Tesco Hudl 2 review: Tesco's family-friendly affordable tablet

After the success of Tesco's first tablet last year, the supermarket chain is back with the Hudl 2, a new device that promises to be bigger and faster, but just as affordable as it was before.

With a bigger screen, faster processor and streamlined design, the new device will hope to capture an even greater share of the budget tablet market. So should you consider buying one?

The influential Expert Reviews website gives it five out of five, purring that "the Hudl 2's screen appears sharp and detailed with clean whites, and makes it feel like a much more expensive tablet." The model is, it adds: "the best budget Android tablet you can buy today".

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Motoring Crunch puts the Hudl head-to-head with the iPad Mini 3 on value for money and the clear winner is the Tesco model. "Heck, the Hudl 2 might be made of cheap plastic but the matte colour finish makes it equally appealing to the tablets from Apple," it says.

The Hudl wins another thumbs up at TechRadar. "It's cheap, but it's really rather nice". However, the praise comes with caveats. For instance, the reviewer says "we are a little disappointed that there is only just over half the internal storage available to the use out of the box so a lot is taken up with the operating system and additional software".

Design

The new tablet comes in eight different colours, each with a perky sounding name – jazzy blue, zesty orange, slate black, rocket red, tropical turquoise, dreamy white, perky purple and bubblegum pink.

The device is slimmer than the original Hudl, with a less bulbous chassis, and integrated rear-facing Dolby-optimised speakers. According to Tech Radar, the effect is that the Hudl 2 two has a "generally nicer balance in the hand".

Screen

The original Hudl was just 7.5 inches wide and five inches tall with a relatively small screen that measured seven inches diagonally. The new device is not much taller, but it is quite a lot wider so its display comes to 8.3 inches diagonally, offering a much more widescreen experience. It also has improved resolution up from 242 pixels per inch (ppi) to 273ppi, so "your content will look better, games will be more glorious and you'll have more space to browse your favourite websites," says Pocket Lint.

Performance

The original Hudl's processor offered a reasonable 1.5GHz with 1GB of RAM. It didn't necessarily fly, but it could do everything most users needed without too many hiccups. The Hudl 2 raises the bar with a powerful Intel Atom processor which offers a very respectable 1.83GHz with 2GB of RAM.

Operating system

The tablet runs on Android Kitkat, so the interface will look pretty familiar to anyone who owns or has used an Android-powered device. Tesco has tailored the operating system to include a number of its own apps and services, including a grocery home delivery app, recipe ideas, Clubcard points manager and banking services. The apps are cannot be erased, so even if you don't bank or shop with Tesco you are still stuck with them.

The Parent Zone

While the Hudl 2 functions largely like any other Android tablet, it differs in one key area – its focus on parental controls. The Hudl 2's Child Safety app comes pre-loaded and allows you to tailor permissions and profiles for up to seven different users. The Child Safety app can be used to control three types of use: web safety, app safety and time limits. This means that as well as limiting the time a child can spend using the device you can switch off access to specific games, search engines or entertainment services.

Verdict

Most reviewers are broadly positive about the new Tesco tablet. In his comprehensive hands-on review of the tablet, The Next Web's Paul Sawers says that with the Hudl 2, "Tesco has come out with another gem". Its screen quality alone "should ensure that everyone from students to pensioners will be lining up to buy one when these go on sale for £129" Sawers says. "Yes, the Hudl 2 is great for parents, but it's much more than a family affair".