A Full-Featured, $38 Tablet Is Coming to the U.S. | Hacker News Reader

A Full-Featured, $38 Tablet Is Coming to the U.S.

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71 pointsbrk52 comments

Microcenter is selling a $39.99 tablet with a 1.2Ghz CPU, pretty similar specs: http://www.microcenter.com/product/423567/A700_Tablet_-_Grey

EDIT: comparing the specs, they seem 99% identical

I have one of those (I volunteer with a program that teaches kids how to code, and we're thinking of giving one to each of them for them to program games etc. on). It's actually pretty responsive! My main everyday tablet is an iPad mini, and I was expecting a clunky piece of crap - but for 38$, it's totally worth it.

How hackable is it? If I want to install CM or FirefoxOS or something on it, how hard is it and how likely am I to brick the device?

I'd love to know if there's a good way to program an Android on an Android. I haven't found a satisfactory answer yet. On the other hand, programming for kids is probably a good use, as it doesn't have to be massively processor intensive.

One problem is lack of a keyboard, though I've got a $20 Bluetooth keyboard that's a clone of the Apple. But I wonder if kids really care about that. Maybe not.

I'd love to have something that was as simple as the good old BASIC of old. In fact, as I'm typing this, I'm downloading a couple of BASIC interpreters to play with.

If you come up with a good way of doing this, that the kids enjoy, please share!

You can write and compile standard Java apps on Android with AIDE [1]. For young kids, you can make games on Android with Pocket Code [2] using a visual programming UI similar to MIT Scratch.

[1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aide.ui

[2] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.catrobat.c...

At that price range I would buy one for each of my kids, hands down. It works for reading, internet, and some videos. Sure you might be able to play every game out there, but it's fantastic for common usage!

Specs:

$38 7" screen at 800x400 Android 4.0 ICS 1GHz single core processor 4GB storage with microSD for expansion and I'm guessing 512MB ram The $38 UbiSlate 7Ci tablet, running on Google’s Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system, features a 1-gigahertz , single-core processor (the sort of CPU found in the first-generation iPad introduced in 2010). Just 4 gigabytes of storage is built in, although microSD card slots are included for those looking for more space to store apps and media. The 7-inch display offers a resolution of 800×480 pixels,

It does sound nice, but I'll believe it when I see it shipping. Over the years we've heard lots of "cheap tablets coming" stories, but the final product turns out to be vaporware, or nearly useless.

To help alleviate your concerns about vapourware: they have released tablets in the past at similarly lower end price points.

It appears to be available right now

http://ubislate.us/product.php?prodid=1

It looks like it has some weird custom skin.

Not to be a downer but as someone who has been on Android for a very long time, a 1GHZ processor single-core is really no fun to use at all. Especially since most apps right now are tested on 1GHZ dual core minimum ... and the mobile web is barely even fun on a brand new iPhone 5s. It's probably still worth $38, but could be a frustrating experience for a young child.

I think it's terrible for Android qua multi-tasking handheld operating system, but great for making touch computing into a commodity. You know what would be great here would be a 'stripped' version of Android (or whatever) optimized for single-task applications. I want it open enough to be hackable, but I don't necessarily need it to be a general-purpose computer all the time at a low price point like this.

Depending on the size of the family, buying a normal nexus tablet for each child eventually isn't exactly ruining. (Speaking for a developed country, at least)

When each kid breaks/loses it, it is. There islets of research into whether kids should be exposed to screens at all, but yeah buying a Nexus 7 for a 5 year old is a good way to lose $200.

Excuse me, I hadn't realized that people would contemplate letting five year olds play unsupervised with tablets...

When I got my Nexus 4, I let my brother in law play with it while I went into the other room. When I came back, he was gone to the bathroom and my 18 month old niece was playing with my brand new $350 all-glass smartphone on my mom's hardwood floors.

It does happen.

My daughter's second word was "iPad". Five years later five iP*s have survived two kids nicely. Sometimes it's not so much a matter of letting kids, but managing the fact that they will.

Shoulda kept my mouth shut.

Day after writing that, the boy smashed the iPad Mini in a snit. $200 lesson for daddy.

My daughter's had relatively unfettered access to a tablet since she was four. She got her first laptop when she was 8. She just turned twelve, and just built a pretty fun slot machine game in Ruby.

I think I understand your point, and yes, we've been mindful of her activities and all that, but I think the converse is equally detrimental to a growing child's development.

"2-in-1 iPotty with Activity Seat for iPad: A comfortable and child-friendly potty with activity stand for iPad."

http://amzn.com/B00B3G8UGQ

My kids get ~30 mins per day (total, split between them) on the ipad. Maybe longer on exceptional occasions.

With that screen resolution, that's going to be pretty lousy for reading, actually.

Surprisingly, that resolution in this size isn't too bad. I had a very low-end Android tablet with exactly those display specs that I used until I decided it was worth buying a good one, and I found reading on it more pleasurable than I expected.

Those specs remind me of my old G2 which cost over $500 only three years ago. http://www.gsmarena.com/t_mobile_g2-3518.php It wasn't great but it was perfectly usable.

Hey. I still use that phone with CM Jelly Bean :) I still love it. If the specs are similar, then I don't mind getting one at $38. I can use it as a remote for Chromecast!

Tablets are getting cheap enough that branded tablets are going to be more of a common thing, especially for like trade show gifts and things. Remember how people used to distribute (or still do) software/presentations/sales materials via USB sticks or CD's? At some point it will be cost effective to give away a tablet with your stuff preloaded on there and with your company branding on it.

I can see this happening with custom enterprise type apps that have a tablet component. Take a sub-$100 tablet, get your brand on it and have it load into your app by default or something. Sort of like kiosk tablets.

Roger that. AutoZone uses an iPad in their stores for yeoman duties. And today I checked into a potential employer's office on a kiosk tablet.

Some other vertical markets -- car diagnostics, tuners.

In Pakistan, a lot of the classier places use tablets as menus.

"I can see this happening with custom enterprise type apps that have a tablet component. Take a sub-$100 tablet, get your brand on it and have it load into your app by default or something."

Given how much "custom enterprise-type apps" cost to make, I can't imagine anybody squealing about the price of decent tablets to put them on. Picking the $38/unit El Cheapos is like deciding to use only bargain-basement folding chairs at your $200/plate restaurant...

This is an interesting price/inflection point. I agree that it's a "toy" tablet and unlikely to have much utility for regular applications, but an 800 x 480 screen for $38? That is a pretty good deal :-). Scrape a serial port off the USB connector and voila, very nice display for your robot or other throwaway project. I could, for example, see using one of these next to my RaspPi which streams music and have it show a 'now playing' and perhaps album art on it.

UbiSlate is the commercial version[0] of Akash tablet[1]. Akash was developed for enabling e-learning in schools and colleges, and promoted by government of India.

[0]http://www.flipkart.com/tablets/tablets-with-call-facility/d...

[1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aakash_(tablet)

A $38 tablet with WiFi is not a bad deal. An Arduino + WiFi alone is higher than that. This tablet includes a 800x600 display too. If the components are of decent quality (i.e., the caps don't pop after a few weeks of use) then it could be pretty sweet for hobbyists.

They are charging $10 shipping per device, even when multiple units are ordered at once, so it is essentially a $48 tablet, a 26% increase.

We're finally there! Everyone in the whole world can have a computer now. Now the whole OLPC thing is a software problem.

What was intended to be affordable computing for the poor will probably become disposable computing for the middle class.

It eventually ripples down the chain in the form of used last-gen tech. It's not ideal, but it's still a good thing.

You know this isn't an 'either/or' thing, right?

I'm not making a moral judgment, just an observation based on how many people here expressed interest in buying one..or more.

Wont that increase sales volumes, resulting in prices going down? Wont that help the poor? Its this actually a result of that in the first place? Rich people bought lots of expensive pads, volumes go up, production gets cheaper, and so on.

Why?

There's a pretty great $129 tablet (marked down from original retail price of $149) already available in the US: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Hisense-Sero-7-Pro-7-Tablet-Quad-C...

I bought one for the grandparents. It's a clone of the V1 Nexus 7 in terms of specs, feels like a high-end tablet and has some pretty great reviews. Only problem is it's out of stock online - you can only get it at Walmart stores.

Plenty of sub-$100 tablets in walmart. I didn't even know about that segment, and it is already super crowded.

I have experience with a "Yeahpad Pillbox 7" or whatever it's called, with similar specs. Cost me $60 CAD even, mailed from Hong Kong a year ago, so a price point of US$38 for one now is believable.

They work fine as long as you don't expect too much. For example, installing the Facebook and Gmail apps on mine made it frustratingly slow each time it was unsuspended since these (relatively) bloatware apps - for such limited hardare - could take up to a minute to settle down. Similarly, Google Chrome is slower than the stock android browser on there, and for most practical surfing I use Opera Mini, which does most of its rendering server-side and works as well on this hardware as anything.

Youtube and Dailymotion videos play fine, although the Youtube app takes its time to start up. The weird media player that came preloaded can play full-on 1080p H.264 videos effortlessly. I don't know how they do that, must use some clever hardware acceleration.

But on the whole, just don't expect that "Android is Android". These are minimalist web surfing tablets, not pocket supercomputers.

I should add that the web interfaces to Facebook and Gmail work just fine in Opera Mini.

I think the android project is starting to move toward optimizing for lower performing devices in an effort to get the OS in more hands. If that's the case, it may make a usable $38 tablet more feasible.

this is great. they should preload it with offline version of Khan academy.

Half gig single core this year, next year they will do 1gb dual core for the same price, etc. Still out of reach for those surviving on $2/day, but will put self-improvement and education opportunities in the hands of millions more. Won't be long until almost everyone on the planet has access to a computer

Can't imagine it'll be popular in the US, but these are exciting times for developing countries. Here in Rwanda the government has embarked on a noble and ambitious plan to give OLPC laptops to every school child. AFAIK they've been charged about $200 per laptop. It sounds like this tablet comfortably beats that on price and performance.

If this is $38 and includes a touchscreen then I wonder how much it would cost to produce a similar device but with a DVI-out and a USB port instead? In other words a sub-Rpi priced desktop.

I suppose the hardware would struggle to drive a 1080p display.

You can already buy lots of Android devices with an HDMI out and USB for $30-$40 - MK802, MK804, MK808. They easily drive an 1080p display, some can even drive an 2160 display if you have one.

Since people most likely hand this out to kids, I hope --just because it's so cheap-- it's also safe for them (e.g. no easily detachable small parts, not using dangerous chemicals).

If they haven't 'killed' the asian market, why bring it to the States?

Insights anyone?

In Asian markets, cheap tablets aren't news at all. You could even get one for $30. But the society in general doesn't trust such low-end products. Asians are very skeptical. Yes, loads of peoples still buy them. But no one would choose this over a high end device just because of the price. If they happen to beat the IPad sales, it's not because people find this more attractive than the ipad, it's just that those people can't afford to buy an ipad but would still like a piece of the game.

So it's not exactly a competitor of main stream tablets, its more of a niche product. And in US they are trying to be "disposable". Aiming for more niche markets like schools. It's a pretty good strategy. In fact they are more likely to get more sales in US because as you can see, a lot of people here are considering buying it. In India, most people would see the price and would stop reading. They wouldn't even bother with the specs. Inherent skepticism.

DISCLAIMER: Not criticizing indians or asians in anyway. Just explaining a cultural phenomenon

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