Tesco Hudl 2 to launch in September, Hudl phone by end of year

By Alex Dobie
published

Tesco will release a follow-up to its budget-centric Hudl tablet this year, the British supermarket giant's CEO has told BBC Radio 5 Live. Speaking with 5 Live's Wake Up To Money, Philip Clarke said the successor to last year's £119 slate will arrive in September, adding that the original had sold 550,000 units so far. This will be followed by a Hudl smartphone by the end of the year, Clarke said.

While the original Hudl was priced and specced to compete with other entry-level tablets, Tesco's smartphone might target the higher end of the market. BBC News reports that the Hudl phone's specs will be comparable to Samsung's Galaxy S5, but priced more aggressively.

The phone, like the Hudl tablet, will come preloaded with Tesco services as part of a broader ecosystem play. Clarke said Tesco plans to launch smartphone-based banking services in the near future, so it's likely figure prominently on the handset when it arrives.

Source: BBC News, Wake Up To Money

Alex Dobie
Alex Dobie
Executive Editor

Alex was with Android Central for over a decade, producing written and video content for the site, and served as global Executive Editor from 2016 to 2022.

9 Comments
  • Sketchy. Hope it is what they're claiming it will be, though.
  • 'Comparable' - will believe it when I see it... Posted via Android Central App
  • How do you reach the screen with those bezels?
  • It's a damn good device actually. My parents love theirs. They had never had a tablet or smartphone till I got them the Hudl for Xmas. They use it all the time now.
  • Same here Posted via Android Central App
  • Had one of these before Xmas (bought with clubcard vouchers, or I wouldn't have bothered) which got taken back after 2 months due to a number of faults (i.e. faulty screen, HDMI dropping out etc). It was a blessing, because it would have ended up in a drawer unused. I personally found it to be a terrible device (poor battery life, heavy, slow etc), but each to their own. There were 3 other people returning theirs at the same time for the same range of faults. The staff at Tescos seemed very familiar with the problems (i.e. as soon as I said the screen was having issues they knew exactly what I was talking about).
  • Yeah, that's what I've heard too. Great specs for the price but it looks like they cut corners with the quality control and there are too many dodgy units. Obviously Tesco are usually very good with giving replacements/refunds but you don't really want all the hassle do you? Get that quality control up for the next one and maybe it'll be a good uni.
  • This puts all of the recent HTC articles into perspective.
  • Ultimately this is good news for the lower end of the market and is a good introduction to Android and the Play Store. The latter is key particularly in comparison to rival products.