Acer looks to make a mark in the entry level tablet stakes with the Iconia B1, but how much tablet does £99 actually buy?

A whole lot of plastic. That's what £99 buys. And sadly that's one of the biggest downers on the new Acer Iconia B1. But, we'll come to that shortly. When the Iconia B1 was first announced, the biggest draw to the tablet was its sub-£100 price tag, and the fact that for this money you were getting a tablet from a recognized OEM. We all yearn for cheaper tablets, and Acer has delivered, but as you would expect some sacrifices have had to be made. Acer isn't kidding anyone though, squarely aiming this at first time users and children. But, is it a total washout? Click on and we'll take a first look at Acer's new budget tablet offering. 

Asus is no stranger to Android tablets, and so while nothing official by any stretch, it's not at all surprising to hear that a new tablet is reportedly heading to Mobile World Congress later this month. Following on from the already announced MeMo Pad 7, what we see here is allegedly the new MeMo Pad 10. 

The MeMo Pad 10 is said to follow on from its 7 inch sibling in hitting a lower price point. Reported specs include a 1280x800 display, a 1.2GHz Tegra 3 processor, 1GB of RAM, a 5MP rear camera, 16GB of on board storage with microSD card expansion and Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. 12 months ago specs such as these would have put the MeMo Pad 10 at the bleeding edge, but by current -- and forthcoming -- standards, it would sit in the mid-range, lower price bracket quite nicely. 

The source of the images, tabletsmagazine.nl, claims that several Dutch retailers have already begun to offer pre-orders for the MeMo Pad 10, starting as low as €299 (£259/$407), which sounds very competitive for a decent 10 inch tablet. Of course, until it's official, nothing's official. Treat it as you would all leaks, but we'll be in Barcelona in little over three weeks to see just what Asus does bring. 

Source: tabletsmagazine.nl (Translated)

Unveiled to the world at CES, the Acer Iconia B1 is Acer's play at hitting the budget tablet space. While not offering bleeding edge specs, the B1 does offer a stock Jelly Bean experience on a 7 inch tablet, which, in the UK, goes for just £99. At CES we were told to expect launch in stores at the end of January, and true to their word that seems to be the case. 

The Iconia B1 has been spotted already for sale by British supermarkets, ASDA and Sainsbury's, both at that magic £99 price point. Appealing to the casual consumer at a price point that is bordering on impulse buy could prove successful for Acer, especially over the traditional 'no-name' cheap tablets we've seen for so long at this kind of price. The Kindle Fire is a big supermarket tablet line in the UK, so it will be interesting to see how the Iconia B1 fares. It under cuts the cheapest Kindle Fire by £30 while offering a more traditional tablet experience. 

Our hands on at CES showed a little lag, and a distinctly plasticky design, but also expandable memory and that Jelly Bean experience. But it all comes down to the price, and the Iconia B1 is the first tablet from a recognizable brand to hit that magic sub-£100 price point that makes it a compelling purchase for first time tablet buyers. If you've picked one up, or thinking of doing so, be sure to jump into the comments below and share your experience. 

via Eurodroid

Supply chain rumormonger tips 1080p display, thinner bezel, same price point

The ASUS-made Nexus 7 has been a runaway success -- arguably the most successful Android tablet yet, and certainly the most popular Nexus device to date. So it shouldn't come as much of a surprise to hear that a successor might be in the works, and due for launch later this year.

That's exactly what's being reported by Taiwanese outlet DigiTimes, which cites its sometimes right, sometimes wrong supply chain sources with access to "engineering samples" of the tablet. The site claims the ASUS-built Nexus 7 successor (Nexus 8, perhaps?) will feature a "full HD" 1080p display, thinner bezels and the same attractive $199-249 price point. "Several specifications" will also be upgraded, DigiTimes says, though no specifics are given.

The site's sources also estimate total Nexus 7 shipments at six million as of the end of January, with the $249 32GB Wifi-only version being the most popular at present.

This is the first we've heard of a possible Nexus 7 follow-up, but there's nothing terribly shocking in there as far as we're concerned. The Nexus 7's low price has been instrumental in its success, and so any successor was likely to be priced around the same level. In addition, with mobile device screen resolutions reaching dizzying heights this year, the Nexus tablet's screen is an obvious point for improvement.

Then again, given the patchy nature of supply chain rumblings, a large pinch of salt should be taken when dealing with this kind of rumor. Either way, we'll be on the ground in San Francisco in May to see what new hardware Google brings to this year's I/O conference.

Source: DigiTimes

Samsung has announced that the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 is available in garnet red this week at participating retailers. It runs $219.99 and comes with a free matching garnet red case. Samsung's 7-incher is running Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, sports a dual-core processor and has an IR port tucked away in there, too. The limited edition red version is available from Walmart, Amazon.com, Office Depot, Fry's, Tiger Direct and Toys R Us, among other retailers. 

We've learned much about the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 over the past week, and now we're seeing further indications of what plans Samsung might have for its Galaxy Tab line. Samsung fansite SamMobile, which broke some of the Note 8.0 news a few days ago, now says that Samsung plans to launch new Galaxy Tabs this year, but only 10.1-inch versions are on the cards at the moment. The "Tab 3 7.0," it reports, has been mothballed in favor of the stylus-toting Galaxy Note 8.0. Depending on sales of the Note 8.0, SamMobile's source says, an 8.0-inch Tab 3 may be offered at some point in the future.

The Nexus 7 is substantially more portable than larger tablets, and that means you may be more inclined to use a case. I've found the Nillkin leather flip cover for mine, and it's quite an impressive little case for the money. When I got my Nexus 7 I planned on carrying it with me more often, tossing it in the bag whenever I left the house. It's light and portable with great one-handed use, but I wanted to protect the screen when I wasn't using it.

The case is a thin, tough, two-tone unit with black rubber edges accenting a colored leather primary case (red, grey or black colors are available). The leather part has a texture to it that I could only describe as a large hard cover book binding, which is very reassuring when holding the Nexus 7 one handed and provides an ample amount of grip. The case snaps on around the tablet like a normal case would, with no extra flaps, straps or fasteners. The flip cover pulls double duty as a screen protector and a tri-fold stand, and is attached with heavy stitching to the back of the case. The cover has a magnet to wake and sleep the device when opened and closed, which is a nice touch.

The inside of the flip portion is a light brown microfiber material, which should protect the screen nicely and help soak up some smudges when it's resting on the screen. When you're ready to use the tablet, it flips back out of the way but has no magnet or fastener to keep it pinned back. Luckily the cover is very thin and folds over nicely to be held in a very natural position, so it doesn't add a whole lot of bulk when it's on the back. If you would prefer to use the cover as a stand, it props up the tablet low for activities like typing, or stands it up near a 45-degree angle for things like watching video.

At somewhere between $20 and $25 (depending on the day) through many ebay sellers, the Nillkin leather flip cover is worth a look to protect and add a good bit of functionality to your Nexus 7. It is well-made and keeps a clean and functional design throughout, something not found in accessories as often as we'd hope. Check out our hands-on video and several pictures after the break.

Just a day after we got our first look at the Galaxy Note 8.0 in leaked spy shots, a couple more photos of the 8-inch tablet have emerged online. Today's pics come via French Android community Frandroid, showing apparently the Note 8.0 alongside its 5.5-inch sibling, the Galaxy Note 2. As with yesterday's images, we see a tablet with a curved design and a phone-style three-button setup on the bottom bezel instead of traditional on-screen keys. And this time around we get to see the larger "S Pen" stylus, which was docked away in yesterday's images.

Yes, there's also an earpiece up top for making calls, as we saw in yesterday's shots. But that's nothing new -- 7-inch Samsung tablets have been doing that since the original 2010 Galaxy Tab.

Today's pics reveal a little more about the device's software. Unsurprisingly, the Note 8.0 is running Samsung's TouchWiz UI, but it also seems to be using a "phone-style" launcher, similar to the direction taken with the stock tablet launcher in Android 4.2 -- which this device is rumored to be running. The presence of floating windows suggests that Samsung's included its multi-window tech in the Note 8.0, too. In addition, we can also clearly see a notification bar up top in both shots.

Samsung's expected to make the Note 8.0 all officially official at Mobile World Congress at the end of February. Leaked spec sheets suggest we can expect similar internals to the Galaxy Note 2 -- a 1.6GHz Exynos 4 Quad CPU, 2GB of RAM and 16 and 32GB storage options, expandable via microSD slot. Stick with Android Central for full coverage of the Note 8.0 and other Samsung devices at MWC, and be sure to check out our latest podcast for more discussion on this device.

Source: Frandroid

The latest update to Skype improved the UI and added a much asked for feature in portrait calling, but unfortunately the rest of the app is locked in landscape. The portrait calling seemed like a no-brainer fix, especially considering many smaller tablets -- like the Nexus 7 -- have camera setups meant for portrait orientation. The unfortunate bug (or at least we hope it's a bug) is that for now the rest of the UI is locked into landscape orientation. This means that browsing your contacts and initiating calls is all in landscape, then you have to rotate the tablet to hold the call.

Overall the new UI is great and pretty well mirrors the styling of the phone UI, but the perpetual landscape really puts a damper on things. Let's hope Skype pushes out a new update to add back in the portrait support, and in the meantime we can at least enjoy portrait video calls.

Update: Fresh images have now emerged showing the Note 8.0, its software and the S Pen in greater detail.

We've learned much about the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 over the past week or so, from specs to a purported release date. Now we have what might be our first proper glimpse of the tablet itself out in the wild -- and it's packing a few surprises. In spy shots obtained by Italian outlet DDAY.it, we see an unknown Samsung tablet sporting a curved chassis similar to the Galaxy S3 and Note 2 -- a far cry from earlier Samsung tablet designs. The size of the tablet, and the "S Pen" holder shown in the bottom right in the pic above, would seem to confirm this as the Galaxy Note 8.0.

More surprising still is Samsung's apparent decision to eschew on-screen buttons in favor of a traditional menu, home and back setup. It's a break from usual Android tablet designs, though it could be argued that changes to Android's action bar in version 4.2 mean that on-screen controls are less important than they were back in the Honeycomb days.

We should also consider the possibility that this might not be the final Note 8.0 design. In the past, Samsung has craftily put out several pre-release versions of devices (like the Galaxy S3) in the hope of keeping the final design secret. Regardless, it's in Samsung's best interest, branding-wise, to make the Note 8.0 visually close to its smartphone line-up, and this kind of design certainly achieves that.

Previous rumors have the Galaxy Note 8.0 debuting at Mobile World Congress in late February ahead of a March launch. Reported specs include an 8-inch 1280x800 display, a 1.6GHz Exynos 4 Quad CPU, 2GB of RAM and TouchWiz'd Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. We'll be live in Barcelona next month to bring you full coverage of the Note 8.0 as it's announced.

Source: DDAY.it; via: SamMobile