The Karbonn Smart Tab 8 Velox comes for a price of Rs. 7,290 and is powered by a dual core processor with Mali 400 GPU running on Jelly Bean OS. The tap also sports an 8 inch screen with dual cameras and even has Bluetooth.
Velox Box pack
Inside the box you will find the tablet, USB to mini USB cable, USB to mini USB OTG cable, user manual and Karbonn service center list.
Design
I got the grey version. The tab looks sleek and has a 4:3 aspect ratio (square). All the buttons / ports are placed on the left side. There is mini USB port and HDMI out port too. The rear side also looks more professional.
Processor, Memory and Storage
The Karbonn smart tab 8 or ST8 comes powered by a dual core Amlogic Meson6 G05-n1b CPU clocked at 1.5GHz. The tab comes with 1GB RAM of which 515MB is free. Of the 915 MB space allocated for apps, 45MB is used and 870MB is free. Another 1.51GB is available as internal storage of which 1.45GB is free. There is micro SD card slot that can house 32GB card.
8 inch Display
The display looks really good with 1024×720 pixels resolution. If you look closely at the display under the tube light you will see lot of small squares on the screen which infact are sensor points, but are easily visible when screen is switched off.
There is a thin screen guard for added protection, but it is not scratch resistant and I think it causes issues with touch sensitivity. For now I am still using with the screen guard intact. The touch is not so smooth as experienced on other tablets and phones. I enabled the show touches option from developer option in settings and found that the touch is a little out of place on the (Whole) top bar (where the battery and time is). At time it works and at times it does not.
Sometimes the touch also does not get registered. This issue could be cause of the screen guard or the way we are handling the tab. I will update on this in few days when I use it more.
The viewing angle is no good. When viewed from the left side (angle : left side is near and right is away) you can clearly see the screen, but if you do the same from the right side (angle : right side tab near and left is away) you will see dark spots and screen not visible.
Under direct sunlight the screen is rarely visible even with full brightness and you can clearly see tiny squares on the screen.
Connectivity
Wi-Fi works great the range is also as good as seen on other tabs / handset. There is built in Bluetooth and I could connect my stereo Bluetooth headset the iball BTHS05 which worked really great with stereo output.
External 3G dongle is supported and you can use 3G / 2G networks. You will need to check with Karbonn for list of dongle that will work.
When downloading heavy files using Wi-Fi the tab goes into sleep mode after few minutes and the download will stop to avoid this in developer option enable stay awake.
Multimedia
Because of dual speakers the sound is not only louder than as compared with other tablets in the same category, but the sound quality is also really good. You even get a mild bass effect. As mentioned you can connect stereo Bluetooth device too. The Karbonn Smart tab 8 can play 1080p movies with ease.
Performance
The benchmark score are pretty good.
- Quadrant Benchmark : 3894.
- Antutu Benchmark : 9771.
- Nenamark2 : 41.9 fps.
- Linpack : Single : 52, Multi: 83.
- Multi Touch: 5 point.
App installation
The apps are stored on the internal storage (1.51GB).
Gaming
G-Sensors work well there are few pre-installed games and all did well, no lags. Gaming should not be an issue as its with Mali 400 GPU and we already seen many high end games run easily on such hardware. I will come up with a gaming video soon. The tab does get heated up when playing games.
Camera
There are dual cameras a front VGA and rear 3MP fixed focus. 3MP resolution is not that good but you have this rear camera option, good for sharing pics online. You can check the sample images here – http://www.flickr.com/photos/gogirana/sets/72157632553879457/
4500mAh battery
The battery seems really good, there was enough juice left even after the review. I have now fully re-charged and will update about the battery performance within a day or two. But so far the battery seems promising.
Charging : No issues with screen when using the battery charger. The Tab can also be charged using the USB to mini USB cable when connected to PC. Battery takes a lot of time to charge. From 5 to 41% it took 5 hours – will update more on this.
Karbonn Smart Tab 8 review
For Rs. 7,290 it is the best you can get. Its with dual core processor, bigger screen at 8 inches, higher resolution, Bluetooth support and excellent battery life. The touch screen is not smooth but I guess it could be the screen guard, apart from that an excellent device for the price.
Image Gallery
Karbonn Smart Tab 8 unboxing and review
Gaming video
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