This tablet may share a physical resemblance with the iPad, but thankfully (or perhaps unfortunately) the resemblance ends there and is not carried forward to the price. The Elonex eTouch tablet can be yours for just £90. That’s a whole lot cheaper than the Samsung Galaxy Tab which seems to be in the news more for its high price tag rather than its virtues. In fact, the eTouch tablet carries the unique distinction of being the cheapest tablet running Android, beating its nearest competitors – the Next and Disgo tablets by a handsome margin of about £100.
The Elonex eTouch tablet is available in two size options – 7 and 10 inch both of which look like an iPad rip off. Price for the 7 inch tablet has been fixed at £89.99 or $145 while the 10 inch model will set one back by £149.99, which translates to around $240. You can pick up any of these at Toys R Us. However, lest you think a low price tag along with the fact that it is being sold at a toy shop makes it junk compared to its more illustrous competitors like the iPad or the Galaxy Tab, well there is a pleasant surprise for you. For the eTouch has been found to match the two on many counts.
Coming to the points where the Elonex eTouch isn’t as laggard as it might seem, the tablet is powered by a 1GHz ARM 11 processor. For reference, the iPad is built around a 1GHz Apple A4 processor while the same for the Galaxy Tab is an ARM Cortex A8 processor also having the same clock speed of 1GHz. When it’s about processor speeds, all three are pretty much on the same footing.
On the software front, the eTouch runs the Android 2.1 which is one step behind the latest now available – Android 2.2 Froyo. In the same vein, the eTouch does not have as much storage as most tablets or even many e-readers can boast of today. A 2 GB of internal storage is indeed puny by today’s standards considering that even the new Kindle has twice that to offer. The microSD card expansion option though comes as a much needed saving grace, more so considering their cheap availability.
When it comes to system memory, eTouch is way off the mark. It has only 128MB, which is just a quarter of the 512 MB that the iPad or Galaxy Tab comes with. Then the eTouch also includes features like a USB 2.0 port along with a mini USB port, a 3.5 inch audio port, microphone, stereo speaker with volume adjustment as well as a power adaptor which forms part of the package. To top it all off, the eTouch weighs just 695g.
“This is yet another new, exciting and innovative product that we are confident to bring to our sales floor. It is important that Toys ‘R’ Us inspire this young and inspirational market offering the best affordable products on the marketplace”, said Mike Coogan, marketing director at Toys ‘R’ Us of their newest addition, which many feel can well be the trump card as the shopping season picks up. Parents who can’t afford an iPad just yet won’t mind picking up one of these for their kids. Or maybe one for themselves as well.
With a keen interest in tech, I make it a point to keep myself updated on the latest developments in technology and gadgets. That includes smartphones or tablet devices but stretches to even AI and self-driven automobiles, the latter being my latest fad. Besides writing, I like watching videos, reading, listening to music, or experimenting with different recipes. The motion picture is another aspect that interests me a lot, and I'll likely make a film sometime in the future.
