ASUS ZenPad S 8.0 REVIEW _ 8-inch Android Tablet

The ASUS ZenPad S 8.0: A Mid-Range Android Tablet Review

One of the key factors that sets the ASUS ZenPad S 8.0 apart from its competitors is the Intel chip that powers it. While this may not be a major concern for those who are looking for a tablet to use for everyday tasks such as browsing, reading, and streaming media, it can make a difference for those who want more demanding performance. Specifically, many users have come to expect higher frame rates from their tablets, especially in graphically demanding games. In this regard, the ASUS ZenPad S 8.0 may struggle a bit, but it's still a capable device that should be able to handle most of the tasks that you would throw at it.

The ASUS ZenPad S 8.0 also features a rather underwhelming benchmark performance in terms of its Android version. Scoring an average of 50,900 in the Antutu benchmark, this tablet is not exactly setting any new records. However, considering the price point of the device, which starts at around $150 or £150, it's hard to criticize too much. The ZenPad S 8.0 offers a great balance between performance and affordability, making it an attractive option for those on a budget.

Despite its relatively poor benchmark scores, there are still several features that make the ASUS ZenPad S 8.0 worth considering. First and foremost, its display is absolutely stunning, with vibrant colors and crisp visuals that make watching movies and playing games a real pleasure. Additionally, the device comes equipped with a sleek and modern design that makes it look great in both hands. But perhaps one of the most significant selling points of this tablet is its impressive battery life.

A double tap to wake feature on the ASUS ZenPad S 8.0 allows you to quickly turn your tablet on and off by simply tapping the screen twice. This feature is a small but thoughtful touch that adds convenience to the device. However, the standby life of the device could be improved upon. According to the reviewer, the battery seemed to drain after just two days of inactivity, which may not be ideal for those who plan on taking their tablet with them on long trips or away from home.

Another area where the ASUS ZenPad S 8.0 falls short is in its audio capabilities. The dual front-facing speakers are touted as a major feature, but unfortunately, they do not live up to expectations. With little bass and a generally tinny sound quality, it's recommended to use headphones when watching movies or playing games.

The camera on the ASUS ZenPad S 8.0 is another area where the device falls short of expectations. With only 5 and 8 megapixels for its front and rear cameras respectively, the images taken are lacking in detail and color. This lack of dynamic range also causes light areas to be blown out, resulting in a generally disappointing camera experience.

One feature that does set the ASUS ZenPad S 8.0 apart from other tablets is its USB Type-C port. As mentioned earlier, this port offers faster data transfer speeds and faster charging speeds, making it a welcome feature on an otherwise relatively budget-friendly device. It's also reversible, making it easy to plug in and out.

In conclusion, the ASUS ZenPad S 8.0 may not be perfect – its bloatware is overwhelming, its cameras are lacking, and its performance can struggle with more demanding tasks. However, when considering the price point of the device and the features that it offers, it's hard to criticize too much. While it may not offer the same level of performance as some of its competitors, the ZenPad S 8.0 is still a solid mid-range Android tablet that's well worth considering for those on a budget.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhi guys welcome back to the tech chat where today we're viewing the Asus zenfone s 8.0 this little 8 inch Android tablet has a stunning display a premium design and feels responsive to use but it's not perfect I don't think I've ever used an Android tablet with so much bloatware pre-installing it's a bit ridiculous and the quad-core Intel chip isn't the most powerful but considering the Zen pad s is just 150 pounds or $180 I think it's great value for money and gives the Galaxy Tab s2 8.0 and even the iPad Mini for a run for their money so this is the Zen pad S which is the higher-end more premium version of the normal Zen pad specifically this model DS ed 580 C runs Android 5 and features a 1.8 gigahertz intel atom z3580 sesor alongside 2 gigabytes of RAM in terms of storage you can get it in 16 32 or 64 gigabyte options although some storage models are only available in certain territories but the good news is that all of them support microSD so you can expand the memory up to 128 gigabytes now let's talk about the design the Zen pad is available in black or white and I think has a quite a unique look and feel to it which I actually really like the 8 inch display is protected by Gorilla Glass 3 and has an impressive 74% screen to body ratio which means for its screen size is a relatively compact tablet compared to say the iPad minis 70% ratio so a combination of the thin bezels and the chromia plastic accent around the outside makes the Zen pad look quite stylish but I think the back is actually even better-looking with a combination of a plastics of cross-hatched metal finish and also a little leather strip along the left side the device which offers quite a nice visual contrast as well as providing a bit more grip when using it left-handed the smooth plastic isn't especially slippy I never felt it's going to flop my hand or anything which is probably thanks to the fact that is a fairly small tablet being 8 inches but also the fact that it's 4.3 aspect ratio so it's more like an iPad than a a 16 by 9 traditional longer Android tablets and so those things together make it quite easy to hold one thing I don't like though is the power and the volume buttons on the right-hand side of the device they have almost no travel no feedback so it's very difficult to tell if you press the power button and taking a screenshot by ear pressing and holding the power button and volume down rocker is far more of a challenge than I think it should be but at just 6 point 9 millimeters thick and weighing 317 grams in credibly thin and light and possible it may not use the most premium materials but it does give the impression of being quite a classy little number but as nice as the tablet's body is the display is even more impressive thanks to the incredibly sharp 2048 by 1536 resolution which translates to 320 pixels per inch but what actually what hits you the first time you turn it on it's just how brilliant and vivid the display is it's not the brightest and about a maximum for themed niche which is quite a bit lower than say the Geico Tab s2 which has about 420 notes but viewing angles are fantastic and the colors really pop everything from browsing the web to watching videos and playing games looks fantastic on this display but we do need to be careful we don't mistake such raishin and vibrancy for color accuracy as according to laptop mag who ran some tests on display the zenpad scored ninety one point seven percent in the srgb color gamut test which is very impressive but what's most quite so good is the feather it's gorgeous six point seven in the Delta II test which compared to other Android tablets means the color the colors aren't that accurate so it is vivid it is bold it is punchy but it's not necessarily the most accurate or true to life but was it like to use well swipe in between home screens feels fluid but unfortunately the Zen pad s doesn't handle intensive apps and graphically intensive games as well as you might hope we were racing through some of the best looking games you can get on the Android store but the freeway and the graphical quality isn't quite as good as what I've come to expect having played it on other tablets like the guy to Tab s2 and also the iPad Mini 4 I think it comes down to the fact that the Intel chip just isn't powerful enough to get the higher frame rates most of us have come to expect a lot of us have quite powerful smartphones benchmarks aren't particularly impressive either scoring a very average 50 thousand 900 in the antutu benchmark however considering the price of the Zen pad s and the fact that it does only struggle a little bit in the most intensive graphically demanding games I don't think we can criticize it too much especially when we consider the price as I say 150 pounds or 180 dollars but what I can criticize is asus is Zen UI skin which sits on top of the Android 5 software there's nothing fundamentally wrong with that aside from looking a bit dated in certain parts but my biggest gripe is the amount of bloatware that is pre-installed on the tablet to be blunt I've never seen so much crap on a tablet we've got apps like live water for so collage omelet chat puffins and circle and splendid just to name a few there's nearly a dozen apps on here that don't need to be there and I'd never use and if you just bought the base 16 gigabyte model you can be probably rationing storage anyway so the first thing you should do is install all this rubbish all this bloatware so it's a bit frustrating but it doesn't take a few minutes to install them so it's not a deal-breaker it's just a little bit annoying but one feature I do like and I wish more tablets and even phones supported it these days is a double tap to wake so double tap on the screen wakes it up takes a second or so but it still pretty useful in terms of battery it's solid but not particularly impressive although often I did find that the tablet a completely run out of power after a couple of days not using it so clearly a standby life is a big battery dream but that is something Android 6 hopefully when we get it on here will fix because the doze feature doesn't significantly improve the standby life for now though I get around 6 or 7 hours of web surfing and general use out of it it's not terrible but doesn't quite match the iPad Mini 4 battery performance and will probably require a charge every other day or so in terms of audio quality the zenpad S has dual front-facing speakers which is great to see but unfortunately they're pretty terrible ok sound incredibly tiny there's almost no bass and although you do get a stereo effect when you're watching movies and playing games you're still probably best off using a pair of headphones as you'd expect the zenpad features a front and rear camera and boasting 5 and 8 megapixels respectively I won't spend too much time talking other cameras because a bit like the speakers they were also pretty rubbish I took a few photos and it seems to suffer from a lack of dynamic range with light areas been completely blown out and the image is just generally liked detail and color overall a bit disappointing really so while the cameras may not be anything special what is interesting about the zenpad s is it features a USB 3 type C port which is actually quite rare and great to see on a relatively budgets or slash mid range tablet the benefits of a USB type-c port which I have the cable for here is that it's completely reversible when it plugs into the port on the tablet itself and also comes along with faster data transfer and also faster charging speeds which is great to see it's not a huge you know a huge thing but it's definitely nice to see and just future-proof the tablet a little bit more so PS 8.0 isn't without its faults the bloatware is imposing the cameras and a speak is a pretty weak and performance isn't quite good enough for some of the most intensive apps and games but having said that I do still quite like it and while there are still fundamental issues with Android tablets in terms of sort of this a Google Play Store compared to the iOS store I think this is still one of the best sort of mid-size Android tablets you can buy right now it looks stylish the screen is absolutely beautiful and most everyday tasks feel pretty responsive and smooth to use and while it is also half the price of the iPad Mini 4 so it's much much better value for money so if you're in the market for a capable but budget-friendly Android tablet and aren't too bothered it doesn't run we are wasting three of the highest frame rates then the Zen pad s 8.0 is a great choice so I hope you found this review helpful let me know what you think about the Zen pad and Android tablets in general in the comments below please do like and subscribe if you enjoy my videos I'll see you again right here on the texturehi guys welcome back to the tech chat where today we're viewing the Asus zenfone s 8.0 this little 8 inch Android tablet has a stunning display a premium design and feels responsive to use but it's not perfect I don't think I've ever used an Android tablet with so much bloatware pre-installing it's a bit ridiculous and the quad-core Intel chip isn't the most powerful but considering the Zen pad s is just 150 pounds or $180 I think it's great value for money and gives the Galaxy Tab s2 8.0 and even the iPad Mini for a run for their money so this is the Zen pad S which is the higher-end more premium version of the normal Zen pad specifically this model DS ed 580 C runs Android 5 and features a 1.8 gigahertz intel atom z3580 sesor alongside 2 gigabytes of RAM in terms of storage you can get it in 16 32 or 64 gigabyte options although some storage models are only available in certain territories but the good news is that all of them support microSD so you can expand the memory up to 128 gigabytes now let's talk about the design the Zen pad is available in black or white and I think has a quite a unique look and feel to it which I actually really like the 8 inch display is protected by Gorilla Glass 3 and has an impressive 74% screen to body ratio which means for its screen size is a relatively compact tablet compared to say the iPad minis 70% ratio so a combination of the thin bezels and the chromia plastic accent around the outside makes the Zen pad look quite stylish but I think the back is actually even better-looking with a combination of a plastics of cross-hatched metal finish and also a little leather strip along the left side the device which offers quite a nice visual contrast as well as providing a bit more grip when using it left-handed the smooth plastic isn't especially slippy I never felt it's going to flop my hand or anything which is probably thanks to the fact that is a fairly small tablet being 8 inches but also the fact that it's 4.3 aspect ratio so it's more like an iPad than a a 16 by 9 traditional longer Android tablets and so those things together make it quite easy to hold one thing I don't like though is the power and the volume buttons on the right-hand side of the device they have almost no travel no feedback so it's very difficult to tell if you press the power button and taking a screenshot by ear pressing and holding the power button and volume down rocker is far more of a challenge than I think it should be but at just 6 point 9 millimeters thick and weighing 317 grams in credibly thin and light and possible it may not use the most premium materials but it does give the impression of being quite a classy little number but as nice as the tablet's body is the display is even more impressive thanks to the incredibly sharp 2048 by 1536 resolution which translates to 320 pixels per inch but what actually what hits you the first time you turn it on it's just how brilliant and vivid the display is it's not the brightest and about a maximum for themed niche which is quite a bit lower than say the Geico Tab s2 which has about 420 notes but viewing angles are fantastic and the colors really pop everything from browsing the web to watching videos and playing games looks fantastic on this display but we do need to be careful we don't mistake such raishin and vibrancy for color accuracy as according to laptop mag who ran some tests on display the zenpad scored ninety one point seven percent in the srgb color gamut test which is very impressive but what's most quite so good is the feather it's gorgeous six point seven in the Delta II test which compared to other Android tablets means the color the colors aren't that accurate so it is vivid it is bold it is punchy but it's not necessarily the most accurate or true to life but was it like to use well swipe in between home screens feels fluid but unfortunately the Zen pad s doesn't handle intensive apps and graphically intensive games as well as you might hope we were racing through some of the best looking games you can get on the Android store but the freeway and the graphical quality isn't quite as good as what I've come to expect having played it on other tablets like the guy to Tab s2 and also the iPad Mini 4 I think it comes down to the fact that the Intel chip just isn't powerful enough to get the higher frame rates most of us have come to expect a lot of us have quite powerful smartphones benchmarks aren't particularly impressive either scoring a very average 50 thousand 900 in the antutu benchmark however considering the price of the Zen pad s and the fact that it does only struggle a little bit in the most intensive graphically demanding games I don't think we can criticize it too much especially when we consider the price as I say 150 pounds or 180 dollars but what I can criticize is asus is Zen UI skin which sits on top of the Android 5 software there's nothing fundamentally wrong with that aside from looking a bit dated in certain parts but my biggest gripe is the amount of bloatware that is pre-installed on the tablet to be blunt I've never seen so much crap on a tablet we've got apps like live water for so collage omelet chat puffins and circle and splendid just to name a few there's nearly a dozen apps on here that don't need to be there and I'd never use and if you just bought the base 16 gigabyte model you can be probably rationing storage anyway so the first thing you should do is install all this rubbish all this bloatware so it's a bit frustrating but it doesn't take a few minutes to install them so it's not a deal-breaker it's just a little bit annoying but one feature I do like and I wish more tablets and even phones supported it these days is a double tap to wake so double tap on the screen wakes it up takes a second or so but it still pretty useful in terms of battery it's solid but not particularly impressive although often I did find that the tablet a completely run out of power after a couple of days not using it so clearly a standby life is a big battery dream but that is something Android 6 hopefully when we get it on here will fix because the doze feature doesn't significantly improve the standby life for now though I get around 6 or 7 hours of web surfing and general use out of it it's not terrible but doesn't quite match the iPad Mini 4 battery performance and will probably require a charge every other day or so in terms of audio quality the zenpad S has dual front-facing speakers which is great to see but unfortunately they're pretty terrible ok sound incredibly tiny there's almost no bass and although you do get a stereo effect when you're watching movies and playing games you're still probably best off using a pair of headphones as you'd expect the zenpad features a front and rear camera and boasting 5 and 8 megapixels respectively I won't spend too much time talking other cameras because a bit like the speakers they were also pretty rubbish I took a few photos and it seems to suffer from a lack of dynamic range with light areas been completely blown out and the image is just generally liked detail and color overall a bit disappointing really so while the cameras may not be anything special what is interesting about the zenpad s is it features a USB 3 type C port which is actually quite rare and great to see on a relatively budgets or slash mid range tablet the benefits of a USB type-c port which I have the cable for here is that it's completely reversible when it plugs into the port on the tablet itself and also comes along with faster data transfer and also faster charging speeds which is great to see it's not a huge you know a huge thing but it's definitely nice to see and just future-proof the tablet a little bit more so PS 8.0 isn't without its faults the bloatware is imposing the cameras and a speak is a pretty weak and performance isn't quite good enough for some of the most intensive apps and games but having said that I do still quite like it and while there are still fundamental issues with Android tablets in terms of sort of this a Google Play Store compared to the iOS store I think this is still one of the best sort of mid-size Android tablets you can buy right now it looks stylish the screen is absolutely beautiful and most everyday tasks feel pretty responsive and smooth to use and while it is also half the price of the iPad Mini 4 so it's much much better value for money so if you're in the market for a capable but budget-friendly Android tablet and aren't too bothered it doesn't run we are wasting three of the highest frame rates then the Zen pad s 8.0 is a great choice so I hope you found this review helpful let me know what you think about the Zen pad and Android tablets in general in the comments below please do like and subscribe if you enjoy my videos I'll see you again right here on the texture\n"