Teclast: a world worth discovering

You'll have heard plenty about Teclast, a Chinese company that is making a name for itself well beyond its home market. Teclast started out like all the "Chinese" brands, but it has evolved to compete with the better-known names, combining quality, power and value in its brand. It operates in a world that is more complicated but less competitive than that of smartphones: its main products are tablets, notebooks, 2-in-1s and desktops.

I'm writing about Teclast because I've often used this company's products, so I'm not relying on hearsay, as unfortunately many people do, but on facts and, above all, as in all my articles and videos, on personal use. First of all, I've had the chance to try a few of their tablets. I personally used the Teclast X98 Air 3G for quite a while and always got on very well with it. It's a tablet with a dual system partition: on one side there's Android in its Lollipop 5.1 version, and on the other Windows 10.

(N.B.: Here's a valuable piece of advice right away. On this kind of machine (two operating systems on the same tablet), never make the mistake of buying the low-storage version to save money, because it will soon become unusable. I made exactly that mistake with the 32 GB version, and on Windows I didn't even have room to install Office. That said, 64 GB is the bare minimum!)

This Teclast tablet, which I used mainly on the move for writing and taking notes at university, has always given me great satisfaction: a battery that lasted me comfortably all day, a high-resolution screen and excellent overall quality. The flaws (if you can call them that) were the dreadful speaker and the truly pitiful camera. This now ageing tablet is out of production and hard to find. Still, thanks to friends looking for great products without spending a fortune, I've managed to try other products from this maker too.

• The product most similar to my Teclast X98 Air 3G is the Teclast X98 Pro, a tablet with similar specs and looks, perhaps slightly more powerful. And the price is truly competitive: around 230€.

• Another product that really drove me wild was the Teclast X2 Pro, a tablet that is very capable technically and can easily compete with the Surface Pro 4. Unfortunately, since it's of no use for my work (I already own an iPad Pro and a MacBook 12), I never managed to bring myself to spend that money to keep it, but thanks to friends I was able to try it hands-on and came away positively impressed. You can also find the original keyboard and its accessories to turn it into a proper 2-in-1 in every respect. As on almost all Teclast devices, alongside Windows 10 you'll find Android Lollipop inside. Highly recommended!

• A product with slightly less swaggering specs but an excellent balance of power, price and quality is without doubt the Teclast X16. I gave this tablet to my brother and I have to say that for work on the move (editing Excel files, writing Word documents or putting together PowerPoint presentations) it's very good. So I feel I can recommend it to anyone looking for a good compromise between portability, quality and price. Here too we find Windows 10 and Android Lollipop on board. We choose when we switch it on, but we can move from one OS to the other at any time.

Moving away from tablets and 2-in-1s, Teclast ventures into a somewhat more delicate and expensive area: all-in-one desktops.

Here it's harder for me to recommend a purchase, as the price goes up, and the chance of having a small problem that needs warranty service makes me wonder why I'd buy a Teclast rather than an HP from Amazon, where we get quick, effective warranty cover and aren't asked to ship the product to China. That's the main problem. If we have an issue, we'll have to ship the Teclast to China at our own expense and, given how bulky the parcel is, it will cost a lot.

With that caveat, I recommend this desktop PC to anyone who wants to try something extremely attractive and, given the specs, still inexpensive. It's the Teclast X32 Pro All-in-One PC, a desktop PC with excellent hardware and a top-class design. I got to try this product in a shop in China, and what struck me was precisely the work that has gone into the design. Because in the end, without being able to test it thoroughly, it's the first thing that catches your eye, and it's one of the main reasons (after power) that makes me decide whether or not to buy a computer!

So I think I've listed a few products that will certainly make your mouth water for their value for money. I can only stress once more the quality and commitment Teclast puts into its products, and wish you a happy purchase should you decide to go for any of the products I've listed.

Let us know about your experiences with this brand if you've had direct contact with it or are still using one of its products. I'm waiting to hear from you!