FNF ifive Mini 4S Review

Where To Buy

The iFive Mini 4S is a 7.9″ tablet also known as the RePad 8 in America, it’s powered by a RockChip RK3288 quad-core with Mali-T760 GPU. The screen is a crisp 2048 x 1536 fully laminated panel with close to 300 lux at maximum brightness. On firmware 1.03 that was around 210 lux, but the latest February 22nd update improved the screens maximum output to 298 lux.

Below is the video review covering all the key points, the build, screen, performance, PDF, ebook use, gaming, audio, gaming and battery life. Conclusion, Pros and Cons are below with the final rating out of 10.

Conclusion:

Taking into consideration it’s low $125 price tag, this tablet has premium features at a budget price. You get a well put together metal build, no flex or gaps, MircoSD card slot and that beautiful fully laminated 7.9-inch screen.

The Rockchip RK3288 & Mali T760 GPU had me a little concerned it wouldn’t be up to the job and be able to drive that high 2048 x 1536 resolution screen smoothly, but I’m happy to report that I was wrong. The ROM is quick, gaming is fine, sure it’s not the fastest, but it can play demanding titles at playable framerates and that’s all you can expect for $125, but you get so much more here than your typical cheap tablet.

Overall a great little tablet for light tasks and gaming, let down by poor battery life. Ideally, I would like to see an hour or two more. And my unit suffers from a buzzing noise over my 3.5mm output. But iFive do set the standard for build quality and specs at this level. Normally in this price group you get a weaker SoC, thick full plastic body and a low res non-laminated display.

In order get it for $125 you need to use coupon ifive21 the deal is here

Good

  • Solid Metal Build
  • Clean Bloat Free Stock ROM
  • Fully Laminated 2048 x 1536 Screen
  • Playable FPS in Games
  • MicroSD Slot
  • 32GB Storage & Not 16GB
  • Wireless AC
  • Sells for as low as $125

Bad

  • No HDMI Out
  • Bad Cameras
  • Interference Buzzing over the 3.5mm Audio Jack
  • Max 5 hours battery life.
8

Great

Performance - 8
Design and Build - 9
Screen - 9
Sound - 7
Battery Life - 7

15 Comments

  1. Hi,
    Looking for a 4:3 8″ tablet with a good screen for photo viewing, music player (not blutooth) and surfing on a tight budget and this is top of list, followed by Alfawise (but hate white bezels). Worried about the noise yours and all reviews mention through the 3.5mm jack. Can you expand a bit? all the time or intermittent, I read somewhere it hisses when jack is plugged in but stops when music played? Thankyou, J.

    • Yes, it hisses when plugged in and then when you play music it seems to disappear. And some owners don’t have any hiss at all so down to luck. The Alfawise is a better tablet however, more power. Better speakers and more RAM.

  2. New firmware 1.0.8w works great on my ifive mini 4s, solving weak WiFi. In addition I’m noticing better battery life.
    Also, following the instructions on the tutorial the ifive mini 4s root is easily achieved.
    Link
    https://forum.xda-developers.com/android/general/tutorial-fnf-ifive-mini-4s-custom-t3583184/page7

  3. I see this device has a Geomagnetic Field Sensor. Most devices list a magnetometer for e-compass readings. Does the Geomagnetic Field Sensor function as a compass? I’m mainly wanting a tablet to run astronomy software like Sky Safari 5 or Star Walk 2. These apps allow you to hold the device up to the sky to help locate objects. They require a tablet with a Gyro and Compass. I would assume the Geomagnetic Field Sensor handles the compass work on this tablet, but can you verify it? Would be great if you could test one of those apps to see if performance is up to snuff. Thanks for the great review!

  4. I recently bought this tablet on your recommendation thanks!!… The Design, Speed and Screen are outstanding. My device has been plagued with a strange issue where you leave it for a few days and the Power button in non responsive. I got this for the wife, trying to pwn her off an IPAD or Samsung S3, but the wake from standby issue has been annoying her and in turn myself. It is regularly remedied if I hold the power down for 5 secs and I restart the device. It seems to settle in with whatever (30% 61%) charge it had. I guess my biggest issue with this device is standby time. Can anyone recommend something comparable to 8-11 inch tablet with pref dual boot and excellent battery life with screen as good as the iFIVE?

  5. Great review – thanks.

    Quick request – in reviews of tabs and phones with screens >HD, would it be possible to include a test of playing 4K video from the SD card slot, say normal spec GoPro 4K footage, alongside the gaming as a GPU and memory speed test?

  6. How do I get the iFive Mini 4S to be able to use the Playstation Vue app…?

    Error message I get is it’s not supported on rooted devices for security reasons…

    Also, can I get flash to play in Chrome on this tablet?

    Thanks.

  7. Does anyone knows how to root it please ?

  8. What should I choose: Xiaomi MiPad 1 (Nvidia Tegra K1, 64Gb for $131) or this FNF iFive Mini 4S (Rockchip RK3288, 32Gb for $109).
    They both have 2014 year hardware. MiPad 1 released in 2014 but ifive released in 2017.

    MiPad 1 has no official Android 6 and even Android 5 firmware but has unofficial ones because of high popularity.
    iFive has clean Android 6 but all previous FNF tablets has low popularity so we could not expect many or even stable unofficial ROMs.

    It is really hard to choose..

    • I would go for this, I find the Rockchip does surprisingly well here. And I love the clean bloat free stock ROM.

  9. No GPS!?!

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