Two more budget Android devices have been released recently and though neither of them blow the current flagships out of the water, both offer great value for money. The first is a basic smartphone running Android, the Pantech “Marauder”, which is being released on Verizon and the other is a tablet by Archos, runs ICS and is priced at only $250. However, it is in the league of the iPad, and not a 7” device like the Nexus 7.
The first device, the Pantech Marauder is going to be available on Verizon to both existing and new customers to smartphones and it appears to be a pretty good deal. The device is going to feature two user interface modes under a dual interface option, which features a standard mode and a starter mode. The starter mode is going to have limited home screens, 4 in number and the widgets are preset and are laid out in an uncluttered fashion. On the other hand, the standard mode is the default Android experience and will feature seven home screens and the regular customization options. The Marauder may be priced quite low at $49.99 with a two year contract but it is quite power packed with a 1.2GHz dual core processor and 1GB of RAM. Moreover, it has 4G LTE connectivity, making one of the lower priced options for LTE access.
Coming to the tablet, the Archos 97 Carbon is an ICS tablet designed to compete with the iPad in terms of performance, design and price. It has a 9.7” screen, similar to the iPad and features a resolution of 1024×768, which is the iPad 2 screen resolution. On the inside, the tablet features 16GB of internal storage and 1GB of RAM. Though the nature of the processor is unknown right now, it is likely to be a moderately powerful device. The tablet comes with a reasonable set of features such as a HDMI out port and a full size USB port to interface devices easily. Pricing is quite good at $250 and as an introductory offer, it is available for $230, which is quite a steal.
Cheaper Android phones and tablets are quite aplenty from lesser known manufacturers but they are yet to make a dent in the armor of Apple’s dominance in the tablet industry, which as a whole revolves around the iPad.
