Walmart is planning to launch a low-cost, kid-friendly tablet under its ONN brand that will reportedly be the first tablet not by Samsung and Huawei to be powered by Android 9.0 Pie.
Walmart confirmed that the tablet is in the works through spokeswoman Tara House, though she declined to reveal further details to Bloomberg. The device, which is said to be part of a broader redesign of Walmart’s electronics department, will be manufactured by a Chinese supplier.
The price and release date of the low-cost ONN tablet has not yet been revealed, but Federal Communications Commission (FCC) documentation showed an 8-inch device with what looks to be a matte plastic body and a speaker at the back. The tablet will also have both a front-facing and a rear-facing camera.
XDA-Developers’ Mishaal Rahman leaked the specifications of the Walmart tablet in early March, claiming that the device will be the first tablet outside of Samsung and Huawei to be powered by Android 9.0 Pie, the latest version of Google’s mobile operating system.
Rahman claimed that the tablet will be powered by the MediaTek MT8163 processor, with 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of expandable storage. The device will reportedly also feature an 8-inch display, a micro USB port, and a 3,500 mAh battery. Rahman recently added that Walmart will also launch a 10-inch version of the tablet.
The specifications that Rahman leaked remain unconfirmed, as Walmart has not made an official announcement for the tablet. The FCC documentation hints that the tablet’s launch is not too far away though, so interested customers will likely not have to wait long to purchase the device.
The ONN tablet will be Walmart’s latest attempt at establishing itself in the electronics space, after the gaming PCs and laptops that were released last year under the Overpowered brand. The computers received negative reviews, largely due to cost-cutting measures internally.
Walmart’s kid-friendly tablet,meanwhile, will be on the opposite end of the budget compared to the Overpowered computers. The device will compete not with Apple’s iPad, but rather with Amazon’s Fire tablets. Walmart’s version will run on Android, which may give the ONN tablet an advantage over its Amazon Fire OS-powered competitors.
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