Polaroid's New Android Tablets Might Give Nexus Some Stiff Competition

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5974767/polaroids-new-android-tablets-might-give-nexus-some-stiff-competition

Polaroid has announced a new pair of Android tablets at CES. Their most obvious selling point is super-low pricing—but will their performance be able to stand up to the competition?

There are two new tablets—predictably, a 7-incher (M7) and a 10-incher (M10)—and when we say price is a big draw here, we really mean it. The little 'un is set to retail for $130 and the large one just $230. Super cheap, then, so if specs can match the price Polaroid could really be on to something.

The M10 packs a 10.1-inch 1,280 x 800 resolution screen, quad-core Cortex A7 CPU, 1GB of RAM, 16GB or storage, 5-MP rear camera, 2-MP front-facer, and HDMI-out. Running Jelly Bean it does, sadly, have a light Polaroid skin laid over the top, but at least that looks fairly crisp and clean—reminiscent of Windows 8, in fact.

Meanwhile the M7 offers a 7-inch 1,280 x 800 display, 1.6GHz dual-core A9 processor, 1GB of RAM, 8GB or storage, and a 2-megapixel front camera that sits to the left of the display. Once again, it's running Jelly Bean with Polaroid's skin over the top.

None of this is setting the world on fire, of course, but for the price the specs seem really solid. Engadget explains that it found the smaller tablet "very responsive when swiping through home screens and jumping in and out of apps", so it will be interesting to see how they stack up during real-world use. They might not quite pack all of the punch of Google's Nexus range—but they could well give it a run for its money. [Polaroid via Engadget and Engadget]