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Android Businesses Technology

Walmart Debuts Three Sub-$100 Tablets With Google Services (bloomberg.com) 115

Walmart is rolling out three Android-powered tablets this week, all priced under $100. From a report: The devices, under Walmart's Onn store brand, include an 8-inch version for $64, a 10.1-inch model for $79 and one at the same larger size with a detachable keyboard for $99, the retailer said in an email Monday. All have Google's Android operating system, 16 gigabytes of storage and promise 5.5 hours of use before a charge is needed. The new gadgets are part of Walmart's broader push to revitalize its electronics section and, if successful, could provide a jolt to the sluggish tablet market, which declined in 2018, according to data tracker Strategy Analytics.
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Walmart Debuts Three Sub-$100 Tablets With Google Services

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  • by pecosdave ( 536896 ) on Thursday May 23, 2019 @11:16AM (#58642256) Homepage Journal

    They've even taken over classically good names and used those to push shit.

    My dad contacted me in November or so for advice on a new, cheap tablet. I advised him to go to Best Buy and get a Fire, or Barnes and Noble for their Samsung answer to the Fire which was probably better.

    He went to Walmart because it was closer and bought an RCA that cost a bit more than the other two.

    Absolute shit.

    It's sluggish, has a resisistive touch-screen with old-school shitty sharpness. RCA used to be a good brand, but the old RCA apparently doesn't exist anymore.

    Walmart has some convincing to do before I'll buy their stuff. The Amazon stuff is no-name under the hood, but quality. The Barnes and Noble stuff is straight-up Samsung. Granted, the Amazon versions are handicapped and need hacking to get a good store and interface, but that's doable. If they want to beat quality, they had better have a lot more than price to go on when quality is available cheap.

    • Let us not forget Walrmarts "gaming pc" which they named "Overpowered"

      Gamers Nexus [youtube.com] did a nice review of these. The title of the video is "Walmart Gaming PC: How to Do Everything Wrong"
    • walmart is obviously planning to take a byte of the amazon apple. will need something competitive with kindle.

      one thing that attracts me is it wont have the limitations of the silk browser

    • On the other hand, find a non-smart 4k TV other than the 'Sceptre' Walmart housebrand.

      Truth: Last I looked Fry's had the same TV (branded Silo) for a little more money.

      It's not terrible, QC is shit, but if you get a bad one, just take it to the nearest store. Speakers suck, but they all do.

      • On the other hand, find a non-smart 4k TV other than the 'Sceptre' Walmart housebrand.

        All TVs are non-smart by default. The smart features only work if you explicitly enable them and enter your WiFi password.

    • I didn't even know RCA made tablets. If I'm buying a "transistor radio" or blank cassettes, I expect those to be quality RCA products. If I heard RCA had an electric sedan out, I wouldn't expect it to be good.
      • I didn't even know RCA made tablets

        They don't. Some Chinese tablet-manufacturer licensed the name, and for a buck-a-tablet (or whatever) they get to slap "RCA" on their gadget and on the box.

        Grandpas with fond memories of the Radio Corporation of America then buy the tablet, thinking it must be good.

        • I think RCA's one of those brand names that has survived its company--wasn't it one of the ones that actually died as its own company back in '09 or so?
          • wasn't it one of the ones that actually died as its own company back in '09 or so?

            Earlier than that...

            From -

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

            In 1986, RCA was reacquired by General Electric, which over the next few years liquidated most of the corporation's assets. Today, RCA exists as a brand name only; the various RCA trademarks are currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment and Technicolor, which in turn license the brand name to several other companies including Voxx International, Curtis

            • Thanks! I knew it'd been long enough to be pretty meaningless. I'm also not sure this practice is actually going to survive long-term, not with the tendency for later owners to not seem to care much about maintaining the brand's value long-term.
    • They've even taken over classically good names and used those to push shit.

      I hope you're not thinking of Packard Bell?

      RCA used to be a good brand, but the old RCA apparently doesn't exist anymore.

      Ye gods, man, where have you been since the late 70's? Since the mid 80's RCA has existed only as a licensed brand name to whoever pays Sony a fee.

    • by leonbev ( 111395 )

      At least the Walmart stuff has Google Play Store support, though. The Kindle Fire tablets do not, and their selection of application kinda sucks in certain areas.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • From what I see, it's an Amazon Fire competitor that runs Android 9 instead of a bastardized Android 4.4 that can't easily be made to access the Play Store. And it's about the same price. That's a winner in my book.

      My kid has the Fire 8 and is on her second year of solid use from it. Yes, it is slow - painfully at times. It also hangs up and sometimes has an audio stream play forever even when you launch new ones. Cycling the power fixes it.

      But, her Fire 8 runs Netflix, plays videos, and plays a few educati

    • by TheSync ( 5291 )

      RCA used to be a good brand, but the old RCA apparently doesn't exist anymore.

      RCA branded tablets manufactured by Alco Electronics Ltd. [phys.org]

      The RCA Corporation you knew in your youth was purchased by General Electric in 1986 and its various divisions and assets were then liquidated.

    • by kriston ( 7886 )

      The Amazon Fire HD line of tablets are not "no-name under the hood." They are designed by Amazon and manufactured by Quanta.

      The first-generation Amazon Kindle Fire (without the "HD") was designed by Quanta for Amazon.

      • I have to say for $50 you're getting some nice hardware, your $50 worth anyways. I don't much care for the Amazon eco-system and software. For instance my wife purchased some additional levels of a Thomas the Train game for my son to use on a tablet locked into kid-mode. Since it's logged in as him and not me, the stupid levels aren't there. SO of course my wife logs the thing in as me so he has the levels (she keeps asking me for support but refuses to call Amazon like I told her). My son proceeds to

  • by turp182 ( 1020263 ) on Thursday May 23, 2019 @11:33AM (#58642352) Journal

    The article in the post is crap. The subject itself is the complete thing.

    Here's a URL with specs, I've copy/pasted some of it below:
    https://www.slashgear.com/walm... [slashgear.com]

    Looks decent for kids or just internet and Kindle reading.

    In terms of specs, the Walmart Onn tablets are nothing really to write home about. Both models run on an unnamed 1.3 GHz processor with 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of expandable storage. The 0.3 megapixel front camera and 2 megapixel rear camera might as well be non-existent. The 8-inch and 10.1-inch models differ only in size and, presumably, battery size but both have 1280Ã--800 resolutions.

    • The 0.3 megapixel front camera and 2 megapixel rear camera might as well be non-existent.

      A 2 megapixel camera is 1080p... They apparently have some pretty high expectations for a sub $100 tablet.

    • Thanks for the link. Seems like a a decent package for the money. My laptop spends most of its time web browsing, I could see replacing it with one of these.
    • by Gojira Shipi-Taro ( 465802 ) on Thursday May 23, 2019 @12:19PM (#58642690) Homepage

      So absolute garbage even by the standards of 5 years ago. Sounds like Walmart. They'll sell a ton of them to their clueless rube customer base.

    • >"Here's a URL with specs, I've copy/pasted some of it below:
      https://www.slashgear.com/walm [slashgear.com]... [slashgear.com]"

      They still don't tell you that the screen is most probably PLASTIC and not glass. That, alone, is a huge no-no. It will be unresponsive and scratched to hell in no time flat.

      Even the lowest-end Amazon Fire still has a glass screen.

      • We need better specs, the cameras are stupid, shouldn't have been included if they are that bad.

  • Crysis? (Score:4, Funny)

    by xanthos ( 73578 ) <[xanthos] [at] [toke.com]> on Thursday May 23, 2019 @11:38AM (#58642372)
    So, do you think they can run Crysis? (had to ask)
  • With Google Services? Unlike Huawei's future devices, eh? Cool
  • bought 3 years ago for $99, has a 10 inch screen, 16GB storage, and 10 hour battery life, surprise it is also an Android tablet. Although it appears they dropped their Insignia Tablet line because I can't find them on their site, but thanks for trying.
  • ...Walmart to produce yet another line of electronic very-soon-to-be-landfill.

    I foolishly bought a Walmart own-brand USB thumb drive. It failed within 2 weeks & I lost all the data on it. Luckily, I didn't trust it and used it to only transfer copies of data. Now it's landfill (I doubt the local recycling service does anything more than export it to a developing country where it becomes landfill).

  • Seems to be a lot of posts dismissing these as being too cheap, insufficiently-flashy crap (and, to be fair, they kind of are from the sound of it).

    I'll still happily run out and buy an 8" model...just as soon as someone works out root access and a way to install LineageOS on them.

    Not exactly an HD gaming platform or anything, but strip out the Google bloat and everything I need and want from a tablet (casual reading, casual video, casual listening, web-browsing, etc.) will pretty much fly nicely on even th

  • Good luck! Nearly everybody who wants a tablet, already has one, or five. There are other several $100 options, including Amazon Fire ($40) and Insignia.

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