Teclast M20 Review: Promising But With Disappointments

The Teclast M20 is a China tablet with a very high-resolution display, an Helio X23 deca-core processor and almost vanilla Android 8.0 Oreo. Even though that sounds quite impressive, it costs just 150 US Dollars as a deal. How good can such a cheap tablet be? I’m Andrzej for MyNextTablet.com and this is my Teclast M20 review.

By the way, GearBest send me my review unit of the Teclast M20. That is a shop from China that sells this tablet almost worldwide starting at around 150 US Dollars.

Design & Build Quality

Even though the Teclast M20 is so inexpensive, it features an almost full metal body. We get a full metal back and there is a very small frame around the display made of plastic only. It seems to be very robust but even though it is metal, I never got the feeling of holding something high-end. One reason for that is that it is very thick an 10mm. And it is pretty heavy with just under 600g.

On the sides, we get a micro USB port and a standard headphone jack. There is another plastic part on the top which you can open. This cover feels pretty cheap but houses two SIM card slots and a microSD card slot. In fact, one of the standard features of the Teclast M20 is build-in LTE. You have to check with your local carrier if it supports the for you important LTE bands. For Germany, that is not the case.

Cameras & Speakers

The cameras have a resolution of 5 and 2 megapixels. Sadly, the picture and video quality of both cameras is not that good. Photos and videos can look unsharp even with good lighting. Especially the front-facing camera can look a bit blurry.

On the right and left sides, we get a speaker each. Actually, the sound quality is not bad at all for this price class. Yes, we don’t get a decent bass and the sound can be a bit scratchy if you turn up the volume a lot. But its fine for watching some YouTube or Netflix on the sofa or in bed.

Display

The Teclast M20 has a 10.1-inch display with a super high resolution of 2560 x 1600. Usually, we have to pay at least double to get as a high resolution. Because of that, especially texts and icons look very sharp. Yes, even when you hold it right in front of your nose.

I can describe other aspects of this screen as okay only though. While the contrast is good, the display has a slight green cast. Since it’s an IPS panel, viewing angles are very good. But I think it’s very disappointing that the screen is not laminated. That means there is a small air gap between the IPS panel and the touch layer. Because of that, you will see reflections much easier. And the screen is a bit dark. You won’t be able to use it in direct sunlight.

Sometimes I’m not sure what I should say about not laminated screens. Others like the 2018 iPad have this issue too and everybody is fine with that. But on the other hand, a direct competitor in this price range is the Amazon Fire HD 10 and that one does have a laminated screen.

By the way, the display does not have any coating to minimize fingerprints.

Hardware & Performance

Inside the Teclast M20 runs a MediaTek Helio X23 deca-core processor. That one has ten cores in total with two of them clocking at up to 2.3GHz. It is supported by 4GB of RAM and a 64GB internal eMMC flash storage. It also supports WiFi, 4G, and GPS.

Considering the price, the Helio X23 offers a very good performance. In fact, the benchmark results are extremely good for that. In AnTuTu, it gets a result of over 97600. And in Geekbench 4, it got a score of 1580 and 4620. With those results, it is stronger than most tablets in this price range.

But well, those are benchmarks. While the performance is good in real life, it is not as great as the benchmarks suggest. Sure, it is fast enough for most apps but it is not a perfect gaming tablet. I’d call a lot of games playable at lowest to medium graphics settings only. Actually, games like Asphalt 8 and Modern Combat 5 run very nicely. I’ve been able to play Into The Dead 2 at medium settings too but did notice some minor lags.

Another game I played is PUBG Mobile. That one does run at lowest and medium graphics setting. But in both cases, you might see some stuttering from time to time. That seems to be the case with almost all tablets though.

So… while it is not a perfect gaming tablet, it is good enough for most games. At least if you are fine with playing those at lowest to medium graphics settings. Other apps like YouTube or Chrome run without any issues at all.

Software: Android 8.0 Oreo

The Teclast M20 is running Android 8.0 Oreo out of the box and that is great. I don’t think that it will ever get an update to Android 9.0 Pie though. Almost no tablet in this price range will ever get such an update.

I love that there is no heavy UI on top of Android. In fact, we kind of get vanilla Android. And there are almost no pre-installed apps too. That is awesome.

As I said, a direct competitor is the Amazon Fire HD 10 and that one has a heavily customized UI. Regarding this, I certainly prefer the Teclast M20.

Well, since it pretty much is vanilla Android, I don’t have much to say about the software. Except for one thing. While you can find and install Netflix from the Play Store, it does not support the necessary DRM standards to watch movies in HD. Sure, you can watch everything. But not in HD.

Battery Life

A very disappointing aspect of my review is the battery life. In my standard battery test, the Teclast M20 got a runtime of 7 hours only. To test the battery, I’m always looping an HD video at medium brightness.

You can see in my comparison chart that those 7 hours are pretty bad. I did not review any tablet with a worse battery life this year. When surfing the web and watching YouTube or Netflix, you won’t get a real runtime of more than 4 to 6 hours.

Teclast M20 Review: Final Verdict

Alright, can I recommend the Teclast M20? Considering its price, the performance is pretty good, even though the benchmarks are a bit deceiving at first. The build quality is alright and the screen is good enough but could be much better. I really like that we are getting almost vanilla Android Oreo here. But the battery life is very weak. On the other hand, we do get a lot of storage with 64GB.

Considering it costs just 150 US Dollars, the Teclast M20 is not bad. At this price, we don’t get any tablet with a higher resolution screen. But it’s hard to really recommend it. Mainly because of the screen. I so wish it would be laminated – but it is not.

Let’s check out some alternatives.

A direct competitor is the Amazon Fire HD 10 (review). Depending on the country, it costs roughly the same and has a good performance. While the 10-inch screen has a full HD resolution only, that one is laminated. Yes, it has a plastic body, but the battery life is much better. And Amazon offers an excellent customer service. If you can live with the custom software from Amazon, I think that one is the better alternative. But if you need Google Android, the Teclast M20 is probably better for you at this price.

I think the Teclast T20 (review) is a much better alternative but it costs more too. That one does have a laminated and high-resolution screen, a bit better performance, and a much better build quality. It also features a fingerprint scanner. While it still is running Android 7, it is much better overall and I certainly can recommend the T20.