The masses are waiting with baited breath for word on the $99 Google Nexus 7, which in all honesty is something of a coin-flip as to whether or not it ever happens. Maybe in the form of a heavily reduced Nexus 7 when the 2013 models sees its launch later this year, but as far as a purpose-built $99 Nexus Tablet goes, the wait could be a pretty long one to say the least.
Despair not however, as for those willing to up the ante by a modest $50 there’s a newcomer to the party that might just hit the spot. This week brings the official release date for the Asus MeMoPad 7, which no matter which way you look at it is a bit of a tempting slate with a $149 price tag.
We’d already seen a preview of the MeMoPad 7 by way of a promo video launched by Asus earlier this year, and while its specs and features don’t exactly add up to a planet-moving powerhouse, it looks like a pretty solid entry-level tablet for those just wanting to dip their toes, back up their primary tabs or give the kids something to play with.
So, what kind of bang to you get for so little buck?
Well, the Asus MeMoPad 7 comes with a capable enough single-core 1GHz processor, backed by 1GB of RAM and with 16GB or internal closet space. Android 4.1 Jelly Bean takes care of things at the helm, while the 1,020 by 600 display of 7-inches is brilliant for casual web-surfing and reading, but not exactly eye-popping for movies. There’s also a 1-megapixel camera up-front for video calling, which is about as good as you’re going to get for the price.
Is it a winner therefore?
Quite frankly it’s hard to see how, as for an extra $50 – not exactly a big outlay in the mobile tech world – you can up the package to the quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 Google Nexus 7 that’s already scooped up pretty much every award in the book.
Maybe if they’d managed to put out the Asus MeMoPad 7 for $99 it’d be a different story – food for thought!
