While Apple, Google, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble are engaging in a specifications arms race in the 7 to 8 inch tablet space, at least one major PC maker is taking a different approach. Lenovo’s new IdeaTab A2107 is designed to be cheap rather than powerful.
It features a 1 GHz ARM Cortex-A9 processor and a 7 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel display that supports 4-point multitouch. The IdeaTab A2107 isn’t exactly bleeding edge.
But if early retail listings are anything to go by, the tablet will be cheap.
Update: The IdeaTab A2107 is now available in the US for about $150.
Canadian retailer NCIX is charging $149.99 for the tablet while lesser-known US stores are charging $167 and up.
Nobody actually has the tablet in stock yet, so those prices are subject to change.
Chinese site Shanzhaiben has posted pictures of the IdeaTab A2107 in action, as well as the retail packaging.
The tablet is powered by a 1 GHz MTK 6575 ARM Cortex-A9 CPU, features 512MB of RAM, and from 4GB to 16GB of storage. The $150 model seems to have 8GB.
While the MTK 6575 chip powers a number of smartphones and tablets coming from small Chinese manufactures, the A2107 will be one of the first devices featuring this low cost chip to be sold by one of the top 10 PC makers.
The tablet may not have the high resolution display or multi-core processor found on some of its peers, but it does have a few things that you won’t get with a Google Nexus 7, Amazon Kindle Fire HD, or B&N NOOK HD including GPS and FM Radio capabilities. The tablet also has front and rear cameras, WiFi, and Bluetooth.
It’s also one of the few tablets to feature dual SIM card slots… although this will only be useful if you get a 3G capable model.
Lenovo says the IdeaTab A2107 will get up to 8 hours of battery life.
There’s still no word on when you’ll be able to buy the tablet in the US or Canada.
To they person =)
If you get a 3G version, yes, you would have to pay for a data account to use 3G. But, the tablet being sold in the U.S. as the A2107 does not have 3G (at least none of the ones I have seen in stores)
this tablet is great but whit the 3g, have we got to pay? please answer meee
Why is this here? You might as well just get an RK3066 based tablet for $30 less by the time you get one of these….
Basically it’s an Ideapad A1 with a radio and a different (yet still monocore) cpu.
Even the form factor is exactly the same.