Hannspree HANNSpad SN70T3 review

Storage for apps and data is split between 504MB for programs and 2GB for data, although you can move applications that support it to the 2GB of internal flash memory. There’s also a Micro SDHC slot, so you can add extra storage to your tablet.

There’s only a 1GHz ARM Cortex A8 processor inside. It manages to run the OS pretty smoothly and switching between homepages is fast and fluid. Websites are mostly smooth to render, but more complicated ones with a lot of Flash and graphics can be a tiny bit jerky to navigate. It can also take a while to fully render a page – we measured the BBC homepage at 18 seconds.

Transitions from landscape to portrait, or vice versa, aren’t pretty. On the home screen, the HANNSpad seems to flick half of the screen first, before continuing with the other half. On web pages it’s a bit better, but the tablet still has to ‘think’ about it. The very similar Fineslate has a 1.2GHz processor and its transitions are a lot smoother.

You’ll need the headphone socket, as the speaker’s not loud enough to be heard clearly

You can play most video files through the built-in video player. It can be slow to start taking a while to load a video, although once playing we found movies smooth and we managed to play a 1080p MKV video with no problems. You’ll definitely have to put a pair of headphones on, though, as the mono speaker on the rear is really quiet and very tinny. Battery life isn’t too bad and we managed 4h 54m playing a video. This will give you a decent amount of time away from a power socket for general use.

There’s no rear-facing camera, just one on the front for video calling

The HANNSpad has no rear-facing camera, just a 0.3-megapixel (640×480) front-facing camera. Quality is abysmal and the final image looks more like it’s been painted. To be fair, it’s not really designed for photography, but for video calls. Skype recognises the camera, but warns that it’s not certified although it will work. We didn’t spot any problems, beyond the fact that the video quality is quite poor because of the low-resolution.

We have to take the HANNSpad’s low price into the equation, but even at £85, it really isn’t good value. The Fineslate T01 is very similar, but has Google Play, a USB host port with 3G dongle support, a faster processor and an HDMI output. It’s also hard to ignore that the Google Nexus 7 will be out soon for just £159. Based on our hands-on review, it’s a considerably better choice.