Hands-On Test With the Dirt-Cheap CherryPad Tablet

MojoKid writes "A small company out of Palo Alto, CA — Cherrypal — made headlines recently with the announcement of their dirt-cheap $188 CherryPad tablet. The CherryPad is a 7-inch slate that comes preloaded with the Android 2.1 operating system and is driven by an 800MHz ARM11-based processor by Samsung, backed by a meager 256MB of DDR2 system memory. The device is also based on a resistive touch display, so it takes a bit of getting used to, if you've been working with devices like the iPhone or similar, where capacitive touch displays are ubiquitous. Just what does $188 buy you in an Android tablet? In short, the CherryPad falls down a bit where Cherrypal decided to cut corners from a cost perspective. The device needs another 256MB of RAM (for 512MB total) and a higher quality touch screen (perhaps a 1GHz CPU?) and that would have likely pushed its price northward a bit to be sure."

Comments

The most important question has not been asked

[sakura the mc]

Does it run FreeBSD?

Holy design, Batman.

[Samantha Wright]

Does anyone know how design patent suits work? Because this thing looks incredibly like an iPad. Check out the photos underneath the video—that black thing is similar a patch seen on the back of iPod touches where the camera would be. The back is curved in the same way, the bezel is similar... and I think the corner radius is about the same, too.

Re:slate ? I prefer to buy a tablet.

[SlothDead]

They were always called "pad" on Star Trek. Or does that count as future use of the word?

Got the Mono?

[WCVanHorne]

I don't know if I trust a company that prints the spec: "Speakers 1 high quality stereo speaker:"

Re:Cherrypal scam?

[Anonymous Coward]

Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-Cherry Pal!

Re:I like the form factor

[Pseudonym Authority]

I am a six year old little girl myself, so I speak with authority on the subject when I say that it is overrated.

Re:slate ? I prefer to buy a tablet.

[TheRaven64]

I'm not homophonic! Some of my best friends sound the same...