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HP Delivers a Big-Name, 7-inch Android Tablet For $100: Comes With Compromises

Posted by timothy on from the good-thing-about-races-to-the-bottom. dept.

Ars Technica reports that HP is back in the $100 tablet market, and this time with a tablet that's intended to be priced there instead of just a fire sale. The new offering lacks Bluetooth and GPS, among other features you might wish for in a tablet, and the screen is surrounded by a hefty bezel, but manages a pretty good list of features. Ars summarizes: "For $100, you can't expect much of the spec sheet. The HP 7 Plus has a 7-inch 1024x600 IPS display, a 1GHz quad-core Cortex A7 processor (made by a company called "Allwinner"), 1GB of RAM, 8GB of storage, 802.11 b/g/n, a microSD slot, and a 2800 mAh battery. The biggest downside HP could have fixed at this price point is the software: it's only running Android 4.2.2. Android versions are free, HP." Having an avaialble microSD slot beats some more expensive options, too.

4 of 182 comments (clear)

  1. No bluetooth? by Slick_W1lly · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm wondering how much it costs to add bluetooth to a device. I mean... them bluetooth headsets have it in, hell even the dinky little $12 'bluetooth speakers' you can park next to your iThing have it in...

    What in the world possessed them to release a device that doesn't have bleutooth?

    1. Re:No bluetooth? by gl4ss · · Score: 5, Informative

      it's not clear if it has bluetooth or not, or gps. the article says that the article writer doesn't know if it has those or not.

      (they wouldn't add significantly to the cost and if it lacks gps that's a bummer)

      however whoever submitted the article doesn't seem to be up to speed about the fact that Allwinner provides the design for a shitload of soc's for all the cheapo devices(they are the biggest provider, but they don't fab them themselves. but since they're the biggest somehow referring to them as a company called "Allwinner" as if it were an unknown is not right).

      Asia is full of sub 100$ tablets. can pick one up for under fifty too(iirc I saw a quad core for 200 baht) - and almost all of them Allwinners.

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
  2. Never heard of Allwinner!?! by cb88 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Allwinner is the king of tablets ... http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1287293

    The Cubieboard is also a popular RPi alternative with faster CPU (and sweet sweet SATA :D ) and such for similar price.

    In my opinion Allwinner is more credible than HP these days since they actually seem to believe in their own market... whereas HP is practically at the point of execs jumping out of windows (Or the modern equivalent of selling the company out for peanuts).

  3. Re:Stop crippling the technology; boycott needed by ColdWetDog · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Really? Aren't you barking up the wrong tree? This isn't a hobbyist machine - its' a bottom barrel consumer device. The customer that HP (and Allwinner) is going for doesn't know a driver from quantum superposition. It's cheaper to just throw stuff together that works at time of shipping and not worry about what happens next week.

    Think one step up from disposable.

    Yes, in your Richard Stahlman utopia, we would be able to upgrade these pieces of crap until Unix integer overflow but that's not a realistic commercial solution. Not that these things are, but you're acting as crazy as an HP exec and that is NOT a complement.

    --
    Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!