Maxwell 2 Review

Maxwell 2 is a tablet designed and built by a Spanish company called bq, they mainly focus on the production of E-Readers, Tablets and more recently Smartphones.
The majority of their devices have a clear focus on the low to mid-range market, usually providing well built products with good quality and decent performances, all of this while keeping the retail prizes very acceptable.

This 7 inch tablet is a nice solution for those consumers who are interested in a versatile product that can pretty much do everything expected from a tablet while keeping a nice level of performance throughout.
Thanks to a nice dual core CPU running at 1.6 ghz and a quad core GPU running at 400mhz, the Maxwell 2 can run most, if not all of the games currently present on the Google Play market. Those technical specs when combined with the very nice IPS screen make the Maxwell 2 a real option when it comes to mobile gaming.
At this price point (around 120€), getting the attention of gamers who are entering for the first time in the world of mobile gaming is crucial, it's something that might help distinguish the Maxwell 2 from the fierce competition that exists in the 7 inch tablet market.

One of the things that keeps this tablet from being the perfect and affordable Android gaming machine is the sound speaker, it is clearly out of place when compared to the general quality of the device, the sounds are usually too low or get distorted when you crank up the volume, of course that if you're planning on using the Maxwell 2 for gaming, music or movies, you should probably consider getting some nice headphones anyway, so it's not a big deal. On this department, the 3,5mm earphone plug alongside the mini-hdmi connection are great options to avoid the use of the terrible sound speaker.

The battery life while not being the greatest, is certainly adequate when taken into consideration the price of the tablet. The 4300 mAh battery does its job in a competent fashion, when using the power saving modes that the tablet offers, you can expect 1, 2 maybe even 3 days of activity before recharging the tablet again. Very interesting numbers for those users who mainly browse the internet, check the e-mail and news. For someone who plans on using the tablet heavily and for more demanding apps like games and hd movies, you can easily expect at least one daily recharge.
It could be somewhat quicker to get all of its juice back, but since you can still use it when recharging, the uptime on this little beast is pretty high.

The other major flaw with the Maxwell 2 is the placement of the connections, they are located exactly where the palm of your left hand should rest(when holding it sideways), certainly not ideal. It becomes very uncomfortable to use, especially when you have the charger and headphones plugged in. Some kind-hearted apps allow you to turn the tablet upside down and that fixes the problem, others don't, and your poor hand suffers for it.
Aside from that "detail" it's a pretty comfortable device, the back is matted black and made of a nice, smooth material which allows you to firmly grip and hold the tablet in place, the front is the usual fingerprint magnet piano black.
In terms of sturdiness, so far I had no problems with it, all the materials seem very resistant, nothing feels loose, even the buttons on top for power and volume feel well made.

For those of you who are interested in knowing how well this small machine performs in the Antutu Benchmark, the screens above show you the most important values.
The screens below are some of the games that got tested in the Maxwell 2.
 

Redline Rush

Wind-up Knight

Final Thoughts
Like it was said before, the 7 inch tablet market is a fierce and very competitive world, and while this offer from bq is definitely not a Nexus 7, the Maxwell 2 has proven to be a nice alternative to its direct competitors, establishing itself as one of the better options in the price range that it represents.

The Good
-Quality-Price Ratio
-IPS screen and high resolution
-Technical Specs
-Mini-Hdmi
-GPS

The Bad
-Connections Placement
-Sound Speaker

(For obvious reasons this product has been reviewed mainly from a gamer's perspective)

NRLB would like to thank bq for providing a review sample