It’s called the MediaPad T3 7, and it checks all the boxes for the bare minimum for an Android tablet, while offering a few surprising benefits. For one, the whole thing is crafted from anodized aluminum, which is somewhat surprising for a sub-$100 tablet. And although the device only comes with 16GB of onboard storage, you have the ability to expand that up to 128GB with a MicroSD card.
In other respects, the MediaPad T3 7 is about what you’d expect. The device sports a 7-inch IPS display with a resolution of 1024 x 600, and is powered by a MediaTek MT8127 quad-core processor along with 1GB of RAM. Spec-wise, it’s perfectly on par with another popular budget tablet, Amazon’s Fire 7 — which, coincidentally, was also refreshed today.
Huawei’s tablet features front and rear 2-megapixel cameras, which will make do for video chatting, and a 3,100mAh battery. The company doesn’t elaborate as to how many hours users can expect to get out of a single charge, but the outgoing Amazon Fire 7 managed about 7 hours on a 2,980mAh cell, so expect it to fall somewhere in that ballpark.
Comparisons between the MediaPad T3 7 and Fire 7 will inevitably be drawn, and they stack up quite favorably. The Fire 7 starts at $30 less, but only offers 8GB of storage. Bump that up to 16GB, and you’re paying $70.
There is also the issue of operating systems: Amazon’s devices run on a forked version of Android, which means you’ll miss out on Google apps as well as the Play Store. If you are heavily invested in Amazon’s ecosystem, are a Prime member, or use Alexa frequently, this may be a trade-off you’re willing to make.
Conversely, the MediaPad T3 7 runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow which, while not the most current version of Google’s operating system, provides access to far more software.
The MediaPad T3 7 is not yet listed as available for shipping online, but you can pick it up at brick-and-mortar Walmart locations right now.
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