It’s impressive that humanity has been able to build powerful mobile devices around nanometer-scale components, so it’s no surprise that some of them are so expensive. On the other hand, some of today’s budget electronics show surprising amounts of promise.
So I’m willing to forgive a little when a super-cheap tablet like the Blackview Tab 70 Wi-Fi comes along, hoping it will please you. Somebody The device needs a mid-range processor despite the poor hardware performance—because you don’t necessarily need a mid-range SoC to browse the web and send emails. However, while Blackview’s 10-inch tablet runs as fast as a $100 device, the overall experience isn’t great.
Blackview Tab 70 Wi-Fi
The Blackview Tab 70 Wi-Fi is a very simple device. Its quad-core processor, 4GB of RAM, and 64GB of internal storage allow you to run Android 13, browse the web, and use basic apps. But it suffers greatly from slow hardware, slow charging, and a number of strange bugs and misleading claims about the specifications.
- It costs almost nothing.
- Browses the web and runs some apps fine.
- Battery life is acceptable.
- Slow performance and touch screen
- Shipping is painfully slow.
- poor software implementation
Price and availability
The Tab 70 Wi-Fi costs $160, but Blackview doesn’t want you to actually pay that much — it’s almost always on sale on the manufacturer’s website and, more importantly, on Amazon. According to a Blackview representative, its three versions offer 3, 4, and 8 GB of RAM, with an equal amount of virtual memory added (which isn’t properly activated on its own).
I was only able to track down the 4GB version on Amazon, but it’s available on Blackview Hong Kong’s site, and it appears to be shipping to the US.
What are the good features of Blackview Tab 70 Wi-Fi?
At least it’s well built.
The most obvious (and almost only) selling point is the price. The fact that you can get a battery-powered device, a touchscreen, and a functional Android app for the price of a few family trips to McDonald’s is worth noting. There aren’t many tablets in this price range.
The device is also reasonably well made. It’s not particularly thin or light, but it doesn’t flex, wobble, or creak (yet anyway). The bezels are a bit large, but they’re easy to hold. The battery isn’t bad either — I actually managed to get around 7 hours of screen time in our video playback test, which is a bit more than the manufacturer claims. Speaking of video, it has the Widevine L1 certification needed to stream Netflix in HD. And while the screen has some pixels, it’s decently bright for outdoor use (but not in direct sunlight).
Other than that, there’s not much to distinguish this budget device. It runs basic apps, and if you’re patient, you can browse most websites without any problem. It’s also capable of playing games, but only very light ones. The wireless connection works, though it’s not close to what the manufacturer says, as we’ll get to in a moment.
What are the disadvantages of Blackview Tab 70 Wi-Fi?
move at the speed of a snail
Let me make it short: This device is very slow. It takes longer to boot up and load apps than most devices. You won’t get many frames per second in 3D games, and installing programs and copying files isn’t fast. But that’s to be expected, given the price.
What I didn’t expect was how easily it would scratch. You can see in the pictures quite a few minor scratches on both plastic back covers. And Glass panel; I was very careful not to drop it or put it on anything rough, and the placement of the markings is perfectly consistent with where I hold a tablet of this size. I certainly didn’t expect my fingernails to scratch the screen just by swiping up to get to the home screen.
Before I turned it on, I noticed a strange problem: it wouldn’t charge from the dual-ended USB-C cable, only from the USB-A to USB-C cable. Furthermore, Blackview’s “fast charging” claims are bogus. According to Accubattery, it rarely went above 5W. When playing games while plugged in, the battery charged to about 8% in just over an hour.
Even when not gaming, it takes about four hours to fully charge the device. I looked for any other real, hands-on reviews, and found that these charging issues are not specific to the unit I’m reviewing.
When first turned on, setup wasn’t difficult, but connecting to Wi-Fi was difficult. It worked at first, then repeatedly stopped until I restarted. The Bluetooth headphones paired quickly the first time, then mysteriously disconnected after a few minutes. I reset the earbuds and re-paired them, only to have the Soundcore app freeze and break the pairing entirely.
At least it has a headphone jack.
The connection issues persisted for several hours, until the second day, when everything suddenly decided to stay connected for some unknown reason. Since then, pairing and connection have been consistent, and Wi-Fi networks have remained stable—sort of. But there’s a fundamental problem.
Like many other very affordable Rockchip RK3562-powered tablets, the Tab 70 supports Wi-Fi 6, but with a caveat: it lacks the upper 5GHz Wi-Fi 5 bands. At first I wondered if this was a case of false advertising, but upon further investigation, it couldn’t detect bands 96 through 144.
Unfortunately, this is the band my ISP’s router broadcasts from (as do many other devices because it’s typically faster), and it doesn’t work well with the supported bands 32-68 – although different ISPs may give different results. This is probably because the chip is mostly for China only, and China has not allocated these bands for consumer use.
How I checked: The tablet downloaded at 10% of the expected speed. (1)The settings indicated a Wi-Fi 4 connection. (2)My 5GHz network is the red network. (3) But Blackview couldn’t detect it. (4)So I moved it to the bottom of the green part. (5)which is not licensed for Wi-Fi. Blackview immediately recognized the 5GHz network. (6) It can be clearly detected by the yellow colour. (7)All wrapped up nicely at convenient 5GHz speeds. (8).
After that, I think my ISP noticed and started to suspect it, and my router didn’t work properly until after a full reset. So don’t try this at home.
Both Blackview and third-party listings make the tablet come with virtual memory that matches the physical RAM, but not only is this not the norm among Android tablets, it’s not even enabled properly right out of the box.
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Strong performance for the more adventurous type.
When I changed the memory expansion setting in the Android settings menu to 4GB, I noticed a slight increase in emergency sheltera game that consists of 2D animated images on a 3D background. On a cheap device that is likely being marketed to non-techies, it’s hard to expect a new tablet user to know where to find this setting.
The interface isn’t very polished either. The typos and numerous translations were more amusing than detrimental, at least. But there’s nothing to prevent customization or improved features.
Daytime photos are good, but dusk is harsh, and night photos are poor.
But the biggest problem is that a worrying number of apps refused to work in landscape mode. The only way I could easily access my ProtonMail account was via a browser, since I (like most people) don’t typically carry a tablet like a phone. If someone hasn’t used an Android tablet before, it won’t make a good first impression.
Should you buy it?
The only reason you’d consider buying the Blackview Tab 70 is if it offers a bigger discount than the $100 it normally costs. That’s not impossible, but it’s also unlikely. The 2023 Amazon Fire HD 10 typically offers the same $100 price tag, with significantly better performance and similar features if you load up the Google Play Store. Even the 2022 Fire HD 8 Plus outperforms Blackview’s arguably sub-entry-level devices, especially if you’re a fan of smaller tablets.
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Kids? Adults? Small is tempting, but the grass is greener everywhere else.
As long as it’s priced at this level, it’s hard to endorse the Tab 70. But if it drops into the $70 range or so, it’s almost worth the money — as long as you fully understand what you’re getting into.
Blackview Tab 70 Wi-Fi
The Blackview Tab 70 Wi-Fi lets you browse the web and use simple apps, but it lacks performance, touch responsiveness, and software execution. The manufacturer’s inconsistent claims also make it a hard device to recommend.
