Asus Memo Pad ME572C review: A pad to remember

Synthetic benchmarks

The Asus Memo Pad 7 ME572C is pretty heavily armed for a brand name midrange tablet, costing only €200. The company has been employing Intel silicon for some time and the powerful Atom Z3560 was chosen to power the ME572C. The chipset is manufactured using a 22nm process for improved performance and power efficiency over the majority of Qualcomm and Mediatek offerings. Its four cores are clocked at 1.83MHz, but Intel's architecture allows for better per clock performance, which should be on par with the Snapdragon 800. The GPU is an import, namely the PowerVR G6430 found in Apple's iPhone 5S, where it performed admirably.

We ran the full range of benchmarks on the Memo Pad 7 and the results confirmed our initial thoughts. The first set of tests, Antutu 5.0, Geekbench 3 and Basemark OS II test the CPU and overall system performance. The great Antutu 5.0 score is comparable to the Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact, which features a Snapdragon 801 chipset, 3GB of RAM and a much higher price tag.

The Geekbench 3.0 result was respectable as well, with the ME572C posting a similar score to the lesser model in the Asus lineup, both crushing the LG G Pad 7.0 with its modest Snapdragon 400 inside. Devices packing the high-end nVidia Tegra K1 are naturally in a league of their own.

AnTuTu 5

Higher is better

• HTC Nexus 9
  60297
• Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact
  42505
• Asus MeMO PAd 7 ME572C
  41856
• Asus MeMO Pad 7 ME176C
  33735

GeekBench 3

Higher is better

• HTC Nexus 9
  3470
• Xiaomi Mi Pad 7.9
  3276
• Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4
  2867
• Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact
  2748
• Apple iPad mini 2
  2512
• Asus Memo Pad 7 ME572C
  2495
• Asus Memo Pad 7 ME176C
  2414
• LG G Pad 7.0
  1135

Moving on to the broader Basemark OS II benchmark, we witness a similarly solid performance. In the overall results the Memo Pad 7 is again beaten by the Tegra-packing duo, but inches ahead of the iPad mini 2 and outperforms the Galaxy Tab S 8.4 by a wide margin.

Basemark OS II

Higher is better

• HTC Nexus 9
  1890
• Xiaomi Mi Pad 7.9
  1192
• Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact
  1141
• Asus Memo Pad 7 ME572C
  1094
• Apple iPad mini 2
  1073
• Asus Memo Pad 7 ME176C
  948
• LG G Pad 7.0
  525

Basemark OS II (single-core)

Higher is better

• HTC Nexus 9
  3777
• Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact
  2251
• Xiaomi Mi Pad 7.9
  1999
• Asus Memo Pad 7 ME176C
  1528
• Asus Memo Pad 7 ME572C
  1453
• LG G Pad 7.0
  1141

Basemark OS II (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact
  10413
• Xiaomi Mi Pad 7.9
  8547
• HTC Nexus 9
  7187
• Asus Memo Pad 7 ME176C
  5899
• Asus Memo Pad 7 ME572C
  5691
• LG G Pad 7.0
  4873

When it comes to graphics the Memo Pad 7 doesn't disappoint either. It's a top performer, easily beating the competition in GFXBench, on-screen and off. Both scenarios yield similar results, as the standardized off-screen resolution of 1080p is close to tablet's native one. Basemark X, however, tells a slightly different story, with the Asus tablet trailing behind rivals but still posting good numbers.

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• HTC Nexus 9
  60.2
• Xiaomi Mi Pad 7.9
  53.1
• Asus Memo Pad 7 ME572C
  31
• Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact
  27.7
• Apple iPad mini 2
  27
• Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4
  26
• Asus Memo Pad 7 ME176C
  12
• Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8.0
  4

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (onscreen)

Higher is better

• HTC Nexus 9
  46.2
• Xiaomi Mi Pad 7.9
  39.6
• Asus Memo Pad 7 ME572C
  29
• Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact
  28.1
• Asus Memo Pad 7 ME176C
  22.9
• Apple iPad mini 2
  21
• Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4
  17

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• HTC Nexus 9
  31.5
• Xiaomi Mi Pad 7.9
  27.3
• Asus Memo Pad 7 ME572C
  12
• Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact
  12
• Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4
  8.9

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• HTC Nexus 9
  22.6
• Xiaomi Mi Pad 7.9
  19.8
• Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact
  11.7
• Asus Memo Pad 7 ME572C
  11
• Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4
  5
• LG G Pad 7.0
  3.8

Basemark X

Higher is better

• HTC Nexus 9
  28244
• Xiaomi Mi Pad 7.9
  24456
• Apple iPad mini 2
  13286
• Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact
  12911
• Asus Memo Pad 7 ME572C
  11317
• LG G Pad 7.0
  822

Web browsing performance is respectable as well. The good Kraken 1.1 figures were in the same ballpark when running both the stock browser and Google Chrome. On the other hand, in BrowserMark 2.1 Chrome fared noticeably better, scoring around the 1600 mark, as opposed to the 1200s of the built-in offering, which is shown in the charts below. Apparently, it's not that good in munching on JavaScript.

Kraken 1.1

Lower is better

• HTC Nexus 9
  3953
• Xiaomi Mi Pad 7.9
  4647
• Asus Memo Pad 7 ME176C
  6091
• Asus Memo Pad 7 ME572C
  6281
• Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact
  6500
• LG G Pad 7.0
  14761

BrowserMark 2.1

Higher is better

• HTC Nexus 9
  2588
• Asus Memo Pad 7 ME572C
  1681
• Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact
  1467
• Asus Memo Pad 7 ME176C
  1250
• LG G Pad 7.0
  971
• Xiaomi Mi Pad 7.9
  952

Overall, the Asus Memo Pad 7 ME572C is the solid performer its specs promised it to be. It's consistently near the top of the charts, with the Atom Z3560 unable to compete only with the nVidia Tegra K1. It has to be pointed out, though, that currently there is only a handful of devices utilizing that chipset. The Nexus 9, for instance, is about twice as expensive as the Memo Pad 7, while the Xiaomi Mi Pad may be hard to find outside of its home market and it's cheaper looking that the Asus Memo Pad 7.

Benchmarks aside, the tablet feels snappy in actual use and doesn't leave you waiting. Scrolling through the homescreens and app drawer is smooth, apps load quickly and multitasking is not a problem.

Email and text input

There is no messaging app on the Asus Memo Pad 7 ME572C but you get two email clients to work with. The standard client has a clean simple white interface with your email folders on the left and your list of messages on the right. If you add more than one account and you get a combined view of all your emails from each accounts. The Email app can handle Exchange, POP or IMAP inboxes.

The standard email app

The Gmail app has handy shortcuts at the bottom of the screen and supports batch operations, which allow multiple emails to be archived, labeled or deleted. The default app supports multiple Gmail accounts, but there's no unified inbox.

Google's Gmail app

Google Hangouts is also here, so you'll have a handy way to message all of your Google and Gmail contacts from one interface.

Text input is done through an Asus keyboard, which has a separate number row as well as a smiley key. Secondary characters are also available with a tap-and-hold action. On this screen the keys are comfortably large in both portrait and landscape mode. Reaching the middle of the tablet when held horizontally is unconfortable though, and no optimizations are provided. There is support for swipe typing, handwriting and voice input.

Asus keyboard in the Hangouts app