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My Review Of The Tesco Hudl 2 Tablet

ByKevin Simon

Dec 24, 2014

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I decided to upgrade my tablet which was a Sumvision voyager 10.1″ dual core android 4.2 tablet, Since the release of the Tesco hudl 2 in early October 2014 I had been looking at getting one but wasn’t to sure about the screen size as I’m used to a 10″ screen as I use my tablet for work as well as typing articles for this site oh and the occasional game. At a 8.3″ screen on the hudl 2 it is a bit of a jump down, but thought would still be better than a 7″ like the original hudl and the medion lifetab 7″, which I have reviewed HERE. As 7″ tablets are two small for my big fingers to type on 🙂

I had recommend the hudl 2 for my mom, so she got one and a had a quick go with it, I was really impressed I went out and brought one the same day. I have had the tablet about a week now so I can give my honest option on it.

First of all I must say the screen resolution at 1920 x 1200 is amazing for a tablet of this size and price, everything is really clear, brightness is great the hudl does have an ambient light sensor that will adjust screen brightness depending on lighting conditions, I did find with this on the screen did seem bit to bright than I wanted, also is playing a game and tilting device ie racing game, screen kept adjusting brightness which was a bit of putting. I use my tablet to display the photos I take, and the display didn’t disappoint, with great detail and colour reproduction.

The speed of the teblet is very good using antutu benchmarking it came out of a score of just under 32000 which is good compared to a HTC one (28000 approximately) or Google nexus 5 (36000 approximately) the hudl 2 is power by Intel Atom quad-core processor running up to 1.83 GHz and 2 GB of RAM. So for games and normal use youeill have no problems running apps. Web browsing is quick also and no real problems rendering multiple tabs.

The hudl 2 comes with 16gb storage built in, though just over 9gb is available to the user. You can expand using micro SD cards at upto 32gb, which defiantly you will need to add memory for your media, as because especially with modern games they can take up to 2gb for a single game, so really not that much space for music and photos, would have liked to see the tablet with 32gb option. Like I say I use my tablet for displaying my photos and all my photos resized to 1600×1200 I have over 6gb in photos at that resolution though there is over 25000 photos for that space.

Quick Photo from Hudl 2 Camera indoor early evening low light
Quick Photo from Hudl 2 Camera indoor early evening low light

The hudl 2 does come with two cameras a 5mp on the back and 1.2mp on the front, now I don’t see why you would use a tablet for taking photos,which I have wrote about HERE, but I do use the camera on a tablet for taking photos of notes, images etc while onsite at customers. The rear camera is of pretty good quality even in low light does give good colour and detail reproduction.

The hudl does have two speakers on the back, and I must say the quality is very good for such small speakers, volume is high as well, this is because the tablet has Dolby audio, so does give a very good stereo reproduction. As the tablet is by Tesco’s you do have a lot of preinstalled apps they are Blinkbox movies, books, music, Child safety – Restrict certain websites by either category or individual website, allow apps not to be used, set periods of time tablet can be used. You have to setup lockscreen security on main parent profile before you can set up hold profile.
Tesco Clubcard, groceries, direct. Real food, f &f, tesco bank, tesco photo and my tesco and a Getting stated app that shows how to use all aspects of the tablet within different categories, great for someone just starting out. Top apps gives you recommendations on apps aswell as movies, music etc.

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Antutu Benchmark 5 Score

In the box you do get some money off vouchers to spend at Tesco’s which are £25 free blinkbox credit to spend on movies, books and music,  £10 off F&F when you spend £50, £10 off Tesco Direct when you spend £50, £15 of Tesco.com when you spend £60, 10 free 4 x 6 photos when you buy 50 at Tesco Photo. So great value if you do use Tesco for shopping or are using or looking at the Tesco owned streaming, music and books service blinkbox.

I found the hudl 2 a great improvement over the original hudl, and at £129 it is great value and if you use clubcard vouchers you can double up the value ie if you have got £65 in clubcard vouchers you can essentially get the hudl 2 for free. I didn’t use my clubcard vouchers as i use them for day out vouchers that are worth four time the value see HERE for more details. At a 8.3″ screen it is a good size tablet, I found it OK to use for what I need, typing wasn’t to bad as I have wrote this article on the hudl 2. It is not the thinnest or lightest tablet on the market at 9.3mm thick and weighs 410grams which fit nice in your hand and for me is a lot better for reading ebooks than my old 10″ tablet.

So far I have been happy with the hudl 2 battery life seems good and would say that the time quoted in operating time is about right. I did find that using some apps and websites the text was too large ie in feedly newsreader not really enough text on the screen, so I rooted the tablet using this guide HERE, do remember rooting your device could invalidate your warranty, but does give you advanced options ie for the text size problem I could change the dpi setting to 260dpi. Also you can remove all those tescos apps if you wish.

So if you are looking for a resonable priced android tablet you couldn’t go wrong with the hudl 2 as the screen is great, sound quality is good and a very fast device for the price, and beside that you can get in a range of colours though three of the colours are only available online and not in store. Below is the full spec of the Hudl 2.

•  8.3 inch 1920 x 1200 (Full HD) screen
•  Intel Atom quad-core processor up to 1.83 GHz, 2 GB of RAM
•  Android Kitkat 4.4.2 operating system
•  Stereo speakers with Dolby optimised audio
•  5 Mp rear facing camera and 1.2 Mp front facing camera
•  16 GB storage, microSD card slot (up to 32GB)
•  8 hour battery life
•  Dual band Wi-Fi, micro-HDMI
•  8 colours: Jazzy Blue, Zesty Orange, Slate Black, Rocket Red, Tropical Turquoise, Dreamy White, Perky Purple and Bubblegum Pink.
•  Pre-loaded with Parental filter and controls

By Kevin Simon

I run this blog & also self employed cleaning out fish ponds, but due to spinal problems not able to do as much, now started a youtube channel showing my converted Peugeot Partner micro camper also as interest in photography so now vlog about the trips and of course Lego figures out in the wild photos.

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