ZTE V98 hands-on
ZTE proves it can make a premium-looking tablet with the 8.9mm-thin V98 we are handling here, thanks to the brushed aluminum chassis and beveled edges that make it feel solid and pleasant to the touch, and the faux chrome volume rocker, power/lock key and orientation lock button. The keys are found into the plastic part at the top, which cheapens the look down a bit, but is inevitable since there is a version with 4G connectivity and SIM card slot.
The ZTE V98 is a Wndows 8 tablet, meaning there is an x86 Intel processor inside, and in this case it is the power-sipping but somewhat weakling Atom Z2760, coupled with 2 GB of RAM, which will suffice only for basic to average workload, but provide battery life comparable to ARM-based slates.
We found the 10" 1366x768 pixels screen to be good, with decent but not great viewing angles, nice colors and enough brightness level, at least under the expo's show floor lighting.
The Windows 8 tablet has a microSD slot, and you will need it, since a lot of the 64 GB of internal memory are occupied by the system itself and the recovery partition. There is an 8 MP camera on the back and a 2 MP front shooter, but the next selling point with the V98 is actually its large 7000 mAh battery, which will provide you up to ten hours of video playback.
Another good idea is to put an aluminum flap of sorts that covers the memory card and SIM card slots, which is much easier to use than prying open a plastic flap with your fingernails as so many slates force you to. Overall, a very good offering from ZTE, and if you are on the prowl for a Windows 8 tablet for basic tasks that will walk the walk in terms of battery life, the V98 deserves your consideration, depending on the price point it will ship at this quarter
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