Consumer audio electronics accessory provider Monster revealed on Wednesday its very first (and very colorful) line of tablets, the 7 inch M7 and the 10.1 inch M10. The smaller model is the first to be released, a "premium" device priced at $149 and now sold exclusively at Walmart.com. The larger tablet will be made available later this fall.
The new 7 inch model sports an IPS capacitive touch screen with a 1280 x 800 resolution, backed by a dual-core SoC clocked at 1.5 GHz and 1 GB of DDR3 memory. The device also has 16 GB of internal storage, a microSD card slot for additional storage, a 5MP camera on the back and a 2MP camera on the front. There's also Wireless N and Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity, GPS, stereo speakers and a battery promising up to 8 hours of use.
The new Monster tablet also features a unique non-skid surface that is styled in eight custom 'candy' colors to match the Monster N-Tune headphone line: Candy Blueberry, Candy Tangerine Orange, Candy Grape Purple, Candy Apple Red, Candy Lime Green, Cotton Candy Pink, Frost White and Midnight Black. The device can even control Monster Central PowerControl smart plugs via an Android app.
"The Monster Central PowerControl app helps households save money every day, cutting energy waste by setting up automatic timers to turn off electronics, computers or game consoles when not in use," the company said. "The app also monitors the electricity and dollars used by any device plugged into the Monster Central PowerControl smart plugs."
The new 7 inch tablet is based on Android 4.1 "Jelly Bean" and provides full access to Google Play, meaning this won't be a (highly) forked platform depending on an exclusive Monster App Store. Pre-installed apps include Gmail, Google Maps, Google Voice, Google Books, YouTube, Google Drive, Google, Google Earth, Google Finance, Twitter and Facebook. Walmart's video service, Vudu, will also be pre-installed.
Still, the Home screen seems a little rearranged compared to the Nexus 7, so don't expect a pure Google experience. The product image shows the Android buttons shoved over to the bottom left, and the clock/battery/Wi-Fi icons over to the bottom right. Google's Search bar resides at the top-left of the screen, and Monster's logo appears at the bottom center on the front, and in silver angled text in the bottom right corner on the back. The tablet weighs 1.54 pounds and measures 7.46 x 4.77 x 0.46 inches.
"Packed with features, in an array of color options to match our headphone colors, and offered at an affordable price, we believe the new line of Monster tablets is going to surprise a lot of people," said 'Head Monster' Noel Lee.
Monster's new 7 inch tablet can be purchased from Walmart.com here, and will be shipped to a Walmart location near you starting September 25. Monster didn't provide specs, pricing and actual availability for the 10.1 inch model, so stay tuned.
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