Freelander PH20 Review (cheap Android tablet)

Presentation of the Freelander PH20

In this review, we would like to talk about the 7 inch Android tablet Freelander PH20 that we bought on Dealextreme (sku.166593). We will detail its specs and features later in this review, but for now you should know its price: about $67. Obviously, for this price it is not a top Android tablet, but it performs very well when playing videos or running Android games (continue reading this Freelander PH20 review for details), so consider it as a purchase option.

Besides the Freelander PH20 tablet (SXZ-PH20 - Link-create manufacturer), the package also include the following items:

• 1x Power Supply DC 5V (to recharge).
• 1x USB OTG adapter (micro B male to standard A female).
• 1x USB cable (micro B male to standard A male).
• 1x Start guide (English/Chinese).

Features of the Freelander PH20

Now, to help you know if this Android tablet is worth or not (considering the $67 price), let us describe its main features:

• Android 4.0.4.
• Single core AllWinner A13 SoC (CPU Cortex-A8 1.2GHz and GPU Mali-400).
• 7 inch capacitive screen (5 points) 800x480 of resolution.
• Memory 512MB DDR3 SDRAM.
• WiFi 802.11 b/g/n.
• Front camera 300KP.
• G-Sensor.
• 1x TF card slot (maximum 32GB micro SD).
• 1x 3.5mm earphone jack.
• 1x USB OTG (supports external USB flash drive, hard disk, keyboard, mouse and some other devices). (*)
• Rooted (checked with the app "Root Checker Basic").
• Google Play store already installed.
• 60 OS languages (the list of languages is shown on the overview video below).
• Built-in speaker (good sound quality).
• Built-in microphone.
• Supports external 3G dongles. (**)
• Power/Sleep button.
• Volume up/down buttons.
• Battery capacity 2800 mAh (3.7V Li-ion) about 3 hours of duration with WiFi on and playing YouTube video.
• 19.1cm x 11.6cm x 1.2cm of dimensions.
• 450g of weight.

In our opinion, it is a lot of things for a cheap Android tablet. However, as expected due to its price, it does not have some features that may be important for some. In our opinion, the main missing features are:

• No HDMI output.
• No Bluetooth (so far neither with a Bluetooth dongle).
• No GPS (maybe it is possible to use a USB GPS dongle).
• No official firmwares so far, but keep monitoring this thread. (***)
• No custom firmware (we did not find any so far).

Just to clarify things, watch our overview video below showing some features of the Freelander PH20 tablet:

Freelander PH20 - Video Playback Test

As always when reviewing devices capable of play videos, we made (and recorded) some tests to know the video playback performance of the Freelander PH20 tablet.

The tests were put different (codec/format) video files to play and see how well it goes. Note that the ability to play or not a particular codec/format/subtitle is related to software, so installing a proper Android video player app should solve any problem that you may encounter (we used the native video player app). Our tests was intended knowing how well the system can handle video files (1080p, 720p, MP4, etc.), so it is more related to CPU, GPU and firmware.

Check the results for yourself on the video below:

As you probably saw above, all video files played smoothly on the Freelander PH20 tablet.

The formats/codecs of the videos used on the tests was (listed in order of appearance):

• AVI (AVC/H264) 1280x720 bitrate 4273 Kbps 30 fps.
• M2TS (AVC/H264) 1920x1080 VBR maximum 25000 Kbps 23.976 fps.
• MP4 (AVC/MPEG-4) 1920x816 VBR maximum 40000 Kbps 23.976 fps.
• WMV (VC-1) 1280x720 bitrate 8000 Kbps 29.97 fps.

Freelander PH20 - Gaming Performance Test

Now the part that almost everyone likes: games. For these tests, we chose some free 2D and 3D games available on Google Play (we also used some pre-installed games) to see how well the Freelander PH20 can run them. You can check the gaming performance on the video below:

The games used on the video above are (it runs smoothly if there is no note):

• Dead Trigger (v1.7.0) runs almost perfect with graphics on high.
• Angry Birds Space (v1.2.1) pre-installed.
• Temple Run 2 (v1.0.1.2).
• Jetpack Joyride (v1.3.5).
• Fruit Ninja (v1.5.4) pre-installed.
• AirAttack HD (v1.9) pre-installed.
• Connector Lite (v1.0.3).

Freelander PH20 - External Devices Test

Since this Android tablet has a USB OTG, you can plug in a USB flash drive (will be mounted at "/mnt/usbhost1"), as you probably saw on the video playback test above, and some other devices. The other ones that we tested was a mouse, a USB 3.0 flash drive (works as USB 2.0), a regular keyboard and a keyboard with a leather case for tablets. All of them worked fine.

We also tried to connect a Bluetooth dongle, just as we did with the Dropad A8, but no success. Maybe it will work in some future firmware (original or custom).

Freelander PH20 - Benchmark Test (AnTuTu, Quadrant and others)

Finally, we tested the Freelander PH20 tablet using some popular Android benchmark apps to see how it scores (points or fps). You can check the Android benchmark apps and the results below or check the detailed benchmark tablet scores on the image gallery at the beginning of this Freelander PH20 review.

• AnTuTu Benchmark (v3.2.1): 3772.
• Quadrant Standard Edition (v2.1.1): 2109.
• Vellamo Mobile Benchmark (v2.0.2): 538 in HTML5 and 187 in METAL.
• Neocore (v1.9.41): 57.3 fps.
• NenaMark2 (v2.4): 31.5 fps.

Where can I buy this Freelander PH20?

This cheap Android tablet is for sale at Dealextreme for about $67, more specifically in this link.

Note 1: There may be some incompatible devices.

Note 2: The list of compatible 3G dongles is in one image at the gallery above.

Note 3: It seems there are 3 (three) versions of this tablet: PH20W, PH20L and PH20. You can check the version on the back of the tablet (that code on the corner). We received the PH20L (check image gallery above), which currently do not have firmware updates.