The Hyundai T7 is a 7 inch Android tablet with a speedy quad-core Samsung Exynos 4412 processor. In other words, it’s about the same size as a Google Nexus 7, but it’s even faster… and at a lower price.

PandaWill sells the Hyundai T7 for about $166, and some sellers at AliExpress offer the tablet for even less.

Hyundai T7

The tablet features a 7 inch, 1280 x 800 pixel display, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of storag,e and Mali 400 graphics. It has a microUSB port, microSD card slot, HDMI output, a 2MP rear camera, and a 0.3MP front-facing camera.

It runs Google Android 4.0 and features WiFi, Bluetooth, and GPS. I don’t know if the Hyundai T7 is officially certified by Google, but it comes with the Google Play Store preloaded and runs most apps available from Google’s app marketplace.

PandaWill sent me a demo unit to review, and I wound up breaking it while trying to upgrade the firmware. I’m pretty sure user error is to blame, but I suppose it’s worth pointing out that the upgrade process can be a bit tricky.

The good news is that I had time to run some benchmarks before turning the Hyundai T7 into a useless lump of plastic. Interestingly it wasn’t quite as zippy as the Ramos W42 tablet, which has the same processor. But the Hyundai T7 came out ahead of the Google Nexus 7 and Asus MeMo Pad ME301T in nearly every test of CPU and graphics performance.

Both of those tablets feature NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core chips, while the T7 has the same processor as the international Samsung Galaxy S III smartphone.

Hyundai T7 benchmarks

Before I broke the tablet, I also had time to notice a few quirks:

  • The tablet would sometimes shut down entirely after it had been left plugged in and charging for a while. If I left it overnight and came back the next day I might have to wait for the tablet to perform a full boot before I could use it.
  • While the Hyundai T7 and Google Nexus 7 both have 7 inch, 1280 x 800 pixel displays, everything looks smaller on the T7 screen, because text, images, and other content aren’t scaled the same way as they are on the Nexus 7.
  • The tablet does not come pre-rooted (as some Chinese devices do), but it’s reportedly easy to root using ExynosAbuse.
  • My unit had at least one dead pixel, and the screen seems to scratch very easily.

Update: It turns out the screen doesn’t actually scratch easily. There’s just a very well-fitted piece of plastic covering the screen. It fits so well you might not even notice it, but if you remove it the screen should look a little better… and it’s the plastic that scratches, not the glass screen.

I didn’t have a chance to run extensive battery tests, but I did open up the case while trying to bring the tablet back from the dead, and confirmed that it has a 3300mAh battery. According to the official specs, the tablet should get up to 5 hours of battery life.

t7_open

Overall, the Hyundai T7 is an interesting option if you’re looking for a fast 7 inch  tablet with a decent range of ports and a decent display. The overall build quality of the tablet I received was actually pretty good — the tablet is made of plastic, but it’s thin and light and feels good in your hand. But this isn’t the first time I’ve received a Chinese tablet with a dead pixel on the display, so there are clearly risks involved with ordering this type of device.

Also — if you decide to perform a firmware upgrade be very, very careful. If you accidentally leave a file off the SD card before upgrading, you could end up with a tablet like mine that doesn’t do anything at all when you press the power button.

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31 replies on “Hyundai T7 quad-core tablet is fast, fickle”

  1. There are instructions on how to unbrick the t7s as this is a common problem, you need to manually force it in to download mode by bridging a few pins on the memory.

  2. You mentioned the screen scratches easily. Are you sure it wasn’t the screen protector you scratched? I bought one and it came factory pre-installed with a screen protector. It fits so well that it is hardly noticeably. Overall I’m very pleased with this tablet. It’s fast and so far runs everything I throw at it. Battery could be better but with Juice Defender installed it’s not too bad.

  3. Hey i can fix this tablet. Im an experienced android developer, even the most bricked tablet i can still revive it. Im currently living in australia and vietnam (i travel in between) please send me the tablet i will pay the postage, and then i may send you back if you still want it. This is just easy job and i want to gain more experiences with different android devices. My email is long6688 (at) yahoo (dot) com

  4. A new version with 2GB RAM and !6GB storage with 5MP camera has come out. Blue color but same battery. Now why didn’t they upgrade the battery as well knowing that a lot of users have been complaining about it. Android 4.2 will soon follow.

  5. mine (from chinapadmall) shows a lot of chinese or Korean texts in varios pre-installed apps. Hard to get rid of thesde apps, since the buttons in thse apps are not intuitive. The Language I selected is English

    1. Basically the process involved prying a paperclip into the reset hole and using it as a lever to lift the plastic a bit and then cramming an expired credit card into the gap and pushing it slowly around the whole case.

      In the process I broke a few catches and wouldn’t recommend trying this at home unless you really have to.

      I didn’t exactly do the whole thing very artfully and wouldn’t recommend anyone follow my example… which is why I didn’t videotape the process. 🙂

      1. I did and it all went back together nicely Still havent fixed the original prob of the battery is dead!!

  6. You could probably try fix your tablet by putting it into recovery mode. Not sure of the exact upgrade process of this tablet though, but it looks great!

  7. just ordered Hyundai T7 on Pandawill and its on its way ,
    I just want to ask a question,
    as you said you aren’t sure if it is Google certified or not , any luck so far finding out if it is certified by Google ?
    also what is the latest Android version that runs ?

    I ordered T7 + Screen Protector and hope any of the 7inch back cover will fit on it.

    1. Android 4.04, and it doesn’t really matter if it’s officially certified or not, because it runs the play store and every Google app I’ve tested just fine.

      1. isn’t there anyway to install the latest android version (Jelly Bean) ?

  8. Looks cool, especially at this price point, but reading about paltry battery life numbers makes me start to think about strapping another external battery to the back of the tablet if I want to take it out for a walk and do some demanding tasks with it while away from the grid :D!

  9. Sorry to read about your bricking experience, Brad.
    A few of us have been there, let me tell you.

      1. It’s bound to happen if you tinker. I’m just glad it wasn’t yours. 😉

          1. LOL! I’m tinkering with my JXD S7300B Gamepad 2 right now Brad. It’s interesting enough!

    1. The Hyundai tablets are Chinese built. Supposedly the name is licensed from the Korean company.

  10. HDMI out AND a micro-SD card slot…

    The only thing the Nexus 7 has got going compared to this is better software support.

      1. Yea but if you can’t put apps on the card it only helps for music, movies or other content. This has been one of my game changing thoughts when looking at a new phone on 9/1 when I plan to upgrade. MicroSD = only good for content now not Apps.

        1. Fair enough, but that’s what I was thinking of anyway. My Android phones have been limited to 1 or 2GB for apps, but I like to carry lots of media around with me.

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