Asus has announced a $149, Android-powered 7-inch tablet in the form of the previously rumored MeMO Pad.
Weighing 370 grams and offering seven hours of battery life through a 4270mAh battery, it runs on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and is powered by a single core Via WM8950 CPU, which is based on the ARM Cortex-A9 processor design. 1 GB of RAM is also included.
Its 7-inch screen sports a 1024 by 600 pixel resolution; comparatively, the Google Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire HD both offer a resolution of 1280 by 800 pixels. The MeMO Pad also includes the older Mali 400 graphics core from ARM, which is capable of handling 1080p HD graphics.
Among the other features include 16 GB of storage and a MicroSD slot for 16 GB of additional storage, a front-facing 1-megapixel camera, Wi-Fi and a micro-USB port.
The MeMo Pad is scheduled for a release during the latter stages of January "in select markets." Asus didn't provide an exact date nor which markets will receive the device, but the pricing indicates that the U.S. is included.
During CES 2013, Asus announced the Windows 8-powered VivoTab Smart tablet, the Transformer AiO tablet, which can run both Android and Windows 8, one of the world's first convertible ultrabooks in the form of the Transformer Book TX300CA, as well the PA249Q Pro Art monitor.
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Zak Islam is a freelance writer focusing on security, networking, and general computing. His work also appears at Digital Trends and Tom's Guide.
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xpeh sliemI'd pick Nexus7 over this, just add a little more money.Reply
Dunno man. 50 dollars less and a microUSB and MicroSD slot seems mighty attractive.
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xpeh darkchazzA poor man's tablet.Reply
Or for someone who's on a budget. Asus doesn't exactly produce low quality products, either.
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Potato13 kryzzayThe performance would definitely be interesting.Reply
I've actually given this a second thought since the main reason my phone was an annoyance was 512 MB of RAM. The performance will be decent because there's 1 GB. It's nice that they put a Mali-400, the gaming performance will be great but for $50 more you get a quad core processing, Tegra enhanced games, more ram, and guaranteed updates for the next few years. This would be more successful at the $100 price point.
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halcyon This tablet is too poorly spec'd for a device inReply
2013. It's way way way way outdated and it hasn't even been released yet. It's poorly spec'd now what's it gonna be like in a year...2 years. It is indeed a poor girl's tablet.
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killerclick A Nexus 7 is worth $50 more. I think Google and Amazon screwed the tablet OEMs with cheap 7" tablets, but I'm not bothered since the customers won.Reply -
ven1ger xpehDunno man. 50 dollars less and a microUSB and MicroSD slot seems mighty attractive.Reply
If for 50 dollars more they had a better processor at least something like what the Nexus 7 has, I'd be all over it for the added features. But for this processor, I'd have to see how it compares against the Nexus 7 in terms of performance.