In the past couple of years Asus have done an amazing job with their 7″ tablets, most notably the Nexus 7 2012 and 2013 versions, as well as their Memo series. All offer amazing value and great performance for a bargain basement price. Their 2015 offerings to the tablet world have just passed through the FCC with some interesting details.
Combining the leaks from the FCC and the uber-reliable Russian websites (/s) it appears that there will be a new ZenPad series, featuring at a minimum a 7in and an 8in tablet. The ASUS ZenPad 7 (Z170C) will apparently be similar to the 7in Memo series where the specs are low end, most likely to hit a low price point. The ZenPad 7 will follow the lead of it’s cousin the ZenFone 2 and will be powered by an Intel Atom of unknown variety. It will only have 1GB of RAM and have storage options of 8 and 16GB. The display resolution is a disappointing 1024×600 and it will come in both black and white versions with there also being a 3G version available.
The ZenPad 8 is obviously the 8in version has a higher display resolution of 2048×1536 and once again sports an Intel processor. The ZenPad 8 comes in an arrange of storage options, 8/16/32 and 64GB, all with 2GB of RAM.
It seems that once again ASUS are aiming for the bargain tablet market with lower end specs on their tablets.The tablets are expected to be announced at Computex early next month, with a release to market coming soon after in July.
Does this seem to be a successor to anyone’s aging Nexus 7 or are the specs just not up to par for a 2015 device?
My nexus 7 is still going strong, but I also bought a nexus 9 recently.
1024×600 on a 7in tablet does not cut it.
On the bargain to mid, 1280×720 should be the minimum screen res, with 1280×800 preferred low end.
Mid to high, 1920×1080 should be the minimum, with 1920×1200 being the preferred low end.
16:10 ratio screens as the preferred low end, means you don’t lose effective screenestate with the notification bar and on screen controls.