Acer is introducing a new 7-inch tablet due for release in June. The upcoming Iconia One 7 is an Intel-powered tablet running Google's Android 4.2 operating system. It is a budget device that cuts corners on the operating system and hardware so that it can reach a starting price of $129.99.
The Iconia One 7 tablet will be available in black, blue, red, pink, and white, and features a 7-inch IPS display with a 16:10 resolution of 1280×800, a 5 megapixel rear camera, and a 0.3 megapixel webcam. The tablet has rounded corners and edges (especially on the back panel).
Internally, Acer has chosen to use a dual core SoC based on Intel's previous generation Clover Trail+ architecture (2-wide, in order cores that support Hyper Threading). The chip features two CPU cores clocked at 1.6 GHz, 1 MB of cache, and a PowerVR SGX544 GPU. THe chip is paired with 1GB of system RAM and either 8GB or 16GB of internal flash storage. The internal storage can be expanded with up to a 32GB microSD card. The tablet is powered by a 3,700 mAh battery.
The tablet hardware is reportedly compatible with Android 4.4, but Acer has yet to outline an upgrade path.
Acer has obviously cut corners here, both on the hardware and software. However, these sacrifices have allowed the company to offer up a tablet at a base price of $129.99. It will not be the fastest device, but it should be a good-enough web browsing and reading tablet for those that prefer the portable 7-inch form factor. (Personally, I would have liked to see a Bay Trail-powered variant at a slightly higher price point.) The Iconia One 7 will be available in Africa, Europe, and the Middle East by the middle of this month and will hit US shores in June.
Also read: ARM Claims x86 Android Binary Translation on Intel SoC Hurting Efficiency
Ah the contra revenue to gain
Ah the contra revenue to gain marketshare, but the ARM based industries still maintain the market share. Intel and its loss leader marketing may just go as well as the ultrabook fiasco, or the 8 OS. And what about those Power8 CPUs soon to be coming off of Samsung’s and GlobalFoundries’ fabs, and stright to the server farms running KVM, or Debian flavors. With Big Blue doing the Arm Holdings thing with the Power8 ISA, AMD needs to get in on this, since power8 is up for IP/ISA licensing. Hell AMD outright buy the things and put them in your SeaMicro servers, SeaMicro sells Intel, AMD, ARM based servers, even if it is owned by AMD, but Power8, better get in on that too SeaMicro(AMD)!
Could Windows 8 (not RT) be
Could Windows 8 (not RT) be loaded on this? It would make a great Steam Streamer…
Wow.
I remember way back
Wow.
I remember way back (1987) the 802806 clone with a 40 Meg hard drive and one meg of RAM was $2400. Around ten years ago they said PCs would fall below $1000 and that seemed inconceivable to me. Here we have a “low-end” multicore CPU several hundred times faster,with a thousand times more RAM storage and 200 times more “disk” storage, for $129, 1/18th the price of that 80286 clone.
I remember paying $2400.00
I remember paying $2400.00 for my Sony VAIO ultraslim notebook with an unheard of 64 mb of memory and a 2 gb hard drive
Yes but the Intel mobile CPU
Yes but the Intel mobile CPU is being sold at below cost(contra revenue) to OEM’s. Oh The wonders of the truely competitive market, and economies of scale. You can thank IBM for forcing Intel to cross license the x86 16/32 bit ISA to AMD(And Others), and You can indirectly thank Arm Holdings for introducing the licensed IP business model to the market with the ARM ISA and CPUs, beacuse the mobile devices market is Built on the ARM based industy’s competition(Arm Holdings does not make CPUs they only design and License CPU/ISA designs for others to make into SOCs). Now IBM is about to take its Highpower Power8(Not to be confused with powerPC) line of server CPUs to the market ARM Holdings style. Those High priced Intel gamimg CPUs(derived from its server SKUs) are going to have to come down in price, should Samsung/Apple/others decide to make highend desktop SKUs around the IBM’s power8 CPUs/ISA IP. Apple(after they purchased P.A. simiconductor) sure has the brainpower to make such a chip off the Power8 IP, should they choose license it from IBM, and the Mac Pro would be very powerfull built around a power8 based SKU.
Is it really that much
Is it really that much cheaper to use clover trail instead of a baytrail? I’ve had some time using both processors, on a desktop platform with windows yes, but I found the clover’s performance to be a bit clippy, seemingly random response times and unexpected pauses. Baytrail is just smooth as silk, a better user experience for sure. How much would it have actually added to the price to use the better chip? Or is intel running a fire sale clearance on the old architecture?