Teclast M50 HD tablet review – This tablet is affordable, light, and well-equipped

You cannot expect much from a tablet in the price range below 200 Euros (~$219): It usually has an affordable SoC with a fairly low performance, you get slow storage that is often also relatively limited, and particularly the cameras often also leave much to be desired. The Teclast M50 HD wants to do better here, it least in some areas. On paper, the ample 128 GB of storage and 8 GB RAM together with mobile communication modem sounds promising.

But at this point, the compact, 10. 1-inch tablet also has to face some powerful competitors, and there are even some affordable tablets with LTE from Samsung or Lenovo, for example. We take a close look at the Teclast tablet in our test and let you know whether and for whom a purchase might be worthwhile.

The bright-blue case is made of metal. There is a fairly wide plastic strip in the top area that serves to improve the antenna reception. The case edges are beveled, which not only looks good but also improves the tablet ergonomics, making it feel comfortable to hold.

The display is fit cleanly into the case frame. However, even some slight pressure in several places will already cause the liquid crystal of the screen to respond. When trying to warp the tablet, it feels like some parts are moving past each other, and the tablet also makes some quiet creaking noises.

The impression of the quality is okay overall, particularly considering the price class. Weighing 435 grams (~15. 3 oz), the Teclast M50 HD is a fairly light 10.

1-inch tablet that you can easily hold in the hands for longer without getting tired. As already mentioned above, the storage equipment is convincing with an ample 128 GB of data storage and 8 GB of RAM. The manufacturer even speaks about 16 GB of working memory, but this is only achieved by swapping to a file in the data storage, which responds significantly slower than the dedicated RAM.

So this is more of an emergency solution that could hardly bring any benefit in everyday operation, since 8 GB RAM should be easily sufficient for most tasks anyways. The USB-C port serves for charging and data transfer. It is connected internally using the USB 2.

0 standard. There is a separate 3. 5-mm audio port allowing you to connect even older headphones easily without having to use any adapter.

The Teclast M50 HD doesn’t offer NFC for wireless payment, for example. There is a slot on the right side that accepts either two SIM cards or a SIM card and a microSD card. We test the card reader using our Angelbird V60 reference microSD card.

After inserting it, we copy 250 photos from it to the internal storage. The Teclast M50 HD does a fairly good job here, reaching fast transfer rates for its price class with 35. 2 MB/s.

However, the reader is unable to reach the maximum performance of the microSD card by far. The reader also turns out fairly fast in the CPDT benchmark, so that you can also move your data to a microSD without any concerns. Teclast has installed Android 13 on the tablet and thankfully didn’t add any advertising apps from third-party vendors, so that the user will still have a lot of storage space and can install apps of their liking.

The manufacturer also hasn’t modified the user interface, so users should have an easy time in finding their way around. At the time of our test, the security patches come from September 2023, which means that they are already a bit older. Even after we asked for them, the manufacturer doesn’t give any concrete specifications on the update cycles, other than promising that the tablet is still supposed to get software updates for several years in irregular intervals.

At least, there should be a list with all their devices and update periods in the next few months, according to Teclast. But you shouldn’t expect too frequent patches or new functions for now. In terms of WLAN, the Teclast M50 HD uses WiFi 5 as the fastest standard, reaching decent transfer rates in our test, which are overall at the class level and remain relatively stable.

We test the transfer rates with our Asus ROG Rapture AXE 11000 reference router. Close to the router, websites are loaded fairly quickly, and we only have to wait for pictures from time to time. At 10 meters distance and through three walls, 3/4 of the signal strength is still available, but a difference in the speed of loading pages is already clearly noticeable.

It is great, that you can also use two SIM cards to access the mobile Internet. The maximum to connect is the LTE standard. Those who are also thinking of using the tablet for mobile communication in other countries should find out about the necessary frequency bands in advance, though, since the Teclast M50 HD only supports the most necessary bands here (in Germany).

You can find a list of the bands supported by the mobile modem in the specifications given further above. In some spot checks during our two-week testing period, the signal strength is always good, although never at the level of high-end smartphones tried at the same spot. We take a closer look at the locating capabilities of the tablet: All the large satellite networks are supported, and if you step outside, after a few seconds of wait, the tablet locates itself up to a decent 5 meters (~16 ft) of accuracy.

To evaluate this further, we also perform a practical test, taking a bike tour where we bring both the Teclast M50 HD as well as a Garmin Venu 2 smartwatch for comparison. Afterwards, we then compare their recorded routes. Unfortunately, the Teclast tablet doesn’t turn out to be very competent.

At times, it places us into completely different roads, lets us ride through gardens and houses, and finally places us in the water next to the bridge. With this, we cannot recommend using the tablet for navigation, and to determine your location, only if you only need to know an approximation. Since the Teclast M50 HD is an affordable tablet, you shouldn’t expect too much from the cameras, since the manufacturers assume that a relatively large device is taken out less to take pictures on the road.

This opens up the possibility to keep the price of the device lower by using more affordable components. Thus, the Teclast M50 HD also only uses a fairly simple 13-Megapixel lens on the back. Pictures taken with it outdoors show a strong color tint and only little definition in very bright or dark areas.

The details appear washed out in parts and larger areas appear spotty. Under low light conditions, the camera also lacks image sharpness, and there is a strong color tint again. We therefore cannot really recommend the camera for taking pictures, and even document scans often appear fairly blurry.

With this, the camera is mainly suited only for reading QR codes. Videos can be recorded in Full-HD resolution at 30 fps, but the quality is hardly usable also here, with a heavy color tint and only little sharpness. The front camera is also blurry, even under good light conditions.

In our test lab, we give the main camera another chance to deliver a better performance, but it doesn’t succeed here either: In very good studio lighting, the results turn out very blurry again. With only 1 Lux of light, nothing can be recognized in the pictures anymore. In addition to the tablet, the box also includes the 10-Watt charger, a USB cable, and a tool to open the SIM slot on the side.

The manufacturer also offers a folio cover for its tablet at a fairly affordable 15 Euros (~$16). Teclast only offers a 12-month warranty period, otherwise referring to the vendor warranties (in Germany). The touchscreen offers a 120-Hz scan rate, so it is checked for touch inputs 120 times per second.

It responds to our inputs reliably and most of the times also without delays, but still doesn’t feel quite as smooth as a screen with a higher rate. The touchscreen also responds to inputs in the corners and edges. The affordable tablet doesn’t include a fingerprint sensor, and the only option for biometric security is the face recognition via the front camera.

The training and recognition succeed quickly and reliably, with the tablet being unlocked smoothly. The 10. 1-inch IPS screen with a class-typical resolution of 1,920 x 1,200 pixels doesn’t get very bright: 246 cd/m² is the end of it.

This makes the tablet suited more for indoors. Outdoors, the reflections of the surroundings are too strong, and you can recognize hardly anything on the display. The contrast turns out correspondingly meager, and colors appear very muted.

Even at very low brightness settings, PWM isn’t used, allowing even sensitive persons to use the tablet. In our tests with the CalMAN software and a spectral photometer, we notice a hefty color tint, and particularly bright-blue and green color tones are reproduced very distorted. In addition, the tablet only offers a limited color space coverage.

In bright sunlight, there is hardly anything recognizable on the screen anymore. The only time you can still work fairly comfortably with the tablet is on cloudy days or in the shade. The viewing angles turn out very stable from all sides, without the display contents changing when looking at it from very steep viewing angles.

With the graphics unit, you can notice that there are only very little performance reserves. Even in the native resolution of the display, they are hardly sufficient for a smooth reproduction of more demanding games. In the speed tests of the browser, the Teclast M50 HD also only achieves one of the lower places.

You often have to wait for parts of larger web pages and particularly for pictures when scrolling. So you need to bring some patience when surfing the Internet. With 128 GB, the storage space of the Teclast tablet is fairly large, although it isn’t really fast.

This is eMMC-Flash, and even though it is often used in this price class, it doesn’t really allow for any faster data transfers or short load times. The recently tested Teclast T40 HD showed how much faster this can be done even with affordable tablets: The UFS 2. 0 flash storage that is used there offers read times that are more than twice as fast.

Unfortunately, the tablets from Teclast refuse to work with the software from GameBench , preventing us from specifying any concrete frame rates here. But in most games where the frame rate can be adjusted directly, more than 30 fps aren’t even available to us. More demanding games such as Genshin Impact stutter from time to time even in low settings.

You can also clearly see the long load times due to the slow storage here. So you will have more fun playing less demanding games. The control using the touchscreen and possibly also the position sensor works without any problems.

With 31. 2 °C (88. 2 °F) under longer load, the maximum heat development doesn’t pose any problems and is hardly noticeable.

Even after 20 runs of 3DMark Wild Life, the performance is still at the same level as in the beginning, so we don’t observe any throttling due to overheating. The Teclast M50 HD includes stereo speakers. Although they don’t get very loud, they sound fairly balanced overall.

You shouldn’t expect any clear bass, but at least there are some low mids that are clearly noticeable. Voice is reproduced fairly clearly without any distortion. Those who want a better sound can connect speakers or headphones via the 3.

5-mm audio port or Bluetooth 5. 0. The supported aptX HD and LDAC codecs allow for wireless sound output even in high quality.

The battery offers a capacity of 6,000 mAh, which places it in the middle of the field of comparison devices. The battery life still turns out rather mediocre, and there are tablets that can last significantly longer. Although 11:07 hours of WLAN surfing are okay and should be sufficient for a day of usage most of the time, other tablets such as the Lenovo Tab M10 Gen 3 or Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 LTE 2022 reach significantly longer runtimes here.

Slightly longer than 13 hours for watching movies or 4 hours of playing games should be sufficient in everyday operation, particularly, if the tablet is supposed to be used mostly at home, where the next outlet isn’t far anyways. The Teclast M50 HD offers several advantages, such as a lot of storage, an elegant metal case, and decent speakers. All that is available at a fairly affordable price.

At the same time, the 10. 1-inch tablet is more suitable for using it at home, since the decent but not outstanding battery life, the inaccurate locating, and the dark display make using it outdoors for longer time periods rather difficult. This is unfortunate, since with its low weight and particularly the support for mobile communication, the tablet would really be predestined for mobile use.

But in any case, its equipment characteristics allow it to be used very flexibly, and thanks to its pure Android 13 and low heat development, it is also comfortable to use in everyday operation. Although you shouldn’t expect too much power from the SoC, it is still sufficient for simple tasks. The cameras are very blurry, not very light sensitive, and hardly usable.

The Teclast M50 HD is light and offers mobile communication support, but it only brings very little power and doesn’t last very long in battery operation. With the Teclast T40 HD, you get a brighter display and longer battery life, and even its price is at a similar level (unless there is a sale). The Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 LTE 2022 offers mobile communication, four powerful speakers, and a long battery life, but the camera and display are also unconvincing here.

The Teclast M50 HD is available for $200 from the manufacturer or from Amazon for about $160 , for example. .