World’s Lightest Tablet Is Far From World’s Best [MWC 2013]

BARCELONA, MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS – The iPad mini weighs just 308 grams. The NEC Medias Tab weighs even less: 249 grams (forgive me for not converting to ounces, but this is 2013).

And yet despite this relatively big difference, the Tab doesn’t really feel much lighter.

And it’s not even that thin.

When you first pick up and iPad mini, it feels impossibly thin and light. And part of this is the fact that it’s made of metal, and that it is extremely stiff. NEC’s tablet might indeed be the world’s lightest seven-inch tablet, as the signage claims, and it does indeed feel feather-light. But the mini, somehow, still seems much lighter. It’s also bigger, with an appreciably larger 8-inch screen.

The 1280 x 800 screen is acceptable, and the haptic “feedback” is just as annoying as it is on any haptically hampered handset. But if what you want is a plastic tablet that’ll slide into your back pocket, and that you can forget about until you sit down on it, then the Medias Tab might be for you. If you don’t hate yourself though, buy a mini.

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