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There's a really tough decision to be made when considering the Agora ICS tablet. Is it better to spend more money to have the latest specifications in a device that will perform your every command at a moment's notice? Or id it better to buy something cheap, and make do with its underpowered flaws?
We liked
The Agora ICS ships with Ice Cream Sandwich in the box. That means you're already a step ahead of some of the major tablet manufacturers who still believe in Honeycomb. For a tablet priced at under AUD$200 (£130), that's enough to get excited about in itself.
A full compliment of connectivity options - including everything from MicroSD to HDMI output - is a step beyond what many other Android tablet companies are offering. It's also nice to see that even with all those ports on the back, not one of them was a proprietary connection.
We disliked
The processor just isn't up to scratch for an ICS device. While the operating system is mostly fine, having to wait seconds to see the results of your typing is the kind of thing you'd expect from a Pentium II processor these days, not a brand new tablet.
Battery life is also impossibly weak. If you can't spend a five hour flight watching TV on a tablet, it's simply not good enough. The Kogan wouldn't have made the cut.
The screen, while decent enough for the price, also doesn't compete with the high resolution displays making their way to competitors devices. It's generally a bit dull and lifeless though
Verdict
Ultimately, the decision to buy an Agora ICS tablet is a subjective one. The tablet is a far cry from being one of the best Android tablets ever created. Its lightweight processor simply isn't powerful enough to handle the latest software, and the device itself is built with components that matches the price point.
But it is one of the cheapest tablets on the market, and in terms of value for money, it certainly competes with the best products out there.
It doesn't have the best performance, the best specs or the best design, but it does open up the Ice Cream Sandwich experience to a whole new market. That's a pretty impressive feat in itself, really.
