Kogan's tablet is cheap - and it won't cost you much

By Andrew Ramadge BUDGET 7" tablet PC is less than a quarter of the price of an iPad 2 and does all the basics.

Kogan Agora 7"

IT DOESN'T have the polish of an iPad, but it won't set you back $600 either.

Online retailer Kogan has launched a cut-price tablet PC, called the Agora 7", aimed at those who can't or don't want to fork out for a luxury model.

Starting at $139, it's less than a quarter of the price of the cheapest iPad 2 model, which is $579.

It has a 7" screen — the same as BlackBerry's PlayBook and less than the iPad's 9.7" — and runs Google Android 2.2.

At Kogan's Melbourne office this week, we got to take an early model of the Agora for a test run.

The verdict? It's a budget tablet and it does the basics, but has very poor battery life.

Email, Facebook, web browsing and Angry Birds all worked well. The tablet was small and light enough to be comfortable to hold and the screen was easy to read.

Because of its size, you can hold the Agora horizontally and type with your thumbs instead of having to poke at the screen with one finger.

It also has a HDMI output (and comes with a HDMI cable) as well as a USB port and micro SD slot, which can be used to expand the 4GB of onboard storage to 32GB.

Video playback on the tablet screen appeared fine.

However there are some drawbacks.

For one, the Agora only comes with Wi-Fi, not 3G, making it a little harder to use on the road.

The user interface is also less smooth than that of the iPad or PlayBook — though you might expect that from a budget tablet. It's ugly but functional.

Pros

Very cheap
Good size
Lightweight

Cons

Slightly buggy
Wi-Fi only
Poor battery life

Who?

Those who are budget-conscious and only want the basics — web, email and Angry Birds — or children

As for cameras, the Agora has a front-facing camera, but not a rear one. That means it's pretty useless for taking photos, but can be used for video conferencing.

The biggest problem with the Agora is its battery life. With average use, you should get about 3.5 hours out of it.

That's less than half what you'd get out of an iPad or PlayBook, whose makers claim they offer up to 10 hours of use.

The Agora we played with was a bit buggy — but that may have been because it was an early production model.

"In the factory the screens are usually pushed on with a machine, but on this one the guy actually had to do it himself," a Kogan staff member said.

Kogan founder Ruslan Kogan said the company had already sold out two production runs of the Agora — but wouldn't give any exact figures.

Kogan offers a payment model called LivePrice which lets shoppers pay for a product before it's manufactured in return for a discount.

Using LivePrice, the lowest price you can pay for an Agora is $139. The regular price is $189.