Adrian Kingsley-Hughe/ZDNET ZDNET’s key takeaways The Blackview Mega 1 is available directly from Blackview and AliExpress, with prices starting at $219.The tablet has a big screen, a great display, and fantastic sound output. It’s also thin and light and comes at a great price.
There’s nowhere to store the stylus and the folio case feels flimsy.
Think of tablets and most people’s minds instantly go to the iPad. However, there are some fantastic Android tablets that you can buy for a fraction of the cost of an Apple device.
I’ve been testing a tablet that costs less than $300 and it has an 11.5-inch, 120Hz display, 256GB of storage, 12GB of physical RAM, and cameras that are perfect for social media and video calling.
Also: My MacBook Pro stopped charging – here’s how I fixed it for free
The tablet is the Mega 1 from Blackview, a company once synonymous with rugged smartphones. The firm has diversified during the past few years and is making budget devices with a premium feel.
View at Aliexpress
Blackview Mega 1 tech specs
Display: 11.5-inch 2.4K FHD+ IPS 1200 x 2000 pixel, 85% screen-to-body ratioCPU: MediaTek MT6789 octa-core Helio G99 2.2 GHzRAM: 12GBROM: 256GBOS: Doke OS_P 4.0, based on Android 13Rear Camera: 50-megapixel Samsung ISOCELL JN1Front Camera: 13-megapixelBattery Capacity: 8800mAh (supports 33W fast charging)Speaker: 4 x 1217 BOX speakersWi-Fi: 802.11 a/b/g/n/acBluetooth: 5.1SIM Slot: 2 x SIMs or 1 x SIM + 1 x TF cardBiometrics: Fingerprint reader, Face IDColors: Space Grey, Sky Blue, Dreamy PurpleDimension: 268.7 x 169 x 7.6 mmWeight: 528g Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNET
I was impressed with the Mega 1 when I got it out of the box. For some reason, I’d expected this budget tablet to have a cheap, bulky, plastic feel, like the laptops of days gone by. Instead, I discovered a thin, light aluminum tablet that feels as premium as Apple’s iPad. The curves and bevels are smooth and perfect, and the tablet is perfectly balanced. It oozes a premium feel you don’t expect from a device that costs less than $300.
Also: This monster 240W charger has features I’ve never seen on other accessories
The folio that the Mega 1 is shipped with is, in comparison, a bit of a letdown. Yes, it does a good job of protecting the display and transforms into a usable stand, but it has a cheap vinyl feel and started to show wear after a week of use. The case is no deal-breaker, but it feels like sacrilege to put such a beautiful tablet in a budget folio case.
The Mega 1 has a thin, light design and a premium-quality feel.
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNET
The premium feel of the Mega 1 goes a lot further than skin-deep. The 11.5-inch display feels great on the eyes. Even after several hours of using the tablet, my eyes felt fresh. The 120Hz refresh rate and 203 pixels-per-inch density help ensure user comfort.
The system also supports Widevine L1 digital rights management specifications, allowing it to stream HD and HDR content from services including Netflix, HBO, Disney+, and more. This capability gives the Mega 1 an advantage for people who want to use the tablet as a content consumption device.
Also: The best live TV streaming services
Audio is delivered via a set of quad speakers, and these do a good job of delivering a cinematic surround sound experience. At high-volume output, the sound is powerful, clear, and distortion-free.
The device is powered by a MediaTek MT6789 octa-core processor and backed up by 12GB of RAM (expandable to 24GB using system storage). This combination is powerful enough to keep everything humming along nicely. I didn’t encounter stuttering or lag during my test. Applications sprang into life almost instantaneously.
A SIM tray for cellular data can accommodate two SIM cards, or one SIM card and a microSD card.
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNET
Cooling is handled by an integrated cooling system that uses more than 8,000 square millimeters of graphite. Blackview claims this setup can keep the tablet below 40ºC/104ºF. My testing of the Mega 1 under heavy, prolonged loads supports this claim. At no point did the Mega 1 feel hot to the touch. You can push this device to its limits with confidence.
Keeping everything running is an 8800mAh battery. This huge battery is crammed into a tablet less than a third of an inch thick. Blackview says the battery is good for 20 hours of use and can play music for 22 hours, play HD video for 5.5 hours, and support five hours of gaming. I was easily getting two days between recharging while using this tablet heavily.
Also: Dell’s latest gaming laptop is an ultraportable machine I wouldn’t mind bringing to work
While the 20-hour runtime figure is probably correct, Blackview might be underestimating because I know I watched a lot of YouTube during my test. Either way, the battery is not a weak point in the design of the Mega 1.
The cameras on the Mega 1 don’t disappoint, either.
The 50-megapixel rear camera is great for social media and school/work reports.
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNET
The 50-megapixel rear camera features a 1/2.76-inch Samsung ISOCELL JN1 sensor that delivers clear, detailed, and color-accurate images. You’re not getting the pop and detail you see from an Apple iPad or a Samsung Galaxy S24, but this difference has less to do with the hardware and is due to the intense amount of on-device processing that high-end devices now do on images.
Don’t let this shortcoming put you off, as the camera is perfect for what most users want, and the output for social media or work/school reports will be more than adequate.
The 12-megapixel front-facing camera is also more than enough for selfies and video calling, and it handles a variety of lighting conditions easily.
Note: The sample images that Blackview uses on its website to promote the camera are not taken using the Mega 1, and are stock images. Blackview isn’t alone in using this technique, and I don’t know why companies persist in this approach because I think it’s misleading for consumers.
The tablet has a stylus. I’m not a fan of these devices, but it’s an extra for those who like them. One downside is that there’s nowhere on the tablet of the folio case to store the stylus. So, if you’re like me, the stylus is unlikely to stick around for long.
Yes, there’s also a stylus.
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNET
ZDNET’s buying advice
It’s easy to think of a budget tablet as a cheap chunk of plastic and glass, with a mediocre processor and display, powered by a battery that can barely last a morning.
The Blackview Mega 1 is nothing like this. It’s a tablet with a premium feel that offers a hardware experience that would have commanded a high-end price only a few years ago. From its thin and light design to the 11.5-inch 120Hz display, this tablet oozes quality and delivers a great user experience.