UPDATE: Since we have reviewed this tablet we have learned that the product may be a faulty one, the company is sending us out another one so that we can review again. We have mentioned about the touchscreen being unresponsive and this review will be either updated or re-wrote dependent on new tablet coming. If this tablet is faulty that we reviewed then this review below “won’t reflect a realistic consumer experience”.
We have been sent the Disgo 8104 Android tablet and we will be giving it our full hands-on review, before we get into the review we would like to let you know that this was tested whilst on holiday in Crete, Greece. My name is Mark Chubb and here goes with the review, we hope it helps you decide if this is the tablet for you or not.
Introduction
The Disgo 8104 Android tablet runs on the Ice Cream Sandwich operating system and one of the first Android tablets to do so, it comes with a 10.1-inch touchscreen offering 1024 x 600 pixel resolution and 1.2 GHz Boxchip Cortex A8 ARM processor with Mali 400 GPU, we will let you know more about its key features etc below. This is an affordable tablet for those that have no wish to spend lots of money (Pricing listing below); the low price has its setbacks.
The press release we were sent mentions that it comes with “Disgo apps”, which is indeed true and that means it lacks Google Play Store, the release also mentions that Disgo apps has access to 1000’s of Android application, which is most definitely NOT true as we only found 19, if you can correct us on this then feel free to do so.
In the Box
In the box you will get the Disgo 8104 Android tablet, Quick start guide, Power adaptor and a USB cable.
First Impressions & The Design
The box the tablet comes in is of quality letting you know that something nice is within, the tablet itself looks very good indeed with a nice feel to it. Nothing really special to look at but it is like most other standard tablets, it is a budget tablet and in that sense it has been built with plastics but yet not too flimsy. The price shown below says that you get a decent design value, the Disgo 8104 has widescreen viewing and in pure sunlight hitting 36 degrees hot in Crete the screen was not brilliant to watch, but then what tablet is?
The design in our eyes is no-where near the quality of the Apple iPad, but come on the price difference between the two explains this out loud. We like the overall feel in our hands, the buttons all over the tablet are useful and the slots provided such as Mini-HDMI output and mirco-SD is a high advantage.
The Key Features
10.1-inch touchscreen offering 1024 x 600 pixel resolution, Android 4.03 operating system, 4GB onboard storage expandable to 36GB with mirco-SD, 512MB DDR3 system memory, 6500mAh Li-ion battery for up to 5 hours use, 1.2 GHz Boxchip Cortex A8 ARM processor with Mali 400 GPU, it also comes with Stereo speakers, Mini-HDMI output to monitor or TV, Access to popular social feeds such as Facebook & Twitter, Front facing camera, apps such as Skype, 3.5mm headphone out and built in microphone, WIFI capability and Media viewing.
The Positives
Very cheap and highly affordable, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich OS, nice size screen at 10.1-inch, sorry that is all the positives.
The Negatives
It does not come with Google Play, and the worst part is the unresponsive screen, which really does test your patience.
Phones Review Overall Summary
This is not going to be good, after about 3 days use in Crete it got put back in the box never to be used again, we are being a little harsh but the touchscreen has to be one of the most annoying we have ever used to date. You really do have to press firmly on the screen to get any response out of it, and typing anything using the on-screen keyboard is even more tiresome. Very disappointed that it lacks Google Play access icon in favour of Disgo Apps, come on do you really think 19 apps is a way forward or are we missing something?
Google Play has over 500,000 apps and Disgo Apps has only 19 when we last looked, you get a camera on the front but nothing on the back, but that is reasonable. It only has 4GB on-board memory but you can jump up to 32GB thanks to the card slot, lucky it has this or storing movies would have been a problem. We personally believe the battery is not good enough with only 5 hours; we played music non-stop on one particular day and only got 4 hours 16 minutes.
Ok, yes Disgo has provided an Android tablet for around £150, but it comes with a few bad features such as mentioned above that would stop us buying one. The worst is the unresponsive touchscreen, which really started to get frustrating. We have to be totally honest to our readers and we know this is harsh but we would not recommend the Disgo 8104 Android tablet, we are so sorry Disgo.
We put the Disgo tablet next to the iPad 1 just to show you size difference
Where to Buy and Price
The Disgo Tablet 8104 is priced at around £149.99 and available from May at Play.com, Amazon.co.uk and other good retailers. For further information about disgo please visit www.mydisgo.co.uk
Tablet with iPhone 4 and HTC Desire HD to give you size comparison
More Hands-On Photos (Pictures were not taken in Crete, these were done before starting holiday)
