Tablet Wars: Asus FonePad 3G versus Nexus 7 with 3G

Asus launched its 7-inch FonePad in India yesterday but they also manufacturer of the Nexus 7, the official Google 7-inch tablet. We take a quick look at how the two devices compare.

Processor and Speed: The Asus FonePad comes with an Intel Atom Z2420 processor clocked at 1.2GHz and it has a PowerVR SGX540 for Graphics. The processor is single core, hyperthreaded, which means that the cores are divided virtually. The tablet has got some negative feedback in terms of processing speed. According to IBN-Live review, multitasking was easy on the app, but the tablet seemed to slow down while playing games graphic-intensive games. Even playing ‘Temple Run 2’ on the device was not a good experience.

As far as the Nexus 7 is concerned it has a 1.3GHz Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core processor, which includes a 12-core GPU. The Nexus 7 reviews have largely been positive in terms of its processing speed, with critics claiming that this was one amazingly fast tablet.

Price and Storage space: Since this is the most important factor for a lot of people, when considering a tablet, the Nexus 7 with 3G and 32 GB space costs Rs 21,900. The device has 1GB RAM.The Nexus 7 does not have space for a MicroSD slot.

The Asus FonePad costs Rs 15,999, however the tablet only has 8GB space, and according to IBN-Live only 4.39 GB is user-accessible. The tablet does have a Micro-SD slot with 32GB as the limit. The FonePad also has 1GB RAM. The device supports 3G as well.

OS: The Nexus 7 runs pure Google OS, the Android Jelly Bean 4.2 version. Also, when Google launches the next version of Android, which will be out in May this year at its I/O conference, you won’t have to wait forever for the update.

The ASUS FonePad also runs Android Jelly Bean but the 4.1 version. It’s not clear when the device will receive a 4.2 update. However Asus’ device also supports voice calls and if you don’t mind using a 7-inch device as a phone, you can consider this.

Screen and camera: The Asus FonePad has a screen resolution of 1280x800 with LED Backlight and In Panel Switching (IPS). The screen supports 10 finger multi-touch. It has a 1.2 megapixel front camera, with 720p video recording and a 3 megapixel rear camera with auto-focus, and 720p video recording.

The Nexus 7 has a 1.2 megapixel front camera but no rear camera. The Nexus 7 has a  1,280x800 pixel resolution screen and IPS. The screen for the Nexus 7 has been voted one of the best in terms of clarity.