Kogan Agora Mini 8 Android tablet

Starting at just $119, the Kogan Agora Mini 8 is one of the cheapest Android tablets on the market

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Starting at just $119, the Kogan Agora Mini 8 is one of the cheapest Android tablets on the market. It offers reasonably good performance and runs most apps without issues but its poor quality screen and case design detracts from its overall appeal.

Pros

  • Competitive price
  • Plenty of ports
  • Decent performance

Cons

  • Reflective screen
  • Questionable build quality
  • Poor battery life

Bottom Line

At $119, the Kogan Agora Mini 8 is one of the cheapest Android tablets on the market. It offers reasonably good performance and runs most apps without issues but a poor quality screen and case design detracts from its overall appeal.

Would you buy this?

  • Price

    $ 119.00 (AUD)

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Budget in both price and build

The Kogan Agora Mini 8 is slightly larger than Apple's 7.9in iPad mini, mainly due to the thick bezel that surrounds the screen. Aside from the edges of the device being a little sharp, the Agora Mini 8 is comfortable to hold and its weight feels evenly distributed. The back of the tablet is flat but the smooth edges are rounded. Overall, the design is fine for single-handed use but being a little wider than the iPad mini means it may not suit users with small hands.

The build quality of the Agora Mini 8 is poor and immediately noticeable.

It's hard to be overly critical of the Kogan Agora Mini 8 due to its low price tag, but the build quality is poor and immediately noticeable. Both the bezel and the screen are extremely glossy and virtually impossible to keep free of fingerprints. The plastic screen is poorly laminated, as it lacks a consistent, smooth finish towards the edges. Finally, the rear casing is a fingerprint magnet that feels extremely hollow and it creaks when even minor pressure is applied. The overall feeling you're left with isn't one of good quality.

The Agora Mini 8 is comfortable to hold and the weight feels evenly distributed.The Agora Mini 8 is comfortable to hold and the weight feels evenly distributed.

Though we can see the merits of identifying each and every port and button on the Kogan Agora Mini 8, we also dislike the printed labelling on the back of the device. We think it further cheapens the overall look and feel. Ports are plentiful, though, starting with a back button and volume controls on the top, along with a power button, a 3.5mm headphone jack, a micro-USB port, a full-sized HDMI port, a DC charger input, a reset button (which needs to be pushed with the tip of a pen or paperclip), and a microSD card slot.

The back of the Kogan Agora Mini 8 Android tablet.The back of the Kogan Agora Mini 8 Android tablet.

The Agora Mini 8's display is very reflective, often making the screen hard to see.

The Kogan Agora Mini 8's screen has reasonable viewing angles, produces accurate colours and text is clear enough to read, even if it isn't as crisp as we'd have liked. The resolution of 1024x768 is hardly groundbreaking but at this price it's really tough to complain.

The biggest issue with the Agora's display is that it isn't very bright, even at its highest setting. It's also ridiculously poor when in direct sunlight and the panel is very reflective, often making the screen hard to see. The surface of the display also feels sticky when swiping or scrolling and there's no automatic brightness setting, either.

The Agora Mini 8's display isn't very bright, even at its highest setting.The Agora Mini 8's display isn't very bright, even at its highest setting.

A stock Android experience

The Agora Mini 8 is reasonably fast and is a huge improvement over Kogan's previous Android tablet.

The Kogan Agora Mini 8 runs the 4.1 Jelly Bean version of Google's Android operating system and is therefore capable of everything it promises. You can browse the Web, download apps through Google's Play Store, access services like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter and play games like Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja.

Performance is quite good for the price tag — the 1GB of RAM and 1.6GHz dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor keep things ticking over nicely. The Agora Mini 8 is reasonably fast during most basic tasks and is a huge improvement over Kogan's previous Android tablet, last year's sluggish Agora 10".

The Agora Mini 8 runs a vanilla version of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.The Agora Mini 8 runs a vanilla version of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.

However, it can occasionally be unreliable and sometimes inconsistent. Apps, even Google ones like Gmail, occasionally crashed during our test period for no apparent reason. Startup time is also a little slow, and if you're using a microSD card be prepared to wait up to 30 seconds for it to register on the device.

Most games run and work without too many issues.

The default browser doesn't take too long to load pages, but pinching the screen to zoom in stutters and doesn't feel smooth. Similarly, scrolling through the home screens can often be jerky. Perhaps the biggest issue is Wi-Fi performance. The Agora Mini 8 only managed two bars of signal in our office where most other devices manage four bars.

None

The Agora Mini 8 is perfectly capable of playing game titles like Jetpack Joyride and Angry Birds, even if you do occasionally notice the low frame rate. More taxing games, like Dead Trigger and GTA III, are also playable but we often experienced lag at various instances. The low frame rate is particularly evident in scenes with constant gunfire and can negatively affect gameplay but for most part games run and work without too many issues.

The Kogan Agora Mini 8 tablet comes with a few pre-loaded apps including AccuWeather, Apk Installer, an E-Book reader, a file explorer and a sound Recorder.

No rear camera but USB connector included

A second micro-USB port allows the connection of a USB host device.

The Kogan Agora Mini 8's microSD card slot combined with the HDMI-out port makes it quite a flexible tablet. You also get two micro-USB ports, the second allowing the connection of a USB host device like a portable hard drive or a USB stick thanks to the USB connector that's included in the box.

We had success transferring files to the Agora Mini 8 with a USB stick, but our portable hard drive didn't connect. We also found that the USB connector lost contact when it was wiggled and didn't feel very sturdy when plugged in. It worked for most part though and conveniently allows you to expand the 8GB or 16GB of internal memory.

The Agora Mini 8 has a wealth of ports available including mini-HDMI.The Agora Mini 8 has a wealth of ports available including mini-HDMI.

The Kogan Agora Mini 8 doesn't have a rear camera but comes with a front-facing VGA front camera for video calls. The camera naturally takes appalling photos but works reasonably well with video calling apps like Skype and Tango — provided of course that you're not expecting great quality.

A photo we captured with the Agora Mini 8's front-facing camera (click to enlarge).A photo we captured with the Agora Mini 8's front-facing camera (click to enlarge).

Battery life is poor, managing just over four hours.

Annoyingly, the Kogan Agora Mini 8 tablet doesn't charge through the micro-USB connection and needs to be charged using a supplied DC adapter. Battery life from the 4300mAh battery is fairly poor — we could only manage a best figure of just over four hours. Keep in mind that you should manage slightly more if you keep the screen brightness turned down.

The Kogan Agora Mini 8 is available now in 8GB and 16GB models for $119 and $129, respectively, along with a standard $19 delivery charge to most Australian locations.

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Read more on these topics: kogan, Android, jelly bean, Android tablets

Will

1

Two new Android tablets have been released in the past week from another Android tablet with both models offering strong performance and features and an impressive price --- Ainol Electronics - which won runner-up for "Best Tablet of the Year" at CES 2012, launched the Novo 7 Venus Quad Core 16GB tablet -- for $149 and one of the first sites they are available through is called TabletSpree -

The new Novo 7 Venus Quad Core 7 inch Tablet features a Quad Core processor, 1280x800 IPS screen, 16GB memory, a front webcam, Android O/S and Google Play Store preinstalled... all of which are found on the popular Nexus 7 -- while also offering a number of features the Nexus 7 doesn't - including a 2-megapixel rear camera, a MicroSD memory card slot, and an HDMI 1080p port; plus more ways to connect to the internet, including Ethernet as well as 3G/4G-

The Novo 9 Spark for $269 is also released this week -- and features a Quad Core processor/1.5 Ghz/2GB, and a 9.7 inch 2048x1536 (Retina) screen – along with a strong 10,000 mAh battery, 32GB Memory, Android 4.1 O/S Jelly Bean, MicroSD memory card slot, the new high end 4K Digital HDMI, a 2 MP Front webcam and a 5 Megapixel Rear Camera with AF and Flash.

It should be interesting to see how the new Novo Series fares in 2013 as this company gains more presence in the tablet market. The site TabletSpree also currently offers a promotion with a free 500MB monthly Data plan for 4G internet access, including a free 4G USB adapter -- available with all tablets they offer.

HDJedi

2

My Agora 8" mini DOES charge from USB. It also has very good Wi-Fi as it finds both my access points whereas my iPhone 5 can only find the nearest.

David Kemp

3

Never buy this piece of crap!!!

Product:
Battery life = 1/10 (useless, about 1.5 hours, then dies)
Build quality = 2/10 (the screen feels like it will fall out, not responsive enough)

Company:
Kogan customer service = 1/10 (if you find the contact number you have done well, FAQ is useless)
Kogan brand = 3/10 (cheap, nasty, crap)

I am your typical 25-35 educated, white male that loves a bargain, I promise you will be disappointed.

Walter

4

I bought an Agora 7" Tablet when they first came out. I was suitably impressed at first. Everything worked fine. Then I noticed the screen just coming on at random even though I'd put the unit to sleep. Battery life was extremely poor, a few hours at best. I couldn't charge the unit with anything other than the supplied charger, no USB charging at all! Then things started to go horribly wrong. The screen would just flip around at random. Applications wouldn't load. Now, it's all but useless. Even after multiple resets, nothing works properly anymore. The application launcher crashes. Gmail crashes. The inbuilt email app crashes. I can't even go into Settings to remove possible offending apps. If I can't find a way to re-flash this thing, it's going in the bin and Kogan will not see me buy another tablet from them ever again.
Oh, and I tried their "support". Apart from shipping it back and charging me to fix a problem that's gradually gotten worse from the day it arrived, it's just not worth even the shipping charge back or their service fees.
What a waste of money. Should have bought an iPad...

Robby Lyon

5

Kogan's 'customer service' is F***ing awful; actually strike that, it's non-existent.
Cannot for the life of me save the APN to connect my internet through the USB.
No help! NONE, idiots, bastards.
I actually have been happy except for these small but significant points. I'm trying to figure a way to return it because I can't get any contact or phone, or email....

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