The popular 7-inch Android tablets currently out there such as the Google Nexus 7 are quite affordable. But here’s something that’s for those of you who are on a very, very tight budget. The Maxwest TAB-7155DC (aka Ippo Y88) is an Android 4.1.1 tablet which costs just $65, and it’s being shown off at CTIA 2013.

But, as you might have guessed by now, that very low price tag certainly doesn’t mean a high end machine. It features a 7-inch 1024 x 600-pixel capacitive multitouch LCD screen, which apparently is coming with poor viewing angles and is not covered with glass but a scratch prone acrylic cover.

There’s a 1GHz dual-core Cortex A5 CPU with Mali 400 GPU, 512MB of RAM, 4GB of built-in storage (microSD support is there), front and back VGA cameras, WiFi b/g/n and a 2800mAh battery. But no Bluetooth or GPS radios. And you will also find micro-USB port (with on-the-go), mini-HDMI output, and a 3.5mm headphone jack, along with microphone and speaker. The device will be available in black, white, silver, red, blue and pink.

The slate will give you access to the Play Store and its build quality and performance appear to be quite decent for that much money. But these very cheap tablets usually arrive with a ton of problems. We suggest going for the 7-inchers from Acer or Asus. There are also really cheap Hisense tablets that have beefier specs for around $99 and $150 (depending on model) that are soon making their way over to Walmart.

[Source]

The post Do You Want To Play With Maxwest’s $65 7-inch Android Tablet? appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

We have been seeing a lot of good deals from Barnes and Noble recently, and now an even better one. They are currently offering both the Nook HD and the HD+ at discount rates through Mother’s Day on May 12.

You can now get the 8GB Nook HD for $149 and the 16GB version costs $179 (a $50 discount). The 9-inch 16GB HD+ will be yours for $179 (down from $269) and the 32GB model for $209 (drop from $299). The devices are available online at Barnes & Noble bookstores and on Nook.com, and at retailers including Best Buy.

The Nook tablets have suddenly become more appealing with this price drop, and also the slates now support Google Play (so access to more than 700,000 apps and games. That’s a big advantage over the Amazon Kindle Fire devices. At Amazon, the entry-level Kindle Fire has a price tag of $159, the 16GB Fire HD costs $199 and the 32GB 8.9-inch Fire HD tablet is available for $299.

As for other rivals, the Google Nexus 7 starts at $199 and Nexus 10 retails from $399. The Mac maker’s iPad mini starts at $329. Bottom-line, for the hardware, the Nook HD and HD+ are nothing less than a steal at their reduced pricing. What do you think, are you interested?

[Source]

The post Barnes & Noble Mother’s Day Offer For Nook HD And HD+ appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

HP surely learned a lot of lessons when they tried to take on the iPad with their webOS-based Touchpad, the sales of which were stopped after just seven weeks. Now it appears they have targeted the Google Nexus 7 with their first ever Android tablet, the HP Slate 7. The new tablet is intended for the budget segment, but the question is whether it will succeed against its top rivals.

Running the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean OS, the HP Slate 7 costs just $169, cheaper than the $199 Google Nexus 7. But the Slate 7 is slightly more expensive than budget 7-inchers from Acer (Iconia B1) and the Asus (Memo Pad).

Specs wise the device is not that impressive, but it seems to be just about right for the low price. The device sports a 7-inch HFFS display with a resolution of 1024×600, lower than the Nexus 7.

It also features a 1.6 GHz dual-core A9 processor, 1GB of RAM, 3MP rear camera and a VGA front facing cam. In comparison, the Iconia B1 has no rear cam and boasts just 512MB of RAM, and no rear camera and only a single core processor on the Memo Pad. The Slate 7 is coming with 8GB on-board storage, but you can extend it with the microSD card slot. The device also features Beats Audio and the HP ePrint application, which will allow you to print directly over Wi-Fi.

So the specs are not that bad for that price range, but still HP is a bit late to enter this segment and an April launch means that other rivals may also arise. While HP hopes to compete thanks to its slightly cheaper pricing than the Nexus 7, that extra $30 for Google’s flagship 7-incher gets you a quad-core Tegra 3 processor,, GPS, NFC, and 16GB of storage.

The HP Slate 7 is an attractive enough tablet, though it doesn’t seem to offer any “WOW” factor either. What do you think of the HP Slate 7, does it bring anything new or worthwhile to set HP apart in the growing budget 7-inch market?

[Source]

The post HP Slate 7 Android Tablet Announced, But Can it Compete? appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

When it comes to subsidizing a mobile device, it usual means you agree to keep a contract with a carrier for designated period of time in order to get lower initial price for a phone or tablet. That said, it isn’t just carriers who have tried subsidizing hardware this way.

Not too long ago Microsoft started carrying the Xbox 360 at a subsidized price, as long as people signed a contract for Xbox Live service. Now it seems that the British newspaper the Times is taking a similar approach with the Asus-made Google Nexus 7.

In order to attract more digital subscribers, the newspaper is offering a “Digital Pack” promotion where you will basically get the 32GB Asus Nexus 7 for just £50, or around $65.

The catch? You will need to sign up for an 18-month subscription to the Times and will either need to pay £299 up-front (this includes the tablet price) or agree to monthly payments. To qualify for the monthly plan, you will have to make a payment of £67.33, which will pay for the tablet and the first month’s subscription.

Any readers in the United Kingdom interested in such a deal? For those in other countries like the United States, do you think one your major local papers should consider a similar “digital pack” approach?

[ source ]

The post Times offering Google Nexus 7 at Subsidized Price with Subscription appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Google Currents is a magazine-style news reader that, by default, automatically updates itself in the background to give you the latest news. This appears to the culprit for all that slowdown, so getting your Nexus 7 back up to speed, so to speak, is pretty straight forward. All you have to do is disable the background updates.

To do this, open up Google Currents, tap on the three-dot menu button in the top right corner, choose settings, and uncheck the “Enable Background Sync” box. Reboot your Nexus 7 and you should be smooth as butter again.

If not, you can go even further and disable Currents altogether. To do this, open up the tablet’s main settings menu, go to Apps, and then All (by tapping on “Running” first). Tap on Currents, then tap on the Disable button near the top. Yes, this takes away one of Android 4.2′s big features, but that’s a small price to pay to get a super snappy tablet experience again. Hopefully Google addresses this in Android 4.2.1.

Have you tried tried disabling Google Currents? Did this solve your lag problems or not?

[Source]

The post Google Nexus 7 Android 4.2 Lag Caused By Google Currents appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

It’s Black Friday and if you are still searching for some hot deals, look no further. The Asus-build Google Nexus 7 has hit multiple stores since its release this past summer, but with the arrival of a 32GB version, Office Depot is the store to go to.

At just $229.99, Office Depot is selling the Nexus 7 32GB (Wi-Fi version) for $30-$40 less than the competition. The deal is limited to one per customer and you will have to visit your local Office Depot because it is not available online.

As a reminder, the Nexus 7 packs 4.1 Jelly Bean right out of the box. The 7″ display is 1280 x 800 pixels and made of scratch-resistant Corning® glass. Powering the tablet is the nVidia Tegra 3 quad-core CPU clocked at 1.3 GHz with 1GB of RAM, and a 12-core GeForce GPU. It comes with a 1.2 MP front-facing camera (no rear shooter) and a 9.5 hour battery (4325 mAH).

Will you be picking up a Google Nexus 7 this holiday season? Let us know in the comments below.

[ source ]

The post Black Friday Alert – Google Nexus 7 32GB is only $229 at Office Depot appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Screen Size and Resolution

Starting with the most obvious difference, the Nexus 7 is the smaller of the two with its 7-inch display running a resolution of 1280×800 pixels for a density of 216ppi. The Amazon offering has an 8.9-inch display at 1920×1200 pixels for a density fo 254ppi. The Kindle Fire HD is both bigger and has better pixel density, making for a better display.

Size and Weight

This is largely a matter of personal preference, since some people prefer one form factor over the other. Not surprisingly, the Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ is larger and heavier than the Nexus 7. It weighs 567 grams (vs 340 grams) and measures 164 x 240 x 8.8mm (vs 120 x 198.5 x 10.5mm). It is interesting that the Kindle is thinner though.

Performance

While both tablets are perfectly capable, the Nexus 7 looks like it wins on paper with its NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad core 1.3GHz processor. The Kindle Fire HD has a TI OMAP 4470 dual core 1.5GHz. That’s a higher clock speed, but the Nexus 7 has more cores. Both tablets have 1GB of RAM.

Storage

Looking at just the WiFi-only model of the Kindle Fire 8.9″, both it and the Nexus 7 are offered in your choice of 16GB and 32GB of capacity with neither offering a memory card slot. If you opt for the LTE version of the Fire, you can get up to 64GB.

Wireless

Speaking of LTE, that’s one feature that differentiates the Fire from the Nexus 7, the latter of which is only offered with up to HSPA+. Naturally, both get Wi-Fi. The downside is the LTE version of the Kindle Fire HD costs a whopping $200 more than its WiFi-only version.

Camera

Both tablets rock a front-facing camera in the one-megapixel range for video chat, lacking a rear camera for any kind of primary shooting.

Operating System

While it is certainly true that both tablets are powered by Google Android, the Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ is heavily skinned with the Amazon OS, complete with heavy Amazon store integration. In fact, it ships with “Special Offers” advertisements that cost $15 to remove. You also don’t get the full Google Play Store. The Nexus 7, on the other hand, is a pure Google experience with the Google Play Store and no integrated “Special Offers” ads. The Nexus 7 wins here for most users.

Price

The Nexus 7 is the cheaper of the two, starting at just $200. The similarly equipped 16GB Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ is $100 more at $300. Naturally, if you want wireless data or more storage, be prepared to pay more money.

Who Wins?

Unless you are really bent on having that larger 8.9-inch display with better pixel density or you really like the Amazon storefront being front and center, the Nexus 7 is likely the better bet here. It’s cheaper and it’s more versatile with its vanilla Android OS and Play Store access.

Buy Android Tablets

The post Google Nexus 7 vs. Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Pre-orders are currently being taken by GameStop for the 16GB version, which retails for $249 and will be available around the middle of July. While there is the cheaper 8GB model at $199, it doesn’t look like GameStop is going to take pre-orders for it. Thankfully, you can make up some of that value by trading in your old video games, gaming hardware, accessories, iDevices and eligible Android tablets.

GameStop has been accepting trade-ins for a while, but they’re offering a 30% bonus on the trade-in value when you put it toward the purchase of a 16GB Nexus 7. Remember that, for a limited time, you also get the $25 credit for the Google Play Store, plus a free copy of Transformers: Dark of the Moon.

“We’ve seen great consumer enthusiasm for our recommerce initiatives, particularly our iDevice trade program that launched last fall,” said Tony Bartel, president of GameStop. “With the increasing popularity of Android tablets and the emerging multiscreen gaming trend, this is the ideal time to expand the program to meet the needs of our hybrid customers.”

[Source]

The post Google Nexus 7 Pre-Orders at GameStop with 30% Bonus Trade-In Value appeared first on Mobile Magazine.