The Eken M001 is a 7 inch touchscreen tablet running Google Android 1.6. An Android tablet that doesn’t ship with access to the 50,000 apps in the Android Market might not seem all that exciting. But it’s hard to argue with the price tag — It runs about $100 in China, and distributors can pick it up for as little as $80 per unit if they order 100 or more tablets.

Eken is a Chinese device maker, and it’s unlikely that you’ll see this tablet sold under the Eken name outside of China. But Haleron has already started marketing the tablet as the Haleron iLet Mini HAL, and plans to sell it internationally for between $179 and $229.

I’ve expressed some doubts about Haleron in the past, since I have yet to hear of anyone successfully ordering a product from the company and nobody has responded to my requests for information. But a source in Taiwan tells me it’s not unusual for companies like Haleron to act as middlemen and market and sell devices manufactured in China without first placing orders with the OEM — only placing the orders when it becomes clear that there’s demand. So it’s possible that Haleron will make good on its offer to deliver this tablet, it just hasn’t stocked up on units yet.

Anyway, the folks at Shanzai.com got a sample unit of the Eken M001 and has posted a video review, which you can check out after the break. The tablet has a 7 inch, 800 x 480 pixel display, a 600MHz ARM-based CPU, 2GB of storage, and an SDHC card slot for expasion. The tablet has 802.11b/g WiFi, and a navigation dial next to the power button.

There’s an accelerometer which allows the screen to auto-rotate between landscape and portrait mode. the touchscreen appears to be capacitive, as the reviewer keeps poking at the screen with a fingertip rather than a stylus or fingernail.

While you don’t have access to the Android Market with the Eken M001, it does ship with a web browser, a handful of games, and an app for watching videos from Chinese online video site tudou.

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13 replies on “Eken’s $100 7 inch Android tablet”

  1. Im trying to use this like an EBook . I need to download my text books from school and having a hard time figuring out what type of app to use, tablet or ereader?Does anyone have any ideas how I might be able to do this.

  2. I paid like $115 for mine off fleabay. I’ve had it for a few weeks and I like it. Obviously it is a very limited device but not nearly as limited as older CE pocket PCs were. The interface is friendly, relatively stable, and you can still download quite a few apps. My current pet peeve is not having a a good, simple calculator, and the seeming lack of ability to hook up a decent keyboard to it. I think if it had a keyboard hookup it would replace my netbook entirely. The tab formfactor is convenient on the run though as it tucks into a jacket pocket surprisingly discretely.

    You do need some patience as it is not “fast” but I wouldn’t exactly call it god awful slow either. With so many companies auto detecting mobile browsers you can take care of pretty much every basic computing need with one of these except typing large documents. I would say that it nips at the heels of higher end tablets but is not there yet. Bigger battery and stronger CPU and this thing would be a serious alternative to the current netbooks on the market, not to mention the iPad.

  3. So ……the tablet can’t access market directly. Hmmmmm…..
    Is it possible to download android apps for a smartphone and transfer them to the tablet? Would the apps still be functional?

  4. >> you don’t have access to the Android Market with the Eken M001

    what’s the reason for this?

    1. Because Google only allows access to the Android market for smartphones.
      There’s not a single tablet on the market that can access the market. The
      first will be the Dell Streak 5, but arguably that *is* a phone, since
      you’ll be able to make calls on it.

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