14 DAY TRIAL // Back in January, speaking during the quarterly earning conference call with analysts, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich announced that the first Android tablets with Bay Trail chips would arrive somewhere around Q2 2014.
While Android Bay Trail devices were notably absent at CES 2014, there was hope that some of Intel’s partners would formally unveil a Bay Trail-T Android tablet at MWC 2014 in Barcelona. But we all know that didn't happen.
Now, after almost a month since the Conference ended, we’re finally seeing the first budget Bay Trail-powered Android slates. And interestingly enough, they don’t come from brand vendors, but from Chinese manufacturers.
As Edward Weinert reports, Onda, Cube, Teclast and Ramos are gearing up to launch their cheap Bay Trail tablets running on the Android platform.
Ramos is prepping a i10s tablet bundling Intel Atom Z3735D, Windows 8 and Android 4.4.2 Jelly Bean (which seems to be another version of the dual-boot tablet already announced, the i10 Pro), full HD screen (1920 x 1200 resolution), 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage.
Furthermore, the Ramos i10s variation will come equipped with support for Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, USB OTG, WiDi and HDMI. There’s also going to be dual cameras onboard, in the form of an 5MP camera on the back and 2MP webcam in front.
Onda will present its tablet with 64-bit Intel Bay Trail-T somewhere in April, while Cube will follow in close proximity with slates but also notebooks.
At the moment, there’s no information on when these tablets/notebooks will be made available in the US or in Europe, but they will make it shortly after being launched in China.
Intel is apparently successfully continuing its attack on ARM-based SoC makers like Allwinner, Rockchip and MediaTek, which in the last years have bloomed thanks to having their solutions implemented in low-cost tablets.
