Kogan Mini 8-inch tablet review

So we've established that the Kogan tablet looks like a more expensive tablet, and it feels like one too, more or less. But does it work like a premium made model?

Connectivity-wise, the Mini 8-inch has all of the same components as other Wi-Fi only tablets. It is compatible with Wi-Fi networks using the 802.11 b/g/n protocols, it sports Bluetooth version 3.0 hardware, GPS, and USB 2.0.

The addition of a micro-SD card slot is important too, as it is something the other tablet makers tend to avoid, for one reason or another.

Zippy performance

Under the hood, Kogan chooses a dual-core 1.6GHz processor and 1GB RAM, with a Mali 400 GPU. This combination has provided us with a zippy experience across everything we've tested and handles itself well when performing synthetic benchmarks, too. It scored a decent 37fps on our favourite 3D animation benchmark, and sits on par with dual-core phones from last year, like the HTC One S.

We did experience one complete system crash during our review, though. A full system lock-up while we were installing an app from the Play Store, requiring us to soft-reset the tablet. This wasn't an error we could replicate, so we're happy to put it down to being a one-off.

Battery life

In terms of battery life, Kogan packs a 4,300mAh battery in the 8-inch tablet, which we found was good for about 3.5 hours of continuous web browsing with the screen brightness ramped up to its maximum.

You will be able to extend this figure with a moderate screen brightness, but this isn't a great result for the sake of comparisons. Most tablets we review tend to be pushing six-hours under similar conditions, so you'll be wanting to keep your charger close with the Kogan.