You may have heard of Eken before as they were one of the first companies to bring Android tablets to market – before Android was built for tablets. They weren’t the best of devices but they were cheap and were fairly decent for the price. Things have changed however and even Google themselves are selling an affordable tablet with the Nexus 7 at $199. However, Google aren’t looking to make profit on the hardware and are instead selling a gateway into the Play Store’s wares. Companies like Eken however, have no ecosystem to fall back and still need to make profit on each unit they sell – making this $99 price tag bring more trade-offs than you might think but it doesn’t make for too terrible a tablet. For your Benjamin you’ll be getting the following:
- 1.2GHz AllWinner A10 ARM Cortex A8
- 512MB of RAM
- 4GB storage and a microSD slot
- 7-inch 800 x 480 Display
- mini-USB Port
- A full-sized USB Port
- HDMI Output
Whilst it’s disappointing to see such a poor resolution in a 7″ tablet you could certainly say you get what you paid for and for just $99 you get a competent enough tablet with a healthy set of connectivity as well. The real kicker here though is that the device is said to be shipping with the Google Play Store present and correct. Instantly making this a compelling option thanks to access to hundreds of thousands of apps and the rest of the content now on offer. Whilst this isn’t going to turn any heads it could be a perfect stocking filler or a perfect tablet for the kids – after all, you don’t want them to drop that expensive Sony or Samsung tablet now do you?