Advent Vega also has a cousin device, the Advent Amico, which is £130, and is a real no frills option, with a resistive touchscreen and not much more. While the Amico is probably a false economy, the Vega is setting a good standard for the wave of budget tablet options we’ll be seeing in the next six months.
Out 1 November | £250 | PC World & Currys
What do you think of the Advent Vega? Tempted? Drop us a line in the comments and let us know!
