Rockchip first showcased a tablet prototype with RK3168 dual core processor at the Hong Kong Electronics Fair in April, showing lower power consumption compared to RK3066. At the time, tablets based on this processor were still in development, but this has changed as a few RK3168 tablets are now showing up in Aliexpress. Prices for 7″ Android tablets such as Cube U25GT PRO, are now about $110 as low as $75 including shipping, but this should come down as more sellers provide the devices.
Cube U25GT PRO is an updated version of the U25GT pictured above. Here are the specifications of the PRO version:
- SoC – Rockchip RK3168 @ 1.2 GHz with PowerVR SGX540 GPU
- System Memory – 512 MB RAM
- Storage – 8GB NAND Flash + micro SD card slot
- Display – 7″ 5 point touch capacitive screen (1024×600)
- Camera – 0.3MP front camera
- Connectivity – Wifi 802.11b/g/n + 3G via external USB dongle
- Video Output – HDMI
- Audio I/O – HDMI, speaker and earphone jack
- USB – 1x USB OTG
- Battery – Built-in 2500mAh rechargeable Lithium-ion battery
- Dimensions – About 191x116x11.2mm
- Weight – About 303g
The device comes with a charger, an earphone, a USB OTG Cable, a user’s manual, and some kind of gift bag.
One of the first things I’ve noticed is the 1.2 GHz frequency, so you’ll have to expect lower CPU performance compared to RK3066 which is normally clocked at 1.6 GHz. The advantage of RK3168 over RK3066 is that it’s manufactured using 28nm process technology vs 40nm process, so it will offer better battery life. The GPU is also different as RK3168 comes with a PowerVR SGX540 compared to a Mali-400 MP4 for RK3066. I’m not sure which one has the best performance, but the benchmarks belows seem to prove the quad core Mali-400 has better performance than SGX540.
kilwatablet.com has run some benchmarks to compare Rockchip RK3168 with AllWinner A20.
The Antutu score for RK3168 is about double compared to AllWinner A20, with the biggest gaps being with RAM, CPU floating-point performance, and 3D GPU performance. They also claim A20 and RK3168 are in the same price range, but I don’t quite believe this, as A20 is about the same price as A10, and I’ve read it sells for $7.5 per unit in quantities. RK3066 usually scores between 11,000 to 12,000 in Antutu, so this confirms RK3066 should have the edge in term of performance, and the real selling point of RK3168 is its low power consumption, for decent performance.
Thanks to onebir for the links.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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