Tesco Hudl review

Undoubtedly the weakest part of the Hudl's hardware is its rear camera. Let's not beat around the bush here - it's awful.

We're not the sorts to place much stock in megapixel count, especially when it comes to mobile and tablet camera. But when we say that the Hudl has a 3.2MP camera, we think you'll understand the kind of level we're talking about here.

Images look washed out and grainy, and any range in lighting conditions within a single scene seems to cause the camera all kinds of problems.

A simple snap of a mushroom growing on a fallen tree in a sun-dappled wood resulted in the mushroom glowing like some kind of luminous jellyfish, while we found that even ideal lighting conditions couldn't rescue images from their flat, lifeless fate.

Of course, we tend to pay less heed to tablet cameras than we do to smartphone cameras, because we still can't quite bring ourselves to accept that people want to use them as their primary snappers.

Sadly, mounting anecdotal evidence culled from numerous public events seems to indicate otherwise. So know this - the Hudl is a fine media player, a decent web surfer, and the perfect shopping companion for all you Tesco-heads. It is NOT a good camera.

The camera interface is sparse and unobtrusive, with a central radial menu accounting for some threadbare settings such as white balance and exposure. There's a grand total of two scene modes - the default Auto and Night.

Video is a similarly drab story. It can be shot at either 480p or 720p, but the result remains the same - blurry, unfocused footage via optics that can't compensate sufficiently for moderate motion or changes in light.

During our test period, a straight-forward leisurely walk along a park path with the sun periodically breaking through the trees was rendered a lurching, nauseating mess interspersed by frequent flashes of light.

Battery

The Hudl's battery life is pretty much par for the course for a modern 7-inch Android tablet.

Tesco has claimed nine hours of video battery life, and that seems to be pretty much on the money.

In our standard video stress test, which involves playing a 90 minute-long 720p video with the screen brightness set to full, the Hudl averaged a pretty standard 79 percent battery remaining.

In more practical terms, we were able to get the Hudl through two solid days of moderate use, which included a little web browsing, some light gaming, a number of photos, the downloading of several apps (including two hefty games) and an assortment of brief video tests across Netflix and Blinkbox - all with the screen brightness set to full.

When we did come to charge the device, we found that it took around 40 to 50 minutes to charge 20 percent.