If you're thinking of getting a jump on holiday shopping you might just want to pick up HP's new 7 Plus Tablet which is on sale for $99.99, making it likely the cheapest, or at least one of the cheapest, tablets to ever hit the market by a brand-name vendor.
As PC magazine relates, while the quad-core device "may not come with the bells and whistles" of Apple's renowned iPad or even Amazon's Fire device, it's got 25GB of lifetime cloud storage at Box and runs on Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean.
Not too shabby.
The silver-looking plastic case holds 1GB of RAM, an ARM Cortex-A7 processor and boasts a decent 1,024-by-600 display and a battery life of up to 5.5 hours. That battery life may actually beat the iPhone's.
"If you're looking for a little more power, HP also sells the $150 Slate 7 Plus, running a Nvidia Tegra 3 processor and 400 mAh battery with up to 7.5 hours of life," notes the magazine.
As another website explains, HP initially jumped into the Android tablet space with its Slate 7 which it states "didn't cut it" as it boasted last year's specs with a more recent and pricier cost.
"Still, everyone has to start somewhere and the Slate 7 Extreme from HP was a decent, if a little pricey, offering and now, they're back offering perhaps the cheapest tablet from a big name manufacturer the HP 7 Plus. We're not sure what makes this 'Plus', but for $99.99 direct from HP, there's certainly worse out there, states the site, which calls the rear-facing camera and front-facing camera and microSD card 'nice touches.'
"To see HP release such a tablet is certainly interesting and we're sure that they'll sell quite a few of them, if just out of curiosity, but for those looking for a first tablet this isn't a lot of money to spend. Sure, this isn't the best device out there by far, but for browsing the web and some light video watching, we're sure this will do a lot of people just fine," states the reviewer.
As the DroidGuy says consumers seeking a premium tablet will be disappointed but it's really a matter of you get what you pay for in this device.
"There's really nothing extraordinary about the specs of the HP 7 Plus," states the review. "On the positive side this model comes with a quad core 1GHz processor combined with 1GB of RAM which should be sufficient enough to provide a smooth experience when running multiple applications."
The site says it's made for consumers seeking an everyday device for checking email, updating social networks and just browsing the web.
"For a $100 price tag this is already a good buy considering that there are other worse tablets out in the market carrying a higher price tag. On the other hand, consumers looking for a gaming tablet should stay away from this device as it isn't designed to handle graphically intense games."
