$99 Ainovo Novo 7 is the first Ice Cream Sandwich tablet in the world
The Ainovo Novo 7 is special in two ways; it’s the first Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich tablet out there, and it costs only $99. The Novo 7’s price point makes the Amazon Fire seem like a premium price device, and that says quite a bit. The tablet is the launch platform of MIPS Technologies’ 1Ghz single core CPU, which means that it’s lacking a core compared to the Kindle Fire and pretty much every other tablet (though some other budget tablets still hang around down in the single core club). The graphics processor is said to be able to do 1080p video and 3D gaming though, and the built-in HDMI output is a nice touch. Front and back cameras are in place, albeit with low resolutions (2 megapixels on the back), but the 7-inch device is allegedly capable of 8 hours of battery life just like many other 7-inch tablets.The screen is capacitive, but there’s no word on the resolution, or even the storage capacity, let alone the RAM.
The downside is that this is only available in China for now, but should be making its way to other countries. $99 is a nice price, and the quick rollout of Ice Cream Sandwich would suggest that this runs a very standard version of it, unlike the heavily customized versions that brand name manufacturers put on their tablets – often with less than desirable results. If nothing else, it should be a nice video player for those who don’t want anything else. It is certified to run Google apps though, including Market, so Google seems to have more faith in this than many other budget devices.
[PCWorld via Pocketables]
