Hisense Sero 7 Pro - a User's Review

[UnknownVT]

I had been interested in a 7" Android tablet for some time - using the Google Nexus 7 (2012 1st gen) as a sort of benchmark.

I bought a cheap tablet - ICOO D70 Pro II as a kind of try out -
although it did very good benchmarks - and was pretty quick/responsive in usage -
the negatives were -
short battery life (only just over 2 hours usage)
non IPS screen which had fairly poor angles of view.

Since then Google Nexus 7.2 has come out - again putting together some really outstanding specs - fullHD resolution screen 1920x1200 @323ppi and class leading performance with long battery life - all for $229+Tax+Shipping for the 16GB model - that's simply amazing.

For those more earthbound and satisfied with the original 1st gen Nexus 7(2012) performance/specs - there were two offerings both with 1280x800 screens and quad core processors that seem to cover the Nexus 7.1 - but with some nice enhancements.

ASUS MeMO HD 7 (ME173X) (not to be confused with the MeMO pad ME172V the lesser sibling) this seems like the 2012 Nexus 7 with extras like microSD support, and rear camera - battery life is claimed to be 10hours.... $149 for 16GB shipped

Then there is the WalMart exclusive HiSense Sero 7 Pro (again not to be confused with the lesser Sero 7 LT) adds miniHDMI in addition to the Asus extras, rear camera adds LED flash, front camera is also 2MP (vs Asus 1.3MP), - but only 8GB NAND memory (but also has microSD card slot) - $129 from local WalMart +tax......battery life claimed 7 hours for video playing and 10 hours for web.

I risked it and bought one from my local WalMart - purchased with site-to-store from their website and saw a $20 off purchase over $100 sign up for a WalMart credit card at the checkout, did that - so mine cost $129 + tax = $138.09 - $20 = $118.09 - this is cheaper than an equivalent "unknown" Chinese tablet - and although HiSense is not known to me - I at least have the no fuss return policy with WalMart.

I ran some standard benchmarks - they seem very much in line with the reviews out there -

Benchmarks
Antutu


Quadrant Standard


Vellamo HTML5


Vellamo Metal


All the benchmarks were run in Performance Priority Mode -


Antutu using Balanced mode - which under-clocks the CPU to save battery


Device Info -


So that's the essentials out of the way -
the Hisense Sero 7 Pro matches and slightly betters the 1st gen Google Nexus 7.1 (2012) in the standard benchmarks.

Screen

It is 1280x800 and IPS - so it looks great, with great viewing angles - in the same class as the Nexus 7.1 (2012)
the front is glass - but it shows fingerprints easily- this is simply solved with a screen protector, I used matte, which also helps reduce reflections.

Battery Life

Battery standby gets some mixed reviews one claims substantial losses in standby (eg: 33% loss in 24hours) - yet others say good standby, with one review claiming 19 days with 43% remaining!

I have now had 3 full to shutdown cycles (my tablet shuts down at 3% and not 0% battery) -
the first lasted 3 days 7 hours - that is with pretty heavy usage (for me) because of the benchmarks
Benchmarks are heavy users of battery -

with nearly 10 hours Awake, and nearly 7 hours Screen On time.

Second cycle lasted 6 days 20 hours -
first day - standby only drain; second day was light/moderate use (but WiFi was inadvertently left On for 11.5hours); rest of time was my normal usage, e-mail, reading eBooks, general surfing searching, and checking for apps and updates.

The third and most recent cycle - which is really my typical usage -
lasted 8 days 11 hours from Full 100% to Shutdown at 3%


Battery level graph -


Usage Stats -


Estimates based on Usage from Android Tuner -


Android Tuner estimates from this discharge cycle that standby time would be 24d12h, average use 13h26m - these would be slightly lower since the tablet shuts down at 3% instead of 0% - so the figure should be adjusted by 0.97x - therefore standby estimate = 23d18.4h; average use estimate = 13h02m.

These figures look good to me and being able to use the tablet for nearly 8.5 days between charges (for my light/frugal - but typical usage) is pretty darned good.

Updates

Being a lesser known brand what are updates and support like?

Only time will tell - but there was already one system update before I even bought the tablet - OTA (over the air) maintenance update.

Also I got notification of a system update this morning when I turned on WiFi:


Comments

So it would seem if this Hisense Sero 7 Pro at $129 from WalMart is one of the value leaders at the moment - matching and sometimes bettering the 1st gen Google Nexus 7.1 (2012) in performance.

Battery life - my one area of doubt - seems to be actually really good - my last cycle lasting me nearly 8.5 days from full 100% to shutdown @ 3%

--
Vincent

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[B. Diddy]

Excellent review. Thanks for writing it!

 

[berrydroidapple]

I agree, great review.

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 4

 

[Jim_in_VA]

yes indeed great review. I had a great experience using the Hisense as a GPS device. I recently came back from a 5 week trip to France. Before I left I downloaded the entire country from Google maps for off-line viewing. It worked flawlessly. My wife and I could drive down the most obscure country roads and always knew where we were. The GPS sensor in the Hisense worked superbly. What a fantastic value this table is.

 

[UnknownVT]

Excellent review. Thanks for writing it!

I agree, great review.

yes indeed great review. I had a great experience using the Hisense as a GPS device. I recently came back from a 5 week trip to France. Before I left I downloaded the entire country from Google maps for off-line viewing. It worked flawlessly. My wife and I could drive down the most obscure country roads and always knew where we were. The GPS sensor in the Hisense worked superbly. What a fantastic value this table is.

Thank you gentlemen for your kind words - much appreciated.

Jim_in_VA what a great idea to use off-line Google Maps and the GPS.
Had not thought of that - really pleased to have learnt about it. Thank you so much for that input.

Thanks

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[B. Diddy]

In case anyone's interested, refurbished 8 GB Sero Pro's are on sale for $110 at 1sale.com:

https://www.1sale.com/electronics/computers-tablets/hisense-sero-7-tablet

 

[UnknownVT]

In case anyone's interested, refurbished 8 GB Sero Pro's are on sale for $110 at 1sale.com:
https://www.1sale.com/electronics/computers-tablets/hisense-sero-7-tablet

That's a bargain - cheaper than most Chinese tablets of similar specs. Only 10 hours left......

A small but important point:

I should mention I changed battery monitoring app to use Android Tuner (Free) and uninstalled Battery Monitor Widget - I think Android Tuner uses less battery as it records battery history at each % change only, as opposed to the constant time frequency of the Battery Monitor Widget (I normally have that set at 5mins intervals).

This may not matter too much in real usage/scheme of things -
but affects standby quite substantially.

Using Android Tuner to monitor the battery - I have seen a 1% drop in about 11-13 hours!
(using 12 hours per 1%, and 97% = 48.5 days standby)

Of course this means the tablet is not used at all
and remains in sleep/standby mode -
not even a screen on to peek at progress -
then $110 would make this a very expensive paperweight -
and not so great, as the battery would run out after 49 days -
but we won't even know it.....


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[rolf4golf]

Thank you for sharing this. Can maps be loaded on my installed SD card and if so can you run me through how to do this. Thanks in advance.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[UnknownVT]

Thank you for sharing this. Can maps be loaded on my installed SD card and if so can you run me through how to do this. Thanks in advance.

I have to learn about this too - this what I found so far:

Under Maps (Android Apps on Google Play) -

" You can make a map area available offline by tapping the search box and selecting “Make this map area available offline” Visit http://goo.gl/wawgE to learn more."

Following that link goes to this page:

Access maps offline

However I don't know if the offline maps can be stored on the external SD card -
How to Use Offline Feature of Google Maps in Android says:
" As map caching takes a considerable amount of space on the internal SD card, it’s always advisable to delete the cached area once you are done with them. To delete a precached map navigate to Map Settings—>Cache—>Precached map area and then press the red cross next to an address. "

But doing a google on "offline maps in SD card", finds some Apps -

MapsOn Free: Offline Map
developer's site says: "Saves maps to SD card for off-grid navigation. Ideal for international traveling to avoid roaming charges."

Maps With Me Lite, Offline Map
this does not say specifically that it saves maps to SD.

Search on Google Play for "Offline Maps SD card"
finds: these results

So there are several Apps paid and free.

I like the looks of this app:
MapFactor: GPS Navigation
and this:
All-In-One Offline Maps

There is also a thread - but for 2.3 gingerbread:
Force Google Maps to save cached maps on SD card
I'm not too sure if this really applies since the internal NAND flash is regarded as SD0,
and I think what is wanted is the external SD card (via microSDHC expansion)

Anyone who has used this please add any other tips or hints?

Thanks

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Vincent

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[Jim_in_VA]

I don't have a clue as to how put off-line maps on the SD card. I had plenty of internal storage to do what I needed. I just deleted them after I returned to the USA

 

[UnknownVT]

I don't have a clue as to how put off-line maps on the SD card. I had plenty of internal storage to do what I needed. I just deleted them after I returned to the USA

Thank you very much for the clarification - sounds very sensible -
do you recall about how much storage the maps took for France, please -
was it the entire country, or certain regions?

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Vincent

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[Jim_in_VA]

I did all of Brittany, Normandy, Provence, and Paris... they were about 40-80 mb each. Easily done with the internal storage of the Hisense, including the apps I already had installed. When you select a area from Google maps for off-line viewing it will tell you how much storage is needed before downloading.

 

[UnknownVT]

I did all of Brittany, Normandy, Provence, and Paris... they were about 40-80 mb each. Easily done with the internal storage of the Hisense, including the apps I already had installed. When you select a area from Google maps for off-line viewing it will tell you how much storage is needed before downloading.

Cool! thank you so much for that very useful information - the storage requirements don't seem that high -
even allowing for the high side of 80MB each, that's 320MB -
considering the Hisense Sero 7 Pro come with 8GB NAND flash, of which 5.6GB is initially available.

Thanks Jim_in_VA - good stuff!

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[Jim_in_VA]

the closer you zoom in to capture the detail you need ... the larger the data requirement. I needed exact roads, even farm roads and trails for the areas I was in ... a yankee lost in France is not a good thing

 

[UnknownVT]

the closer you zoom in to capture the detail you need ... the larger the data requirement. I needed exact roads, even farm roads and trails for the areas I was in ... a yankee lost in France is not a good thing

Again thank you, so you used the larger file downloads for the details
- that's very reassuring.

It would seem the Hisense Sero 7 Pro even with its meager 8GB NAND flash -
is more than capable of storing detailed maps for offline use - for almost any trip.

I wonder if the cached maps could be moved from NAND flash to the external SD card
and moved back for use?

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Vincent

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[rolf4golf]

Thanks for all the feedback re maps to SD card. I will check it out. I know the sero has more than enough capacity to handle the map downloads but I figured as long as the SD card is there why not use it. Again thanks.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[Mojoski]

Anyone who has used this please add any other tips or hints?

Thanks

Haven't tried this yet, but it should work. I've been using a great little app called "Folder Mount" to move the data heavy folders for all of my bigger apps to the MicroSD card on my Sero 7 Pro. I'm using it now for some big games and other apps. No reason why you shouldn't be able to use it to move the proper Google Maps folders to your MicroSD card as well, once you download a bunch of map data and see where Google Maps stores it. Check it out. The Pro version is only a couple bucks and we'll worth the cost. It has worked flawlessly for me and the developer has a thread here that he updates regularly to support the users.

Hope that is helpful!

MrSimmonsSr

EDIT: Well, now that I've tried it myself, this might not be as helpful as I thought it would be. I have cached some map data locally but "Maps" doesn't show up as an app in the analysis tab. I'll have to do some research and ask the developer what controls which apps show up for movement..

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4

 

[UnknownVT]

The most recent discharge cycle for my normal (but frugal) usage from fully charged (I always wait for the charge current to show 0mA before unplug) to shutdown at 3%
was minutes under 9days 16hours:








The estimates by Android Tuner based on my usage:

27days 18hours Standby
12hours 44mins Average use.

This is better than my initial expectations.

As many already know there was a small update:

notice that it would not allow the update (it did download it)
- even though the tablet was plugged in and on charging.

So I waited until the battery was fully charged before attempting the update -


The update was about 4 days ago I haven't noticed much difference -
but then I am not particularly demanding on the tablet -
although the battery consumption seems as if it may be even better -
but I have also reduced the battery monitoring programs to just Android Tuner Free
and changed my anti-virus from Lookout (had just updated to V8.22 - for some reason seemed to be gobbling CPU) to Advanced Mobile Care - this combination seems to be better at battery consumption on my already miserly Android Phone (LG Optimus T - P509).

Of course there has been the recent announcement of the new Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 7 - that has even better/faster CPU than the already highly vaunted Google Nexus 7.2 (2013) -
but this "humble" Hisense Sero 7 Pro - may be last year's technology (but it is what was the top rated for last year) and corrected for all the missing/shortcomings of the original Nexus 7.1 - at almost half the introductory price of the Nexus 7.1 (2012) - has got to be a bargain - especially since I have proven for myself that the battery life - both in use and standby is about as good as one could hope for......

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[UnknownVT]

Some reviews of the Hisense Sero 7 Pro seem to say it isn't much of a tablet -

but it is cheap.....

Now let's backtrack 1 year - the top of the heap and gathering almost universal rave reviews was the first generation Google Nexus 7 - at an introductory price of $225 for the then 8GB version.

Hisense Sero 7 Pro matches the specs and the benchmarks (some are better) of the 1st gen Nexus 7- then adds the glaring omissions like microSD expansion, rear camera, and HDMI... so is it really just cheap and mediocre?

Well CNET has just reviewed the new Amazon Kindle Fire HD 7 (2013 version) BUT the Kindle lacks any camera, no SD expansion, no microphone(!) - has only a dual core processor - it also obviously has the Amazon OS - so it's not native Android, no Google Play Store - and costs $10 more than the Hisense Sero 7 Pro - yet it gets a pretty favorable review....

OK......

I know where my money went.

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[OldListener]

Thank you all for the good information about the Hisense Sero 7 Pro. I especially appreciated learning that the Hisense tablet's GPS features worked well.

I just returned from my nearest Walmart. They have raised the price to $ 149.95. I didn't buy the tablet.