No doubt aiming to take some of the metaphorical ‘Fire’ away from Amazon’s impending tablet, a new 7-inch Android tablet has just been revealed for $179.
A company called Leader International, which has tried to carve out a niche in the low-cost tablet market, has announced the Impression 7.
It’s a 7-inch tablet with a 1 GHz processor, 512 MB of RAM, 4 GB of built-in storage, and ports for USB and microSD connections.
Those specifications put it in line with the upcoming Kindle Fire, but there’s one very important detail that doesn’t. The Impression 7 will run Android 2.2, rather than the tablet-optimized 3.0.
Nevertheless, Leader International is hoping to ride those Kindle Fire coattails. Amazon is going to drum up excitement for the entire tablet industry this holiday season, which is good news for all Android manufacturers, regardless of whether or not they plan to specifically compete with the Kindle Fire.
As for the Impression 7, or I7, Leader International boasted in its press release, “Unlike other popular tablets, the I7 allows for additional memory and delivers more functionality with an SD slot and USB port.”
The I7 will launch in “early November,” just in time to go head to head with the Kindle Fire. A larger 10-inch version of the device is also planned for the same time frame, with a retail price of $349.
