ZTE launched a 7-inch tablet and WF720 Wireless Home Phone product in Canada through an exclusive partnership with Rogers this summer, and as the Chinese manufacturer continues to push into the country, its tablet aims to compete against what is becoming a crowded tablet market.

If you don’t know who ZTE is, your ignorance is understandable. The company hasn’t played in the same league as the Apples and Samsungs of the tech industry, and for now, that’s not the game they’re interested in.

Even so, ZTE ranked fourth in worldwide smartphone shipments from April-June 2013, and has a 6% share in the U.S., according to IDC’s research. The company’s mobile device lineup has mostly focused on feature phones and low-cost smartphones the same way rival Huawei has done. Public Mobile’s lineup of phones is heavy on ZTE-made devices, for example.

But ZTE’s real contribution has been on the infrastructure side as a manufacturer and supplier for the Big 3 carriers as they built out their networks nationwide. Now, the Chinese manufacturer wants to branch out and offer more mobile devices at prices the average consumer can afford.

This is where the V72A Lite comes in. The $200 Android tablet has moderate specs for a 7-inch tablet. Powered by a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM and 4GB of internal storage (expandable up to a further 32GB via the microSD card slot), the V72A Lite isn’t terribly remarkable next to the competition. Its one trump card over the others, however, is that it offers 3G connectivity (no LTE) via the included SIM card slot (regular size, not microSIM), thus enabling Internet access when Wi-Fi isn’t available.

The screen resolution of 1024 x 600 is decent, though not HD, and the TFT LCD display is passable, but not at the same level as what some other tablets in the same price range offer. Looking at it head on is fine, but viewing angles leave much to be desired. The only inadvertent upside to that is the level of privacy you gain from the peering eyes of those sitting next to you.

It’s generally thicker and heavier than competing units. The camera is basic as well, topping up at 2-megapixels for the rear camera and just 0.3-megapixels for the front-facing camera. You can capture video in 720p. It has Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean out of the box, and it’s unclear when, or if, it will be upgradeable to 4.2 or 4.3.

The quick look at the spec sheet belies a few important points about the tablet’s usage. For one, it’s a capable machine, even if it’s not quite as fluid or streamlined as, say, a Nexus 7. Watching streaming video on Netflix or another video app is relatively painless, as is streaming music from apps like Songza, TuneIn and Rdio. The built-in speakers are good, with enough range to easily enjoy whatever content you’re playing.

Playing games is also easy enough, as the processor is able to handle those that are a little more demanding on the hardware. Your experience will likely vary, but that’s always a caveat to any tablet in this price range, depending on the power under the hood.

The V72A Lite is a serviceable tablet, and the emphasis should be on the “service” part. It isn’t a design marvel and certainly won’t blow the lid off any of the competition, nor will it stand out as overly impressive in any particular way. But that’s the whole point of it. It’s not meant to be flashy, but rather conventional in a useful way. It’s meant for the type of consumer that has a tighter budget and wants something basic. And for Rogers subscribers, it offers an easy way to share a data plan between a smartphone and tablet.

It should be noted that the tablet is locked to Rogers, so you can’t just put in another SIM card unless you get it unlocked. And at $200, you don’t have to sign a contract to get it.