Ematic sells dozens of cheap Android tablets. Now the company is getting ready to branch out into cheap Windows tablets.

An unannounced tablet called the Ematic EWT716 showed up at the FCC this week. It features a 7 inch display, an Intel Atom processor, and Windows 8.1 software.

ematic 7_02

Ematic won’t be the first company to launch a 7 inch Windows tablet. Toshiba and HP already offer their own models, priced at $99 to $119.

But based on the spec sheet, the Ematic EWT716 will likely be at least as inexpensive as those models.

According to the user manual, Ematic’s tablet has a 7 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel IPS display, a 1.3 GHz Intel Atom quad-core processor, 1GB of RAM, and 16GB of storage. It supports 802.11b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth, has front and rear cameras and features a micro USB port and microSD card slot for up to 32GB of removable storage.

The tablet has a 2800mAh battery.

Windows Store apps won’t actually run on a tablet with a 1024 x 600 pixel display, and full-fledged desktop apps don’t run well on a tablet with just 1GB of RAM and 16GB of storage. So don’t be surprised if the Ematic tablet has a virtual display resolution that’s actually higher than the screen’s native resolution.

That’s a trick Toshiba uses for its Encore Mini tablet… Windows thinks the tablet has a 1280 x 768 pixel display even though the screen has a native resolution of 1024 x 600. But graphics look a bit fuzzier than they should on the tablet.

At least Ematic’s tablet will have an IPS display, which means it should have better viewing angles than Toshiba’s tablet.

Both of these tablets could also look a little better next year than they do at launch this year: Microsoft is building support for 1024 x 600 pixel displays into Windows 10. That means you’ll be able to run Windows Store app without tricking Windows into thinking that your device has a higher display resolution.

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16 replies on “Ematic to launch a 7 inch Windows tablet”

  1. Something tells me that there are going to be a lot of these things floating around on eBay come march or so…

  2. I think this is an Ematic-badged version of the Emdoor Miso EM-i8170 tablet, which I believe to be the case because there is the separate round 5V charging port on the side, same as the Emdoor Miso. The nice thing about the separate charging port is that you can keep this tablet on wall power while using a USB peripheral (in my case a USB DAC), something which isn’t always possible on tablets which charge via the USB port.

    Chinese O.E.M. Emdoor has been written about several times here on Liliputing if the name is unfamiliar. I could be wrong about this being the Emdoor Miso, what do you think?

    I’ve been considering the HP Stream 7, which also looks like a winner, but I like the power port/USB flexibility of the Ematic/Emdoor tablet for fixed installation use.

    1. Your best bet is the WinBook TW801 for $139, or the VOYO A1 MINI, for $135 to $155. The HP 7 and 8, look really well, but they only have 1Gb of RAM, which makes them almost as bad as a 15 yo PC.

      1. The VOYO A1 MINI is a re-badged Emdoor EM-i8080, I’m pretty sure.

        Yeah, about the 1Gb RAM, I have a very simple application for my use case — run Winamp on a wall-powered tablet. I’m betting that the Emdoor Miso Windows tablet can do this.

    1. if you buy an x86 tablet there really shouldn’t be any reason you couldn’t install Ubuntu (assuming it is a signed OS)

  3. I am waiting for the next generation of these since I am betting companies rushed these out since at $100 people would look at them as impulse buys and stocking stuffers. Maybe by the next generation they might be somewhat capable and Console OS might be better developed I would love to dual-boot android and windows for the best of both worlds since for some things you need a full windows pc though the gap is narrowing ever so slightly.

  4. Does anyone know where I can buy the 4 GB RAM version of the ThinkPad 8 in the US?

    1. It’s only available in Germany, for now, but even if it were available in the US, the 4G LTE version costs €760, which comes to about $950. Functionality wise, I’m inclined to say, you are not likely to get a 670% increase, from what a TW801 or a A1 mini can offer you, for $140. And remember, the Cherry Trail Atoms are coming out in a few months, so buying a premium Z3795 now, is very unwise.

      1. Often times the intial ones are bad and released after months since the chip was released then the good devices will be months after that. For some, it won’t be worth the usual waiting game.

        1. The waiting game is fun. Better stuff are always a few months away so you never spend any money any anything!

          1. Generally speaking, yes, the waiting game is a stupid strategy, but that does not apply for the, twice a decade, lithographic process step forwarding. So buying a 2011 22nm chip, months before the release of 14nm chips, is potentially ridiculous. Obviously it wouldn’t matter for scat, if you throw your money on one of those $99-$140 tablets, but to spend $960 on a premium device now, only to see it outperformed by much much cheaper devices, only months after you bought it, that just seems… impulsive.

  5. Windows tablets appear to be following the same life cycle as Android tablets. It’s a race to the bottom to see how cheap they can get, and then the consumer will decide on the minimum specs they need to be able to do what they want to do, and they’ll purchase accordingly. I love my Dell Venue 8 Pro, and I have no problem dropping into the desktop to use Office for some light document editing. I run other legacy apps as well, and in a pinch it works great. For short business trips that don’t involve heavy lifting, I can leave my laptop home. However, I wouldn’t want to use a device with a smaller screen, less RAM, and lower resolution. But that’s just me.

    1. I feel there are too many of these cheap tablets coming out. After the first wave of small Atom tablets like the Dell Venue Pro 8 and Lenovo ThinkPad 8 I was hoping they would keep improving on their designs not go backwards and make them cheaper with less RAM.

      I would be fine paying a higher price for a well made 8″ Windows tablet with better specs.

      Not that I think they should not make these cheap tablets, just that I wish they would also make some premium small tablets.

    2. IMO the first tablet that really rivaled iPad was the Amazon Kindle. Kindle was smaller and cheaper and had a functional easy fork of Android. So with the exception of Microsoft and Samsung, many other OEMs followed in suit. Right now, its really the best way to combat iPad which is so expensive you can get a full laptop for less.

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