Kogan Agora ICS tablet: unboxing

So, you want a tablet, but you're not willing to pay iPad prices for one? We hear you, and so does Ruslan Kogan, it seems. The enterprising Aussie entrepeneur is back with yet another budget priced Android tablet — this time with a larger screen and the latest version of the Android OS. We got our hands on one of the country's first units, and ripped back the plastic to see just how much tablet you get for AU$179.

Kogan's stark white box offers no clues as to what lies beneath the cardboard.

So far, so good. The new Agora tablet is lightweight and fittingly attractive, compared with other tablets currently in market.

The chassis is a cool-feeling plastic, designed to look (and feel, somewhat) like a stiff aluminium. It looks great and feels nice to hold. Even the large Kogan branding fits nicely. Again, so far, so good.

There isn't much else in the box, aside from the tablet and the standard assortment of chargers and USB cables. Although, we were impressed to find a USB host adapter included.

Unlike some of the more popular tablets, the Kogan includes just about every popular connectivity option available. There is a 3.5mm headphone socket, a micro-HDMI port, a micro-SD card reader and, strangely, two USB ports: one for the Host adapter and another for PC connections.

This is the homescreen we were greeted with, as soon as the tablet booted up. A clock and a camera shortcut — the absolute necessities. There are, actually, a couple of extra apps pre-installed: a Skype app, a Twitter app and the confusing-titled tool "2160p Super HD player". Is this really a 2K(ish) video player?

We have loads of tests to put the Agora through its paces, but this early result isn't great when you compare the 96288 score we got with the ASUS Transformer Prime, or even the 90748 result on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7. Then again, this tablet is a quarter of the price, so maybe a benchmark result a quarter of the speed is right on the money?