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Review: HP Mesquite Android Tablet

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The HP Mesquite  7 Android tablet is this blogger’s choice for best value under $99. It’s the first tablet from Hewlett-Packard to retail for under a bill (not counting the HP Touchpad, which didn’t hit that price until after that fiasco was put on clearance).

Description

HP has a number of moderately priced Android tablets but so far as I know this is the only budget model with an Intel chip.

The HP Mesquite tablet, which is also known as the HP 7 (model number 1800), has a 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z2460 CPU with 1GB of RAM, 5.1GB of storage, and a microSD card slot.This tablet is equipped with a VGA webcam, Wifi, Bluetooth, and a speaker/mike.

It’s only available in a matte white shell (which attracts fingerprints like flies to honey) with the usual glossy black front.

There’s a minimal amount of detail on the front of the tablet – pretty much the only noticeable feature is the VGA webcam centered on the face of the tablet over one of the long sides of the screen.

The curved rear of the tablet sports the single speaker and the microSD card slot. The USB and headphone jack are found on the left edge, and on the upper left edge you will find the power button and the volume buttons.

Like many other tablets in this price range the build quality is decent. The edges are smooth, the seams tight, and the tablet is pleasant to hold. This is neither the largest nor smallest of the 7″ tablets I’ve tried and it can be held firmly in one of my largish man hands. But it is a little on the heavy side, so I’m not sure that I would hold it one-handed for very long.

This tablet is nice but it’s not a candidate for a one-handed reading experience – not without some type of strap or case.

Screen

With a screen resolution of 1024 x 600, the HP Mesquite the same number of pixels as the original Kindle Fire and many other budget Android tablets.

Aside from the backlight I would say that the quality of the screen is quite good. The colors are sharp and not washed out like on other tablets in this price range. And in case you’re wondering, this tablet probably cannot double as a flashlight. The backlight can get quite dim, but at its brightest it cannot compare to better tablets like the KFHD.

It has a wide viewing angle horizontally, which will make it easier for several people to share. The vertical viewing angle, on the other hand, is much more narrow. You cannot turn it more than 20 degrees before the colors start to shift and fade. To be fair, that is a wider viewing angle than on some other budget tablets.

Camera

This tablet has but a single VGA resolution camera. It’s really not very good, and I would not use it.

Battery Life

Due to marginal software and hardware, battery life is the bugaboo of budget Android tablets. It’s not uncommon to find tablets for under $100 that have a practical battery life of under a few hours. Fortunately, the Mesquite from HP isn’t one of them.

The Mesquite tablet is specced as having 5 hours of battery life. Based on the time I spent using it over the past week I think that spec is accurate. I ran a stress test using a 3 hour long high resolution video, and based on that I would estimate that the Mesquite tablet should have at least 5 hours of movie watching time. If you are careful and install a power management app then you should be able to extend the battery life even further.

I would also estimate, based on randomly checking the battery meter over the past week, that the standby time rates at 2 and a half to 3 days. It’s not bad but I wish that were higher.

Software

The Mesquite runs a stock version of Android 4.1 with the usual Google apps as well as a single addition. That is last year’s OS, and it’s now 3 generations out of date (when compared to premium tablets).

Along with Gmail, Youtube, Chrome, Google+, etc, this tablet also includes HP ePrint, an app which lets the tablet interface with HP-branded printers. This is the older and less capable of interface apps which HP has released. It’s useful but if you have an HP printer you’ll probably want to install the all-in-one app. That supports HP’s printers as well as their scanners, making it a lot more useful.

In general the software ran smoothly and I didn’t encounter any problems. I have read that some have had compatibility issues with some apps in Google Play, but I have not.

My only issue with the Mesquite tablet is that Android 4.1 on the Mesquite is missing some of the more useful features which I have come to appreciate and which I have found on the Mesquite’s budget tablet competitors.

For example, most tablets running Android 4.0 have a useful status menu which pops up out of the bottom right corner of the screen with readily accessible info on recent activity, battery status, screen brightness. A lot of tablets running Android 4.2 or above replaced that status menu with a new one in the upper right corner.

The Mesquite has neither. Instead it has an anemic status menu in the upper left corner. This is something that can be readily fixed by installing an app, so it’s really not an issue. But I thought it worth a comment.

Performance

The Mesquite tablet is weaker at first glance than most tablets in its price range. It only has a single core 1.6GHz Atom Z2460 CPU which doesn’t look like much in comparison to faster dual-core and quad-core CPUs like the ARM chips made by Rockchip and Nvidia.

Luckily for Intel their x86 chips average significantly more capable than the ARM chips found in most Android tablets. With a score of 11,120, the Mesquite tablet has an unremarkable but solid Antutu benchmark. It’s not the best result of the sub-$100 tablets I have tried but it is also not the worst.

And then I put my hands on it.

Over the past couple months I have tried several budget tablets and I think this is one of the better ones. It woke up fast, installed and loaded apps with reasonable speed, the download speed was also good. I’ve been playing games on it this week, and it handles Angry Birds quite well. The touchscreen was uniformly sensitive and fast to respond.

I truly have nothing to complain about in the performance dept. Media, now that is a horse of a different color.

Audio and Video

This tablet comes with a Youtube app and the basic media player apps.

The media player was generally functional, but I think you’re probably going to want to get a better one. The interface is quite basic and lacks anything beyond a play button. It also kept seizing on the video I used to stress test the battery, telling me that it couldn’t play the video.

But aside from seizing it was able to play the video (1280 x 544). The sound stayed in sync, and there were no video artifacts on the screen.

Moving on, the Youtube app is something of a quandary. I was expecting the same app found elsewhere, but this app takes forever to decide to load a video. I also had to go into the settings menu, stop the app and then delete the content before I could get it to show me any videos at all.

I’m not sure that I can honestly call this a media tablet, not when it cannot decide whether it is capable of playing videos out of the box.

Video Review

Want a second opinion on this tablet? Here’s a video:

Verdict

hp mesquite android tabletThe HP Mesquite tablet lacks many of the refinements found on more expensive tablets and it even lacks some of the ports and other features found on similarly priced Android tablets (second USB port, HDMI port, etc). It’s also running a slightly older version of Android which is missing a few of the subtle but useful tricks that many of its competitors have.

But in spite of its shortcomings, the Mesquite is still a solid tablet with a well-crafted shell, decent battery life, average performance, and an okay screen.

Of the several tablets I have tried in the past couple months, the Mesquite tablet is my choice for best buy under $100. It bests the Ematic EM63 (my second choice) in the screen department, and the EM63 also has less storage and battery ife.

On the other hand, the EM63 also costs $20 less, and that might be important to some price-conscious buyers.

Where to Buy it

  • Walmart

Specs

  • CPU: 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z2460 single-core
  • GPU: PowerVR SGX 540
  • 1GB of RAM
  • Android 4.1
  • 7″ (1024 x 600) screen
  • capacitive touchscreen
  • 8GB Flash storage (5.1GB accessible)
  • microSD card slot
  • Speaker, microphone
  • Wifi, Bluetooth
  • g-sensor
  • Weight: 13 oz
  • Dimensions: 7.6″ x 4.9″ x 0.4″

Comments


MarkWebb January 28, 2014 um 11:46 pm

Did you get any software update to 4.3? My Dell Venue 7 got an update from 4.2.2 to 4.3; I gave away my Mesquite and I’m curious about that one too, since Intel seems to be pushing out updates (of course Medfield and CloverTrail + are different processor families….).

Nate Hoffelder January 29, 2014 um 12:03 am

I checked and it didn’t get an update.

MarkWebb January 29, 2014 um 11:33 am

Thanks…


Victor June 16, 2014 um 7:06 am

Hi Nate! Looking for that tablet here in Brazil, I’ve only found the HP Slate 7 – Google seems to keep confusing them around here… Are they the same? If not, could you take a look at the Slate 7? It is tagged as one of the better budget tablet in Brazil, and if it is up to your recommendetion as the Mesquite, then it’s very likely to be my next tablet!

Thanks!

Nate Hoffelder June 16, 2014 um 8:50 am

The Slate 7 is a different device from the mesquite. I haven’t tried the Slate 7, but that might not be important.

Can you check the price of the Kobo Arc (2012) in Brazil? Here in the US it costs the same as the Mesquite, but it offers a better value. I would recommend the Arc instead of the Slate 7 or Mesquite (assuming they’re priced the same).

Victor June 16, 2014 um 11:25 am

Uh, prepare yourself. In Brazil, everything seems so much more expansive, it can be ridiculous.

The HP Slate 7 can be found at a price tag of R$ 439,12 (+/- USD 196,50), while the Kobo Arc is sold (as far as I know) only by the retailer Livraria Cultura, with a price tag of R$ 979,00 (+/- USD 438,09) for the 16 GB model.

Ominous, isn’t it?

Nate Hoffelder June 16, 2014 um 11:31 am

Just to add to the ridiculousness: I can get the Kobo Arc for $100.

Victor June 16, 2014 um 11:34 am

Man…


Nicole September 28, 2014 um 1:26 am

Hi there, I was wondering about an external keyboard. I just bought a hard wiring keyboard, with the micro USB, and it doesn’t seem to work. I’m not sure if the Mesquite will support an enteral keyboard like this or if it has to be a wireless board to connect? Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Nicole

Nicole September 28, 2014 um 1:28 am

External* not enteral..on an iPhone, I’ll blame apple.


Keith Robinson November 16, 2014 um 9:58 am

My touchscreen doesn’t work any idea how to fix it?

Nate Hoffelder November 16, 2014 um 10:00 am

Here’s what I would do:
http://www.techkhoji.com/android/android-touch-screen-not-working-problem-fix/


Manson Ubulom May 10, 2015 um 6:24 am

pls how much is the 4,4 version of the android tablet?


Tiffany Boone June 2, 2015 um 2:26 pm

I Had Gotten This Tablet For Christmas And I Haven’t Had It For 2 Years Yet And It Stop Charging So… I Just Tried To Charge It And Its Charging I’m So Happy..:)


Sarah August 20, 2015 um 12:06 pm

I got the HP 7 mesquite almost 2 years ago and it started off great. Now it’s so super slow and a pain to use. I’ve factory reset it, it has few apps and tons of memory left over. There’s no available system update. Is it just because it’s old that it runs so slow? Is there anything I can do?

Nate Hoffelder August 20, 2015 um 1:07 pm

I know that the battery degrades, but I don’t know about the tablet’s CPU and other chips.

I can report that I’ve had a laptop degrade as the motherboard aged. The GPU and ancillary functions went first, so I replaced the laptop before it died completely.

Alejandro Lopez July 18, 2016 um 10:20 pm

I’m having the same problem as Sarah.
I’m a computer technician and I can’t find why my tablet is so slow after a factory reset. I think in google services, in fact, Play Store freezes, I have to delete the upgrades, so I can run PlayStore but I can’t download anything. The installed programs run when they want. I just factory reset the tablet to use it as ebook reader, "fresh like new" should be a bullet, but no, is painfully slow, I don’t think that the flash memory of this tablet lasts just a couple of years.
If this was a laptop, I change the hard drive, or ram, but in this tablet, what? the whole motherboard should costs the double that I pay for the tablet.


MARCELO EDILBERTO December 28, 2015 um 10:48 pm

MI TABLET LA CONECTO Y CARGA RAPIDO ME INDICA CARGA LLENA PERO AL TRABAJAR CON ELLA NO ME DURA LA CARGA NI 15 MINUTOS


MARCELO EDILBERTO January 21, 2016 um 2:00 pm

la tablet hp mezquite no recibe carga solo prende con el cargador conectado y marca cargando 0 Y a veces nadamas aparese la bateria parpadeando en rojo


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