FNF iFive X2 Review - Performance Part 2

Gaming is where I really wanted to put the X2 in particular through its paces. I was quite pleased and surprised by the results! I will note that because I haven't created TNT firmware for this unit yet that some gameloft games in particular were not available for testing (NOVA 3 and Modern Combat 4 for example). For the sake of this review though I found some other graphically stressful items to test and I will share what I came back with now.

First, I tested using Epic's phenomenally cool "Citadel" benchmark which utilizes Epic's mobile "Unreal" graphics engine to put your tablet through it's gaming paces. It renders a rather detailed fly-through of a castle/town/landscape and makes use of a lot of the more advanced 3D eye candy and glitz available in today's high-end games. I ran the benchmark on "High Quality" and on "High Performance" and expected the former (more GPU intensive) mode to bring the device to its knees. Not so though! The High Quality benchmark resulted in a score of 40.9 average Frames-per-second which equates to smooth (if not incredible) performance under pretty high stress. The "High Performance" mode produced 42 FPS average which wasn't the kind of increase I had hoped to see but was still quite good. Overall, this test was a big success as it shows that high-end gaming is possible even at this high resolution.

The next several tests I ran consisted of actually playing some games (so no benchmark scores here) to actually test some real-world performance. The first game I tested was EA's phenomenally good looking Need for Speed Most Wanted which was released earlier this year (I believe?) and was hailed as one of Android's greatest graphical feats. I really expected this one to lag considerably. However, not only was the game playable but it was actually very smooth! So that was a big success!

Next I checked "Zen Pinball HD" which is a very pretty pinball game and real stress test. My results weren't as stellar here. The game runs perfectly smoothly in "Standard" mode but when you bump the graphics up to "enhanced" it noticeably slows down. There isn't any absolute "chop" but it does feel a bit more rough all around. Playable? Yes, definitely, but not nearly as enjoyable once you have played on "standard" mode and seen how smooth game can be.

Next I tried a 3D puzzle game with quite good graphics but it is a fairly "low intensitiy" app. The game is called the "The Room". Performance was very good in this with no noticeable lag or choppiness.

The next title up was Riptide GP. This is an older quasi sci-fi wave racing type of game. It was used a couple years back to show off the graphical prowess of the Tegra 2 so that shows you its age. Nonetheless it still looks quite good and I was quite happy to find that it also ran flawlessly. Riptide GP would in my opinion represent your mid-level graphics tier at this point-in-time and is representative of a lot of games currently available from the play store.

Finally I gave Shadowgun a shot and it ran beautifully. Shadowgun is one of those odd games that actually runs on all platforms and looks pretty amazing so I am not sure if this indicates great success or not. All of that being said, it looked great and ran flawlessly.

I did notice that Modern Combat 4 was available for download so I will probably drop a few dollars and test that out as well. Even with only the above titles tested though I think it is safe to determine that the X2 isn't just a competent "everyday" tablet but that it can also satisfy those of us with gaming needs that go beyond Bejeweled. I will also note that at 1920x1200 games looked absolutely gorgeous. The higher-res screen makes everything look excellent and all of the details really pop. If you are coming from a 10.1" 1280x800 device or especially from a 7" 1024x600 you will really notice a difference in image quality due to the higher resolution panel. So for gaming it isn't like you are losing performance and gaining nothing in return, rather you are getting a much richer visual gaming experience.

The final bit I will note here (as this section is labeled "performance" generally...) is that Wifi performance was all around pretty solid. No one is going to be blown away by the WiFi on the X2 but neither are most people going to be frustrated with it. I had reliably solid Wifi inside and around the outside of my flat. This is slightly better than average for a China tab.