Tablets are a surprisingly big part of life for most people. Whether it’s casual browsing, media consumption, reading your provocative novels, or actually playing your games; everyone has a use for a tablet. Of course though, when it comes to here, gaming is definitely the focus for us. So if you’re talking gaming what’s there to pick from? You could grab an iPad for Apple Arcade if you truly love ad free Temple Run, or one of the cheap Onn Tablets for big screen, budget GBA emulation. But what about this? The Alldocube iPlay 80 Mini Ultra, sent over by the Alldocube team, is a, as they put it, a “5G Gaming Tablet”. So how does it hold up? And is it going to be worth your money? Well luckily that’s what I’m here to find out.
Specs
When it comes to buying the iPlay 80 Mini Ultra, with that mouthful of a name, you really only have one option if you’re in the USA. And that’s the good ole’ American Walmart. At $380 you’re spending quite a bit on this tablet, but if you’re from outside of the country, you can find it for around $350 on Aliexpress, with obvious discounts when the next sale rolls around. But is it worth it? Well it comes down to what you think of the package.
CPU: Mediatek Dimensity 8300
GPU: Mali G615 MC6
Ram: 12gb
Storage: 256gb
Battery: 7,200mAh (33 watt charging)
Display: 8.8”, 2560×1600 (16:10) at 144hz, 500nit Max
OS: Android 16 (Promised update to A17)
I/O: 1x USB-C (Supports DP Out), 1x MicroSD/2x Nano Sim Slot
Connectivity: Wifi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, 5G Support
Dimensions: 208.2 x 129.2 x 7.75mm
Weight: 330 grams
Build Quality & Finish
For a $380 tablet, the 80 Mini Ultra is well built as you’d expect. It’s all plastic around the tablet, but it doesn’t feel hollow like cheaper options. The finish on my unit is good with no sharp edges and what I’d consider to be a pleasant red accent for the power button. For those that really enjoy tablet gaming, I think it’s good to note that the 80 Mini Ultra features a centered USB-C port on its side that can help center your telescopic controllers, but does not feature a second port if you wanted to charge your tablet at the same time.
Screen and Audio
Talking the screen first; it’s really good. To some, this panel setup may sound familiar and that’s for a reason. The other gaming grade tablet with an 8.8” display is the Y700, and their older models used a similar, or possibly the same, 2560×1600, 144hz display that looks good, responds well, and gets bright enough for just about any use case I’d have. The 144hz refresh rate is a nice to have, but if you don’t need it, they also support turning it down to 90 and 60hz depending on your mood. Personally, I’ve left it around 90hz as a good mix between smoothness and battery. But that’s just me.
As for the audio, I don’t have as high regards for this one. The dual speakers are set up with one on top, one on bottom if you hold it vertically. And one left, one right if you hold it in your gamer stance. The audio that comes from the speakers definitely do better than many cheaper options, but when compared to something like the Y700, or even my old iPad Air with its quad speaker setup, I definitely find this tablet to have pretty middle of the road audio. Not the best, but not the worst either.
Controller Options
This is a brief section, but if you’re looking for a controller to use with the 80 Mini Ultra, you’re going to need one that can stretch a bit further than an average phone. That means things like the 8BitDo Ultimate Telescopic controller are out, but something like the Memo S3 Tablet edition would be more than enough. That being said, for the most part I found myself using the EasySMX M20 with the iPlay 80 Mini Ultra due to, fitting first off, but being a high quality telescopic that switches between ABXY, and the Iconography of the Playstation controller. If you want something bluetooth though, the Abxylute S8, and Gamesir X5 Bluetooth edition would be good, and should allow for vertical usage if you wanted.
Performance
Benchmarks
Now here’s where it gets a bit awkward. The iPlay 80 Mini Ultra runs the Dimensity D8300, which is something I’ve seen before in both the Anbernic RG557 and the RG477M. A potent chip that needed a good bit of cooling as well, something the 80 Mini Ultra doesn’t have, and in place has a three layered heatsink that attempts to cool it down. That being said, even with the cooling, it still gets shown up by its competition, and predecessor.
Geekbench Single/Multi
iPlay 80 Mini Ultra – 1344/4258
RG477M – 1427/4529
Lenovo Legion Tab Gen 3 (8 Gen 3) – 2160/6464
iPlay 70 Mini Ultra (7+ Gen3) – 1889/5078
3DMark Stress Test
iPlay 80 Mini Ultra – 2844 (74.5%)
RG477M – 2767 (84%)
Lenovo Legion Tab Gen 3 – 4433 (No Stability)
iPlay 70 Mini Ultra – 3046 (93%)
As you can see from the numbers, the 80 Mini Ultra gets edged out in most regards by its competiton. Thanks to Rob the Retro Tech Dad for his benchmark numbers that I keep stored away, we can see the the 70 Mini Ultra is doing better despite being the “older” model. The Legion Tab Gen 3, thanks to numbers from Stubbs shows that the 8 Gen 3 performs leaps and bounds higher, and thanks to the Snapdragon chip with higher stability.
The last inclusion is the RG477M; a handheld I and Andrew on the team quite enjoyed. Their numbers are almost identical, but in the 3D Mark Stress Test, you can see the fan kept the 477M much more stable. That being said, still nowhere near the 93% from the 70 Mini Ultra. This tells me that while active cooling definitely helps, the D8300 is a hot chip, and needs a lot more space than just a tablet.
Android Gaming
Android gaming for the most part is what you’d expect. Games that are compatible by not being “too old” for Google’s standards boot up, and run well. My mainstays including Horizon Chase Turbo, and Dadish perform well to no one’s surprise. Grid Autosport as well boots and runs smoothly, and actually did fine with longer gameplay sessions much to my surprise. That being said I did have some issues with Wreckfest after a while of gaming. It did seem to get a bit warm, and would offer some strange frame drops. This did usually take a while to reach, but for a gaming tablet would hopefully be something someone could avoid.
Emulation
If you’re here for the retro gaming like most people here, you’d be good to know that the D8300 is still a performant chip for that use case. Just like the RG477M you can easily climb your way up through Gamecube and PS2, but rather than upscaling to match the resolution of the screen, you’d be better off with either Native or 2x scaling for your games. Pulling through Sonic Heroes, Enthusia Racing, and Wave Race: Blue Storm between Gamecube and PS2 shows that it can handle a lot, if you’re careful.
The bonus systems are likely going to be what you’d expect. Switch, Wii U, and PC emulation are either going to be bonuses, or no go’s unless you want to really tinker with them. Gamenative would allow me to get through and boot just a few indie games like Easy Delivery Company. But at that point, I’d recommend you grab that in the Play Store instead. There’s a lot you can do to keep yourself happy, but you do need to temper expectations this time around.
My Use Case
As someone that shuffles through a lot of tech, I do like to keep one or two things around at a time as a “main” device in that category. And for the 8” tablet range, that’s currently this. The 80 Mini Ultra. But not for why you might think. Despite the gaming prowess that it holds, I am not the biggest tablet gamer and a lot of that may be lost on me. But, the decent power, great battery life, and really good screen means this is a great “grab and go” tablet that I can swing around, toss in my bag and just have for whatever I may need. There are cheaper options yes, but it’s hard to find a screen this good at those lower prices.
So; for now it stays.
Final Thoughts
Should you buy the Alldocube iPlay 80 Mini Ultra? If you can memorize the name well enough to say it, you might be in the market for it. But that’s a hard sell as well. For $380, this is a really solid all around package, but the price is my personal issue. Speaking strictly for the American market for $400, you can grab the Legion Tab Gen 3 from Lenovo directly. The 8 Gen 3 performs a lot better, and you get the general Lenovo support. For $335; on Walmart, from Alldocube themselves, you can grab the iPlay 70 Mini Ultra. That tablet performs slightly better, with the same screen, but for $40 less. You do lose out on 5G support in both of these alternatives, but if you don’t care about it, that’s something to consider.
If it was my money personally, I’d get the older 70 Mini Ultra, because I know I don’t need the power of the 8 Gen 3 in a small tablet. If you need the 5G though, absolutely grab the 80 Mini Ultra. Is this a bad tablet? Absolutely not. Is it positioned at a pretty questionable price point? Absolutely. Get this tablet if it meets your needs, but there are better options as well. If you’re not in the United States, go grab this from Aliexpress because it will be a much better deal that way.
