The new ASUS MeMO Pad 8(ME581CL) was launched in last year, which is a successor to the previous model ME180A. The new MeMO Pad 8 has some amazing upgrades as compared to its predecessor. Let’s take a in-depth review and find out if this device is worth your money.
Design
ASUS MeMO Pad 8 has a glossy back consisting of multiple layers made up using NVCM(Non-Conductive Vacuum Metalizing) technology. The MeMO Pad weighs only 299g and is 7.5mm in thickness. You can easily use the device for hours without any troubles as it is light in weight and easy to hold. On the front it has simple look with a ASUS logo at the bottom of the screen. It comes in three colors white, pink and blue. On the right you have the volume rockers ,power button, SIM card slot and a microphone may be secondary. On the top you have the headphone jack with Micro SD card slot on the left. The micro USB port is at the bottom of the MeMO pad and speaker grill on the back. Along with it you have ASUS logo with a NFC label just below it. In all the design is decent and the device doesn’t feel cheap in your hands.
Display
Asus MeMO Pad comes with an 8 inch IPS display having screen resolution of 1200×1920 pixels which counts upto 283ppi. This is an upgrade if we compare it to the previous model which had a resolution of 800×1280 pixels. The device has highly sensitive fluid display which makes it possible to write using any pen or pencil with a tip radius of 0.75mm or above.The screen is protected by corning gorilla glass 3 which avoids any fine scratches and screen damage. The touch is very smooth and the screen is covered with a anti-fingerprint coating that prevents fingerprint marks. The viewing angles are just great which makes it a good device to watch movie together with your friends and family. It has a 10 point multi-touch display. ASUS has done a great job in terms of screen so you can consider it a heads up in this feature.
Performance
The ASUS MeMO Pad 8 has a 64 bit Intel Atom Z3580 quad core processor clocked at 1.83 Ghz. It comes with 2GB of RAM and 16/32 GB variants in internal storage. We faced no lag while multitasking and heavy usage due to the amazing hardware present on the device. Coming to the graphics it has PowerVR G6430 GPU which does an amazing job of running high-end games on the device. The device heats up from the back while playing high graphic games. But overall the device performs great in terms of gaming and heavy usage. The tablet has Android 4.4.2 Kitkat installed out of the box and currently there is no news of lollipop update. On the operating side, it has Zen UI installed and there are some pre-installed applications which comes along with the tablet. The Antutu Benchmark score for MeMO Pad 8 was 40837 which was above MI3 and below S5 and other high end devices.
Camera, Sound and Connectivity
ASUS MeMO pad 8 has 5MP rear camera with a resolution of 2592×1944 pixels. The auto and touch to focus works really fast and accurate in this tablet. Front camera is of 1.2MP which is capable of clicking decent selfie. With good light conditions you can click some nice snaps. Coming to the video recording, you can record full HD video with this device. The camera App for ASUS has many features that you can use to enhance your picture quality according to the condition.
The MeMO Pad 8 has dual stereo speakers at the back side of the tablet. The sound from these speakers is loud and clear that would make your movie watching experience even better.
Coming to connectivity, ASUS MeMO Pad 8 has 4G LTE support and it has a GSM SIM card tray at the right side. Along with that we have GPS, Bluetooth v4.0, Wifi and NFC so that you can stay connected all the time. The device supports USB OTG feature and we tried connecting a USB drive to it which worked fine.
The device has a non-removable Li-Po battery which can last up to 9 hours according to ASUS. We tested and found that it lasted for the same with above normal usage. You also get some nice features like the dual Apps and reading mode with MeMO Pad 8. The dual Apps was a bit laggy when used with Apps that require internet connection, but its a very useful feature. You can also use Miracast to stream videos and other content directly to your TV.
Pricing and availability
It all comes down to the pricing where the tablet is a bit over priced. It would be launched for Rs.19,999 and would be exclusively through Flipkart. The device comes with 1 year manufacturer warranty. We are getting in touch with Asus to find out when the device will be available, till then stay tuned.
Do let us know if you would go for this high-end device or not through the comment section below.
