Finally got the hand’s on with the Wammy Athena a 9.7 inch IPS tablet with dual core processor running on the latest Jelly Bean OS (Android 4.1). This tablet comes for a price of about Rs. 14,300.
Wammy Athena box pack
The box pack with the Green theme colour (same as on the Wicked leak logo) contains – the Tablet, USB to Micro USB cable, OTG cable, user manual and battery charger. There are no earphones included in the box pack.
Design
The tab does look big especially if you are using it for the first time. The front part is plain, simple, and elegant. There are no buttons on the front side (except for a front 2MP camera) which further makes it look more attractive. The tablet does weight a bit more than the 7 inch version (of course for its size). However it is quite slim and pretty comfortable to hold. Though being a 9.7 inch screen you might want to use both hands.
There are no buttons on left, top and bottom sides. On the right side there is the ESC button (I have yet to figure out what it does) and volume rockers. Apart from this there is a 3.5 mm jack, DC in, (Micro USB + HDMI + Micro SD card slot) all these packed inside a small compartment with a covering (check the image gallery).
The rear side is plain white with Wickedleak logo in the center and 2MP camera along with power button. Yes the power button is placed on the rear side.
Under the hood
The Athena runs on a 1.6 GHz cortex A9 dual core processor (Rockchip – RK30board) with Mail 400 GPU. The icing in the cake is the Jelly bean OS. The RAM is 1GB DDR3 with 16GB internal storage.
Of the 16GB internal storage, 1GB is allocated for apps and about 13GB for user storage. There is a micro SD slot that can hold 32GB card.
Performance
The tab is amazingly fast. I could feel it when installing the apps. The text rendering in browser is also pretty smooth. The JB (Jelly Bean) OS is similar to ICS with some minor enhancements like you can resize the widgets , etc. The JB OS is also pretty smooth. I tried playing regular games which worked well. ASPHalt 6 worked well but the G-sensors went crazy (a common issue with this game). Next I tried shadow Gun (I used to test with Allwinner CPU / mali 400) which did start but when initiating a new game it would come back to the shadown gun home screen not sure if its compatibility issue with JB.
The 1080p movies play really smooth and delight to watch on a bigger screen. The volume I found it to be lower than the other tablets I have used. Probably it could be an issue with this review unit and Wickedleak might have already fixed the low volume bug. The sound quality on earphones is really good – Do note that you do not get any earphones with this tablet.
When charging via power adapter the touch goes crazy. The power adapter that I got with 7 inch tab did not work with this tab, may be it requires more power. Also the tab does not charge when connected to PC via USB cable.
The quadrant benchmark score = 4107
The Antutu score = 5129
Display
The 9.7 inch IPS capacitive touchscreen supports 5 point multi touch. The viewing angle I found to be average not so good, could be cause of the big screen size. The supported resolution is 1024×768 pixels. The touch is smooth / responsive and a much better experience (you get more space) as compared with a 7 inch tabs.
Connectivity
There is no built in 3G but you can use supported dongle, in addition there is Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. The Bluetooth was not mentioned in the initial press released. But yes there is, now.
Athena Camara
The are in fact two cameras. A 2MP placed on the rear side and a 2MP placed on the front side. The camera quality is average nothing too great to talk about. If you are using Skype video chat the quality will be much better than as seen on the VGA cameras.
Battery
The 8000 mAh li-ion battery gives a usage time of about 6 hours on a full charge.
Wammy Athena review
A powerful tablet with a smoother touch experience and a big brighter screen. The dual core performs exceptionally well as seen from the benchmark score. You will immediately notice the difference if you have used any single core tab before. The OS is relatively new and some of the apps / games may not work due to compatible issue, a very rare chance. Most of the games however do work.
If you apply pressure on the rear side, especially in the center with your fingers you can see the impression on the front touchscreen (check the video review). This is normal and happens on most big screen tablets.
The tablet is best suited for users who read ebooks, playing games, watching movies and for those who surf a lot. The price may be on a higher side but its 9.7 inches with dual core processor and Bluetooth. The tab does get heated up (mildly) specially on the rear right side when used continuously.
Wammy Athena Key Features and Specifications
- Dual core (1.5GHz) + Mali 400 GPU.
- Android Jelly Bean (Android 4.1).
- 1GB DDR3 RAM, 16GB internal storage (1GB for app, 13GB for storage) and MicroSD card up to 32GB.
- 9.7 inch IPS capacitive touchscreen with 1024*768 resolution.
- External 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, HDMI, 3.5mm jack and micro USB.
- Dual cameras front and rear 2MP.
- 8000 mAh battery.
Image Gallery
Wammy Athena unboxing and review video
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