Kogan Agora 7 Tablet Computer

The Kogan Agora is a budget Tablet that misses out on Androids best tablet features but still manages to offers users a little bit of everything.

Physical

The Agora 7 tablet computer looks like it’s made of a thick slab of stiff budget plastic, it feels cheap too. At 7.56 x 4.76 x 0.48inches for Width, Depth, and Height respectively, and weighing 390g, the Agora 7 is perfectly sized for a tablet of this screen size. What it does miss however, is the build quality found on tablets like the Galaxy Tab 7 or the Toshiba Thrive and comparing the Agora 7 to some the market leading tablets like the Apple iPad or Samsung Galaxy 10.1 is a lost cause. There’s simply no basis for comparison externally. The Agora 7 is roughly about $300 cheaper than these top of the range tablets, so it’s very much worth looking at.

Unboxing the Agora 7 tablet pc reveals a screen surrounded by a black bezel. Somewhere beside the screen and along the bezel is a front facing web camera for taking self-portraits or video conferencing. Surrounding the Agora 7 tablet on its side are ports, and connection interfaces which are detailed below.

You get the usual Android navigation buttons, but the Agora’s navigation buttons aren’t in the best places. You get a single silver back button facing the user at an awkward location that sees it on the same side as the web camera instead of on the opposite side, and then the Home and Menu keys are a combined rocker switch along the sides. To crown it all, the Agora has no volume button which is a bit strange as to adjust the volume you’d have to make use of software keys visible on the home screen and in the default music player. If you have to switch up the volume while playing a game for example, you’d have to switch windows to the home screen, and then toggle the software keys. It’s little inconveniences like these that turn off Koran’s admirers who can afford a more expensive option.

Screen

The Kogan Agora 7 tablet computer features a 7” capacitive touch display. Unlike much of the budget tablet competition that offer resistive screens, the Agora packs in a capacitive screen which are generally a good thing, but that’s not always the case as is evident on the Agora 7.

The watered down 800 x 480 resolution means things appear more pixilated than the average user is probably used to seeing. Most tablet screens this size have a resolution of at least 1024 x 600 and even on such devices, the pixels remain clearly visible. The screen is obviously a cheaper capacitive display to put cost down but it cheap in this case comes at the detriment of quality visuals.

The screen lacks color depth with colors often appearing faded and the black looks more grayish. Viewing angle is also poor and anything wider than 30 degrees simply ruins the experience. Finally, because the screen is deeply recessed beneath the protective glass, you may have to be more forceful as light finger taps only result in a hit or miss experience.

Cameras

The only camera on the Agora 7 is a front-facing 2 megapixel camera. It takes videos and photos but camera quality is really poor with noisy videos, and pictures are worse off than you’d expect a 2MP camera on any portable device to deliver.

It gets the job done at very least.

Network Connections, Ports and Audio

Connecting to the internet is only possible over Wi-Fi b/g networks as there’s no 3G modem on the Agora 7. Available ports are HDMI® video output, 1 x USB port, 1 x microSD slot, headphone jack, microphone, and external speakers. Audio quality from the speakers isn’t that good but again, this is a budget tablet and using low quality hardware may be the only to make the needed cost savings.

Processor & Storage

The Agora 7 tablet computer uses a 1GHz Cortex A8 single core processor with 512MB internal memory and 4GB internal storage. It supports additional storage through an SD slot with microSD cards up to 32GB supported. There’s also a graphic processing unit (name withheld) that runs at 200MHz.

Battery Life

With a battery that delivers up to 3600mAh, battery life on this tablet device should be better than it is. Videos and light web surfing lead to a completely drained battery after only 3 hours. To further ruin things the Agora 7 can’t be charged via the USB port, meaning you have to carry the power cable wherever you go, and that it can’t be plugged into a laptop or computer for some juice.

Software

The Agora 7 runs Android Gingerbread 2.3 and unlike several budget tablets, it retains the standard Android UI though with a little modification here and there – such as the software volume keys on the home screen we already mentioned. The Android marketplace provides access to the hundreds of thousands of apps available which is a good thing.

Summary

The Agora 7 is a budget tablet that simply delivers what you pay for. What it lacks in features or build quality, it makes up in price. This tablet pc doesn’t offer the best user experience neither does it possess killer specs, but it does come with the latest Android OS (albeit designed for smartphones but still usable) and users at least can get to watch high-definition videos up to 1080p, as well as stream video to an HDTV through the HDMI port, surf the web over Wi-Fi, or download Android games from the app store, in addition to being able to perform several other tasks expected on the barest minimum of tablet devices.

To summarize, it’s not the perfect experience but when searching for a tablet that’s dead-cheap and still usable, the Agora 7 is your best bet.