The Hisense Sero 8 Pro is an Android tablet with a 7.9 inch, 2048 x 1536 pixel IPS display, a Rockchip RK3288 processor.

First introduced in Europe last fall, the tablet isn’t yet available for purchase in the United States. But when I caught up with Hisense at CES this week, I was told the company does plan to sell the Sero 8 Pro in the US this year, even though the price and release date haven’t yet been announced.

s8 pro_03

The tablet has an all-metal case that measures just about a quarter of an inch thick. Under hte hood it has Rockchip’s quad-core ARM Cortex-A17 processor, a 4500 mAh battery, 2GB of RAM, and 16GB of storage.

The tablet has a 5MP rear camera and 2MP front camera.

It runs Android 4.4 KitKat, but the Sero 8 Pro seems to have a custom app launcher which places all of your apps on the home screen rather than tucking some away in an app drawer. There are also pages of the home screen dedicated to videos, music, and recommended news items.

Hisense made a bit of a splash in the tablet space a few years ago by offering a 7 inch model that was nearly identical to the original Google Nexus 7, but which had a microSD card for removable storage, while Google’s tablet did not.

The new 8 inch tablet looks pretty good on paper, and feels pretty good in person, although it’s tough to really judge a tablet’s performance based on a few minutes testing it at a trade show. There are also far more decent-quality/low-price tablets on the market in 2015 than there were a few years ago when the HiSense Sero 7 Pro launched.

Still, for the right price, this new model could be an attractive option. Keep an eye out for it at Walmart, which is likely to be one of the first places it’ll be available.

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11 replies on “Hands-on: Hisense Sero 8 Pro Android tablet”

  1. It’s true, there are no physical volume buttons on the VIDAA tablet released in China. And to date, I haven’t figured out how to access recovery. I have the VIDAA, I bought it from jd.com. It actually has an 8mp camera. You can see photos of the tablet and photos I have taken with the camera here: https://sero7forum.com/sero-8-general-discussions/

    1. I now have the tablet rooted with custom rom and it performs very well.

  2. Hisense looks to have made the Sero 7 Pro just to get their foot in the door.
    -since then nothing they’ve come out with is that impressive or noteworthy by comparison.

    1. Seems like it. I bought that first tablet practically when it came out back in 2013 and still have it to this day (shame they never got it past 4.2.1).

  3. Brad, does it have a 4:3 aspect ratio display? It looks like it is.
    Did the Hisense folks say anything about it getting Android 5.0?

    1. Since this is a Rockchip processor, getting 5.0 depends entirely on Rockchip release the 5.0 SDK, and then the manufacturers making a new build. The Rockchip twitter feed mentioned they should have it out before Chinese New Year.

      The resolution would put it at 4:3.

  4. it seems that there are no physical buttons for volume. that would be disappointing, perhaps even a deal breaker for me.
    also, with the announcement yesterday of the new rockchip processor, I suspect they’ll need to sell these pretty damn cheap. particularly with these china tabs, people are willing to wait a bit for that new hardware.
    hopefully I’ll be able to pick one up cheap, like the $40 I paid for my refurb Sero 7 Pro which I still love.

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