Review: Kobo Arc 7

Android tablets can be bought at a whole range of prices, and cost doesn’t always indicate quality. Our youngest boy saved up enough to afford a cheap tablet last summer and we chose a Sumvision Cyclone 10″ device which, as a refurb unit from eBuyer, was superb value at around £85. With this to contrast against our own Nexus 7 devices, we realised that cheap-and-cheerful tablets could be great value. Although the rear camera which our lad wanted is, to my mind, a load of rubbish… he’s happy though!

So for Christmas our eldest of course wanted a tablet, but his requirements were a little different: no need for a rear camera, and actually a 7″ unit might be better for portability.

So the search was on… what 7″ tablet offers good value for money for kids? Enter the Kobo Arc 7.

Kobo Arc 7

I looked at a number of options: there are plenty of devices on eBay and Amazon, and from Maplin too, which are low on price. In the end, on a chance visit to PC World (which I love to browse in but hate to shop in, because the sales people there know absolutely nothing), I spotted the Kobo Arc 7 range – three tablets all the same save for storage space. For £90, you can get a 64Gb unit. Now, to me this seems not so much a bargain as a steal: you get far more storage than is usual in a tablet, a proper brand, PC World as an outlet for what it’s worth, and a device which not only looks great on paper but looks great in the hand and works well too. Build quality is excellent, with a nice matt black backing which is easy on the hand. It’s a little thicker than my Nexus 7, but size shape and weight are really not a problem at all.

Designed as a posh ereader to compete with the Kindle Fire range, Kobo have clearly discounted the tablet in order to entice you to use their services. Out of the box, the device is skinned with their Tapestry UI which does a good job for those who use their tablet primarily for books, videos and images. There’s a bar  which is permanently at the bottom of the homescreen giving suggestions for new content to buy – which for many people will be useful, although a quick google shows a lot of people wishing it would go away. At the end of the day, though, the launcher can be replaced in minutes with another from Google Play to either provide a native Google experience or else something else entirely. There’s no need to stick with Tapestry.

Specs are not cutting-edge, as you might expect from a media device. There’s no need for top-end quad-core technology here so we get a perfectly adequate 1.5GHz dual-core instead – and I do mean it’s perfectly adequate, my lad has had no complaints because, yes this is the main criteria, it runs Minecraft PE with no problems at all. The screen is really nice: helped perhaps by being in a 7″ unit the 1280 x 800 resolution provides punchy images and colour/blacks are presented crisply. It’s really a very nice screen. One small grumble is that the bezel is raised slightly all around the screen, making off-screen to on-screen swipes – such as bringing down the Android settings bar – a little unwieldy. It’s not a bit issue, but one which seems unnecessary.

Charging is via a standard micro USB, which is also the way to connect to a PC to get some media onto the thing. It’s an Androidn tablet so the full suite of Google Apps work, with full access to the Play store, so you can opt to use cloud services such as Google Drive to load content, of course. But I don’t find that a very good way to get large media onto a tablet. Sadly there’s no SD card slot, so buying anything less than the 64Gb model may be a bad idea – depending upon how you use your tablet, of course. The wifi on my other lad’s Sumvision is terrible, requiring him to be within a few feet of the access point, but the Kobo has reception all around the house – just as the Nexus 7 does. This is a very good reason to go with a brand, wifi radios in cheaper units often get bad press on the internet.

Confusingly, Kobo have mucked about with naming conventions such that the Kobo Arc 7 as listed on their website is shown with specs which I believe relate to an older unit. Their specs for the Kobo Arc, though, seem to match what you get from Currys. So beware if you think shopping around on the internet might save you a few quid.

There’s no case in the box, which is pretty standard, but the official case looks quite good – at £25 – and doubles as a stand, or there are a few on Amazon which look less tidy but are rather cheaper.

In summary, as an ereader/media player or as a standard Android tablet this little unit really is a great purchase at £90 for modern hardware, a good user experience and, significantly, 64Gb of on-board storage.

 

Kobo Arc Technical Specs

Available colours	Black and white.
Connectivity	Wi Fi 802.11 b/g/n and Micro USB cable.
Audio	Built-in dual front-facing speakers and universal 3.5 mm stereo headphone jack with SRS TruMedia™ sound.
Device size	189 X 120 X 11.5 mm (7.4 x 4.7 x 0.5 in)
Weight	364 g. (12.8 oz)
Diagonal display size	7″ multi-touch IPS display.
Screen qualities	1280 x 800 HD resolution; 215 ppi; displays 16.4 million colours; clarity at extra wide viewing angles (+/-) 89 degrees.
Camera	720p HD front-facing camera (1.3 MP). Autofocus. Face detection with Face Unlock. Skype™ Certified.
Navigation	Home, back, and menu touch sensors. Power and volume buttons.
Processor	1.5 GHz dual core processor. 1 GB RAM.
Graphics and video	Dual-core graphics. Up to 1080p video playback. Support for 3D games.
Operating System	Open access to Android™ 4.0.
Storage	16, 32, and 64 GB models.
Battery life	10 hours of reading and 2 weeks of standby.
Content	Nearly 4 million books
Social reading	Reading Life™, Kobo Pulse™, Facebook Timeline.
Fonts	TypeGenius, font tuning engine designed for the best readability. Choice of 3 font styles, 15 font sizes, adjustable font sizes, and weight.
Advanced features	Android customization features such as resizable widgets and Face Unlock. SRS TruMedia™ sound specifically tuned for tablets.
Software	Tapestries — Kobo’s exclusive interface for easy content discovery.
Supported file formats	Books: ePUB, including fixed layout and enhanced ePUB. Images: JPG, PNG, GIF, BMP. Audio: MP#, AAC, AAC+, MP3,.3gp, mp4, m4a, flac, ogg, wav, mid. Video Formats: 3gp, mp4, webm, H.263, H.264, VP8.
Web browsing	Android 4.0 web browser.
Media	Music Player, Photo Gallery, Video Player. SRS TruMedia™ that provides a wider sound field, deeper bass, and natural stereo sound. 5.1 surround sound support over headphones.
Pre-loaded apps	Facebook, Twitter, and Skype. Stream music from Rdio, access your magazines and newspapers through Zinio and PressReader. Google apps: Google Play, Gmail, YouTube, Google Maps, Street View, Calendar, Contacts, Google+, and Google Chat.
In the box	Kobo Arc, AC power adapter, documentation.