Amazon To Release $50 Tablet?

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You would think that a $50 tablet would just eat into Amazon's Fire and Fire HD tablet sales.

The Seattle online retailer plans to release a $50 tablet with a 6-inch screen, in time for this year’s holidays, according to people familiar with the matter. That would make it one of the least-expensive tablets on the market and half the price of the company’s current Fire HD 6-inch tablet.
 
the-one1 said:
And it will perform like $50 tablet
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That's fine. A $50 tablet these days isn't too much of a slouch. Use it for Amazon streaming video, Kindle books, email, web, casual games... It's perfect.

I'd be in for one. If it's possible to root and put a custom ROM on there, even better. Stock still looks like it could be a great tablet. Simple, not a lot to do with it, but it'll do that job well. It's no iPad or Surface, but it's $50. If it's stolen or broken, you're out $50...
 
my firesticktv is under 50 and its pretty good for video watching.
 
Ur_Mom said:
That's fine. A $50 tablet these days isn't too much of a slouch. Use it for Amazon streaming video, Kindle books, email, web, casual games... It's perfect.

I'd be in for one. If it's possible to root and put a custom ROM on there, even better. Stock still looks like it could be a great tablet. Simple, not a lot to do with it, but it'll do that job well. It's no iPad or Surface, but it's $50. If it's stolen or broken, you're out $50...
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I wouldn't go as far as say reading on a back lit display is perfect, not even close really, but yeah it will probably perform just fine. Times are changing and $50 will most likely deliver a satisfactory performance.
 
This is what I use a tablet for: E-mail, surfing, e-book, streaming NPR, and watching movies in a pinch. The 2013 N7 handles those tasks with ease and it was $200. I don't care for the Amazon UI but if it can handle simple games, $50 dollars would make it a no brainer for first timers and children. I would not hesitate to say that it also might be subsidized by Amazon, meaning more bang for your buck.
 
It's probably to replace the Kindle Paperwhite. Those are expensive to produce compared to tablets now.
 
My biggest issue with cheap tablets, really, is screen quality. Even the cheaper and even older SoC's can handle what I use them for (browsing the web and video playback) so I can have a tablet that basically uses whatever. Problem I have are these cheap tablets using crappy TN panels with a 1024x600 resolution that if viewed +.01 degree in any direction causes the screen to look like a chalk board or piece of white paper.

Not to mention that in the day of HD phone screens and me having a 4K monitor etc that lower resolution screen is a lot more apparent. Hell even my Samsung Tab Pro 12.2 with it's 2560x1600 screen can be an eyesore sometimes simply from it's not-so-good PenTile matrix display.

Either way, for those that don't care or don't know any better then $50 is a damn good price!
 
dgingeri said:
It's probably to replace the Kindle Paperwhite. Those are expensive to produce compared to tablets now.
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This is not going to happen. Period. Kindles sell BECAUSE they're e-ink displays. Not just because they're cheaper than a lot of tablets. People who buy Kindles want the e-ink, else they wouldn't buy them.
 
Mut1ny said:
This is not going to happen. Period. Kindles sell BECAUSE they're e-ink displays. Not just because they're cheaper than a lot of tablets. People who buy Kindles want the e-ink, else they wouldn't buy them.
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True. I have an iPad, and it's great for everything. The Kindle is great for books - easy on the eyes, great battery life, very portable and a nice device. It was super cheap, too (wife wanted one, but she never used it so it's mine now!).
 
I hope they leave this tablet crackable so an updated Android can be installed like Cyanogen. Or at least release a jailbreak when support is abandoned.

Annoying when I bought an Asus tablet in 2014 only to find out that not only were zero updates ever issued for it, but I am now stuck with an obsolete OS and a clear "no" from Asus when asking about updates and future security fixes.

The most annoying part is no way to jailbreak the thing and load a custom ROM. Too many electronic components are built to be replaced too fast.
 
It's only a 6" screen, so $50 seems like an ok price.

I'd rather spend a bit more ($99) and get something bigger like the 8" WinBook.
8" 1280x800 screen, 32GB flash, 2GB ram, quad core, and it runs Windows.
They even have a 7" version for $59, close the price of this smaller amazon tablet.
 
BlueMeanie said:
I hope they leave this tablet crackable so an updated Android can be installed like Cyanogen. Or at least release a jailbreak when support is abandoned.
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Unlikely. Would make no business sense for Amazon to allow this on a subsidized device designed to keep you in their ecosystem.
 
nutzo said:
It's only a 6" screen, so $50 seems like an ok price.

I'd rather spend a bit more ($99) and get something bigger like the 8" WinBook.
8" 1280x800 screen, 32GB flash, 2GB ram, quad core, and it runs Windows.
They even have a 7" version for $59, close the price of this smaller amazon tablet.
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Those tablets are garbage for many things people want to do one a tablet.

Source: Had the cheap HP and Winbook tablets.
 
They sell them at a loss, hoping they will earn it back when you use the amazon app store, see Amazon ads and bjy Amazon books.

Not worth the tradeoff for me.

I'd buy one of these if - and only if - it were hackable and I could put Cyanogenmod on it.

Sure, that would take advantage of Amazon's Print Cartridge/ Razor Blade business model, but that's the risk they take when doing this.
 
Mut1ny said:
My biggest issue with cheap tablets, really, is screen quality. Even the cheaper and even older SoC's can handle what I use them for (browsing the web and video playback) so I can have a tablet that basically uses whatever. Problem I have are these cheap tablets using crappy TN panels with a 1024x600 resolution that if viewed +.01 degree in any direction causes the screen to look like a chalk board or piece of white paper.

Not to mention that in the day of HD phone screens and me having a 4K monitor etc that lower resolution screen is a lot more apparent. Hell even my Samsung Tab Pro 12.2 with it's 2560x1600 screen can be an eyesore sometimes simply from it's not-so-good PenTile matrix display.

Either way, for those that don't care or don't know any better then $50 is a damn good price!
Click to expand...

The problem with high resolutions is that you just end up having to scale stuff in order to make it visible...something that's gonna have to happen if you go 4k on like a 6 inch screen. That basically means you're not really taking advantage of the resolution to begin with AND accepting a power penalty by having to ramp up backlight power in order to push through the much smaller pixels while also demanding a higher workload for every single task from the video processor to achieve...well, achieve nothing since you're scaling anywho.

I think the problem with your thought is that people equate lower resolutions with low display quality so one of the reasons why they mistakenly rattle their little cages for high resolution is because they equate that to a display that's better in ways totally unrelated to resolution. It's cool though, a loooot of people have started doing that since Apple kinda started to lead the pointlessly high resolution for e-peen charge in the consumer electronics market.
 
I don't think its large enough. What you have a nice phablet for the kids really. Pocket-able tablet filled with left over Fire Phone electronic components. Probably have a deal to connect to someone's hotspots like AT&T or xfinitywifi.
 
CreepyUncleGoogle said:
if you go 4k on like a 6 inch screen.
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Woah...you are taking things way in the outfield. I'm talking like 1080p or so and IPS. Considering it's only 6 inches then even 1024x600 is "acceptable" as long as it's quality enough.

4K? Goddamn...
 
Mut1ny said:
Woah...you are taking things way in the outfield. I'm talking like 1080p or so and IPS. Considering it's only 6 inches then even 1024x600 is "acceptable" as long as it's quality enough.

4K? Goddamn...
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Eeek sorry! *cringe* I kinda caught the resolution of other screens and was like "OMG 4k! Whhhhyyyyy?!" Yeah, 1024x600 would probably be fine if it was a decent IPS panel. Even some TN stuff isn't horrible as long as its like reasonably calibrated and doesn't have gaps between the various layers.
 
ocellaris said:
Those tablets are garbage for many things people want to do one a tablet.

Source: Had the cheap HP and Winbook tablets.
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My Winbook works fine for reading the paper (on-line), streaming shows off my HTPC, occasional web browsing, and connecting to the office when I don't have a regular PC handy. Since it runs Windows, I can run almost anything I run on my PC. Even used it to review some medical CT scans, as the software provided with the disk was Windows based (just copied the ISO image over from another PC). Much easier than dragging the laptop along. Added a 64GB micro sd card, so it has 96GB of available storage.

Plus, the quad core Atom is faster than my old overclocked P4 (3.8Ghz) I had years ago, that I could use to heat my house in the winter :)

Now if you are referring to the 7" Winbook, you might have a point as it only comes with half the ram and flash which limits it's usefulness.
 
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