The Packard Bell Targa F14 Pro knows exactly what it is: an affordable entertainment tablet with a big screen, solid battery life, and enough performance for streaming, reading, and casual gaming. Its uninspiring design, weak cameras, and limited productivity chops keep it firmly in budget territory, but at R5,000 it's an easy recommendation for anyone who wants a large-screen media companion without spending a fortune.
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Design
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Display
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Performance
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Battery
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Value
Tablet remorse is real, folks. Without the portability of a smartphone and the sheer power of a laptop, tablets often become trapped in this weird limbo, fighting for your attention in the one area they’re (mostly) competent in. If you’ve ever owned a tablet, you know what we mean: the odd round of Fallout Shelter and Netflix.
Lots and lots of Netflix. Devouring books is a great option, too, if you don’t mind missing out on a proper e-ink display. Comic books, then, which benefit from exactly the sort of screen that Packard Bell is punting here. Beyond that, however, a proper ‘budget’ tablet quickly exhausts its real-world usability. Want more power? That’s when things start to get pricy. It’s a good thing that Packard Bell’s Targa F14 Pro won’t bankrupt its owners, then.
Packard Bell does what it does best here: shoving a bunch of the cheaper components it can find into a glass body and hoping for the best. It’s a strategy that’s worked well before, owing to its reliance on reasonable prices, bringing it to the forefront of the budget conversation. Though… it isn’t without fault.
Mind the fingerprints
The Targa F14 Pro kinda has to throw a bigger screen into the mix to make up for its budget interior. It’s not the most fantastic display we’ve ever seen, but the 14.1in FHD IPS display stands up to the heat rather nicely. The ‘heat’ being a hodgepodge of Netflix, DStv, and whatever game took our fancy that night. Oh, and comic books.
Browsing through Netflix, while serviceable, is also especially noticeable on the 1,200 x 1,920 display, especially if you’re footing the bill for the streamer’s 4K package. But with an arsenal of comics to dig through, and decently accurate colour reproduction (plus enough brightness to keep up with daylight), we got our value and then some.
Surprisingly, Packard Bell’s choice of processor wasn’t the hindrance we expected. It kept up with our page turns without freezing. It’s a good thing the tablet is comfortable enough to hold for a good while, all thanks to the included folio cover. Looks… are another matter altogether. The too-grey exterior certainly says something about Packard Bell’s design philosophy. The main thing being: it’s cheap.
The F14 Pro touts a 13MP shooter on its rear. It isn’t centred like you might see elsewhere, rather sticking to the portrait set-up you’d typically find on a smartphone. Flip it over, though, and you’ll find a, uh, less reputable 5MP camera placed horizontally, embedded in the screen’s bezel. Beyond that, it looks just like every other grey budget tablet on the shelves.
The return of Helio
This isn’t our first run-in with MediaTek’s Helio G99 chipset, and we doubt it’ll be our last. We’ve dissed the chip’s processing prowess in the past, though usually when it’s hooked up to a more expensive and demanding device. It’s still not quite what we’d expect from a R5,000 hunk of glass, but for what the F14 Pro sets out to do…
It managed the tasks we handed it without complaint. We loaded up streaming apps, comic readers, and games — which is about all the Targa F14 Pro is rated for. It took it all on the chin, showing signs of struggle when hopping from app to app with careless abandon. Slow it down, and the 8GB of RAM will keep it in check. If you’re after a tablet with drawing and work capabilities, you won’t find it here.
One of the few (and we mean few) perks that the Helio G99 brings to the table is 4G powers, allowing buyers to turn their F14 Pro into a makeshift smartphone if they need to. Just… bring a backpack.
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The Targa F14 Pro is entirely competent regarding battery life. It’s as standard as it gets, packing a 10,000mAh battery that we had nothing overtly complimentary — nor derogatory — to say. It clocked in, gave us a good few days of battery life, and clocked out without ever saying a word. More impressive was the charging, which brought it up to acceptable levels in decent time.
We’re not saying nobody uses their tablet’s built-in cameras. What we’re saying is that nobody uses the F14 Pro’s camera. Not even your little one will find much value in the tablet’s 13MP sensor — beyond a few minutes of tinkering — which stretches the definition of ‘adequate’ to its breaking point. The sensor that could’ve used the love only has a measly 5MP to its name. It’ll stumble through a video call with the fam just fine, though.
Packard Bell Targa F14 Pro verdict
At R5,000, Packard Bell’s Targa F14 Pro does exactly what it should. It delivers a large screen, dependable battery life, and just enough oomph to keep you streaming and gaming without fuss. It won’t replace a laptop, and it certainly won’t convince you to ditch your smartphone. Not that it’s really trying to. The 14.1in display is easily the star of the show, offering plenty of real estate to keep you chugging along.
Its shortcomings are easier to spot. The cameras are forgettable, the design feels dull, and anyone hoping to get some serious work done can keep dreaming. And yet, Packard Bell isn’t chasing premium aspirations. The Targa F14 Pro succeeds by simply being a competent, affordable entertainment machine. If your idea of tablet ownership revolves around Netflix, ebooks, and the occasional game, this is a surprisingly easy recommendation.
