Review Of The Tecno Phonepad 3 – The Ultimate Business Assistant

About a month ago, Tecno launched their new PhonePad 3; which is also known as the ultimate Business Assistant. The PhonePad 3 is a well-crafted, premium looking tablet that is encased in a steel body that will get stares from your colleagues anytime is on display. It also comes with dual micro SIM support, ultra-fast 4G LTE connectivity; making it faster for you to share files and documents and the amazing convenience of allowing you to work from anywhere

We’ve had the chance to use and experience the premium phablet and here’s a review of its main features:

Biz Assistant

The Phablet is definitely designed to be the perfect business companion for the young and old at heart. The Biz assistant is basically a feature loaded with pre-installed apps that are made to make your day run smoother. Some of the apps already installed are:

Camcard – that scans business cards and stores them in a digital form. This reduces the chances of you losing business cards that you’ve just received and helps you get the information you need all in one place, instead of the other option of rummaging through your wallet to get someone’s contact information.
WPS Office– for reading and editing Microsoft word documents, sheets, presentations and PDFs.
TrustLook security – this feature makes sure that your device is secure, making it free from viruses and attacks that might get rid of all the information stored in the gadget. It also boosts your memory, manages your applications and helps you lock your sensitive apps like the messaging app

It’s also the perfect size to fit in any kind of bag. This is a very good thing for the ladies who fight through the decision of getting the right bag to take to a meeting. It’s just the right size to fully function as a laptop and fit into the other parts of your lifestyle. So when it comes to impromptu meetings, don’t struggle in shutting down your laptop to fit in your bag, just grab the PhonePad 3 and you’re good to go.

Display

The fact that the Phablet is only a 7-inch Tablet with HD IPS display, it’s so much easier to navigate and use as compared to the average tablets. With the PhonePad 3, you get to comfortably enjoy using your gadget in things like reading novels, reports, documents etc. without the normal struggle of amplifying and re-positioning your device.

The device also comes with the eye-care management that makes the display screen softer and safer for your eyes. Considering the amount of time we spend in front of screens these days, the eye-care management feature doesn’t put a strain on your eyes especially for people like me who like to curl up with a good e-book at night; the eye care mode is enabled in long time reading to protect your eyes.

The display also comes in very handy in watching movies and playing games for kids. The viewing angles have been intricately designed to give crisp and clear displays and it doesn’t lag even with games that are considered ‘heavy’ due to their large memory.

Meeting mode

This feature comes under Biz Assistant which you can fully customize to only allow the alerts that you wish to come through when you’re in meetings. Instead of switching the device to airplane mode to stop your phone from constantly buzzing from the incoming messages and emails, you can use the Meeting mode feature to choose specific calls and messages to go through. You can also customize it to allow only the contacts you choose to contact you, so you can say goodbye to spam calls and unnecessary texts when you’re busy. How cool is that?

Fingerprint scanner

The phablet also comes with a fingerprint scanner at the right side of the device. It got me a while to notice that it was there because of the position but it is quite the handy feature.

The scanner is multi-functional, meaning you can use it for security purposes as well as accepting incoming calls by long pressing the button and scrolling through documents and your browser as well.

Battery

Another major win for this device is the extensive battery life. Considering the fact that it’s meant for business, it also goes to show that the battery has to withstand the long hours of meetings and documents that you need to go through the day.

The 4100mAh battery holds up well when it comes to handling all the functions that the phone has been built to do.

Storage

The gadget boasts of a memory of 2GB RAM which makes using the device easy without lagging even when using it on various activities. It also has a 16GB internal memory that is expendable up to 128GB giving you a lot of space to store movies, games and very important files.

Camera

Considering that the Phablet is mainly a business device and not as camera-centric as the Camon CX, I hadn’t expected much from the Phonepad 3. With a 13MP camera with dual LED flash at the back and a 5MP Front facing camera, the device gives good images – especially from the back.

The front camera doesn’t give the best in quality images but it is still a reasonably good camera.

Issues of concern

The fingerprint scanner can use some getting used to. The fact that it’s located at the side means that the surface is smaller than usual; it’s actually a thin strip that makes it harder for the device to read prints. I had to try a couple of times for it to analyze my fingerprint.

It is also in the wrong position in my honest opinion. The fact that it’s located just below the lock screen button means that sometimes accidentally touch the scanner when trying to lock the phone.

My take

The Tecno PhonePad 3 lives up to its hype of being the perfect business assistant. Retailing at Kshs 22,000, it is definitely an affordable gadget that will ease your business lifestyle as the ultimate business companion.

It is also a great device if you are looking for a tablet for your child to use as an entertainment device as it is just the right size for a kid to hold. One of the great things is that it comes with a smart cover so you can prop up the techno PhonePad 3 and phone protector which makes it quite handy for kids. This also saves you the hassle of buying these essential things separately so you can use it right out of the box. The cover also has pockets where you can store MicroSIMs and the pin that you use to pop the MicroSD and SIM