I suspect many people aspire to owning an iPad, or if they are not an Apple fan, a top of the range Samsung Galaxy Tablet.
But for a lot of folks, the reality is this would be wishing a Moet champagne diet while on a Cottee’s cordial budget.
So, this is the market I suspect Orbic is chasing with its new range of tablets available exclusively through Telstra. To give you an idea, the model I was sent for review, the Orbic TAB8 can be had for a miserable $149.
And this is both 4G based and has the latest Android 12 OS installed, as well as coming with a Telstra Prepaid SIM.
Many use tablets for what they were basically designed, as a deliverer of data, not particularly a creator of the stuff – although that is changing as they get more and more powerful with new processors like the Apple ‘M’ series chips. Now whilst I’ll admit to watching movies when in an (infrequent) long flight, my main use of a tablets, normally a Samsung A4, is as an adjunct tool for other activities. The most prevalent of these is as a controller for the various devices I use on a regular basis.
These include drones, video cameras, still cameras microphones and so on.
For the average user, the Orbic Tab8 comes with all normal Android apps, and you can of course go to the Google Play app store and download whatever you want later. Oh, there was one notable app missing I did find early on, the Files app so you can inspect exactly what data you have stored in the form of photos, downloads, audio files and so on.
This was a bit of a nuisance as I then had to install one; I was initially confused as it seemed like it was installed as it showed under Settings, but the reality is the version of Android installed out-of-the-box is quite minimalist it seems. Now, this is not a bad thing as for example, my Samsung came pre-installed with a whole pile of stuff I’ll never use, so it cost me time in flicking all those.
Exotic Apps
Anyway, I got to installing all the apps I would use normally on my Samsung for controlling my DJI Drones (DJI Fly, Litchi), cameras for astrophotography (PhotoPills, PlutoTrigger, Stellarium), DJI Pocket 2 camera (DJI Mimo), GoPro cameras (Quik) and those used by Sennheiser mics and headphones and for my wireless DJI and Hollyland mics.
I have reviewed inexpensive tablets before. In 99% of cases, more complex tasks such as those afforded by these types of apps that rely heavily on Wi-Fi and Bluetooth in particular just made these tablets curl up in the corner and cry uncontrollably. I guess I sort of expected the same here.
But I was surprised. There were some failures that I need to identify just why. Litchi for example would not install at all. Because this uses high end tech like GPS satellites there might be an issue there, although DJI Fly did work, and this too uses GPS positioning in order to work properly. So a mystery there at the moment.
However, the Pluto Trigger worked fine in all the modes I use it for which include Timelapse, Star Trails, and High-Speed photography for Slo-Mo shots, but PhotoPills did not. It turns out the Orbic TAB8 has no built-in “magnetometer detector”, so for a program such as PhotoPills that needs this for just about every function, this would of course be an issue. That’s a compass to you and me by the way.
Everything else seemed to work as normal; so on that basis, the Orbic Tab8 seems like a good deal at that price.
I’ll certainly be giving a long test on other apps I use, and the fact that on this first test, everything seemed OK (barring Compass oriented ones that is), but it is also fair to say the stuff I do has so many facets to it I may find some functions where the Orbic Tab8 cannot cope. We’ll see.
Mundane
In the rather more mundane, but nonetheless essential areas, The Orbic Tab8 has an 800 x 1200 screen at 240dpi. It’s not as good as my Samsung Galaxy 8, but nor did I expect it to be. But one thins surprised me in that in direct sunlight, it was slightly easier to see.
There are two cameras too, front (13MP) and rear (5MP) and they do the job, albeit being a bit slow to operate.
Another surprise was the battery life. I gave it a pretty fair hammering over a 6 hour period and it tells me there is still 7 hours available with 22% left. Of course, this depends on a number of factors, not just the apps being used and any background processes in place. Even the ambient temperature can affect battery life.
The inclusion of the 4G modem sets it apart. You can spend ½ the price of the Orbic Tab8 buying a portable 4G modem, so this is really quite a big deal. And as it comes with a Telstra PrePaid SIM, it means you can also make phone calls.
Also rare in tablets (and even phones) these days is a standard headphone socket, but you get one of those too.
Conclusion
Let’s face it, there is nothing ground-breaking about the Orbic Tab8. There are no gimmicks that shout at you or anything remotely that sets it exclusively apart from any other tablet.
Except for one thing.
It does what it says on the tin, and doesn’t pretend to be a high-end, whizzbang, tech nerd’s idea of gadget heaven. And at the price, if what you want is a tablet that let’s you send and receive emails, look at movies (albeit in low-res HD), play games, take photos, listen to music and has a decent battery life, here I am, it says.
The reality of it is that for what the Orbic Tab8 does, $149 is extraordinary.
