advantages
- Expandable Storage
- Solid connectivity
- Easy customization of the software
disadvantage
- Mediocre screen
- Nexus 10 offers better value for money
key specifications
- Evaluation Price: £269.99
- Body with plastic back
- Tegra 3 quad-core 1.2GHz CPU
- 16GB internal memory
- microSD memory expansion slot
- microHDMI video output
introduction
During 2012, budget tablets suddenly got a whole lot better. For under £200 you can now get a seriously capable tablet that can do almost anything a £500 tablet can. The Asus MeMO Pad Smart is Asus’ latest attempt at an affordable 10.1-inch tablet. It might have less personality than a bag of flour, but it offers a decent range of features at a reasonable price.
Asus MeMO Pad Smart – Design and Features
The Asus MeMO Pad Smart follows a pragmatic design approach. Fancy finishes that impress your fingers come at a cost, so this tablet uses simple, no-frills plastic.
While the MeMO Pad’s chassis is thankfully free of any creaks or groans that might raise concerns about the overall build quality, the device still doesn’t feel particularly premium. It’s a confident sacrifice clearly aimed at bringing down the overall cost of the tablet, but picking up the MeMO Pad after picking up an iPad doesn’t make the Asus feel like it’s in the same league as Apple’s device.
However, the MeMO Pad is neither heavy nor thick. In fact, its dimensions are similar to more expensive tablets, at 580 g and 9.9 mm thick. Aside from a lack of flair, there’s nothing wrong with the bodywork.
Asus is known for making products that techies love, and the Asus MeMO Pad Smart’s connectivity is no different. It uses a microUSB connector instead of a proprietary one and also has a dedicated microHDMI video output, as well as a microSD card slot. Neither is performed with much fuss — there are no flaps and no attempt to hide those outlets — but it’s still a technically challenging exercise that many will appreciate.
The commitment to providing features that are often lacking in cheaper tablets continues with the stereo speakers. The two speaker grilles are located on the back of the tablet and create better sound distribution than a mono tablet when held in landscape mode – the usual orientation for watching movies. The only serious omission is 3G, although this would of course increase the overall price of the tablet and undoubtedly lift it out of the “budget” category.
That would effectively be game over for the Asus MeMO Pad Smart’s chances of finding a decent audience. NFC is also missing, and while one could argue that this is a missed future-proofing opportunity by Asus, it won’t be a huge loss for the majority of users.
As you’d expect as a more affordable tablet, the Asus MeMO Pad Smart 10 has 16GB of internal storage — the least you’ll typically find in a 10-inch tablet.
This is a mercenary board in many ways. The design is all-vanilla in color, from the chunky bezel, lack of style changes — or style point — to the generic construction. If these things are important to you, you’re looking for the wrong tablet. Practicality and flexibility are key values for the Asus MeMO Pad Smart, not fluffy stuff like the thing looks or feels. In a way, that’s even admirable.
Asus MeMO Pad Smart screen
While we can just about live with the utilitarian design, the screen specs are less than bearable. That’s largely because the MeMO Pad’s 10-inch IPS screen, at just 1,280 x 800 pixels, feels more like a throwback to something you’d find on a 2011 or 2012 tablet.
However, IPS (In-Plane Switching) is a great panel technology that quickly became the standard screen technology for tablets after its use in the first iPad. It offers great viewing angles, which are much more important on a tablet than on a laptop, for example.
The MeMO Pad’s IPS screen also delivers these impressive viewing angles, but otherwise the display doesn’t get overly hot. It looks a little washed out and is often heavily blown out at the highest brightness. Now that we’ve been spoiled by high-pixel-density tablets like the Google Nexus 10, the relatively low-resolution screen here feels a little rough and pixelated.
The MeMO Pad uses the same resolution as the smaller 7-inch Google Nexus 7, but 10.1 inches is a bit too wide to expand that resolution these days.
It also lacks an oleophobic coating that reduces the appearance of fingerprints – an inevitable by-product of touchscreen technology. After using the MeMO Pad for just a few minutes, the tablet is covered in squishy fingerprints that are easily visible in strong light. An oleophobic finish is more or less taken for granted on pricier tablets, but if you take that away you’ll certainly miss it.
Asus MeMO Pad Smart – interface, performance
The Asus MeMO Pad Smart runs on Android’s 4.1 Jelly Bean OS with minor Asus customizations. However, these are largely based on the presence of additional apps rather than dramatic UI changes.
However, Asus has made a few visual improvements. The icons in the navigation bar have been redesigned, and by default the Asus MeMO Pad Smart has a snazzy Asus weather and clock widget on its front home screen. The only functional change when using the tablet is a toggle to lock the navigation bar right in the middle of the navigation bar. This disables the other navigation bar buttons so you don’t accidentally press them.
Asus has also built in its own virtual keyboard. It’s more colorful than the standard model and has a slightly different layout that packs more buttons onto the screen, but is it a winner? Not particularly – it lacks Swype-style gesture input and any dynamic word completion. However, when it’s that easy to switch to a different keyboard and the stock Android keyboard is preinstalled, it hardly matters.
We like Asus’ approach to Android customization in the MeMO Pad Smart. The light nature of the tweaks and the use of the speedy Jelly Bean version of Android means the tablet runs on a rather old lick. It uses a Tegra T33 1.2GHz quad-core chip, which is also found in the Google Nexus 7. It’s slower than the quad-core Krait processors found in many phones and tablets from 2013, but the difference will only end in high-end games.
For example, while Real Racing 3 runs smoothly on the MeMO Pad Smart 10, the frame rate appeared lower than the same game on an iPad 4 – despite the iPad’s higher screen resolution. While we’ve complained about the limited screen resolution here, that’s exactly what should keep high-end games running pretty well for a while. Rendering more pixels requires more power.
How we test tablets
We thoroughly test every tablet we test. We use industry standard tests to properly compare features and we use the tablet as our primary device during the review period. We will always tell you what we find and we never accept money to rate a product.
Learn more about how we test in our Ethics Policy.
Used as our main tablet during the period
Verified against recognized industry benchmarks
Ongoing real tests
Tested with various games, apps and services