Herotab M10 Gets A Closer Inspection

If you’re a fan of the iPad but are looking for something running Android and cheaper there is a good chance you’ll want to take a close look at the Herotab M10. We gave it our own unofficial “Best iPad Clone for 2010” award based on the creators “Apple-like” attention to design detail; but what’s the actual performance like?

Pros:

-4:3 aspect ratio is great for web surfing and apps, if you like an iPad sized device this is pretty much it to a T
-Capacitive multitouch screen is beautiful and responsive
-Browsing performance is very good
-Video performance is good at 720p and below (still no killer 1080p performance yet)
-3D Gaming experience looks and feels quite good
-5400 mAh battery is one of the biggest we've seen at this price range (it won't last as long as the iPad but much longer than most shanzhai tablets)
-Good 360 degree accelerometer performance
-IO is covered/protected
-Android 2.2 OS 
-Looks A LOT like an iPad for the status conscious cheapskate ;)

Cons:

-Sofa surfing size and less portable than other tablets (feels like it weighs just a bit more than the iPad)
-Would have preferred to see standard micro or mini USB connectivity options and more of them
-No web cam (equals the iPad but behind other tablets available)
-Almost mirroring the iPad hardware feature roadmap which IMHO keeps the device from leaping ahead
-No Google goodness or Android Appstore included out of the box

Conclusions:

The shanzhai players have yet to put out a product that is hands down better than the iPad, but nobody else has either. The Herotab M10 does show how that gap is narrowing though and for 300 bucks you get a lot of tablet. In fact, although the M10 is a little bit large for my personal tablet taste it’s such a good implementation of Android 2.2 I’d almost blame Google for its few limitations…ie no App Market out of the box. Herotab have other decent quality tablets and the M10 feels a bit limited by its effort to copy Apple’s somewhat limited hardware feature-set (no web cam for example). In terms of raw performance the Herotab M10 scored about 1640 points on the Quadrant Benchmark application (above the Nexus) thanks to the solid Freescale 800MHz (1GHz) IMX515/Android 2.2 combo which delivers a very solid browsing and video experience too.

Key Specs:

CPU: Freescale IMX515 800MHz ARM Cortex A8 -Confirmed (now updated to 1GHz)
OS: Android 2.2 Froyo supporting Adobe Flash 10.1
Memory: 512MB DDR2 RAM, 2GB Nandflash built in, Extend Memory up to 32GB via SD card
Screen: 10" Capacitive Multitouch (now 9.7" 1:1 iPad)
Resolution: 1080*768px, 4:3 Aspect Ratio
Supported Audio Formats: MP3, WMA, MP2, OGG, AAC, M4A, FLAC, APE, 3GP, WAV
Supported Video Formats: AVI, (H.264, DIVX, XVID), RM, RMVB, MKV, WMV, MOV

TechToys2go.com comment:  Please note that this review was on a pre-production model from late 2010. The processor has since been given a speed bump to 1GHz. The box has also been updated to not show the iPad. All current specs can be found on the M10 product page. Please keep this in mind when watching the video below.