The upper mid-range of the tablet segment is a bit on the crowded side, but the ASUS ZenPad Z10 may have the ability to make its mark. Verizon has affirmed this by deciding to carry the tablet as an exclusive, and power it with their new LTE-Advanced network. Boasting a number of fresh features, better coverage, and speeds up to 50% faster than their normal 4G LTE network, Verizon’s LTE-Advanced will give ZenPad Z10 users a premium network experience to match the premium feel and performance of their tablet. The device iterates nicely on the existing members of the ZenPad lineup by adding in a number of premium features like a unibody metal design and a 9.7-inch 2,048 x 1,536 display.
On top of the nice display and body, the tablet sports a pretty decent setup on the inside of the device that should keep things chugging along nicely, with good battery life to boot. The whole show is run by a skinned version of Android 6.0 (Marshmallow), with ASUS’ ZenUI on top. Under the hood, you’ll find a Qualcomm Snapdragon 650, paired up with 3GB of RAM and an Adreno 510 GPU. This package promises snappy performance for most non-intensive operations, smooth media playback and streaming, great multitasking, and a pretty decent gaming experience, though nothing that will blow hardcore gamers away. This is all kept running by an absolutely massive 7,800mAh battery, which should pair nicely with that mid-range processing package to give users about a good five or six hours of heavy use, if not more.
On the storage side of things, users get 32GB of internal storage, which they can directly add to via the MicroSD card slot thanks to the Adoptable Storage feature of Marshmallow. The card slot is touted as able to accept up to 128GB of extra storage. An 8-megapixel rear camera will get the job done without wowing anybody, and a 5-megapixel selfie snapper promises at least passable video chats. A USB Type-C port is along for the ride, as is a 3.5mm headphone jack. The tablet only comes in Slate Gray for the time being, and will retail for $329.99 when it drops on October 13.