Nextbook Premium 8 HD Tablet Review

Nextbook Premium 8 HD Tablet Review

Introduction

The tech industry has been seeing a shift over the past few years away from the desktop PC and toward the mobile market, due in part to the wild popularity of tablet PCs. This has allowed for companies to start putting a lot more money toward mobile devices, giving us performance that will be on par with many desktops before too long.

Today we are taking a look at the Nextbook Premium 8 HD tablet, which focuses less on being on the blistering edge of performance, and more on affordability. You get a 1.5 GHz dual-core processor, 1 GB of RAM, an 8-inch 1024×768 screen, 8GB of internal storage which can be expanded with an SD card, front and rear cameras, and an HDMI-out port, all for around $100. Read on to find out how well it performs.

 Features

• Capacitive Touch Screen and Front Camera – The NX008HD8G is equipped a 8” HD Capacitive touch screen technology for smoother operation. With resolution of 1024×768 pixel, you can be sure of the crispy sharp images. It also comes ready with front and rear facing cameras to capture that special moment wherever you are!
• Google Android OS 4.1 and Flash 10.2 – The NX008HD8G is preloaded with the Google’s powerful Linux-based Android operating system Jelly Bean 4.1 designed specifically for mobile devices. It supports Adobe Flash 10.2. You can play, listen and surf and never miss a beat!
• WIFI & MicroSD card compatible, and OTA – Your NX008HD8G comes with built-in WIFI 802.11 b/g/n, you can surf the World Wide Web faster than ever. Your new NX008HD8G is also equipped with 8GB flash memory that can support up to 32GB with Micro SD card slot. With new OTA capability, you will be automatically prompted when new updates are available for update.
• Embedded Bookstore App, Google Play store and many more – The NX008HD8G is preloaded with a Bookstore application NOOK^® for Android™ by Barnes & Noble(USA Users) & Kobo(Canadian Users), which gives you the ability to buy eBooks directly online without the need of a computer connection. More Apps include the Google Play Store, Astro File Manager, Advanced Task Killer and Office Suite Viewer.

Specifications

Packaging and Accessories

Like the Premium 7 SE before it, the Premium 8 HD’s box is pretty bland. You get a little bit of information on the front and some key specs and features on the back.

In the box, aside from the tablet itself, you get the standard stuff, manual, quick start guide, charger, and USB cable. A nice addition however is the soft-pouch that Nextbook also includes. It won’t protect from a drop or anything, but it will at least help keep down the scratches.

Closer Look

The unit itself has an 8 inch screen with a relatively low resolution of just 1024 x 768. Here we also see the equally low-res front facing camera which offers up a mere 0.3 MP.

Along the top edge we have the power button, headphone jack, charging port, USB port, SD card slot, and finally the HDMI out port.
The only button/port not on the top edge is the volume rocker which is on the right edge.

Around back we see some model information in the lower-left corner as well as the rear-facing camera which unfortunately is only 2 MP.

General Use

For internal storage the Premium 8 HD boasts 8GB, but after everything is said and done, you end up with only 5.6 GB out of the box. Luckily a microSD card is supported if more space is needed.

As you can see from the next two pictures, this Nextbook comes with Jellybean installed, which is more than can be said for many other cheap tablets.

The layout and apps are going to be familiar for anyone who owns an Android device and thankfully Nextbook kept the bloatware to a minimum. The one or two pre-installed apps that you won’t need can be easily uninstalled if they bother you too much.

Despite the poor numbers, brightness and screen clarity weren’t too bad when you are actually using it. The low resolution wasn’t really noticeable unless you were directly comparing it with a high-res tablet. Brightness wasn’t that great either. Indoors you won’t have any issues, but bring it outside and you are going to struggle seeing anything clearly.

Because of the old-school TN panel screen, viewing angle is poor. Moving the screen any amount out of direct line of sight will make a noticeable difference, and anything past about 45 degrees is just unviewable.

Video

Because the screen has a 4:3 aspect ratio when most videos today are 16:9, there are going to be large black borders around everything which really cuts down on actual viewable space. HD Youtube videos play smooth and look fine, despite the low screen resolution.

The HDMI port worked just fine displaying 1080p video to my TV. Thanks to the upgraded hardware, this model doesn’t lag on the tablet itself and is instead smooth on both the device and the TV.

Audio

Speaker quality was pretty terrible as you might imagine from a low cost device. The sound is tinny and weak, barely getting loud enough to be useful. The bottom line is that you probably wouldn’t want to be using the built-in speakers.

Thankfully the sound quality is fantastic through the headphone jack. Plug in a pair of decent earbuds and you will be able to watch you favorite movie in even fairly noisy environments.

Battery Life

Battery life has been improved quite a bit from the previous model, giving me about 5-6 hours on a full charge depending on brightness and how much gaming I do. 5-6 hours still isn’t that great compared to many other tablets, but it is still a usable amount.

Benchmarks

Our benchmark results actually turned out better than I expected, seeing as the last model came in dead last in everything. In the AnTuTu benchmark we scored a 12611 which lands us firmly between the Galaxy S2 and One X.

The Vellamo benchmark has two tests, HTML5 performance, and “Metal” which is heavily CPU dependent. In Metal the Premium 8 HD scored a 424 putting us essentially between a Galaxy S2 and S3. In the HTML5 benchmark it scored 1214 points, putting it just above the S2 but quite a ways behind the S3.

These numbers aren’t too bad and this performance translates over into the real-world as well, giving smooth gameplay and web browsing during all of my testing.

Final Thoughts

Pros:

• Low price
• Jellybean with Google Play Store
• SD card slot
• HDMI out

Cons:

• Low-res screen with poor viewing angle
• Worthless speaker
• Low-res cameras

Overall the Nextbook Premium 8 HD is what you would expect from a low-end tablet. You get the essentials, and it’s still a fully functional, completely usable tablet, but that’s about it. Don’t expect the bells and whistles here. The screen isn’t great but it’s good enough for the average user, you get an up to date version of Android, SD expandability, and HDMI out. The key here is that the price is right at only $100. A well-known name-brand tablet will cost $70-100 more.

If you are looking for budget tablet and are willing to trade quality and features for savings, then the Premium 8 HD would be worth checking out.