| Rating | Where to buy |
 | Amazon.com *Same or similar item |
PIPO Tablet smart-S1 is a 7-inch tab that comes preloaded with the latest Android 4.1.1 OS, i.e., Jelly Bean. It features the best hardware configuration for a Jelly Bean based 7-inch tablet priced under $100 (as of April 2013).
What is in the box?
PIPO smart-S1 comes in a nice protective box. The box contains the 7-inch tablet, a USB data cable to connect to your PC or laptop, an OTG cable, and a charging cable with a USB jack on one end and charging jack on the other. You can use the charging cable with a wall charger (sold separately). The box also contains a user manual and other documents. Sadly, the language used in the user manual is Mandarin.
Design and features
PIPO Tablet smart-S1 is surprisingly well built for a tablet priced at only $100. It feels solid in hand. It is durable. The slim body in black with nice curves makes it look attractive. The only camera is located inconveniently on the top left of the tablet. The speaker is located on the bottom of the tablet’s back surface. The micro SD card slot and mic/reset switch are located on the top right of the tablet’s back surface. The Volume up/down and the Power button is located on the side near the card slot. The rest of the ports, i.e., the micro USB, HDMI, and power-in port are located on the top.
The PIPO smart-S1 7-inch tablet sports RK3066 1.6GHz dual-core CPU. The CPU features Quad Core Mali-400 MP GPU. It sports 1GB DDR3 RAM. PIPO S1 comes with 8GB Nand Flash storage and supports external SD card of up to 32GB.
In plain English, this tablet has the ability to run anything you may throw at it. The screen supports 5-point multitouch. It has the resolution of 800×480 pixels. The built-in Wi-Fi supports 802.11b/g and 3G networks. It also comes with a mini HDMI port so if you have an HD video on your PIPO S1 tablet, you can watch it on a bigger HD screen.
Performance
PIPO Tablet smart-S1 boots up pretty fast on its first run. The screen was bright and less reflective than D2Pad D2-721. The screen is sensitive to touch and the response time is extremely fast. We were impressed at the speed and wanted to run a benchmark test and the result was impressive. It outperformed Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, Motorola Atrix 4G, and scored close to Asus Transformer Prime TF201. We played GTA Vice City on maximum settings on the tablet. The tablet ran the game seamlessly. We also played Temple Run 2, Cut the rope, and other games. In Temple Run 2 we had the opportunity to check the effectiveness of the G-sensor. PIPO S1’s G-sensor passed the test quite impressively.
As for video chatting and internet browsing, PIPO smart-S1 exceeded our expectation except for the camera’s quality when doing a video chat. The Wi-Fi reception of PIPO smart-S1 was great.
The best thing about PIPO smart-S1 is that it comes preloaded with the Android Apps market. So, you can download your favorite apps and games without any trouble.
The only complaint we have about PIPO smart-S1 is that its battery life was not up to our expectation. Though the specification says that the battery is 3200 mAH but it only lasts for 3 hours of gaming, net browsing, and video chatting while the Wi-Fi was on.
| Pros | Cons |
| Inexpensive Jelly Bean Tablet. Very fast response time, 5-point multitouch screen, solid build, great Wi-Fi reception. 8GB internal storage. | The battery does not last more than 3 hours of continuous use. The webcam is only 0.3 megapixels. |
Conclusion
PIPO Tablet smart-S1 is the best 7-inch Jelly-Bean based Android Tablet PC you can get for $100. The touch response time is very fast making it a great portable device for playing games. If the battery life was more and the camera was better, we would have given it a 4 Star rating. You might also like our post on Latest Tablets under $100.