The XOLO Play Tab 7.0
was a bit of a disappointment since not only was it just a poorly-built
Nexus 7, it cost quite a bit more as well. Today marks the launch of
the Play Tegra Note, XOLO’s latest 7-inch tablet based on the new Nvidia
Tegra Note platform. This is a big deal as it’s the first Tegra 4-based
tablet to launch in India and more importantly, we finally have a real
contender that can measure up to the new Nexus 7. The XOLO Play is not
just about brute force though as it has a productive side to it as well
in the form of Nvidia’s Direct Stylus, a slightly different take on
Samsung’s S Pen. With a promised update to Android 4.4, can the XOLO
Play Tegra Note be the first non-Nexus tablet to offer the best Android
experience? Let’s find out.
Design and Build
The first bit of good news is that the build quality is much better as compared to XOLO’s Tegra 3 offering, the Play Tab 7.0. There’s quite a bit of bezel all around the 7-inch HD IPS display but that just makes it better to hold in any direction. The dual-sided stereo speakers feature Nvidia’s PureAudio technology and it offers really good audio quality for games and movies. We even have a 0.3MP front facing camera in the front for video calls. At 320g, the tablet is a bit heavier than the new Nexus 7 or even the iPad mini but still very manageable for single-handed use.
The ports on the XOLO Play include a micro-USB, micro-HDMI, microSD card slot along with the usual headphone jack and buttons. The back isn't completely made of the textured, rubberised material and the parts that aren’t, are very prone to scratches and oil deposits left by your fingers. This can be really tricky to keep clean. The stylus sits flush with the tablet and has dual-sided tips – one for writing while the wider end can be used for broader strokes when sketching or colouring, or as an eraser. It’s a smart idea and we wonder how Samsung never thought of something like this for the Note 3. The package contains the tablet, stylus, charger and the data cable. We also have a bunch of accessories like the Slide Cover, Direct Stylus Pro and a controller for the tablet. Last but not the least, there's a 5MP primary shooter in the back.
Overall, XOLO has done a good job with the Tegra Note and the build quality is a marked improvement over their first attempt. Having said that, there isn’t any scratch protection for the display and during the course of our usage, we noticed a couple of hairline scratches develop around the edges. Also, the plastic bits at the back that aren’t rubberised get scuffed very easily, making the tablet look shabby within days.
Features
The party piece of the XOLO Play is the punchy Tegra 4 SoC under the hood. Announced at CES 2013, the new chipset follows the same design principles of Tegra 3 with a 4+1 core design. However, we get a significant bump in processing speed thanks to the four Cortex-A15 CPUs running at 1.8GHz and the 72 core GPU (compared to 12 on the Tegra 3). Add to that, the almost stock Jelly Bean 4.2.2 and we’re looking at blazing fast performance. The 1GB of RAM doesn’t seem to limit the performance as heavy games like GTA III and Dead Trigger 2 load very quickly and the frame rate is solid.
Besides extra apps like XOLO Care, Nvidia has also done some optimisations of their own to the OS. Let’s start with the stylus. Removing it from the holster opens up a contextual menu that lets you to dive into stylus-friendly apps. ‘Write’ and ‘Tegra Draw’ come bundled but the cool part is that you can add additional downloaded apps to this menu. Write is a note taking app and works well while Tegra Draw lets you sketch. The stylus works well with the hyper-sensitive screen, although only the Tegra Draw app lets you take advantage of the pressure sensitive tip and that’s a shame since it’s not as comprehensive as some other free apps like Sketchbook. You also get two additional options beside the navigation buttons when the stylus is removed. The first one restricts input to just the stylus which prevents accidental presses by your hand when drawing. The other, lets you capture portions of the screen as a screen shot to share via email.
The rest of the additions from Nvidia can be found in settings. The XOLO Play supports Miracast for cloning your display on a compatible TV. There’s also an options for easily pairing a Bluetooth controller. The HDMI setting lets you choose between native or sRGB profiles. In the Power Saving sub-menu, you can toggle Tegra PRISM Dynamic Backlight, which automatically adjust the backlight depending on what’s being displayed. You can even manually choose between three different operating modes (Max Performance, Balance and Save Battery) although we wish it would change automatically depending on what app is running and the state of the battery. The Battery Saver mode shuts down two cores, caps the max frequency of the cores to 1.8GHz and limits the frame rate in apps to 30fps. We had the slider on balanced most of the time, except when benchmarking.
Speaking of benchmarks, the XOLO Play ripped through everything we threw at it and posted some really impressive numbers. It easily beats the new Nexus 7 as well.
Design and Build
The first bit of good news is that the build quality is much better as compared to XOLO’s Tegra 3 offering, the Play Tab 7.0. There’s quite a bit of bezel all around the 7-inch HD IPS display but that just makes it better to hold in any direction. The dual-sided stereo speakers feature Nvidia’s PureAudio technology and it offers really good audio quality for games and movies. We even have a 0.3MP front facing camera in the front for video calls. At 320g, the tablet is a bit heavier than the new Nexus 7 or even the iPad mini but still very manageable for single-handed use.
The XOLO Play is good looking tablet
The ports on the XOLO Play include a micro-USB, micro-HDMI, microSD card slot along with the usual headphone jack and buttons. The back isn't completely made of the textured, rubberised material and the parts that aren’t, are very prone to scratches and oil deposits left by your fingers. This can be really tricky to keep clean. The stylus sits flush with the tablet and has dual-sided tips – one for writing while the wider end can be used for broader strokes when sketching or colouring, or as an eraser. It’s a smart idea and we wonder how Samsung never thought of something like this for the Note 3. The package contains the tablet, stylus, charger and the data cable. We also have a bunch of accessories like the Slide Cover, Direct Stylus Pro and a controller for the tablet. Last but not the least, there's a 5MP primary shooter in the back.
The rubberised back offers good grip but the plastic bits get scuffed pretty easily
Overall, XOLO has done a good job with the Tegra Note and the build quality is a marked improvement over their first attempt. Having said that, there isn’t any scratch protection for the display and during the course of our usage, we noticed a couple of hairline scratches develop around the edges. Also, the plastic bits at the back that aren’t rubberised get scuffed very easily, making the tablet look shabby within days.
Features
The party piece of the XOLO Play is the punchy Tegra 4 SoC under the hood. Announced at CES 2013, the new chipset follows the same design principles of Tegra 3 with a 4+1 core design. However, we get a significant bump in processing speed thanks to the four Cortex-A15 CPUs running at 1.8GHz and the 72 core GPU (compared to 12 on the Tegra 3). Add to that, the almost stock Jelly Bean 4.2.2 and we’re looking at blazing fast performance. The 1GB of RAM doesn’t seem to limit the performance as heavy games like GTA III and Dead Trigger 2 load very quickly and the frame rate is solid.
Some of the tweaks laid down by Nvidia
Besides extra apps like XOLO Care, Nvidia has also done some optimisations of their own to the OS. Let’s start with the stylus. Removing it from the holster opens up a contextual menu that lets you to dive into stylus-friendly apps. ‘Write’ and ‘Tegra Draw’ come bundled but the cool part is that you can add additional downloaded apps to this menu. Write is a note taking app and works well while Tegra Draw lets you sketch. The stylus works well with the hyper-sensitive screen, although only the Tegra Draw app lets you take advantage of the pressure sensitive tip and that’s a shame since it’s not as comprehensive as some other free apps like Sketchbook. You also get two additional options beside the navigation buttons when the stylus is removed. The first one restricts input to just the stylus which prevents accidental presses by your hand when drawing. The other, lets you capture portions of the screen as a screen shot to share via email.
The dual-sided stylus
The rest of the additions from Nvidia can be found in settings. The XOLO Play supports Miracast for cloning your display on a compatible TV. There’s also an options for easily pairing a Bluetooth controller. The HDMI setting lets you choose between native or sRGB profiles. In the Power Saving sub-menu, you can toggle Tegra PRISM Dynamic Backlight, which automatically adjust the backlight depending on what’s being displayed. You can even manually choose between three different operating modes (Max Performance, Balance and Save Battery) although we wish it would change automatically depending on what app is running and the state of the battery. The Battery Saver mode shuts down two cores, caps the max frequency of the cores to 1.8GHz and limits the frame rate in apps to 30fps. We had the slider on balanced most of the time, except when benchmarking.
The tablet posts some pretty impressive numbers
Speaking of benchmarks, the XOLO Play ripped through everything we threw at it and posted some really impressive numbers. It easily beats the new Nexus 7 as well.
