£180 Next Android Tablet Gets Dire Review: 30min Battery, Indecently Slow

Can a cheap Android tablet keep up with, say, Apple's iPad? Or is it going to struggle even keeping up with a large-screen Android smartphone? That certainly seems to be the case with UK retailer Next's "bargain" £180 ($284) 10-inch slate, spotted last week.PDA-247 splashed out on the tablet, and then promptly wished they hadn't. As well as being flimsily constructed it's incredibly slow, the ARM11 processor leaving typing unresponsive and one in three apps crashing before they've even loaded. The OfficeSuite app is in Chinese with no apparent way to switch it, and applications downloaded via the Slide SAM 3.5 store subsequently can't be found.

Battery life is the final straw, managing around 30 minutes of wireless browsing. In short, there's more to life than a low price, and we can't help but worry that poor user experiences like these are only going to hurt Android's reputation in the longer term.

[via Android Community]