Blackview Link 8: $219 13-inch Android tablet built for travel

Blackview's Link 8 is available now for $219 and is presented as a thin, light 13-inch Android tablet aimed at travel and everyday use. The tablet measures 8.4 x 11.1 x 0.3 inches and weighs 1.5 pounds (25 ounces). It uses a 12.7-inch, 2160 x 1600 IPS display with a 90Hz refresh rate and a quoted 300 nits of brightness, and supports Widevine L1 DRM.

Blackview equips the Link 8 with quad-box Smart-PA stereo speakers, an octa-core MediaTek Helio G100 processor at 2.2GHz, 18GB of RAM (6GB physical plus 12GB virtual) and 256GB of storage, and it runs DokeOS_P 4.2 based on Android 15 with access to the Google Play Store. Camera hardware includes a 16-megapixel main rear sensor with a 2-megapixel depth sensor and a 13-megapixel front camera.

The tablet packs an 8,400mAh battery rated to about six hours of sustained runtime and supports 18W fast charging, and it ships with a folio case, stylus, mouse and keyboard. ZDNET's reviewer found the display adequate indoors but noted it may not be bright enough for direct sunlight and compared it unfavorably with much brighter, higher-priced tablets; the reviewer also described the accessories as somewhat plasticky.

After several weeks of use ZDNET called the Link 8 a very decent tablet for the price that handles common workloads, while noting it is not the fastest or the brightest option.

Key Topics

Tech, Blackview, Google Play Store