If you’re looking for a cheap new tablet, you may want to take a look at MetroPCS’s latest offering. It’s the Alcatel OneTouch Pop 7, and it’s being sold for $150 without a contract, from October 24. Even if you’re not familiar with Alcatel’s range, you’ve probably guessed the slate has a 7-inch screen. It’s also powered by a dual-core 1.3GHz MediaTek processor with 1GB of RAM.
The Pop 7 is equipped with cellular connectivity and can connect to an HSPA+ network, which MetroPCS offers through T-Mobile. There is a special offer associated with the OneTouch Pop 7, where a $5 discount is applied to the network’s monthly tablet tariffs, so they cost $10, $20, or $30 per month. They all provide unlimited data, and are differentiated by how much high speed access you get. The $10 per month option means the first 1GB will be fast HSPA+ data, then 3GB for $20, and 5GB on the most expensive $30 plan. The catch is, to get the special prices, you need to have a MetroPCS phone account already.
How about the tablet? It’s a basic model, so the 7-inch screen has a 1024 x 600 pixel resolution, and 5-point multi-touch, while there’s only 8GB of built-in storage space. There is a MicroSD card slot though, and it can add up to 32GB of additional memory. On the back of the tablet is a 2-megapixel camera, plus there’s a VGA camera on the front for pixelated video calls. The battery promises to return 8 hours of continuous use on a single charge.
While the specs aren’t anything to get excited about, it’s easy to forgive it thanks to the low price and HSPA+ connectivity, but it’s very unfortunate that Android 4.2 Jelly Bean is the standard operating system. If you’re used to modern Android hardware running KitKat, or even Android 4.3, going back to 4.2 is a shock.
The Alcatel OneTouch Pop 7 tablet should be on sale through MetroPCS right now.
