iBall Slide WQ 149

The iBall Slide WQ 149 - successor of Slide WQ 32 is a 10.1 inch tablet that doubles up as a laptop using the detachable magnetic keyboard. It features a 1280x800 IPS display offering sharp colors and visuals. The hybrid tablet has 32GB (expandable upto 64GB via micro-SD card) in-built storage which is good enough to store a variety of apps and multimedia content. In addition, it offers 1 TB synced cloud storage included free for one year, in which documents, photos, videos & the like can be stored, recovered & shared easily anytime, anywhere.

Compact design with good features

As a standalone tablet, the design is similar to WQ32, featuring soft, matte finish on the back providing good grip over the device and is surrounded by thin black bezel. It comes bundled with magnetic pogo pin keyboard with touch pad and cover. Connecting and disconnecting the two is smooth and effortless. The power and volume controls are on the right side of the device and microUSB port, mini-HDMI port, SD card slot are housed on the left side. The mini-HDMI connectivity maximizes the utility of device to connect to an external source. It is loaded with 5MP auto-focus camera with flash, and a front 2MP camera for video chatting.

The built-in 3G SIM slot enables anywhere, anytime connectivity. It comes with a free one-year subscription of Office 365 personal that includes Power Point, Word, Excel, OneNote plus 1TB of cloud storage through OneDrive. The keyboard has plastic build quality, feels cheap, though the typing experience is fine. Also the outer flap that holds the tablet up in a laptop position is not very sturdy. It can open while using the touchscreen, causing the tablet to fall out.

Decent performer

We ran PC Mark 8 and 3D Mark benchmarks to check the hybrid for its computing capability. In PC Mark 8 Creative test suite which comprises of web browsing, basic photo editing, media performance etc, it scored 948. In 3D Mark Ice Storm, it scored 11747. Both results ensure that the hybrid is capable of performing multimedia and office productivity tasks without any lag. Apps did not take time to load and run smoothly, once loaded. Moreover, the color reproduction is good and while browsing or creating documents, the text looked sharp. The glossy panel can be distracting when working under a direct light source. The touch response is good and zooming, swiping, opening app bars is smooth. However, the track pad was less responsive and we found ourselves struggling a bit to register for the desired input.

The 1280x800 pixel resolution for HD movies worked well however, while watching Full HD movies, it lagged. The IPS screen works well and offers better viewing angles. The speaker housed at the bottom delivers enough sound to keep you entertained during music playback or while watching movies. To check the battery, we looped a video at full brightness until the battery drained out. It lasted for 7 hours 50 minutes which is good enough, if you want to use it on the go