Matsunichi intros the affordable MarquisPad MP977 Android tablet in the US

Reportedly, the company formerly known as Le Pan is about to enter the US market under the Matsunichi name.  Furthermore the manufacturer will be releasing a new tablet, dubbed the MarquisPad MP977. According to the maker, the device will become commercially available in the United States in May of this year and will have a starting price of $249. 

The MP977 slate PC is equipped with an unspecified Texas Instruments central processing unit that incorporates two physical cores operating at a frequency of 1.2GHz. Moreover, the new MarquisPad sports a multitouch-enabled LED-backlit display that measures 9.7 inches in diagonal and offers a native resolution of 1024-by-768 pixels (132ppi).

Matsunichi claims their latest tablet houses 1GB of internal DDR2 memory and 2GB flash storage, which is presumably expandable by up to 32GB by utilizing the integrated microSD card reader slot. Users will be further provided with a couple of sensors (light & accelerometer), a front-facing VGA web camera for video chats, a 4000mAh battery pack that delivers an autonomy period of up to five hours, Wireless LAN 802.11 b/g and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR radios.

The product’s specs sheet also indicates the device is 0.49-inch thick, weighs 1.6lbs, runs an Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system and comes in three colours: black, silver and bronze.

In addition to the above mentioned MP977 slate, Matsunichi will reportedly soon release another two tablets under the MarquisPad Series, called MP1010 and MP979. The first features a 10.1-inch panel and a Dual-Core TI CPU, whereas the latter is pretty much identical to the MP977, except for a faster 1.5GHz TI processor and 8GB built-in storage.

Apparently, the MP1010 will hit the stores sometime this summer (July-August), while the MP979 will go on sale in August/September. Pricing details are yet to be announced.

Source(s)