I compare the two current sub $80 dollar eight inch Atom X5 Z8300 powered tablets currently out. Both are similar with the same specs and screen resolution. But the Cube iwork8 Ultimate screen is 2-3 times brighter. The below video I compare them both.
The performance of both is disappointing, the X5 Z8300 on both units reaches 85 degrees. And really not much of a step up over the Bay Trail Z3735F. Only some benchmarks like 3Dmark11 show improvements over the only Gen7 GPU. Only the X98 Pro with it’s X5 Z8500 and the Surface 3 with the X7 Z8700 show real improvements. But it’s to be expected the X5 Z300 is the lowest of the new Cherry Trail Atom’s. (Soon to be replaced with the Z8X50 series refresh.
What’s not mentioned in the video is the audio quality, both have very poor rear mono speakers. The Onda doesn’t support 3.5 mm headsets with mics. And the Cube does.
I hope to later have the Chuwi Hi8 Pro (Ordered, but still hasn’t shipped) and Teclast X80 Plus to test out, but I don’t imagine them to be any faster and could also reach 85 degrees like every other X5 Z8300 I’ve seen so far. So as of now I think the Hi8 Pro might not be much of a step up over the Hi8, only for its USB Type-C port really. But I’ll reserve my final judgement of course for when I get my hands on one.
Imareal Whinestein
The Cube iWork8 Ultimate is great mostly. Gaming on a tablet is funny, back to the PSP for y’all. “I’m all grown up and now want a man-sized PSP, dammit!” Anyhow, I’m having trouble getting the resolution just right, switching between tablet mode and non-tablet (desktop mode seems to perform better), but then when rotating to portrait mode the pages don’t quite resize correctly and having to scroll horizontally just a bit to finish sentences. And the browser controls at top! Can’t figure out how to resize them to they are not tiny little buttons.
HELP!
How to resize the buttons at top of windows and browser? Tried the control panel options and tell it to make those fonts bigger but no joy.
Oktay Oz
Disappointing the very least. Based on the cherry trail fiasco, is the Teclast X80HD still a good buy at 72 euros?
Jamie Brahm
My pick would probably still be the chuwi hi8 – its got a z3736 processor (faster than the 35), and a beautiful bright retina res screen. Although the teclast x80 plus might not throttle, and the usb 3 on the chuwi hi8 pro is appealling – and all these cherry trails have utilize hi speed microSD.
But yeah, for a safe bet the chuwi hi8 would be my guess. Teclast x80hd isn’t a bad device though. And either of those yet to be reviewed 8300’s might be okay – given there are a few 8300’s that don’t overheat/throttle in larger sizes.
Dan
There is a HP 608 g1 that has a z8500 with 4gb of ram in it and it is 8 inch form factor. It also gets extremely hot and throttles performance, I don’t think we are going to see much difference in the xiaomi mi pad 2.
Chris G
They all throttle, so it has to be Intel’s fault, HP, Acer, ASUS and all the Chinese tablets with the X5 Z8500 do it. Only the Chuwi Vi10 Ultimate and X98 Plus with the X5 Z8300 don’t throttle.
Jamie Brahm
Wow and that one costs as much as a surface – if they can’t heatsink at that price point, they are either doing something wildly wrong, or its actually not possible :/
Stijn
What would be the best 8-incher to go for right now? Tired of waiting for the Hi8 Pro..
Chris G
Could be the Teclast X80 Plus. But I’ve yet to test it. Otherwise the Chuwi Hi8 or Vi8 Ultiamte.
Stijn
Thanks for your input, in your experience is the Cherry Trail not much of an advantage over the Bay Trail? Also would you prefer a 1920 display over a non-hd display? Thanks again!
Chris G
Not much of an advantage over Bay Trail no, the 1920 x 1200 panel in the Hi8, Hi8 Pro and X80 Pro does look really nice. Very sharp and good brightness if it’s the same panel I saw in my Hi8.
Jamie Brahm
The teclast x80 plus is out too. And around the same price. I think the are two boats being missed by these lower cherry trails – one, usb 3.0 – two more ram. The higher bus speed clearly allows for higher transfer speeds. And ram is one of the few advantages along with 3D gaming (if they heat could be kept in check).
I also wonder why there are no 8500’s or 8700’s in the lower form factors yet, from the chinese market (there are others, very pricey but they exist), but I guess the cooling needs expert design. Hopefully fingers crossed with see some 8500’s or 8700’s with 4GB of RAM, usb 3.0 next year, perhaps refreshes based on bigger tablet designs (they usually work down in size).
Kyriakos
Considering Intel already announced a refresh to the Z8x00 line (Z8x05 is the new thing apparently) I guess we should be looking out for new chinese tablets carrying those. The quicker than usual product phase-out by Intel could mean that they are aware of the heat issues and resolved them with this refresh. We’re just waiting for Chinese manufacturers to use up all their X8x00 stock before they re-release the same tablet with the new SoC and hopefully better performance under load.
Chris G
Exactly they will use up their Z8X00 stock and Intel will start supplying them with the new Z8X50’s early next year. http://techtablets.com/2015/11/intel-to-phase-out-current-atom-cherry-trail-series-with-slightly-faster-refresh/
Chris G
We need a Z8500 8″er and this is where Xiaomi come in with the Mi Pad 2 (I have one ordered) But it doesn’t have 4GB of RAM which is a shame or microsd card slot.
Ideal 8″ tablet with a Z8500 dual channel 4GB, USB 3.0 or type c, microsd card slot and hdmi out.
Kyrox
This is the only thing I want, didn’t get the Hi8 last year due to the lack of HDMI.