Lenovo Tab A7-50

Lenovo's Tab A7 series is available in a variety of configurations. We have the A7-50 3G with us for review, which is also known as the A3500-HV.

Look and feel
There isn't very much you can do to make a tablet stand out - its shape and size are, after all, determined by the screen. Still, Lenovo has managed to put its own spin on this device. It's available in "midnight blue", a deep shade that isn't distracting but is still very identifiable. The blue plastic shell frames the black glass front, continuing in smooth curves across the sides and back. In bright light, you'll notice a speckled texture to the blue plastic.

Specifications and software
Unsurprisingly, Lenovo's low-cost tablet uses a MediaTek SoC. It's the quad-core 1.3GHz MT8382, which integrates the ARM Cortex A7 design along with a Mali-400 MP2 graphics block and GPS, 3G, Wi-Fi b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0 hardware. There's also 1GB of RAM and 16GB of storage onboard which can be expanded using the microSD card slot.
The screen has a respectable resolution of 800x1280 pixels, which is standard in this price class. You get a 5-megapixel camera without flash on the rear, and a 2-megapixel one in front. There's a hefty 3,450mAh battery which is rated to last for up to two weeks with the device in standby.

Performance
Benchmark scores were unremarkable - the A7-50 managed18,778 points in AnTuTu 5 and 5,945 overall in Quadrant. Graphics scores were weak, and we only got 6.5fps in GFXbench and 2,926 points in 3DMark's Ice Storm test.
Informal usage was generally pleasant. There's a tiny bit of a lag when swiping between pages and launching apps, but the UI is fluid and there are no usability issues. We encountered one random restart and the Google Play app quit unexpectedly a few times during our test period.
We were pleased with the A7-50's battery life - it lasted for in our video loop test which means you could probably use it for a full day of entertainment