After a long and painful period in which I couldn’t decide whether I really need a tablet, I bought a Prestigio Multipad 8 ultra duo. When deciding to buy a tablet, I couldn’t see clear alternatives in the market. That is, if price is a factor. And it is to me. The reason is, there are not enough quality 4:3 tablets on the market. There are the 10” ones that are OK even if they are 16:9. The good ones are either rather expensive, or cheap and heavy. In fact, I still don’t find the lighter ones light enough… maybe in a year or two?
Then there’s the Nexus 7. It’s too small, and it’s 16:9. That means I can’t read most of the Websites or PDF documents comfortably without panning and zooming. All the other 7” tablets fell out of the competition for the same reasons. The Nexus 10 … seems more than OK, except it’s not cheap enough. 
So that leaves me with 8” tablets which seems to me as a sweet spot. Apple gets it, but there are actually very few 8” Android tablets. So why Prestigio? There are very few reviews of it, but none are negative. It is also very cheap. It has reasonable processing power. So here’s a quick review:
Prestigio MultiPad 8 Ultra Duo (PMP 5880D)
The screen is good. The fonts, pictures and videos look clear and crisp, with lively colors and enough brightness. There is no auto brightness on the tablet, and the screen is not IPS so in some angles it hinders picture visibility. If you can live with it, no problem here.
Connectivity options are great. It supports full HD resolution output through mini HDMI port and USB host through micro USB. This means you can connect it to a monitor or TV and attach a USB keyboard and mouse.
Processing power is adequate. The dual core 1.6 GHz processor does a good job for gaming and browsing. It feels a bit slower than my Galaxy S2 in some cases when multitasking.
Internal storage is relatively slow. When copying files from the device over USB, speeds are around and mostly below 10 MB/s. Full HD movies run great.
Games run smooth, like Zombiewood, Angry birds HD …
Accelerometer is not precise enough for gaming. Tilting the tablet in games is very frustrating and unusable.
It cannot be charged through the micro USB port! There is confusion about this in a few forums I’ve seen. The manual clearly states this, and it really doesn’t work. People that say it works don’t have a 5880D Ultra Multipad.
There is no Gorilla glass, some scratches may occur with time…
The speakers are loud but the sound lacks depth.
The touchscreen is not as precise as on the pricier devices which can sometimes be experienced when dragging objects (like cursor) on the screen, or slow document panning/scrolling. In spite of this, the touchscreen is adequate and doesn’t cause any usability problems – games can be played, quick and precise typing is easily possible. Note that this is not a big deal, it is just something you can notice if you use the device in parallel and compare it to some more expensive tablet or phone.
The provided case is cool – it locks and unlocks the tablet on open/close.
The cameras are adequate. Don’t expect to make a living as a photographer, but for quick mail attachments, social network statuses posting, video chatting, they work ok. Face recognition unlock works very well because the front camera turns on very fast.
Built quality is good. When pressed a bit harder at the back, some plastic could squeak a bit, but overall, the device feels solid.
Updates are sort of coming, I received 2 OTA updates upon activation. Don’t know how long it will last, the device is currently using Android 4.1.1., I can’t find any information whether 4.2 will be pushed by Prestigio.
I would definitely recommend the device if you need a cheap small form factor multipurpose tablet to make meeting notes, write emails, enjoy multimedia and games and reading. If you want to spend more money, go for the iPad mini or wait for a good 8” Android tablet from Samsung or Google…
If you have questions about something specific, feel free to drop them in the comments.
how do i download videos from computer, and is there a manual download
Just connect the tablet via USB and select mass storage mode when prompted on the tablet.
The tablet will be visible to your computer just like an USB stick, so you can copy anything on it.
Hi I have been trying to download stvplayer, bbciplayer or Catchup, however it says it cannot be downloaded to to this chipset Country. I have checked all my setting and they all show uk. Do you have any ideas how to alter the chipset country to allow download of these android apps. Thanks.
I had the same problem accessing BBC i-player [ note comments ]. Downloaded app for catchup tv and works fine. tried channel 4 and ITV i-player but doesnt like it. icon just sits spinning on screen. then I tried BBC i-plaver again. This time it worked fab. But you have to download both BBC media app and BBC i-player app or it doesnt work.
My screen is cracked, almost broken, but tablet works 100% same..instead of paying 100 euros, to change it, is it possibly to find the screen in eBay or somewhere cheaper and do it myself instead???thanks
can you get BBC i player on this tablet. If so how do you set it up? when I get to the BBC sreen it says not available in your country, although Iam in the UK.
I cannot find how to transfer my music to a sd card ?
My prestigio (multipad 8.0 ultra duo PMP5880D) will not start up. Usually it would lock and unlock when cloosing/opening case.This does not happen anymore.
Your help will be appreciated.
Thank you
Dan
If you have pressed the reset button and had no joy, I am afraid it is a serious problem. Hopefully it is still under guarantee.