There are (surprisingly) just a few bestselling budget tablets available on the market today. The Coby Kyros is one of them, costing less than $200. Although it doesn’t pretend to be as powerful or as functional as the higher-end tablets, it still packs a fierce punch. Keep reading to see whether the Kyros could be enough for your tablet needs.
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Key Specs For The Coby Kyros
* Costs less than $200
* First launched in 2011
* Runs on Google Android 2.2
* 7.7 x 4.8 x 0.5 inches in size
* Weighs 0.87 lb. / 0.39 kg
* 7 inch touchscreen
* 800 x 480 resolution
* 4 GB storage (up to 16 GB)
* Telechips TTC8902 1GHz processor
* Wi-Fi connectivity
* 2.1 MP Camera
* 7-hour battery life
What’s Great About The Coby Kyros…
Price: Anything under $200 is generally considered a good-value tablet. A low price does mean less powerful features, but this tab will do everything that basic users need it to. You can load up office suite apps, browse the internet, chat with friends over the web and play your multimedia files.
Design: The Coby Kyros does not appear to be made on the cheap, despite the low price. It looks good and feels solid, though it’s also light and thin enough to carry and hold easily.
Battery Life: Although a 7-hour battery life isn’t as impressive as some of the higher end offerings, it’s very good considering the price of the Coby Kyros. 7 hours is long enough to keep you occupied during most car, train or plane journeys when you won’t have access to a charger. Very important if you’ll mainly use this tablet when you’re out and about! It also charges up very quickly.
Camera: Although this camera isn’t sophisticated enough to take over the role of your digital camera, it has some retty impressive specs for one of the most budget tablets out there. This means that you get the ability to use the camera as a webcam for video chats when connected to the internet via Wi-Fi.
Ports: Like some of the high-end tablets, this comes with a number of different ports. They are: a standard mini-USB port, a headphone jack, a micro-SD port for expanding the memory, and a mini-HDMI port so that you can connect the Kyros up to a big HDTV screen.
Operating System: The operating system is both a benefit and drawback of buying this device. On the one hand, it’s a great budget Android tablet with a good selection of apps available. Although there are by no means as many apps available for Android as there are for the iPad, it’s the second best in terms of what’s available, and you’re almost certain to find what you need.
That said, the choice of apps is reduced somewhat when you factor in the version of Android the Coby Kyros runs. This comes with Android 2.2, meaning it’s not the newest version available, and this older version wasn’t even designed with tablets in mind. On the contrary this was a smartphone OS, and as such it doesn’t run as flawlessly as something such as iOS. It’s also not compatible with all the latest Android apps.
Media Support: Despite being a budget device, this tablet still supports the main media formats for video and music, as well as PDF files and even Adobe Flash. The latter is useful for watching certain videos on websites or playing Flash games.
What’s Not So Great About The Coby Kyros…
Screen: 7 inches is relatively small in the world of tablet computers of today. Of course, this needn’t be a drawback if what you’re looking for is something compact and as easy as possible to carry around. It also makes for a very lightweight tablet, easy to carry around in your bag, and easy to hold in your hands for longer periods of time.
Processor: It almost goes without saying that budget tablets aren’t going to have the same processing power as more expensive options, so bear this in mind if you’re looking to perform more intensive applications (certain games, for example).
Resistive Touch Screen: Unlike most of the popular tablets on the market today, the Coby Kyros makes use of a resistive touch screen. In real terms this means you usually have to push harder to see things work, and you can’t use functions that require multi-touch (touching on more than one place at the same time). It’ll take a little getting used to for people who haven’t used it before.
Connectivity: Although the Wi-Fi on the Coby Kyros works well, there’s no option to buy a 3G version that’ll keep you connected even when you’re away from a Wi-Fi hotspot. You shouldn’t expect one, really, since 3G undoubtedly costs more than the sub-$200 price tag of the Kyros! If you really need to stay connected no matter where you are, this isn’t the right tablet for you.
Storage Space: The Coby Kyros comes with a very limited 4GB storage space. This is very small by today’s standard, and far less than even most smartphones. If you want to store lots of movies or a very large music collection then you’re going to need to expand the memory. Thankfully the micro-SD slot does allow for expansion up to 32GB, so this isn’t too much of an issue, thankfully.
Apps: Instead of providing access to the Android Market, the Coby Kyros comes with AppsLib. This means that your choice of apps on this tablet could be somewhat limited.
My Final Thoughts on the Coby Kyros MID7024
In short, this is a budget alternative to some of the more expensive Android tablets out there today. Although it lacks the latest Android technology, and doesn’t include access to the Android Market app store, it still works well as a budget tablet with a wide range of features. It also appears to be more reliable than other budget tablets (such as the Superpad) making it a good buy for the price.
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