Cube i7 Remix Review

Sharing a very similar look to the Cube i7, the i7 Remix is a Remix OS powered 11.6-inch tablet with an optional keyboard dock. The i7 Remix has a 1080p screen, Atom Z3735F quad core and 32GB of storage. Despite the Windows logo home button, there is no Windows OS on this system, at least not yet.

What’s in the Box:

• 1 x Cube i7 Remix
• 1 x Keyboard dock (If ordered)
• 1 x USB charger – 5v and 2A
• 1 x MicroUSB cable for charging and data
• 1 x OTG adapter.

Hardware & build quality:

The i7 Remix is a large tablet with an 11.6″ wide screen. It’s not the lightest at 735 grams, but luckily if you buy the keyboard dock for it, you can stand it up in this. It is thin for its size at 8.5mm, but it’s still a large and heavy tablet. The build is premium with a metal unibody rear, mated with the front glass touch screen. The rear has Cube’s trademark matte dark blue paint job that holds up okay to fingerprints, but after a while smudge marks do start to appear. It defiantly has a build quality to it that feels much higher than its price tag and more like the $450 i7, I hope Cube continue this trend using the same materials and build.

It’s obvious that this i7 Remix shares elements from the more expensive Core M powered i7, It even has the same touch digitizer panel and the same look overall. But it is thinner and lighter than the i7 CM.

Cube also included a few things you don’t normally see on tablets at this price range, a haptic feedback vibration motor (Only heard when power on and touching the home button) And an ambient light sensor to control screen brightness automatically.

Keyboard dock: (Optional)

The keyboard dock is the same one from the i7 Core M, A full sized keyboard with island-style keys, that have good feedback and feel to them. I had no issues typing out this review on the keyboard due to its larger size over the more common 10.1 and 10.6-inch keyboards I’ve seen. It didn’t take me long to adapt to typing on this keyboard and it feels better and more spacious than my Surface 3 to type on. Since it’s the same keyboard as the i7’s we have the same two full sized USB 2.0 ports on the rear of the keyboard, this is a nice addition. The cost of the keyboard is an additional $40-$60 but well worth it if you’re considering this tablet.

These two ports are handy for connecting up a USB mouse as the trackpad is giving me some issues. It’s small and not the best when it comes to moving the mouse pointer around, but that wasn’t the main issue. Often the trackpad would just give up completely and stop working. I have to remove and reattach the tablet to the keyboard to bring it back to life. I think this is a software related issue that hopefully Cube will address asap. Both the tablet and the dock together weigh 1.4 kilos together, so it’s not the lightest tablet two in one to carry around. The keyboard is almost as heavy as the tablet itself because it’s counterweighted so the i7 Remix doesn’t tip over when you press the screen.

The keyboard clicks in place with magnets and like the i7 you have this one fixed angle and no middle ground, there is no way to adjust it. Like the angel or hate it, you’re stuck with it. The tablet can be placed and seated in the dock face down and it hold the tablet nicely. It would still be a good idea to then place it inside a pouch as the paint finish on both the keyboard and tablet are easy to scratch.

Screen and touch response:

The G+G touch panel isn’t an OGS or laminated screen, some advertising material state it’s an OGS, (One Glass Solution) but clearly it’s not, there is a very small gap of around 0.5mm I estimate between the touch glass and IPS panel below. It’s one of the smaller gaps I have seen. About half that of the Teclast X10HD which has a rather large gap of 1 mm. The 1080p screen offers good vibrant colors and viewing angles. Brightness isn’t the best I’ve seen at 312 cd/m², perfectly fine for indoor use. Like most of the tablets out there, the display is too reflective and the brightness lacking for any outdoor use.

The home button is a Windows logo, which is rather interesting, it’s either because it’s the exact same panel as the Cube i7 or there are plans to release this as a dual boot tablet with Windows? I hope it’s the latter as this hardware does support Windows with its X86 Intel Atom CPU.

Touch response is good and accurate. I didn’t have any issues with touch lag or areas where the panel was less sensitive to touch.

See how the maximum screen brightness compared to other tablets tested:

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Storage:

The Cube i7 Remix comes with 32GB of eMMC storage, using A1 SD Bench I got 95 Mb/s reads and 32 MB/s write rates. Which is fine for a tablet running Remix OS / Android, over 24GB was available on first boot. Storage can be expanded using a MicroSD card, my Samsung 64GB Evo MicroSD card worked without any issues, A1 SD Benchmark reported around 35 MB/s max reads and 21 MB/s write on the card.

Ports & Connectivity:

The ports are all on the left side of the i7 Remix and there is no speaker on left side. Seems Cube didn’t have room for it and both speakers are found on the right side. The ports included are two microusb 2.0 ports, one for charging and the other for OTG use with the included adapter. If you buy the original dock, you also get two full sized USB 2.0 ports. The Microsd card slot is a click in and out type and unlike other tablets you don’t need super long finger nails or another card to remove it. It does sit flush inside the slot and there is no risk of it coming out by itself.

Above the microsd card slot we have the two microusb ports, above that the micro hdmi port and 3.5mm headphone port.

Wireless and Bluetooth v4.0 worked without any issues. I had no dropped connections and signal strength both upstairs and down was always remained within within the green zone on Wifi analyzer. Plugging in my micro hdmi worked as expected mirroring the screen on my monitor in 1080p.

Rom and Experience:

The new Remix OS is one of the key reasons for buying a tablet like the i7 Remix. While it’s built on top of Android 4.4.4, the OS has a very custom look to it, there is a new task bar at the button which you can also hide, that makes it easy to switch between app and games.

Multi windowed apps with Phone mode:

Remix is focused on multitasking and being a productive tablet, so you can even run various apps in phone mode side by side which resizes the application or game to fit a 5″ phone sized screen. In turn this allows you to run multi apps all on the screen in their own phone sized Window. Handy if you want to use a few applications at time, while all being visible on the screen. For example surfing the web in Chrome or Firefox and waiting for your builders to finish in your game of Clash of Clans, it can be done all at once now. There is a catch however, only applications that can run on a phone will support phone mode. I could even run play two games at once, something your average Android tablet can do, not on the same screen at least and not having it pause itself.

It’s not just multi tasking but Remix have their own set of stock applications that come with the OS. The custom notification swipe down menu and settings is just some of the refinements Jide have made with Remix.

There is also a quick way to close apps, right from where you can launch them in phone mode. And the menu next to it allows you to clean the memory, basically close all running apps and games apart from the one your currently in.

Google Play:

The Remix version 1.0 rom I had did not included included the Google Play Store since it must be build for China which doesn’t have Play. You might be able to add or flash it via recovery. I didn’t have time or want to mess about with installing Play as I have been there before on other Chinese tablets and it’s always such a hassle. At first I used sites like apkmirror.com to get the apps and games I needed. This works, but it’s also a pain. In the end I located an overseas i7 Remix 1.0 rom with Google Play and Services included, this was a matter of downloading it and flashing it over. The Google Play i7 Remix rom is here.

Rom and speed:

The current i7 Remix rom is Remix version 1.0, Remix 1.5 has just recently been released, so I expect Cube to be updating to Remix 1.5 soon. The current rom is fluid and responsive. Not once did I experience any lags or stutters and I didn’t have one app force close on me either. So in my experience the rom is both stable and quick, it’s also a light rom with very little in the way of bloatware, just a Chinese store app and the Cube uGames app. UGames isn’t really bloat as it gives you a huge range of games and emulators to download and play.

Android Benchmarks:

Benchmarks show it’s just as fast as the Atom Z3736F at 3D which clocks higher than this Z3735F. The difference in speed is only recorded in Geekbench 3 and Antutu. All the scores here are on par with other Z3735F tablets tested. Remix OS 1.0 performs just as Android 4.4.4 would, there is no impact on the performance.

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Scores and screens as follows:

AnTuTu 5.7.1: 31204

 

 

 

 

Geekbench 3 scores: 785 single core, 2121 multi threaded

 

 

 

 

 

3DMark Ice storm extreme: 7818 / Ice storm unlimited: 14707

Epic citadel: 39.8 FPS Ultra setting

 

 

 

 

GPUBench: 18933 / 60.15 FPS

 

 

 

 

Pi 53.5 seconds:

Gaming:

The Remix’s Atom Z3735F handled every game I threw at it. On the 11.6″ screen games looks great, specially popular titles like Modern Combat 5 Blackout and Clash of Clans. The game was smooth with no lag or stutters, Real Racing 3 was smooth and even the most demanding of games like Modern Combat 5 Blackout were smooth and 100% playable.

Battery life:

The i7 Remix comes with a 8400mah, using 40%, wifi on and surface the web and playing a few games I managed just over 6 hours. 6 hours and 11 minutes to be exact. This isn’t a bad score at all and comparable to other tablets tested that run Android.

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Audio quality:

Disappointingly both the stereo speakers are on the left side of the tablet. So stereo separation (unless used in portrait) isn’t going to happen here, the maximum volume and clarity of the speakers however is good. It’s no Surface 3 or Chuwi via in terms of speaker output, but its decent enough.

The 3.5mm headphone port provides enough volume to satisfy most and drive a large headset. It’s all to common to hear buzzing on the 3.5mm line out on these Atoms, thankfully the i7 Remix is free of this issue and the audio output is clear.

Cameras:

Cube have gone with a close-cropped 2MP front facing camera. During Skype testing, the image on my side I was told was acceptable and didn’t seem have any pixelation issues or anything of the sort. The rear auto focus 5MP camera isn’t very good, very slow to focus and colors are often washed out and not correctly represented. You’re best to take photos with your mobile phone, it would certainly do a better job than the below samples.

Conclusion:

The Remix operating system has finally broken out on to other tablets and Cube have given the OS a very decent tablet to run on, the build quality you get for the price is really amazing. It certainly doesn’t feel like a $185 tablet. And if you get the official keyboard (recommended) you’ll have yourself one of the most productive Android based tablets out there along with the original Remix.

The only real issue I encountered that took a few points off the overall rating was the issues I faced with the touch pad disconnecting. Minor things like both the speakers on the right side and the cameras should be considered, but for the budget entry level tablet class it is I don’t see it as a deal breaker. The tablet truly has to be used in person to appreciate the build quality and productive OS you get for the price.

Is it better than Jide Tech’s own Remix tablet? No, while the Remix ultratablet is more of a Surface type two in one with a build on par with Microsoft’s own Surface one model, a fully laminated screen and a two stage kickstand. The i7 Remix for the price is a good alternative. Add to it the keyboard it still works out cheaper than the Remix and you have two full sized usb ports on the dock. Something the Remix lacks. Also take into account the Remix tablet from Jide will always get the new OS releases first, much like the Surface does with Windows.