Augen Gentouch 78

Another low-price tablet mostly available at department stores is the Augen GenTouch 78. It gets the job done on most typical tasks, but it sure won’t look pretty doing it. Beginning with the cheap-looking black plastic bezel and the lack of accelerometer to adjust screen orientation, the GenTouch 78 is a seriously no-frills but workable device.

On the plus side, the Augen GenTouch 78 comes equipped with apps for Android Market, YouTube, Skype, iReader, Gmail and Google Maps – often rare amenities for a low-end tablet, even with the Android 2.1 operating system. There are also micro USB and micro SD card slots, plus a headphone jack. The bad news on the jack is that it supports the uncommon 2.5mm variety. The goodish news is that an email to Augen can get a pair of headphones or an adapter sent to a North American address, but shouldn’t these be included? In the GenTouch 78 is 2 GB memory with support of up to 16 GB more via micro SD card.

Viewing of websites and ebooks goes quite well on the GenTouch 78 but as in so many bargain tablets, the resistive touchscreen responds poorly and the low-resolution 800x480 screen won’t impress too many users. And the 800 MHz microprocessor makes uploading and more complex tasking slower as well.

For the first-time tablet user, it’s hard to dissuade from the very inexpensive Augen GenTouch 78. With a little bit more budget, however, better-performing models are not difficult to find.

Tablet2Cases recommends to buy it now for $104.99.