Next Gen3 10-inch tablet September 2011

What is the Next Gen3 tablet?

Department store Next isn’t new to the tablet market. We have already tested two of its previous models, the older 10-inch model and a smaller 7-inch. The first thing that distinguishes this one, however, is the price. It’s not exactly bargain basement at £225, but for that you do get features such as a large capacitive touchscreen, a thin body and a built-in camera. In any case, it is still much cheaper than the likes of the Apple iPad 2 and Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, which even for their entry-level 16GB models don't give you much change out of £400. 

One of the reasons it's much cheaper is that it comes with just 4GB of internal storage. There is a micro SD card slot for memory expansion, though.

The Gen3 has an interesting look to it. The back is slightly reflective with a swirly design. You'll probably love it or hate it, but if you don't like it at least it's quite discreet. The corners of the tablet are pointy and sharp, rather uncomfortable if you find a corner digging into the palm of your hand when using it.

It weighs 630 grams, pretty light for a 10.1-inch tablet, but a little heavier than the iPad 2 (601g) and the Galaxy Tab 10.1 (566g). 

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What’s the Gen3 like to use?

Touchscreen technology comes in two main types - resistive and capacitive. Resistive reacts to finger pressure, and capacitive reacts to electrical properties of the human body, including the finger. In general, for small touchscreen devices like tablets and smartphones, capacitive works better.

Next has used a capacitive touchscreen on the Gen3. It works reasonably well overall, significantly better than all the resistive screens we've tried. It's easy to open apps, a quick, light, touch on the icon and it will open quickly. Scrolling up and down a web page is less smooth than on the best tablets we've tested, but it works OK.

However, the default virtual keyboard, which pops up when you want to enter a web address, do a Google search or type an email for example, isn't easy to use. It is small, reducing your typing speed and accuracy. At times it is also slow to react to your presses, so what you type appears a moment after you touch the screen.

The screen is not particularly great at displaying video, colours lack punch and the overall effect is underwhelming.The viewing angle is quite narrow, if more than one of you is trying to look at the screen it'll be hard for everyone to get a clear view.

The Gen3 runs on Android 2.1, an old version of the popular operating system. This isn't as sophisticated as the latest Android versions, but at least you do get access to Android Market. This is the full Android collection of apps, meaning you can browse through and download from thousands of Android apps, both free and paid-for. Some cheaper tablets lack access to Android Market, instead offering a far more limited app store. 

Watch our Android 3.0 Honeycomb video review, the first tablet-optimised operating system from Google

Does it have any other interesting features of note?

The Gen3 comes with USB and HDMI slots. On our model, there was a permanently covered SIM card slot too.

Unusually also, there are hard buttons for "Home" and "Back" on the right hand side of the tablet, which also exist on the touchscreen as icons you can press.

The Gen3 has one camera only, front-facing for video calling. It has a resolution of 0.3Mp.

In the full review...

We haven't fully tested the Next Gen3 yet, but when we do you'll get the definitive verdict on the following:

• Screen quality – A good quality on-screen image is vital to how a tablet performs. As tablets can be used inside and out, we rate the quality of images in a range of different lighting conditions. We measure the viewing angle, too, to find out how well the image holds up if you're not looking at it face-on. This aspect is particularly important if more than one person is looking at the screen. We also examine how reflective the screen is, its ability to resist fingermarks, display colour fidelity and the amount of fine detail shown or lost.
• Battery life – After first conditioning the battery as per the manufacturer's instructions, we observe the amount of time the battery lasts while browsing the web via a Wi-Fi connection, and separately via a 3G internet connection. We also examine battery life when playing back HD video. We supplement all this by measuring actual power consumption and seeing how fast it charges.
• Usability – The user interface, including touchscreen response, ease of typing on the virtual keyboard and the operating system's features and ease of use, is given strong focus by our lab as it is so fundamental to how a tablet performs overall. We also examine the type, amount and accessibility of connections as tablets are often used in conjuction with other devices. This is just a flavour of the type of testing we do to examine tablet usability.

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