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From pretty humble beginnings, the Google Play Store is now a thriving app store containing more applications than any other. True, the ratio of quality-to-tat isn't as high as Apple's iOS App Store, but that's the price Google has had to pay for being so hands-off with app submissions.
Regardless, most of the major apps are here and waiting to be downloaded onto the Hudl, including Evernote, Pinterest, Netflix, Instagram and Flipboard. All work pretty much flawlessly on Tesco's affordable tablet, too.
Then there are Google's own hugely impressive apps, which either come preinstalled or are free to download. Google Maps, of course, is a peerless navigation app, while Google Keep is a superb note-taking tool.
On the email front you get both the peerless Gmail app and Android's generic email app for non-Google email accounts. Both work identically here to the way they work on virtually every other Android tablet of recent times.
Meanwhile, Google's social network Google+ still feels a little too fiddly and undersubscribed to truly take on Facebook.
However, its tight integration with other Google services should ensure its relevance for a little while yet. It's also got an excellent automatic photo-upload feature that actively enhances your images and magically stitches together potential panoramic shots, though the Hudl really doesn't have the camera hardware to make the most of this.
When it comes to games, the Hudl will run pretty much anything you can throw at it - but it won't necessarily run it well. Our usual test duo of Rayman Jungle Run and Real Racing 3 revealed the good and bad in the device.
The former ran like a dream, with its Disney film-like sprites and animation rendered beautifully on that sharp display. Real Racing 3, on the other hand, looked decent but ran really poorly.
All of the effects were in place, including those advanced mirror-reflection effects, but the frame right was patchy to say the least.
Of course, most Android games don't place such stringent demands on your hardware, so the Hudl is fine for general gaming. Don't expect it to keep pace with the high-end games of 2014 and beyond, though.
