14 DAY TRIAL // A few weeks ago, we told you that Amazon was trying to make a comeback into the hardware world with a really low-cost tablet which, according to sources, would be priced at around $50 / €45.
If the information turns out to be true, Amazon will release a 6-inch tablet that will cost less than anything we have seen come out of the retail giant so far.
Currently, the cheapest tablet that Amazon is offering is the Fire HD, which bears double the price. Even its lowest Kindle eReader model can be bought for $79 / €70. But with the next hardware endeavor, the retail giant is looking to push the bar even lower.
The earlier report didn’t have much to say about internal specifications, but we don’t expect the upcoming Amazon tablet to come with advanced specs, on the contrary. And if you’re curious, the folks at Win Future have come across a GFXBench listing detailing a future Amazon device which we assume is the upcoming super affordable tablet.
What will Amazon deliver for 50 bucks?
So how is Amazon planning to cut costs so much? By doing away with a lot of specs, naturally. If the details included in the database are accurate, Amazon’s cheapest tablet to date will come with a 6.7-inch display (or perhaps they mean 6-inch or 7-inch?) with 1024 x 600 pixel resolution.
Under the hood lies a quad-core MediaTek MT8127 Cortex-A7 processor with Mali-450 graphics, working in combination with 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage.
The slate also features a 2MP rear camera plus a 0.3MP frontal one. Even if the listing doesn’t specify anything about this, we’re pretty sure the budget device won’t come equipped with a microSD card slot, 802.11n Wi-Fi or Bluetooth 4.0.
Last but not least, GFXBench says the tablet runs Android 5.1 Lollipop, but what it probably means is that Amazon will ship it out with Fire OS 5 which is based on this Android build.
To compare, the $99 / €87 Fire HD 6 tablet arrived with a 6-inch display with 1280 x 800 pixel resolution, a MediaTek MT8135 processor with PowerVR G6200 graphics, plus 1GB of RAM and either 8GB or 16GB of storage (no microSD card slot). The cameras are the same as for Amazon’s upcoming budget slate.