Tecno Droipad 7 II: Size and power

Before I go on, I need to address the naming system for this device. I don't know who is responsible for naming devices at Tecno but this particular one does not work for me. On the box, 'Tecno PhonePad 7 II' is boldly written across on several sides. Now, in my opinion I don't think anything outside of a Star Wars robot should be this deep. Meanwhile, Tecno, in the press statement sent across, called the device the 'Droipad 7 II' - which doesn't work either. Come on, Tecno.

Unboxing.

Moving on, the Tecno Droipad 7 II is a phablet (the likely unholy child between a smartphone and a tablet) which Tecno launched last week and my first impression of the device is that it is big. This thing is almost bigger than an iPadMini.

Unboxing the device is pretty straightforward. It came in a white box with a lot of gold inscriptions detailing the name of the device, its specifications, and other information. On the inside, you will find the device (my review unit came in a Gold-ish color), a power brick, and a USB cord. That’s about it.

Design and build quality.

On the design front, there is nothing remarkable about the Droipad 7 II but it does feel well put together. The design is quite bland from any side you look at it, and the Gold color just made it look boring. The top front part of the phablet houses its ambient sensors, the front camera, a flash for the front camera, and the speaker grille. The front bottom end of the Droipad 7 II is plain.

There is a black line which is thicker at the sides than at the top that goes around the screen. On the back of the device is a lone Tecno inscription while the main camera and flash are at the top left corner. The camera does not protrude so the device can lay completely flat.

The left side of the device is plain while the right side houses the power on/off lock button, the volume rocker, and a tray for the two SIMs (standard and micro) the device supports and a microSD card. At the top is the headphone jack, while the bottom houses two linear speaker grilles on each side of the charger port. The mic is located at the far right at the bottom of the phablet.

The phablet feels well built with its metal back, gorilla glass front, and all round compactness. I did not like the round edges and the fact that it felt very thick in my hand. It is also very slippery and I almost dropped it a couple times in the one week I took to review it. All in all, the design doesn't offer much but feels well put together.

Hardware (display, battery life, etc).

The Droipad 7 II has a 7-inch 600x1024 IPS display that is just there. The display is not really crisp but then, at this price point, I don't think much should be expected. However, I did like the adaptive brightness feature that automatically dimmed or brightened the screen in various light conditions.

Another thing I did like is the battery of the Droipad 7 II. It sports a massive 4100mAh battery that lasted about two days with average use of WiFi, browsing, Twitter, Facebook, games, and music. It also has a quick charge feature. However, the battery is not removable and it starts to notify you about low battery power once the battery is as low as 30%.

Home UI (home screen, app drawer, notifications pane).

Again, this is another area where Tecno seems to maintain a recurrent theme with this device. There just isn't anything remarkable about it. The app icons are all boxy and sometimes do not match the app they are supposed to represent (the YouTube app icon is a white box with the red version of the play triangle from the Google Play logo in the middle), and the device was very selective of which apps it would let me install and those which it would not.

The notification pane is normal, without anything fancy - typical Android Lollipop stuff with a thin veneer of Tecno-ness, and the app drawer shows you all the regular apps you would find on a new Android device. GoogleChrome, however, does not come installed and there are a couple of apps and games that you can't uninstall.

The Droipad does not have any physical buttons, the Back, Home and multi-window button are all on-screen.

The UI across the Droipad will not move mountains or anything, but it is adequate. There aren't any themes that will blow your mind, no interesting app icons to wet your beak, and no 'wow' anything to make your jaw drop - but it works. Some of the features (like something called MiraVision which is supposed to 'optimise' display pictures, but does nothing of the sort) of the Droipad pretend to work, but those that work are more, and most importantly, work well enough.

READ: Tecno Boom J7: Music all day, everyday

Performance.

The Droipad 7 II has a MediaTek 8735m Cortex A53 quad-core processor supported by 1GB of RAM. Sometimes, the phablet acts like it is trying to make up its mind for the first 1.5 seconds after you tap something on the screen or launch an app. The good thing is, that was the only lag I could find on the device. It works pretty well, does not hang, and just operates smoothly across. Even with games.

Text Input.

I can't say there is anything wrong with the Droipad 7 II's keyboard or touch interface per se, but it just didn't work for me. I didn't like the predictive text, I didn't like the arrangement of the keys, I didn't like how far into the keyboard I had to go to find a '|' sign, and I didn't like the name - Touchpal.

However, you should also know that I am very much used to SwiftKey, Google and Apple on-screen keyboards, so making the transition is not as easy. Anyway, my point remains from the start, there isn't anything remarkable about the Touchpal keyboard but it does work.

If, like me, the Touchpal keyboard doesn't work for you, then you can simply download Google Keyboard or any other keyboard of your choice.

Gallery, Video player, Audio player, Audio output.

The gallery on the Droipad 7 II is the same as that on any other Tecno phone. Editing tools are the same as those that come standard on any Tecno device - if you are familiar with them, you'll know what I mean. Photos and videos can be arranged according to location, time, or as individual albums. Items on the gallery are arranged chronologically from most recent to the least recent and you can select multiple items to transfer at the same time via Bluetooth or any other location change method you prefer. All in all, the gallery on the Droipad is functional.

There are two audio players on the Tecno Droipad 7 II. The regular audio player and the BoomPlayer - Tecno's take on a streaming service. I like the idea behind the BoomPlayer but it is not a finished product yet. It’s biggest shortcoming is content. When you search for content to stream, the options you get are very limited and if the sound of any song you are playing doesn't sit well with you, there is nothing you can do about it - the BoomPlayer doesn't have a dedicated equalizer, even though the standard music player on the phone has one. If you ask me, it's better to just stick with the standard music player, until there is better content and options on the BoomPlayer at least.

The audio output on the Droipad 7 II is flat. There is no bass, sound sometimes comes out muffled, and it is very low-sounding. As a whole, sound is not one of the strong points of the Droipad 7 II.

Camera (Photos, videos).

The Droipad 7 II has a 2MP front camera with flash and a 5MP main camera with flash and something called auto-tracking that lets you automatically track a particular object in your photo. Both cameras on the Droipad are quite uninteresting. They do not take good photos, be it in bright conditions or dim-lit rooms. Pictures are grainy, blurry, and just not very good to look at. In fact, I don't think anyone would miss the cameras on this phablet if they were taken off.

As for video, the story is the same. There is no Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) and the autofocus doesn't work well so if you're going to be moving you’re going to be moving the camera around a lot while you are recording, then you really wouldn't see much. Bottom-line, do not expect very much from these cameras, for photos or videos.

Web browser and pre-installed apps.

The web browser on the Droipad 7 II is okay. You can open multiple tabs, browse the Internet, zoom in on text, and pages load normally. However, it is no Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox - make of that what you will. Luckily, the phablet comes pre-installed with UC Browser and OperaMini browsers so you could look in that direction instead.

Other apps that come pre-installed are Palmchat, PalmPlay (Tecno's own app store), CarlCare, Google+, Gmail, Google Play Store, Google Photos, Google Maps, BBM, YouTube, WhatsApp (whose icon is nothing like the one we all know), WPSOffice, Xender (for file transfers), and Facebook. Any other apps that you do not see mentioned above, you have to download yourself.

Conclusion.

In my opinion, there is no niche market for this device. It does everything an average smartphone can do. It is big, the design and UI are basic, you don't exactly have all the memory in the world to play with, the cameras seem like an afterthought, playing music on it (earphones or not) is not particularly pleasant, and the screen (which is the draw I think people who want 7-inch devices are after) isn't anything to giggle over. At least you get a sizeable 4,100mAh battery so I guess it's not such a bad deal after all.

Don't get me wrong, for N45-50,000 the Droipad 7 II is not a bad device. It handles itself very well and does what is required of it without stress - most times. But there are a bunch of other devices (Tecno's included) that can do the same, maybe even better, and cost just about the same or even less. Maybe if you read a lot, the large screen can do something for you, but I don't see the point - there are a ton of dedicated readers out there that won't cost as much.

That being said, if you are looking for a mid-range phablet with a gigantic battery, 1GB of RAM, and a 7-inch screen, then the Droipad 7 II is for you.

Let me know what you think, and if you have any questions, feel free to ask away in the comments section below.