Elonex eTouch 1000ET review

Every successful product inspires a bargain basement clone or two, and while it might be uncharitable to call the Elonex eTouch 1000ET a cheap iPad knock-off, it does hardly anything to help itself. Just look at the gloss-black bezel or the curved silver-coloured shell that constitutes the back and sides. Most damningly, examine the round button at the bottom of the frame that works as the tablet's Back button.

Available from Toys R Us and Asda, the eTouch appears to be designed to lure unsuspecting shoppers into thinking they're getting something like an iPad for much less. It's only once you get hands-on that the truth sinks in. Silver-coloured plastic is no substitute for brushed aluminium, and the build quality is less than flawless: there's a worrying give when you press on the corners of the front panel. The eTouch might look like an iPad, but it certainly doesn't feel like one.

This in itself should be expected. The cheapest iPad costs £429 inc VAT from Apple, while the eTouch is selling for an affordable £150 inc VAT. However, even when you take the gaping price difference into account, the eTouch falls short in so many areas that we can't recommend that anyone buy it.

Feeling generous, we'll start with the good points. With plastic rather than metal in place, the eTouch is a fairly lightweight 695g and, unlike its inspiration, connectivity is pretty good. On the bottom of the device there's a mini-USB port to transfer files between the device and a PC, plus a full-sized USB 2 port for connecting a keyboard, mouse, USB memory key or even an external hard drive. On the right-hand side there's a microSD slot with an 8GB card supplied, along with a weird, proprietary network port that works with an optional Ethernet adapter.

We'll talk more about performance later, but the eTouch's 1GHz LNX Code 11 processor is perfectly capable of handling HD video playback, and our test 720p H.264 trailers ran without a stutter. It's also possible to transform the eTouch into a kind of netbook by using the optional keyboard case, which incorporates a netbook-sized keyboard in a tough, faux-leather folder. Finally, while the eTouch runs on Android 2.1 with minimal customisation, at least Elonex gives you access to the full Android Market, meaning you're free to find out which apps will and won't work on the device for yourself.