Teclast X89HD: iambillbil Hardware Evaluation

Tablet wonk iambillbil offers part two of his evaluation of the Teclast X89HD Android edition tablet in a locked post at IMP3Net [Google Translate].

I’m registered there and can see the hidden content.

Part one of his evaluation was covered in this post.

Contrary to part one, the Teclast X89HD does have a bright screen (damn you, Google Translate!). Brightness levels compared:

When the screen is all-white at its lowest brightness setting, iambillbil says you’ll need goggles, it’s that bright.

This could be a dealbreaker for some, it has only five-point multitouch:

Sound quality and speaker volume are good, boot time is typical for this latest-generation of tablets (only Rockchip 3288 is faster), internal read/write speeds are slower than the 9.7-inch X98 3G but still among the fastest for tablets, and a microSD card sits flush and is correctly identified as 64GBs with FAT32:

It looks like the Intel Z3735D is running full-out at 1.8GHz …

… that would account for the heat being generated! Interestingly, iambillbil says there’s about a 5-10% speed increase over the 9.7-inch X98 3G.

On the other hand, due to its smaller antenna, WiFi is a bit less powerful than with the X98 3G but is considered “ordinary.”

Incredibly, it has a higher Geekbench score than the new Rockchip 3288-based iFive Mini 4:

Battery life and heat are a problem, and even dimming the backlight won’t help much when playing video. The entire tablet will get hot and in one of his tests, the battery played just three hours of video. Expected use at (if I’m reading Google Translate correctly) about one-fourth brightness would be about four and a half hours. Battery life is a weak point, compared to other iPad Mini clones running Android. Since the Wintel combo knows how to dynamically allocate the CPU, he estimates battery life would be about six hours for the Windows 8.1 edition.

There’s no HDMI-out, but wireless display (WiDi; Miracast-compatible) works well and is smooth.

No surprises regarding Bluetooth and GPS. (Note that GPS will probably not be supported in the Windows edition.)

There’s no Compass, no radio, no gyroscope, no light sensor.

As for RAM speed, I’ll just quote the Google Translate:

06. Situation Taipower x89HD memory.

x86 architecture, memory speed is very good and charming, basically throughput speeds can reach 8441MB / s,

K1’s memory speed of about 2788,

a80 memory speeds around 3944,

x89 3g of 3735 about 7666 memory speed.

3288 of about 4888 ddr3 memory, memory ddr2 3288 of about 1966

Taipower x89HD called super-fast hardware memory speeds, this aspect can obviously feel the power of a new generation of x86 architecture.

That concludes his hardware evaluation. Surprisingly, he didn’t use his thermal sensor on the tablet to record a temperature measurement as he sometimes does. (Maybe he thought the reading would be too scary?)

If he continues this evaluation, the next post will be a performance evaluation, where he runs all of the benchmarks. But since he ran Geekbench in this one, maybe this was just a two-parter.

So, this seems rather disappointing for a tablet I’ve had high hopes for. The short battery life and heat of the Android edition wasn’t something I ever expected. Would it be possible for Teclast and Intel to offer a firmware update that better controls the CPU and lessens heat? I don’t know.

Previously here:

Teclast X89HD: iambillbil Appearance Evaluation
Teclast X89HD: iambillbil Preview
iambillbil Teases Teclast X89HD Evaluation
Teclast Android X89HD Can Flash To Windows 8.1
Teclast Adds Android-Only X89HD To Their English-Language Site
Teclast X89HD With Windows: Sales Begin July 23rd
Teclast Adds Windows-Only X89HD To Their Site
Official: Teclast X89HD On Sale July 18th
Teclast X89HD On Sale July 18th
Teclast Adds X89HD To Their Site
Teclast X89HD: More Information
Teclast Announces X89HD Intel-Based iPad Mini Clone