The tablet has been launched on the Chinese market last year but comes now to the US

Mar 7, 2014 06:52 GMT  ·  By

After seeing that the HP Mesquite Tablet generated a lot of interest for customers, when it launched at Walmart with a super cheap $99 / €71 price-tag, the American tech giant is apparently looking to extend in the budget tablet sector.

Unlike the Mesquite, the new tablet will be targeted at the global market. The slate is called the HP Compaq 8 and has been available on the Chinese market ever since last year, but now the same product arrives on American and European shores with a slightly different name, re-branded as the HP 8 1401.

The tablet has appeared on the American HP website sporting a retail price of $170 / €123 and will probably marketed in Europe for less ($159 / €115).

HP is basically looking to cover all the possible consumer bases. The company already offers a 7.85-incher on the market, the HP Slate 8 Pro running on the NVIDIA Tegra 4 platform, which comes with a heftier price. The new HP 8 1401 will be an answer for those looking for this particular form factor but with a cheaper price tag attached to it.

As I said, the tablet has a 7.85-inch IPS screen with a pretty average 1024 x 768 pixel resolution and draws power from an Allwinner A31 1GHz ARM Cortex A7 quad-core processor completed with 8-core PowerVR SGX544MP2 graphics.

The tablet can be fitted with a 1GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage (expandable via microSD card). Other highlights of the product include dual cameras (2MP on the back and 0.3MP in front), microUSB, 802.11 b/g/n and Miracast.

HP 8 1401 arrives in the US
HP 8 1401 arrives in the US

Sustaining life on the tablet is a 3800 battery said to amount up to 7 hours of battery life. As stated, the tablet is expected to retail for around $170 / €123.

Bottom line, the HP 8 1410 is quite an unremarkable model and judging by the specs you could easily mistake it for one of the low-end models that have been flying out of China lately. Being priced as it is, the tablet is surely cheaper than most models coming out of brand vendors such as Amazon, Google, Samsung or ASUS.

HP 8 1401 could be considered an iPad mini replacement
HP 8 1401 could be considered an iPad mini replacement
And because it comes with a 7.85-inch screen and a stylish, sleek design, it could even be considered a decent iPad mini replacement. Anyway, for those looking for something even cheaper, there’s the option of grabbing the HP Slate 7 Plus, a 7-inch tablet with 1280 x 800 pixel resolution and NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor under the hood, for $150 / €108 a pop.

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