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Kata T4 Review: Video On Demand At Your Fingertips!

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Infinix
Tablets, while not really being a hard sell even in this day and age, would be a second-in-thought thing when it comes to consumers. It's the same in every range - cheap offerings and premium slates arise from the market that it's still difficult to have a best-pick. And in a personal stand point, tablets are something that manufacturers don't seem to nail right most of the time - viewing angles are par of the course and performance more often than not stutters for the most affordable ones, while other high-end offerings more often than not can't deliver well on the price-to-performance ratio. And quite evidently, Apple's line of iPads have taken the lion's share of the market when it comes to toting tablets.
Kata T4 cover photo
Kata T4 Review: Video On Demand At Your Fingertips On A Budget!

Kata wants to prove that it can compete in the tablet segment and deliver a snazzy device without people having to put huge dents on their bank account. The T4 is Kata's direct attempt at taking a stab at an oh-so familiar device that has been loved by kids and adults everywhere. How it fares is what we're about to find out in this Kata T4 review.

Kata T4 Specs

Display: 7.85 Inch HD IPS 1024 x 768 resolution
CPU: 1.3 GHz MT6382 quad core processor
GPU: Mali 400
RAM: 1 GB
ROM: 8 GB expandable via micro SD card slot
Back Camera: 8 MP w/ Gorilla Glass cover lens
Selfie Camera: 5 MP
Battery: 3,000 mAh
OS: Android 4.4 Kitkat
Connectivity: WiFi, Bluetooth, 3G, dual SIM, dual Standby, OTG cable
Dimensions: 134.6 x 200 x 7.7 mm
Weight: 400 g
Price: 5,999 Pesos

Unboxing / Accessories

Package of Kata T4 and accessories
Inclusions inside

We've grown familiar with Kata's packaging, and the T4 retains the clean boxing design that we've seen with previous Kata handsets. Once propped, you'll be greeted with the T4 itself, and underneath it are the usual inclusions – a standard wall charger, a micro USB cable with a ferrite bead, and a manual. While the inclusion of a ferrite bead is a nice touch, we're not too keen with the absence of an OTG cable and a headset. The former may come cheap and you may already be rocking high-performance cans, but those are still essentials, and even more so for new users to the Android scene.

Build Quality / Design

The metal clad build of Kata T4
Build quality

Design-wise, the Kata T4 is a looker. While no one would probably argue that it's eerily similar to the iPad Mini, the Kata T4 without a doubt delivers a premium vibe. Its metallic back panel looks meticulously crafted, and the access to its SIM cards and microSD card is nice and intuitive. Build quality is also impressive as well, but as with anything else, it's strongly advised that you have to take care of your devices.
View of Kata T4 at the upper back top
Dual SIM and SD card tray

Moving forward, the volume rocker and the power button are placed on the right side, although it's somewhat confusing if you're used with the standard setup where the power button sits below the volume rocker as it's inverted here. The headphone jack sits up top, while the microUSB port and the speaker grill are placed down south. The front-facing camera is positioned below the earpiece, and sitting beside it is an ambient light sensor.

Display Quality

Kata T4 display quality
Gorgeous display for the price

The T4 features a 7.85-inch XGA display. Sharpness is definitely up to par, and viewing angles are a stunner all thanks to the IPS panel setup. To put it simply, the T4's display is its crowning glory that you'll have fun using it as an eBook reader or a video playback device. No qualms here, you're definitely getting your money's worth with this one alone.
finger support benchmark of Kata T4
Multitouch test

Audio Quality

The Kata T4 performs nicely on closed spaces – we have some decent quality speakers here, loud, clean, and detailed. Watching YouTube videos while taking leisure times or travel are fun and all, and listening to playlists is definitely a pleasure. Phone calls are also clear should you wish to use it for telephony, so there's that. Kata however failed to throw a headset into the bundle – these things are just essential, and you just can't go without them.

Battery

Battery life of Kata T4 tablet
Battery benchmark

With 3,000mAh of juice, the Kata T4 would appear to be somewhat too restrictive in terms of screen time, especially on an7.85-inch slate with a quad-core processor. However, the T4 did exceed our expectations – 8 hours of regular to heavy usage with movies, streaming and games prove to be more than enough for your our needs with a tablet. Geekbench rated it differently at 5.15 hours, but we have to take into account personal experience versus acid tests.

Camera

The Kata T4 comes with the stock Android 4.4.2 Kitkat camera software – there's Panorama, Beauty shot, HDR and so forth. The primary 8MP snapper, to put it simply, is adequate. It can easily take stills with accurate richness of colors, but details seem to be on the downside especially on landscape shots. It's tolerable to say the least, but we've seen better. The 5MP selfie shooter is really where it's at, and quite frankly, this is what you'll be going to use more.

Sample shots

Color accuracy of Kata T4's camera
Outdoor macro shot
Kata T4 sample rubix cube photo
Close-up shot
Kata T4 front camera quality
Selfie sample

Performance

Kata T4 benchmark test
Benchmark scores

Kata's T4 is a MediaTek-powered slate – it comes with an MT8382 chipset with a 1.3 GHz quad-core processor and Mali-400 GPU paired with a gigabyte of RAM. It's a fairly capable chipset to say the least, and we've seen the same setup with other tablets competing in the same range. Check out some benchmark results:

Putting the price into account here, we're pleased with the results we've gathered. We're also happy to report that other graphic intensive apps such as Batman: Arkham Knight, Kabam's Marvel Contest of Champions and Star Wars Uprising, Chaos Rings III and so forth are playable, so we can expect it to run 2D games and the like without breaking a sweat.

Software

Software used by Kata T4
User interface of the tablet

The Kata T4's skin, unlike the F1s that we've reviewed in the past couple of weeks, bears quite some similar distinctions between Apple's iOS. There's no app drawer here – all of your apps are in your homescreen a'la iOS. And we thought it was just skin deep, lol. It's a clean and unobtrusive approach to say the least, and you can also go with Nova Launcher if Kata's UI here isn't your cup of tea.

Furthermore, the Kata T4 still runs the dated Android 4.4.2 Kitkat. Lollipop still doesn't come standard in most offerings today, and we're keeping our fingers crossed the T4 will also get its time. It also features Mega VPN out of the box, as well as WPS Office, Evernote, MX Player, and a bundle of streaming Apps such as Crackle, Netflix, CBS, Fox Now, The CW, PBS, History, Discovery Channel and Tastemade. You can really see where Kata is heading with the T4, we're just not too grand that the company left the uninitiated in the dark about how the Mega VPN service works hand in hand with the streaming services bundled in.

Pros - Build quality and design is superb, viewing angles and resolution are both topnotch, lengthy battery life
Cons - cameras could be better, should have educated regular users with out VPN works for its streaming apps

Verdict

The market for tablets in general pale in comparison when you stack it against the lucrative smartphone market, but there is still a demand for it. Kata beckons this call with an affordable offering that doesn't make you feel like you settled for something less, inside and out. Its svelte design, paired with its solid build and capable internals give it the chops of a well rounded tablet, thereby defining what affordability in this spectrum means. If you're looking for a device to fill you in with your multimedia needs for the road, Kata's T4 proves to be one of the best offerings in its price range to date.

GIZ Rating: 4/5 Stars

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