Freescale Smartbook Tablet for under $200

Freescale may be on the verge of setting a new trend, somewhat like when ASUS began the netbook fad a some time in 2008. Freescale has just designed a tablet that can be manufactured at a cost of $199. However, manufacturers may inadvertently price it differently according to their own customizations and changes. They claim that the design can enable manufacturers to market the product in as low as 6 months.

This tablet is reported to sport a 1Ghz ARM Cortex A8 design and six other co-processors inside (FPU, DSP, img processing, 2D graphics, 3G graphics, HD video decode). It has a 7″ resistive touch screen. If manufacturers see fit, they could install a better capacitive touchscreen, but that would undoubtedly drive up the costs. It has various connectivity features, among them are an optional 3G modem, 802.11 b/g/n and Bluetooth 2.1. Storage solutions include a 4-64GB internal storage, a microSD slot and 512MB RAM. It also features GPS, USB, audio ports, SIM card, speaker, microphone, 3-megapixel webcam, 1900 mAh battery, accelerometer and light sensor. This sounds a little too good to be true for a sub-$200 tablet, but then again not all features may be incorporated into the tablet to keep the price low. According to Freescale’s own tests, it can run for up to 12 hours with WiFi and the display on 80% brightness. This places the tablet somewhere between smartphones and netbooks, but the important question is how will consumers respond to this new category of product?

Via [Ubergizmo] Via [Gizmodo]