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Battery life
- 18Wh/4,860mAh cell
- Slow USB-C charging
- ‘Up to 10 hour’ stamina
The Asus ZenPad 10 Z301ML has a 4,680mAh battery, which Asus says should last for 13 hours of video. However, it doesn’t quite play out in reality.
90 minutes of 720p video at maximum brightness takes 20% off the charge level, suggesting you’ll only get around 7.5 hours use off a charge. 10 hours of use and 13 hours of video playback are Asus’s own claims.
Using maximum brightness will obviously have an impact here, but we’re still quite a way off the official figures.
Despite having a USB-C port the Asus ZenPad 10 is also slow to charge. It takes several hours because there’s no ‘fast charging’ tech on offer. This isn’t just a side-effect of the 4,680mAh cell being much larger than that of most phones.
Camera
- Poor image quality
- Not all extra modes work properly
- Responsive app is fun enough to use
The Asus ZenPad 10 Z301ML has very basic cameras. There’s a 5MP sensor on the back and a 2MP one on the front.
Most of the advancements we’ve seen in phone cameras are absent here. There’s no Auto HDR, just a separate HDR mode that sits alongside other extras like ‘depth of field’. This attempts to blur out the background using multiple exposures to tell near objects from far-away ones. However, it doesn’t actually seem to work at all.
Normal photos often seem blotchy and low on detail too. Use your phone instead. You’ll get better results. The selfie camera is remedial too, delivering unnatural-looking skin tones and limited detail.
However, it’s not a nightmare to use and we did coax one or two okay shots out. The app preview image isn’t jerky and there’s minimal shutter lag. Some low-end cameras feel slow and shaky. The Asus ZenPad 10’s doesn’t.
You can shoot video at up to Full HD resolution with the tablet, but the hardware is so low-end footage it's only stabilized if you drop down to 720p. Stabilization makes handheld footage look smoother. You’ll want it unless you’re going for a lo-fi look.
The Asus ZenPad 10 Z301ML isn’t great at taking photos or video, then, but dual cameras are a prerequisite for a complete-feeling tablet. Asus couldn’t afford to leave them out.
Camera samples
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