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Thankfully when it comes to the important things the Tesco Hudl 2 does the business. This is a tablet that's well-suited to watching movies and it's a pleasure to game on.
The 8.3-inch display looks good and high definition content is available in all its glory. It is quite reflective and I found it was much more pleasant to watch movies or play games when I cranked the brightness up (which no doubt contributed to the battery running out fast).
I have to mention that the Hudl 2 has an Intel processor and apparently there could be some incompatibility problems with certain Android games.
Intel is trying to break into mobile hardware and catch up with ARM and the two have been arguing about how big an issue the compatibility is in recent months. Every game I tested on the tablet worked fine, but it might be something to consider.
The Hudl 2 also has stereo speakers featuring "Dolby optimised sound". If you're sitting holding it in the landscape position, as you will for the majority of movies or games, the speakers work great and you get a real stereo effect.
The problem is that they are both on the back, so if you rest the Hudl 2 on anything then it's going to muffle the speakers. It actually works best of all if you have it in your lap and cup your hands round the speaker grills to redirect the sound towards you.
If they were front-facing that would be really ideal, but they are still better than you can reasonably expect to find in a tablet this price.
The Hudl 2 can also serve up music in a pinch. I found that the speakers distorted quite easily when I was listening to music, so headphones or an external speaker are advised for music.
If you're a big reader you'll be glad to know that the Hudl 2 can definitely double up as a device for ebooks. The Blinkbox app seems to have a very big collection.
It had everything I searched for from Bulgakov's Master and Margarita to The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson. You can always install the Kindle app or another reader if you prefer.
As I mentioned before, the Hudl 2 is quite heavy so you'll probably want to prop it up if you're reading for a long time, but it's a comfortable tablet to hold.
Storage is definitely an issue. This is a 16GB tablet, but you only get 9.12GB free out of the box. It will fill up fast, so you'll need to invest in a microSD card. The Hudl 2 will take microSD cards up to 32GB in size, so you can boost the storage up to around 40GB, which should be enough for most people.
If you use streaming services like Netflix and Blinkbox Music then you possibly won't need a great deal of space on the tablet. However, if you like to play games you could run out of space fast. Asphalt 8 is 1.6GB on its own.
You can also boost your storage with a wide variety of cloud storage options including 15GB with Google Drive, which is installed out of the box.
