14 DAY TRIAL // If you want to purchase a cheap Android or Windows tablet these days, you have a lot to choose from, as there’s a wide range of slates equipped with an Intel Atom processor that you can pick up for a bargain price.
But Intel feels the range of choice is not varied enough, so it's looking to make things easier for manufacturers looking to build a tablet from the grounds up.
IRDA is meant to make things easier for tablet makers
Some time ago, the chip giant announced the Intel Reference Design for Android (IRDA) which is basically a program that offers a list of officially supported hardware plus guaranteed software support.
Tablets based on the IRDA design will get a special treatment; for starters, they will be getting the latest version of Android in two weeks since Google makes the OS update available into the wild. So we can expect upcoming IRDA tablets to be among the first to come equipped with Android 5.0 Lollipop.
Well, one of the first IRDA tablets has made its way into the wild, coming in the form of the TrekStor SurfTab xintron i 7.0. It sure arrives with a kooky name and the company might benefit from thinking of more creative monikers for its upcoming products.
The TrekStor tablet might be among the first to arrive with Android 5.0
As you’ll notice in what follows, the tablet doesn't come equipped with mind-blowing features, but it’s a comfort to know it will be among the first to actually receive Android 5.0 Lollipop.
The device takes advantage of a 7-inch IPS display offering 1280 x 800 pixel resolution and of an Intel Atom Z3735G Bay Trail processor (oddly enough most Windows 8.1 with Bing tablets work with the same chip architecture), fitted with 1GB of RAM and backed up by just 8GB of internal storage.
In the photography department, we have a 5MP rear camera with autofocus and a 1.26MP front-facing camera. Other specifications include 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS and a microSDHC card slot.
The tablet is designed blending both metal and plastic and is 9mm / 0.35 inches thick. When it rolls out, the tablet should be equipped with Android 4.4 KitKat out of the box, but given that Android 5.0 Lollipop should make a wider debut this month, the tablet should be getting an update to the newest OS.
The tablet is currently listed with Amazon Germany, but it’s interestingly out of stock. When the item becomes available for purchase, it should sell for around €134 / $168, but we don’t really know if the tab will be accessible to those outside Europe.
