Windows tablets are about to get a whole lot cheaper.

There are already plenty of 8 inch Windows tablets that are priced competitively with Android tablets (and priced below iPad mini tablets). And Toshiba recently launched one of the first Windows 8.1 tablets to feature a $199 price tag, and you can often find other Windows tablets with higher suggested retail prices on sale for around that price.

But Intel and Microsoft think there’s room for prices to go even lower… and Chinese tablet maker Kingsing is one of the first to prove them right.

kingsing w8

The Kingsing W8 is a Windows 8.1 tablet with an Intel Atom Bay Trail processor, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, and a $99 price tag.

The tablet features a 1280 x 800 pixel IPS display with 5-point multitouch support, a 4500mAh battery, stereo speakers, a microSD card reader, 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, and 2MP cameras on the front and back.

KingSing isn’t exactly a big name in the West, so don’t expect to see this tablet on display at Best Buy or Walmart anytime soon. But I suspect it won’t take long before we start to see it selling for a little more than the list price at AliExpress or other international marketplaces.

via GizChina

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20 replies on “Kingsing W8 is a $99 Windows tablet”

  1. Oh man this takes me back to the advent of the affordable android tablets that were nearly worthless.
    YOUR TURN, WINDOWS!

    1. Not quite that bad… It’ll mainly not be good for desktop usages, so users will have to primarily stick to ModernUI/Metro apps…

      It does help that this will be a very optimized version of W8… Mind the last major update introduced WIMBoot… So the 16GB is only about as bad as the 32GB used to be in terms of free space and you still have the microSD card reader for extra capacity… and the 1GB isn’t as crippling as it may at first appear but does mean you can’t really multi-task and desktop programs would have to be used sparingly…

      So, basically, it’s the modern netbook equivalent… Very basic but can still be useful as long as you can work within its limitations… Unlike those “nearly worthless” android tablets that first served this kind of price range that could barely even run Android… This W8 tablet can fully run W8, it’s just mainly limited on resources rather than performance…

      The main point of it, though, is to provide a W8 equivalent to low cost Android devices to help increase market share and in turn help promote app development as the more users there are then the more developers will be interested in supporting the platform…

      Though, all this is just the early stages… The next Braswell update is when things will really get affordable and then we’ll start seeing a range of devices offered, with most still being very affordable…

      Besides moving to 14nm, Intel will also introduce better parts sourcing resources for system makers to help further lower their costs… So they don’t have to cut so close to margins to get out an affordable device and Intel won’t have to rely on subsidizing as much to be competitive…

      Mind, these devices will also be offered with Android… So it’s more a question of whether MS can still make a profit going forward with this new business model…

  2. It used to be $92 on babggood a week ago, but that 1Gb of RAM was a no no. Now the $123.50 pipo w2 with 2/32Gb seems to be the low end choice.
    Gotta love contra revenue, and Microsoft for giving it up for free :)) Nothing like loosing 57% of your marketshare in 7 years, to bring your feet back down to earth. These 8-inchers are about the same shape and size as a DVD case with a Windows licensee… only for about a third of the price… and a free PC !!! :))))

  3. I won’t buy ANY tablet running Windows 8 Metro Tiles! Why bother?

    1. Depending on what you’ll use it for, there are things it can do better than either iOS or Android… It’s still a full desktop OS, file manager, etc. are all going to better than mobile equivalents…

      Dock it, and you got a quick basic PC…

      Conversely, the ModernUI app selection is still very limited and both iOS and Android have better app ecosystem…

      So it may not be for you but there are people who would find it a viable option if they don’t care about apps and want something otherwise more powerful and flexible…

    2. Windows 8 has no apps. All the apps there is for lack of youtube, gmail etc are 3rd party. It sucks big time.

      1. I assume that a lot of user would not see any disadvantage here. You do not necessarily need a separate app for youtube/gmail/etc. on a windows PC. Seems to be more of a fetish. You can use a browser / any windows compatible mail client / etc.
        E.g. I am using a similar windows tablet right now, and, in general, I rarely use any of the Windows apps, nor do I miss them, desktop applications are more than enough.

        1. Gmail app sends notifications when you receive an email. Its not the same using gmail from browser.

          1. You don’t need notifications for a tablet or laptop… Most people just use their phones for that kind of feature and then turn on their tablet or laptop if they need to type a response or decide to do any serious browsing…

            Besides, there is an option for Gmail desktop notification if you really feel the need for it…

  4. There is already 2 gb 8″ windows tablet for 158$ – VOYO A1 Mini -> check it on aliexpress

  5. Intel can’t make a developer like the PI board for less than $99 but these guys can make an entire tablet?
    I think Intel has some thinking to do.
    I would gladly pay $50 more for more Ram and dual band WiGi the screen res is pretty bad as well but not sure you can get better for less than 200

      1. It’s not just at a loss, it’s FREE + some “engineering support” aka free money for anyone turning their backs on ARM-Android. Warren Buffet dropped Intel, as it was no longer a “value stock” all because of this subsidies scheme witch in his opinion is pissing away investors money.

        1. Yeah. It may pay off to some degree in the future given there’s gonna be fully Google and Intel backed support for x86 in Android going forward with L. It will definitely be interesting for Android for sure with better support there, and Intel making LTE radios. There’s a chance for some much wider variety of chipsets in flagships. Will be interesting also if Microsoft with their rumored free licenses to manufacturers of tablets less than 9 inches or computers/tablets less than whatever price point if they should even bother with Windows RT devices if AMD and Intel are going to just keep obliterating ARM chipsets in terms of cost.

    1. In addition to what Justin said, Intel is also providing reference designs and engineering resources to OEMs for free/cheap.

      1. It also helps MS is allowing devices $250 and less to have Windows for free… So android isn’t the only choice for these low cost devices…

  6. 1 Gig of RAM???? :-/
    Add a few bucks to the price and make it usable. You will still have what is perhaps the cheapest Windows tablet.

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