When a manufacturer switches to Snapdragon - N-ONE Npad Ultra tablet test

The N-ONE Npad Ultra has stronger hardware and a larger display.

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Introductory

It was once, where it wasn't, I could start this test like this, because you have to go back in time quite a bit to understand why this machine is so good.

Many years ago, Chinese manufacturers used MediaTek and Qualcomm chips in their tablets. At that time, MediaTek became a real challenger to Qualcomm, their chips were a real but cheaper alternative.

Of course, you should know that back then, just like today, the tablets did not have top-of-the-line chips, but rather worked with second- or rather third-line hardware.

However, the main point was that the cheaper tablets were mostly MediaTek, but in some cases Qualcomm chips were included. The latter were always a bit more powerful, so those who wanted a better machine paid a slightly higher price for it.

There was one point that the Chinese manufacturers struggled to overcome, and that was the support of the 4G mobile network, or more precisely, the B20 band used in our country. Over time, machines equipped with MediaTek chips appeared, which jumped this barrier, but somehow the thing didn't want to be the real thing.

I don't know if the replacement of Qualcomm and MediaTek with Tiger central units happened because of this, but the fact is that we had to make do with Tiger chips for many years. These had perfect 4G support, in return the positioning became slower and more imprecise, but they didn't excel too much in strength either. There was nothing to do, we used these machines.

Of course, the situation was not unbearable, the Tiger 6xx chips had sufficient performance for normal use.

Then last year, the ice finally broke, and we could once again welcome a MediaTek chip, specifically the Helio G99, in the most powerful (cheap) Chinese tablets. This was a big leap compared to the Tigers, and I was very happy about it. And now here is the first machine equipped with a Qualcomm chip in a long time, the N-ONE Npad Ultra, which this test will be about. Let's see what we get for our little money!

Accessories and exterior

In the box of the N-ONE Npad Ultra, there are only the usual things, such as a charging head, a USB C cable and a SIM card. Anyway, the charging head is capable of 5 amps at 3 volts, that is, in Hungarian, we get 15 watt fast charging. Already, as long as 15 watts can still be called fast charging these days.

We can go beyond that, let's talk about the exterior!

The N-ONE Npad Ultra can be called beautiful from the outside, the camera island is a bit too much for me, but that's the norm these days. The frame now has a more angular design, which can be said to be usual, the edges are slightly broken, elegant. On the shorter sides, there are 2-2 speakers, that is, a total of four speaker grilles.

If we assume that the cameras are at the top of the back panel with the orientation set, then the USB port is at the bottom, but since the tablets are used lying down, this should be the right side at the bottom. The SIM tray is also on this page, if you're looking for it. When laid out like this, the power button and volume rocker are on the top right.

In conclusion, the N-ONE Npad Ultra looks good, is elegant, and despite its large size, I don't feel like it's going to fall apart. The chassis and frame are relatively stiff, but it's not a Xiaomi, the design is in line with today's times, so the outside of the machine is perfectly fine, I would be surprised if someone complained about this.

As a last sentence, the physical characteristics of the machine. The dimensions are 279,4 x 174,9 x 7,5 millimeters, the weight of the machine without case is 580 grams.

Paper form

The specification may come, which will be interesting not only because of the Qualcomm processor, but let's start with that!

What the manufacturer says about it:

Conquering both work and play, the Snapdragon® 685 4G mobile platform delivers increased performance for increased productivity and accelerated play, with impressive AI control tasks and supports your favorite device activities, such as multimedia streaming and enhanced photography.
Improved screen refresh rates provide a smoother and faster experience on your device with Qualcomm® Adreno™ GPU that significantly boosts performance. Our improved Qualcomm® Kryo™ CPU enables smooth multitasking, while Qualcomm® Quick Charge™ technology quickly charges devices on the go.
Mobile gaming thrives with FPS optimization and Game Jank Reducer, all working together for fewer bugs and smoother gameplay. Plus, AI supports the multimedia on the device across the entire interface, from responsive in-game voice commands to brilliant low-light capture.
The Snapdragon X11 LTE Modem completes this impressive platform, offering a fast and reliable 4G LTE connection so you can race, record, communicate and more.

In short, this means that we get an 8-core processor with a maximum clock speed of 2,8 GHz, an Adreno 610 GPU, a Qualcomm® Hexagon 686 processor, a Qualcomm® Spectra™ 346 image processor and of course 4G support (Qualcomm® Snapdragon X11 LTE), WiFi5, Bluetooth 5.1. The positioning system supporting the integrated GLONASS, QZSS, Galileo, Beidou, NavIC, GPS systems is also essential, which, according to the description, ensures lane-level and pavement-level accuracy. Understand also sees which lane of the given road you are currently in.

Running through the process, I described a lot of things, since quite a lot of things are already integrated into these central units. But let's see what other important things there are!

The N-ONE Npad Ultra received 8 GB of LPDDR4X RAM, but it is advertised with 20 GB instead, because it also has 12 GB of virtual memory, which the machine can extract from the system memory. As for storage, we get UFS 2.2, 128 GB, which can be expanded by 2 TB, of course in the form of a memory card.

Next to the process, the second interesting thing is the display. This is a solution based on a 8-inch (10-inch) IPS panel instead of the usual 12- or 11,97-inch, with a resolution of 2000 x 1200 pixels, i.e. 2K resolution. The pixel density is 380 PPI, the front panel display ratio is 93 percent. I don't know if this 12 inch will be the typical size for larger machines, but I would support it if it were. Even the 10-inch is so big that you can't put it in your pocket, so why not have a 12? Right? An extra 2 inches means a 5 centimeter larger image diagonal, which is very useful for multimedia consumption!

It is an interesting thing, but something that affects few people, that the touch sensitivity of the display can detect 10 points at the same time, that is, you can work on it with all 10 fingers at the same time.

Since this is a quasi-premium machine among cheap Chinese tablets, the sound system is also better than usual. Instead of the usual one or two speakers, we get four here, which again only benefits the multimedia experience.

The battery in the larger device housing can also have a larger capacity (it fits), so we get 9200 mAh, plus 18-watt PD fast charging. It's a shame that the charging head supplied with it is only capable of 15 watts, as I wrote above.

I also wrote that there is 4G support, of course also the B20 band. However, I did not say that the SIM tray can accept two SIM cards, but in this case, of course, we will no longer have the option to expand the memory.

The cameras remain, we get two of them. There is a 5-megapixel selfie camera on the front, and a 13-megapixel unit on the back.

As a final sentence, the software, which is Android 14, is completely factory release, no post-installed junk, this is positive. It's also positive that we get Widevine L1 certification, so we don't have to watch Netflix movies in ugly SD resolution on the 2K resolution display.

Experiences

Well, I already wrote above that the size of the N-ONE Npad Ultra's display suits me, I will describe this again, because I think this 2-inch image diagonal is very good for the machine. At the moment, I still feel that the big, nearly 15-inch Samsungs are too much, but maybe a few years ago I would have said that the 12 was too big. I'm not saying now, actually!

I really agree that 8-inch machines were missing until all manufacturers pushed for 10-inch. The 8 is so livable, it can even fit in a larger pocket, but it's still not the size of a phone. For a phone, 8 would be very, very, very much. Fortunately, manufacturers have rediscovered 8-inch machines, so we get quite good machines at this size as well.

In terms of quality, the display of the N-ONE Npad Ultra is an IPS panel, which delivers what is expected of it. Good viewing angles, moderately good compared to AMOLED, but plenty of usable blacks and contrast, bright colors, the backlight is also good, so the display is adequate. Nothing extra, but there is plenty of what is needed to use the machine without any disturbance.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 685. Sounds good, I'd say I fell for it, but no.

The thing is, he's had quite a few G99 tablets lately, and looking back at the results there, the Snapdragon 685 doesn't offer anything more in terms of power. The catch would be if I were to write here that ACTUALLY, but I won't, because the two chips performed head-to-head in every test.

In the case of the G99, I had no problems with navigation inaccuracies, unlike with some Tigeres machines. So, in addition to the Snapdragon, I can't mention GPS as an advantage either.

It used to be believed (years ago) that MediaTek is strong in terms of CPU scores, and Qualcomm takes everything in terms of GPUs. This was so true that in 3D and similar tests, where the GPU played a role, the Snapdragon units crushed the smaller competition.

It should be known that the G symbol in MediaTek chips stands for Gaming, so these chips are capable of particularly good performance in graphics applications. Perhaps this is also due to the fact that neither during normal use nor in the tests I see the difference that makes me choose the Snapdragon.

Perhaps we can discover a difference in relation to the image processor, but it is difficult to judge whether the relatively good, but not very good image quality is due to the cameras or the central chip. However, don't expect outstanding quality here either. The last time I encountered really good quality (compared to a tablet) was the Xiaomi tablet two years ago. I think the newer ones are also good, they just didn't work for me.

I tried to select the best ones from the photos taken for the test, but this is only so that you can see what the camera can do in a lucky case. Because anyway, the situation is that not many people like low light, they do not want to adjust the white balance, nor do they want to adapt to the brightness many times. This is also true for video recording, you can see this in the video test at the beginning of the article.

So let's ignore the cameras! I note that there is a good chance that you will not take a 12-inch tablet with you anywhere to take photos, so the weakness of the camera does not greatly affect the judgment of the N-ONE Npad Ultra.

Voice. Well, that was perhaps the most depressing thing about this machine. No, I'm not expecting a miracle, since you can't build a miracle into a tablet, but the box sound that came out of it is disappointing. Okay, there are four speakers, but two of them would have been enough, it wouldn't sound worse either. True, then it would not be possible to advertise the four-speaker system in capital letters among the capabilities.

When it comes to the usability of the N-ONE Npad Ultra, I think it is important to point out that due to the large screen diagonal, it can even be used as a computer replacement. With a Bluetooth key and a mouse, we get a solution suitable for correct text editing, so it is completely suitable for correspondence, writing, spreadsheet management and the like.

Conclusion

Well, the question is whether the N-ONE Npad Ultra turned out to be a good machine or not! Good in many ways, average in many ways, and not so good in some ways.

In which the display was clearly good. It's not because of the image quality, it's so strong it's average among machines with similar capabilities. Because of the size, I really liked the stuff!

What is average is the process. That is, it is average among the more powerful Chinese machines, on the same level as the Helio G99. That doesn't mean it's bad, it means it's not better than that. The power of the G99 is suitable for me, I think it is also suitable for gaming, so the Snapdragon 685 is also suitable for it.

Among the N-ONE Npad Ultra's multimedia capabilities, I was not satisfied with the sound.

The other abilities are completely average. I mean, again, it is average among the more powerful and better machines. It's not exceptionally good, it's not exceptionally beautiful, but it offers plenty of what we can expect from such a machine. I'm not talking about much here, I'd really be satisfied with something a little worse, I wouldn't even say that it's on fire.

Of course, the price is what decides everything, and there is absolutely no problem with the price. It has just arrived in the Czech warehouse, so you can no longer order it from China, but from the EU warehouse for a 12-inch tablet for only 72 000 forintthey ask for a BGcbbf89 with a coupon code, which makes it a very good purchase.