Word on the street has been that Asus is planning to introduce a new low cost tablet with a 7 inch display and Android Jelly Bean software. Expected to hit South Africa in early 2013 for about $226, the Asus ME172V is now up for pre-order in Russia for about the same price.

Asus ME172V

The tablet is expected to have an 800 MHz VIA WM8950 processor, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, and Android 4.1.

Update: The tablet actually has a 1 GHz processor. You can read our full review for more details.

It’s equipped with a 4270mAh battery and features 802.11b/g/n WiFi.

The Russian product listing also includes the first pictures of the tablet, which looks a bit like an Asus Nexus 7, with the same textured plastic back panel.

There’s no guarantee this tablet is real or that the specs are set in stone — I’ve seen plenty of retailers post product pages for rumored products, only to change their listings once a real device is launched (or not).

It also seems unlikely that Asus would launch a new tablet with a lower resolution display and slower processor than the Nexus 7 and then charge more money for it. If and when the Asus ME172V goes on sale in countries where the Nexus 7 is already available, I suspect Asus would charge less than $200 for the new tablet.

via Notebook Italia

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5 replies on “Asus ME172V 7 inch Android tablet breaks cover in Russia”

  1. 24 April 2013, This model just popped up in Jakarta Indonesia for Rp.1.475 million ($153 USD). The newspaper advertisement says Asus model ME172V-1A075A, Android 4.1, 1GB DDR3, and Via WM8950 at 1GHz, not 800MHz as stated in this article. I’m not sure which is correct. I think this thing is called the MeMo Pad in other markets? The $149 Asus 7″ MeMO Pad ME172V-A1-GR Tablet has a VIA WM8950 at 1.00GHz, 1GB DDR3, 16GB Flash, and Mali-400 graphics. Reviews say the bad thing about this device is the relatively low resolution 1024×600 twisted nematic (TN) screen which renders rather poorly and has narrow viewing angles. In comparison the Nexus 7 uses a far superior 1280×800 IPS display. (But the lack of an SD slot on the Nexus 7 is a deal-killer for me.)

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