Hands-on review: EE Jay

EE is continuing to plough forward with its range of own-brand smartphones and tablets, attempting to keep Vodafone at arm's reach with the rival network employing a similar approach to the budget market.

Its latest offering is the EE Jay, an affordable 4G tablet that employs a design which will be familiar to many, and actually exceeds the expectations one would have for a slate with a £119.99 price tag.

This isn't the first tablet EE's launched, and the Jay slides in above the kid-focused EE Robin, but below the metal-clad EE Harrier Tab.

Under the hood you're looking at a 1GHz quad-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of storage plus a microSD slot and a 3600mAh battery, while on the front a 7.85-inch display dominates.

Taking a closer look at the design and there's no doubting the fact the EE Jay looks suspiciously similar to the iPad Mini. That's no bad thing, as it means the slate is sleek and premium, feeling solid in the hand.

The cool metal body allows it to ooze some class, and while the finish may not be on the same level as Apple's tablets the EE Jay is still a lovely looking device.

Two plastic blocks on the rear do break the metal chassis – and you can remove the slab at the top to uncover the microSIM and microSD ports. It's a flimsy piece of plastic and taking it off I felt like it could easily break. So be gentle with it.

Seeing as this is an EE slate, you'll need a SIM card from the network if you want to use data out and about, as the Jay won't work with rival cards from O2, Three, Vodafone and co. Wi-Fi is also included though if you don't fancy committing to a new tariff.

You can't remove the plastic block at the base of the Jay, but it does house the microUSB port and two reasonably loud speakers.

With a 7.85-inch display dimensions are kept to a manageable 199.96 x 134.66 x 7.8mm, plus the smaller form factor results in a 350g weight, making the EE Jay easy enough to hold in one hand.

For added Apple appeal, EE's even included a circular home button below the display. Thing is, it's completely pointless.

There are no back and recent touch keys either side of it, as they're displayed on screen – along with an on-screen home button. That means there are two home buttons on the EE Jay - one physical and one virtual - for absolutely no reason other than making this tablet look more like an iPad Mini.

It's a pretty shameless play, and one which is likely to confuse some users. Something else which is irritating is the vibration mechanism – it makes a loud crunching sound whenever it's triggered. Initially I thought it was some lame sound effect that had been applied to button presses, but no, it's just a dodgy vibration module.

Moving on screen and there's both good and bad news. On the positive side, EE hasn't tampered too much with Android, keeping things pretty much stock on the Jay.

That gives you a nice, clean slate to work with without too much bloat. EE has pre-installed a handful of applications including My EE, Amazon, Amazon Kindle and Amazon Music, but I wasn't too offended. You can't, however, uninstall any of these.

So that's the good news – now for the not so great stuff. First up the version of Android installed on the EE Jay is Android 5.1 Lollipop. That's over a year and a half old and considering its replacement, Android Marshmallow, has been out for well over six months it's a little embarrassing it's running such old software.

EE has equipped the Jay tablet with a 1GHz quad-core processor and 1GB of RAM – sadly though neither do it any favours when it comes to performance. The EE Jay is noticeably sluggish, even during simple tasks such as unlocking and browsing round the tablet.

It is handy having 4G signal when out and about, and while the 720p display isn't particularly great for gaming or streaming on the go it is at least bright and usable.

Early verdict

The EE Jay is appealing to the eye, and appealing to the wallet, but as soon as you get past the looks and the price point things don't seem quite as rosy.

It feels underpowered, the screen quality isn't the best and the fact the software is so old makes it feel a little unloved. If EE can get the Jay running Marshmallow things should improve, but for now it's looking like a basic budget buy, but we'll see how it fares in our full review.