Asus ZenPad S 8.0 review

A good looking 8in tablet with an even better looking screen

The low-priced Asus ZenPad range has been expanding rapidly, and the past few months have seen the release of the £90 ZenPad C 7.0 Z170C, the dual SIM-equipped ZenPad C 7.0 Z170CG and the customisable ZenPad 8.0 Z380C.

Now we have the ZenPad S 8.0 Z580CA, the most powerful and expensive of the lot, although at £200 it's still toward the lower end of tablet pricing. Despite this, it comes with a 2K display, next-generation USB-C port and no fewer than four places to store files. It all sounds promising, so let's find out whether this mini-sized slate can deliver.

Design
Weighing an airy 299g and measuring 203x135x6.6mm, the ZenPad S 8.0 Z580CA is well suited to one-handed use, and can barely be felt when carried around in a bag. Notably, it's thinner and lighter than the iPad Mini 3, although not quite as skinny as the 10.1in Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet.

In any case, this tablet is a pleasure to hold, partly thanks to the premium-feeling metal backplate and faux-leather trim along the edges. Such decorations can look tacky when applied to what is essentially computer hardware, but the ZenPad S 8.0 Z580CA looks great in general, particularly with the subtle cross-hatching effect on the back. It's durable, too, resisting flex and easily weathering two weeks of frequent use, including a trip abroad as luggage.

This is the first tablet we've reviewed that includes a USB-C port. This isn't all good news as the rarity of USB-C compared with microUSB means that it'll be much harder to track down spare cables, which could result in getting caught out with a dying battery. That said, we did appreciate the speedy file transfers and fast charging that the port allowed, so we'll count it as a net benefit.

Connectivity-wise, the only other feature of note is a microSD slot - there's no SIM port for mobile connectivity, just WiFi. This would have been a good fit for the ZenPad S 8.0 Z580CA's ultra-portability, although its existing range of connectivity options will still suffice for everyday use.

Display
The 8in, 2048x1536 display on the ZenPad S 8.0 Z580CA is impressively sharp, not surprisingly for a 2K tablet, but good to see nonetheless. Whites aren't the brightest we've seen, but colours are otherwise very well balanced. This, combined with the crisp 320ppi, makes for some extremely good looking images.

An anti-fingerprint coating helps keep the screen clear, to an extent, and gentle taps and drags don't leave any visible marks at all. However, gripping the device, even simply to pick it up or put it down, will leave the glass covered in light smudges.

A video smoothing effect, which gives the impression of videos playing at a much higher frames-per-second than usual, is enabled by default. We quite enjoyed using the effect to give videos a bit more sheen, although we can see it being a controversial feature - like certain films being filmed at 48fps instead of the usual 24fps. Fortunately, buyers can choose whether to keep, lessen or turn off the effect via the settings menu.

Next: Operating system, software and security

Asus ZenPad S 8.0 review

A good looking 8in tablet with an even better looking screen

Operating system and software
The ZenPad S 8.0 Z580CA runs Android 5.0 Lollipop, rather than the newer 5.1 Lollipop, overlaid with Asus' ZenUI custom skin.

As ever, we're disappointed by the inclusion of an out-of-date OS, even one with as many good features - like built-in encryption and the ability to set up restricted user profiles - as Android 5.0. It's missing numerous useful functions that were added in 5.1, from listed WiFi and Bluetooth connections in the quick settings drawer, to device protection tools that will stop thieves accessing a device even if they reset to factory settings.

There's also been no hint as to when, or indeed if, the ZenPad S 8.0 Z580CA will be updated to Android 5.1 or 6.0 Marshmallow, which won't endear the tablet to IT managers.

As for ZenUI, we're pleased that it doesn't meddle too much with the stock Android UI and features as more intrusive custom skins can. Unfortunately, it also includes a sizeable pile of bloatware, mostly consisting of unnecessary ‘utility' apps. The MyAsus app is particularly annoying. It's supposed to be a support service, but repeatedly sent us unsolicited notifications, which were more like advertising for Asus and its products.

On the bright side, there are a couple of additions that could come in handy: SuperNote, a blatant but feature-rich Evernote clone; and PC Link, which can quickly transfer data to and from a PC via WiFi, although this does require an additional program installation on the PC. We're also fond of ZenUI's added gesture controls, mainly the ability to activate a sleeping display by double-tapping it.

Security
The ZenPad S 8.0 Z580CA isn't lacking in security tools, but they're limited to the standard capabilities of Android 5.0. These include device encryption, which encrypts the tablet whenever it is turned off, as well as screen pinning. The latter is ideal for sharing the tablet with a colleague, friend or child without allowing them to navigate away from a given app.

There are no biometrics-based security features like the iPad Mini 3's fingerprint sensor, but the ZenPad S 8.0 Z580CA can be sufficiently locked down for personal and SMB use.

Next: Performance, cameras, battery, storage and conclusions

Asus ZenPad S 8.0 review

A good looking 8in tablet with an even better looking screen

Performance
Our test unit included the 1.83GHz quad-core Intel Atom Z3560 with 2GB of RAM, although we've seen models with a 1.3GHz quad-core Intel Atom Z3530 processor as well.

With the faster chip, the ZenPad S 8.0 Z580CA did well in our benchmark tests, especially by the standards of an Android tablet. It scored a high 42,630 in Antutu, 19,276 in 3D Mark and 764 single-core and 2,381 multi-core in Geekbench. Basemark OS II scores were 1,126 overall, 1,612 system, 1,059 memory, 1,439 graphics and 655 web. Lastly, it scored 784.6ms in Sunspider and 6,154.9ms in Kraken. Unlike the previous tests, lower scores are better in these two.

These results place the ZenPad S 8.0 Z580CA just behind one of our favourite slates, the Xperia Z4 Tablet, which is no small feat, considering that Sony's device is more than twice as expensive. It easily outpaces the £180 Acer Iconia Tab 10 and scored comparably with the huge, although productivity-focused, HP Pro Slate 12.

Indeed, the ZenPad S 8.0 Z580CA had no problem with the intensive 3D segments of these benchmarks, and didn't even become particularly warm. Opening, closing and switching between apps is beautifully slick, right down to the animations, and the only instance when the tablet seemed to slow down was a solitary camera hiccup when it took a while for newly taken photos to appear in the gallery app. This occurred for a few minutes on our second day of testing, and was not a problem thereafter.

Cameras
The 8MP rear camera and 5MP front camera are decent enough, although not quite up to the lofty standards set by the ZenPad S 8.0 Z580CA. The rear camera captures reasonably detailed shots and smooth 1080p video, with nice, warm colours, but the front camera's stills can get very fuzzy and noisy. It's good for casual snaps but not much else, especially since only the rear camera is capable of recording video.

Taken with the Asus ZenPad S 8.0 Z580CA

Battery and storage
The results of our battery burn tests, in which we played a full-screen video file on loop until it fully drained, were remarkably consistent, never straying more than a few minutes from the average of seven hours and 48 minutes.

Sadly, consistent or not, this is some way short of the nine to 10 hours we're used to with tablets, and the only way the ZenPad S 8.0 Z580CA will endure a full day is if it's used only sporadically, which hampers its usefulness as a productivity aid. At least the USB-C port speeds up charging.

Storage space is a lot more abundant than battery capacity. There's a 32GB internal SSD, room for up to 64GB of microSD storage and access to a further 5GB of Asus Webstorage space. Asus also throws in access to 100GB on Google Drive, making the ZenPad S 8.0 Z580CA one of the better tablets in terms of storage potential.

Overall
The ZenPad S 8.0 Z580CA is undoubtedly a quality tablet for the price, especially if you keep the charging cable close. The benchmarks compete with much pricier devices, and its design is as comfortable to use as it is aesthetically pleasing.

We'd still rather have the Xperia Z4 Tablet, for its superior enterprise software, longer battery life and attachable keyboard, but for anyone looking specifically for an ultra-portable 8in slate, this is one to consider alongside, and perhaps even instead of, the iPad Mini 3.