The Skytex SkyPad Alpha 2 is an inexpensive Android tablet with a 7 inch capacitive touchscreen display and a 1.2 GHz ARM Cortex-A8 processor. The tablet ships with Android 2.3 Gingerbread, but Skytex has released a beta version of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich for the Alpha 2 tablet.
Update: The beta is over and the full version of Android 4.0.3 is now available for the Skytex SkyPad Alpha 2.
Once you get over the confusion of running beta software on a tablet called the Alpha 2, the software update makes the SkyPad one of th most affordable Android 4.0 tablets around.
Amazon sells the SkyPad Alpha 2 for just $140.
The Skypad Alpha 2 has a 7 inch, 800 x 480 pixel display with 5-point multitouch, which isn’t exactly state of the art technology. But at that price, it’s hard to complain.
The tablet also has an HDMI 1.4 port and supports 1080p HD video playback and stereoscopic 3D video playback on an external display. It has 802.11b/g/n WiFi and a 3000mAh battery for up to 6 hours of run time.
Skytex plans to release an official Android 4.0 software update in a few weeks. The beta software that’s available now may still have some bugs, and some apps including Adobe Flash Player, Netflix, and HBO Go will not work with the software.
The beta software does include access to the Android Market.