HP is offering its cheapest Android tablet yet. The HP Mesquite tablet is a 7 inch tablet with an Intel Atom processor and an $89 price tag.
There’s a catch: The tablet will be available exclusively from Walmart, and exclusively on Black Friday: November 29th, 2013.
At least that’s the plan for now — if the tablet sells well, I suspect we might see it again. And if it doesn’t sell, expect HP and Walmart to unload it as a bargain device soon.
But the tablet demonstrates a few things. First, tablets with Intel chips don’t have to cost more than models with ARM-based processors, (although there’s already been a fair amount of evidence of that). Second, it shows that cheap tablets in 2013 are a lot better than cheap tablets from a few years ago.
This model features a 1.6 GHz Intel Atom Z2640 processor, a 1024 x 600 pixel display, 1GB of RAM, and 8GB of storage. It supports 802.11n WiFi and Bluetooth 2.1, has a front-facing VGA camera and microphone, a micro USB port and speaker, and Android 4.1 Jelly Bean software.
The tablet measures 0.4″ thick and weighs 13 ounces. It should get around 5 hours of battery life, which isn’t great — but did I mention that this tablet will sell for $89?
You can find other Black Friday deals in our Black Friday 2013 Mobile Tech bargains roundup.
via Intel and MobileGeeks
This tablet is pretty remarkable for the price. Great performance, sound, battery life, and build quality. The screen was just alright as a 1024×600 and the colors are a little washed out. Check out a video review here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlV7kCBmcgM
i wonder if this is a good purchase for someone interested in playing with ubuntu touch?
I agree but I am waiting for proper Atom SoCs that do not integrate an Imagination Technologies GPU like this Atom Z2640 with a SGX540 GPU. You know Imagination is not very friend of open drivers.
The price is really good but the GPU is a problem here. As soon as an Atom SoC with Intel GPU is integrated in a decently priced tablet a lot of people are going to try Linux on it.
I’m wondering
– whether some will try to load Windows on this like they did with the
first netbooks, which ran Linux, but had people in third world countries
installing Windows on it (Too bad it’s not Bay Trail, but at this price…)
– how many of the apps on the Google Play store will run on this. The
vendors could experience a high return rate if Play store apps don’t run
seamlessly on this. A high return rate is probably a good indicator
of any compatibility problems. I’m pretty sure Intel (and maybe AMD
and VIA) is watching this experiment very closely. A successful launch could
presage similar products from x86′ hardware makers.
– if the return rate is high, how long it will take for this device to hit
the deal-a-day sites. $49 Windows tablet anyone?
Make sure you factor in the cost of the Windows license
Yeah at that price point compromises abound, but it should still be a fully usable tablet regardless.
I’m interested to see how Atom-based stuff does in this segment!