At a Glance
Expert’s Rating
Our Verdict
Best Prices Today: Cube iPlay 10
One of the most difficult things in choosing a budget tablet is knowing how far you should compromise on specifications and performance. You don’t expect a powerhouse with an amazing screen, but you also don’t want to waste your money – no matter how small an amount of cash that is – on what is in essence a rubbish device that you’ll probably bin in a few months.
The Cube also has a larger and higher-resolution 10.6in IPS display, which may be better suited to watching films or playing games, but at the same time makes this a larger device that could find itself more easily dropped. A Micro-HDMI port allows you to hook it up to an even larger screen, such as a TV, should you so desire.
Performance among the three tablets should be much the same, with all three sporting a 1.3GHz quad-core processor, but the Cube has a tad more memory and double the storage at 2GB and 32GB respectively. The latter can also be expanded via microSD up to 128GB (the Fire HD 8 meanwhile supports expansion up to 256GB).
Cube iPlay 10 Design & Build
We would not go so far as to say this appears to be a premium device. In fact we find its design rather odd. It’s evidently designed to be used in portrait mode, with the apps shortcut and reasonably quiet stereo speakers found on the right (or in this case bottom) edge, but its size means the Cube is more comfortable to hold in landscape mode. The 16:9 aspect ratio feels odd when held in this manner, though – we’re more familiar with 4:3 tablet screens, but this widescreen ratio is well suited to movies.
The screen itself is an IPS display, which is a technology known for its realistic colours and excellent viewing angles. It’s also full-HD in resolution, which makes for sharp text and images. But this is rather a dull display and, despite what the manufacturer says, it is not easy to see in direct sunlight.
The screen is of a good size, however, and we like how it seems to be fairly adept at repelling fingerprints. Given the price tag of the Cube, we didn’t expect anything more than this.
Screen bezels are rather thick, which means the device is larger than it perhaps needed to be. All 10in tablets are big, but at 267x168x9.5mm and 608g this one might be a bit chunkier than you’d like. We can’t see an obvious reason for this, given that there is no physical home button – which also means no fingerprint scanner – and the photography tech is nothing special.
From the back of the device the silver plastic frame is visible, with a strip running along the top. It doesn’t look great, but it should help heat to dissipate somewhat. Pleasingly it feels reasonably durable, with minimal creaking and flex when pressure is applied.
Cube iPlay 10 Core Hardware & Performance
Inside the Cube is a quad-core MediaTek MTK8163 processor running at 1.3GHz, which integrates the ARM Mali-T720 MP2 GPU. There’s also 2GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. That’s actually a better-than-average spec for a budget tablet, though it is by no means up there with tablets costing several times the price.
We weren’t able to run our usual Geekbench 4 benchmark on the Cube, but in AnTuTu it turned in a score of 36,890 points. That’s around the same sort of level as the Galaxy A7, a mid-range smartphone from Samsung. That seems a strange comparison, but a tablet is after all just a phone with a larger screen and (usually) no SIM slot.
In the GFXBench graphics test we recorded 11fps in T-Rex, 4fps in Manhattan and 3fps in Manhattan 3.1. We also recorded 16.4 in the JetStream JavaScript test.
None of these scores is anything to brag about. But whether this tablet is powerful enough for you really depends on what you want to do with it. It can handle casual games, video playback, web browsing and the sending of emails no problem. If you have in mind more intensive tasks you might be better to look elsewhere, but be prepared to pay an awful lot more.
The Cube covers all the standard connectivity bases, with dual-band 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS and OTG. It lacks support for NFC and cellular networks, but neither is a surprise at this end of the market.
Specs
Cube iPlay 10: Specs
- Android 6.0 Marshmallow
- 10.6in full-HD (1920×1080) five-point IPS display
- 1.3GHz MediaTek MTK8163 quad-core processor
- Mali-T720 MP2
- 2GB RAM
- 32GB storage, plus up to 128GB via microSD
- dual-band 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi
- Bluetooth 4.0
- GPS
- OTG
- Micro-HDMI
- Micro-USB
- DC jack
- 3.5mm headphone jack
- 2Mp rear camera
- 0.3Mp front camera
- stereo speaker
- 6000mAh battery (charges in 4-5 hours)
- 267x168x9.5mm
- 608g
Best Prices Today: Cube iPlay 10
Author: Marie Black, Global Director of Content Operations, Foundry
Marie is Global Director of Content Operations at Foundry. A Journalism graduate from the London College of Printing, she’s worked in tech media for 20 years. These days she is focused on refining editorial processes and workflows, and on our evergreen, transactional and custom content strategy.
Recent stories by Marie Black:
- Back to School Tech Tips You Don’t Know
- How to find my lost Android phone or iPhone
- Tech Advisor Awards: The 60 best consumer tech products of the year
