Asus Memo Pad 8 review: a nice tablet for basic things

Written by B Johnson June 07, 2014
Asus Memo Pad 8 Specs
As we all know already, many of Asus tablets are mostly dominated with keyboard-dock-equipped Asus Transformer line.

And that really contradicts with many of its rivals – especially the ones with mobile OS - not the full-fledged Windows Pro OS - like iOS’ iPad or other Android-based tablets -, which mostly don’t come with the official keyboard dock.

(Asus Memo Pad 8 Specs)


Well, there’s nothing wrong with that – i know that.

In fact, it is great because it allows Asus Transformer tablets to stand out among the competition, thus creating their own specific niche market, which is a productivity tablet market.

And that’s proved to be a great decision by Asus because there is a pretty big chunk of share that Asus can grab in this specific market - like PC users that love Android ecosystem but are also power productivity type of users.

Asus Memo Pad 8 benchmarks and gaming performance

However, if Asus only puts its focus entirely on this productivity tablet market – without thinking about the other casual tablet users - then they are missing out a lot of money on the table, which contains the majority share of the entire tablet market.

But luckily, Asus is not taking that path.

Besides releasing its great line of productivity-related Asus Transformer tablets, Asus also has another vision on other market.

And that is the casual media-consumption tablet market. Asus MemoPad series is one of its efforts.

There are some tablets under the flag Asus MemoPad that have been outed by this manufacturer.

From the basic 7-inch Asus MemoPad ME172 and Asus MemoPad 7 HD, much bigger Asus MemoPad 10 Smart and Asus MemoPad 10 FHD.

Actually, i’ve already had 4 of them reviewed on this website a couple of months ago. I’m basically pretty impressed with this Asus tablet line, but not really amazed, especially with their gaming performance - of course with the exception of Asus MemoPad 10 Smart – the one with Tegra 3 quad-core, which has the best gaming performance among these 4 tablets.

And apparently, Asus doesn’t have any plan to stop its efforts to deliver its tablets on this market as this manufacturer still has some other tablets under this series.

Asus Memo Pad 8 is one of them, an 8-inch tablet running Android OS and hopefully it’s not gonna suck in gaming performance just like the 7-inch model (*cough* Asus MemoPad 7 HD *cough*).

Well, if you’re interested to get to know with this 8-inch tablet, then here you go, you can check out my personal review of Asus Memo Pad 8.

However, as always, before you go straight to the review, i would really appreciate it a lot if you could share this article to your friends or family by using the social media icons around this page.

It would mean a lot guys.

Okay then, without further ado, here you go, my personal review of Asus Memo Pad 8.

Introduction

Earlier a couple of months ago, i’ve already showed you Asus MemoPad 7 HD, a 7-inch Android-based tablet sporting the resolution of 720p or 1280x800 pixels, which translates into HD resolution.

This tablet is actually pretty good in overall quality.

In fact, according to CNET, it has a great looking and colorful display - thanks to Asus' optimization of software, hardware and display of this tablet, not to mention its technology -, it has rich features (even multiple-window-app mode) and it has one of the best performances around the mid-end tablet market – thanks to its Mediatek MT8125 quad-core processor and PowerVR SGX 544 GPU -.

However, something that keeps bugging me about this tablet is, despite having some pretty reliable and adequate hardware specs, Asus Memo Pad 7 HD surprisingly doesn’t have a good gaming performance – let alone great -.

Asus Memo Pad 8 Specs

And that’s proved by some graphically demanding games like GTA Vice City or Modern Combat 4 that cannot perform well on this tablet, even in medium graphics setting – with many framedrops and lags here and there.

And that’s quite surprising because on other tablets with the same hardware (i.e., Mediatek MT8125 quad-core and PowerVR SGX 544 GPU), but lower-resolution 1024x600 pixel display – like Acer Iconia A1-810, those 2 games above can be played smoothly in high graphics setting.

So with that being said, then the HD display of Asus MemoPad 7 HD is definitely the one to blame over that laggy gaming performance of this tablet.

The good news, Asus doesn’t want to repeat the same mistake again on Asus Memo Pad 8.

Despite having an 8-inch 720p display (the same exact resolution of Asus MemoPad 7 HD) – although it has slightly lower pixel density than predecessor -, Asus Memo Pad 8 now is powered by more powerful internal hardware than the 7HD model.

If Asus MemoPad 7 HD is equipped with an ARM-based Cortex-A7 quad-core Mediatek MT8125 and PowerVR SGX 544MP, then Asus Memo Pad 8 will get a much better treatment from Asus – an ARM-based Cortex-A9 quad-core Rockchip SoC and Mali 400 MP GPU, which are - without a doubt - more powerful than the internals found inside the Asus MemoPad 7 HD.

So it’s pretty obvious that the 8-inch Asus Memo Pad 8 will have a much better gaming performance than Asus MemoPad 7 HD.

However, Asus MemoPad 7HD is actually not the real rival for Asus Memo Pad 8.

There are many other 8-inch tablets that are more than ready to blow this tablet out of the water, from the Samsung GALAXY Note 8, LG G Pad 8.3, iPad mini with Retina Display and even the HP Slate 8 Pro with Tegra 4.

So the question is, with those bumped up hardware specs, will Asus Memo Pad 8 stack up against other 8-inch rivals, in terms of gaming performance? Well, hopefully we’ll find out more about that in this review.

Design

In terms of design, there’s nothing to write home about on this tablet.

It looks normal and generic just like other Android tablets out there.

So Asus Memo Pad 8 definitely won’t win any tablet design award, especially compared to other 8-inch rivals like LG G Pad 8.3, Samsung GALAXY Tab 8.4 Pro or even iPad mini with Retina Display – that all of them have their own unique design characteristic.

However, design is actually not that thing that Asus wants to brag about on this device.

When releasing Asus Memo Pad 8 to the market, Asus just wants to deliver a great option on 8-inch tablet market with a much lower price point compared to rivals.

Asus Memo Pad 8 Review and Gaming Performance

And that’s good because i personally believe that – put its generic design aside -, Asus Memo Pad 8 is still a good purchase for most of users, either casual users, power users or even tablet gamers.
  • It has a pretty neat looking design (but not that amazing),
  • it has a pretty complete set of preloaded features,
  • it’s made by Asus – which we all know as a great laptop and tablet manufacturer for many many years –,
  • and the most importantly, it’s packing some pretty great quality hardware specs.
So even if you’re not a tablet gamer, you can still have a lot of fun when getting this tablet because most of games today can be played perfectly smoothly on this tablet (but we’ll get more on that later).

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  • No SIM
  • Released November2013
  • Weight 350 g (12.35 oz)
  • 8.0 inch IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen display 800 x 1280 pixels (~189 ppi pixel density) 16M colors
  • Quad-core 1.6 GHz Cortex-A9 CPU
  • Mali 400 MP4 GPU
  • 1 GB RAM
  • Android OS, v4.2.2 Jelly Bean
  • 3.5mm headphone jack
  • MicroSD memory card slot for up to 64 GB
  • 16 GB internal storage
  • No GPRS
  • No EDGE
  • Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
  • Bluetooth
  • USB
  • 5 MP rear-facing camera
  • 1.2 MP front-facing camera
  • No Radio
  • No GPS
  • Li-Po 3950 mAh battery (Non-removable)
  • Up to 9 h Multimedia an talk time
From the hardware standpoint, Asus Memo Pad 8 can still be considered as a great performing tablet and still deserves to be positioned among other today’s mid-end rivals, like Samsung GALAXY Tab 3 8-inches, Samsung GALAXY Note 8 or Kindle Fire 8.9 HD.

It has a pretty sharp looking HD 1280x800 pixel display, a quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor clocked at 1.6GHz per core, 1GB of RAM, a powerful Mali 400 MP GPU, 3950mAh battery and many other goodies that are still acceptable in today’s mid-end tablet market.

However, given that this market is now dominated by many monster-spec'd tablets, like Google Nexus 7 (2013), Kindle Fire 7 HDX, LG G Pad 8.3 or HP Slate 8 Pro, then this Asus tablet definitely will be blown out of the water in terms of hardware and performance.

So it’s probably a good decision if you buy this tablet when its price is already lower than other mid-end tablets – probably around $170 – because you can have a much better choice at $199 - $229 price point, like HP Slate 7 Extreme, Google Nexus 7 or Kindle Fire 7 HDX – which all have beast performance.

Screen

It’s good to see that Asus Memo Pad 8 is only packing a medium-resolution 1280x800 pixel display – not full HD 1920x1200 pixels or even 2560x1600 pixels -, which could dethrone its performance given that its Mali 400 MP is not well-prepared to execute a lot of pixels more than 1280x800 pixels.

So this type of display is definitely a perfect match for those medium-grade hardware specs inside this tablet, ensuring all the tasks, especially the graphics-related ones, can be executed perfectly and smoothly without any meaningful problem.

In the real world quality, this 720p display actually already looks pretty sharp for a medium-sized 8-inch screen on this tablet, although not as sharp as other Android counterparts that already adopt 1920x1200 pixels even on a slightly smaller 7-inch display (Google Nexus 7 or Kindle Fire HDX 7).

Performance

The internal hardware inside the Asus Memo Pad 8 actually kind of reminds me with the specs of Archos Gamepad 2, which both of them come with the same 1.6GHz ARM Cortex-A9 quad-core processor, coupled with the same Mali 400 MP4 GPU, although the Archos GamePad 2 has a slightly bigger 2GB of RAM given that it’s intended as a gaming tablet, as opposed to the Asus 8-inch tablet that only comes with 1GB of RAM. Not to mention, they both also feature the same 720p display (1280x800 pixels).

So in terms of performance, then these 2 tablets will perform similarly well in that sector, although Archos Gamepad 2 might be the winner here given its bigger 2GB of RAM.

But for doing some basic tasks, like reading books/magazines, browsing the web, checking out photos or even the graphics intense tasks, like playing games or watching HD movies, they both won’t have any problem executing all the tasks in smooth performance.

But it also depends on the optimization of software and hardware on both devices.

And given that Archos Gamepad 2 only comes with the stock Android OS – not to mention, it also features a bigger 2GB of RAM -, unlike Asus with its Asus UI that has rich and pretty heavy features and visual presentations, then Asus Memo Pad 8 might not perform as great as Archos gaming tablet.

But that’s still acceptable because this tablet still performs relatively well and smooth for most normal users, even the power users.

And that’s what really matters for users when getting a tablet – a smooth and steady performance.

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Given that most of Mali-400-MP-powered tablets have been known to have a decent gaming performance, then you can expect the same with Asus Memo Pad 8.

Besides Archos Gamepad 2 – which has great gaming performance -, the gaming performance of Asus Memo Pad 8 can also be compared with Samsung GALAXY Tab 3 8-inches, which also share the similar internal hardware just like Asus Memo Pad 8,– from the same 1280x800 pixel display and the same Mali-400 MP GPU -, although Samsung’ tablet has slightly bigger 1.5GB of RAM, compared to the only 1GB of RAM on Asus Memo Pad 8.

But that’s not surprising because we all know already that most of Samsung GALAXY tablets have a really heavy TouchWiz UI, containing many features, pre-loaded apps and more.

So no wonder if this Samsung GALAXY Tab 3 8-inches will require more than 1GB of RAM to keep all of its features in the system without leaving low memory in default (or in the first boot).

I’ve already seen the gaming performance of Samsung GALAXY Tab 8-inches and this tablet proved to have great gaming performance, with many latest graphically demanding games like Asphalt 8: Airborne, GTA Vice City, Modern Combat 4, Dead Trigger 2, Need for Speed Most Wanted, all running smoothly and in full high graphics.

And this tablet is even capable to perform well when playing GTA San Andreas – which is a graphics intense and heavy game -, although this game doesn’t run in full highest graphics setting.

So that’s the same thing that’s gonna happen to Asus Memo Pad 8.

This Asus tablet will also have great gaming performance just like those 2 rivals, although it might not perform as great as Samsung or Archos slates, due to its low capacity of RAM.

So if you’re big fan of tablet gaming and you want to play many latest graphically demanding games, from Asphalt 8: Airborne, Modern Combat 4, N.O.V.A 3, Need for Speed Most Wanted, Dead Trigger 2, Shadowgun DeadZone, GTA Vice City or even GTA San Andreas, then you can do that perfectly on this Asus tablet – no doubt about that -, but GTA San Andreas might not run smoothly in full graphics.

So as a gaming tablet, Asus Memo Pad 8 is definitely a decent device for that matter.

It runs most of latest games nicely and smoothly, even in full graphics.

And all thanks to its Mali 400 MP GPU, which is still considered as a reliable and powerful mobile graphics card – although it’s not on par with the latest-gen mobile GPUs around the market to date, like 72-core Geforce ULP GPU on Tegra 4 (let alone the 192-core Keppler GPU on Tegra K1), Adreno 330 GPU on Snapdragon 800 or PowerVR G6430 GPU on Apple devices.

These flagship GPUs will definitely go head-to-head with Mali T604, the higher level Mali GPU - not Mali 400 MP GPU on Asus MemoPad 8.

Battery Life

Compared to other Android tablets out there, the battery capacity of Asus Memo Pad 8 – which is 3950mAh -, is definitely on par with most of its 7-inch rivals, that mostly use around 4000 to 4500mAh power battery.

So when it comes to battery life, this Asus tablet could probably last relatively long just like other 7 to 8-inch tablets, although not as great as other rivals, especially the flagship ones.

According the information taken from GSMarena, this Asus tablet could last in 9 hours for enjoying multimedia contents.

And this is pretty good because not all tablets could last that long.

However, if you’re gonna use this tablet mostly for doing some heavy intense tasks, without resting the screen at all, like watching movies in marathon or playing games in the row, then you could expect this tablet to last much shorter than 9 hours, probably around 4 to 6 hours the longest, which is not that bad for an 8-inch tablet.

My Personal Opinions

So my last conclusion about this tablet is, i think it’s pretty easy to recommend you this tablet given that Asus Memo Pad 8 has some pretty good-grade specs under its hood, from the 1280x800 pixel display, a quad-core 1.6GHz ARM Cortex-A9 processor, 3950mAh (9 hours of multimedia battery life) and the most importantly, the Mali 400 MP GPU – which takes care all the graphics-related tasks on this tablet, especially games.

Not to mention, it also has a 5MP rear-facing camera that's capable to take 720p videos.

So without a single doubt, Asus Memo Pad 8 is a pretty good media-consumption and gaming tablet – if not great, let alone the best.

And thanks to that Mali 400 MP GPU, you’ll be ensured that most of latest graphically demanding games across the Google Play Store, like Asphalt 8: Airborne, Modern Combat 4, GTA Vice City, Need for Speed Most Wanted, N.O.V.A 3, Dead Trigger 2 or ShadowGun DeadZone, all can be played perfectly smooth on this device, and in full graphics of course.

So if you’re looking for a casual tablet that has an 8-inch display, made by Asus and has a pretty good gaming performance, then Asus Memo Pad 8 can be a great choice for you.

In fact, if Asus prices this tablet right – i mean, lower than other 8-inch rivals out there -, then this tablet can even be one of the best choices on the market to date.

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