Asus ZenPad 8.0 (Z380KL) Hands On Review

When someone ask me for a calling tablet then the first name which came into my mind is Asus FonePad (Asus FonePad FE171CG Review), company has launched this calling tablet series couple of years back and still they are doing well in this segment, FonePad comes with good set of hardware’s which you need in a tablet and on top of all it allows you to make calls from it.

Recently company has launched more premier version of its calling tablet, the ZenPad, Asus has launched three different version of these tablets and we got Asus ZenPad 8.0, we are playing with this tablet from couple of weeks and here is our review of it.

Video Review Of Asus ZenPad 8.0 :-

InBox Contents :-

There is nothing extra in box when you open it, there is only :-

• Asus ZenPad
• USB cable
• Wall Charger, and
• Manuals

Build And Design Of Asus ZenPad 8.0 :-

When it comes to design and build quality, then its far more premium than FonePad series of calling tablet, ZenPad 8 has much better build and design than FonePad. It seems now Asus wants to go more specific with his products, company has Zen series of smartphone’s and now they came up with en series of tablet as well.

However when it comes to build and design, both ZenFone and ZenPad are totally different, there is no off-screen buttons on tablet, there is no metal chin below your buttons, and there is no curved back panel. There is a metal rim which runs all across its body and it do gives a nice and premium look to the device.

When it comes to connectivity and ports the on right side you will find volume rockers followed by your power and sleep buttons, these are plastic buttons and will give good feedback over the usage. At bottom you have nothing just a primary mic, left is clean as well.

At top you will find your 3.5mm audio jack along with your Micro USB port for charging and data transfer.

At back of this device you will find a plastic back panel which can be removed, it has got rough finish and looks like a leather back panel from far allthough its not. There is an 8MP rear camera at back without any flash, just like we had seen on FonePad, when you remove your back panel you will get access to your SIM slot along with Micro SD card slot and connector for your audio or power cover.

Company is selling audio cover separately, thanks to the connector placed under the back panel, cover does not require any pairing and it has got DTS-tuned speaker and it do gives a rich audio experience while watching movies, however as this cover has got battery and speakers so its going to make your tablet more bulky and you will feel like holding a dairy.

Cover also got magnetic sensors which will unlock your tablet when flip it, thanks to the texture finish which provides nice grip to it.

The front of Asus ZenPad 8 is mostly occupied by its 8 inch IPS display, at top of screen you will find your 2Mp front facing camera along with sensors and nice metallic earpiece which will also works as your speakers, below display you have your on screen buttons.

Hardware And Specs Of Asus ZenPad 8.0 :-

When it comes to under the hood features then Asus ZenPad 8.0 is powered by 1.4GHz Octa-Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 SoC along with 2GB of RAM and comes with 16GB of internal storage which can be expandable via micro SD card, for connectivity it has got WiFi, Bluetooth, LTE, GPS and Micro USB.

Software Of Asus ZenPad 8.0 :-

If you had used any of Asus recently launched tablet or smartphone in recent time then there is nothing much to talk about here, it runs on Android 5 lollipop out of the box which is wrapped under companies own ZenUI which completely changes the UI of stock android, we were expecting company to add some extra features for tablet but they didn’t and the UI is exactly the same which we had seen on ZenFone’s.

ZenUI comes with lots of pre-installed apps or you can say bloatware’s which are not something which you like or going to use but still they will occupy space on your device which you might have used in some other way.

Camera Of Asus ZenPad 8.0 :-

Asus ZenPad 8.0 comes with 8MP rear camera which is capable of recording FHD videos, I never take images from my tablet and that’s why i never expect companies to put high end camera’s in tablet, although I do want companies to provide a front facing camera which allows me to do nice video calling.

The 8MP shooter at back is capable of taking decent images but the images taken with rear snapper are not that much great which you might be expecting from an 8MP camera, colors looks decent not great and there are some level of noise as well, when you zoom into image then you will see colors are fading out as well, same goes with front facing camera, images taken with front camera again lacks details and we would say its just okay for video calling.

Camera app of Asus ZenPad 8.0 is the same which we had seen on other Asus devices and it do comes with some nice modes like HDR, Manual, and so on, this camera is also capable of recording times lapse or slow motion videos.

Audio Cover For Asus ZenPad 8.0 :-

Company is offering some cool accessories for this ZenPad 8.0 and one of them is the audio cover, its very simple to use it, all you need to do is remove plastic back panel and in place of it attach your audio cover and thanks to the connector placed on audio cover it will be connected without any pairing to be done by you.

It has DTS-tuned, and provide 5.1 surround sound experience while watching movies or playing games on it. It provides a very rich audio experience and if you love watching movies or love to listen music on tablet then you will love it for sure.

Thanks to the cover, you can use it as stand and while using it like that way speakers will face you and audio will come directly to you and gives a very rich audio which you will enjoy for sure.

Final Verdict On Asus ZenPad 8.0 :-

We are living in an era when smartphone’s are becoming bigger and now they are being called phablet, tablet is one category which is dying, however there is still some place for calling tablets who wants bigger display device to do work on the got but cant carry two devices at the same time.

Asus ZenPad 8.0 is something which has got style and good specs to satisfy your needs, its build quality is good and support some cool accessories like audio cover which makes it one of the best media device at this price tag.

However the display of this device could be full HD as its an 8 inch device, and another issue is its pre-installed apps which takes lots of space on it.