Asus rumored to release yet another Nexus 7-like budget tablet

Asus - the Taiwanese manufacturer of the Google tablet - is rumored to launch yet another 7-inch, inexpensive tablet for the budged-minded consumer. According to slashgear, the new tablet (code name ME371MG) will be running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, feature an Intel Atom Z2420 single-core processor, a 7-inch IPS display with a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels, 1 GB RAM, 8, 16, or 32 GB of flash storage, and a microSD card slot. The device is unlikely to approach the performance of the Nexus 7, so the price point is going to be crucial for its success. As of this writing, Asus has yet to comment on the pricing or even availability of the tablet.

To make matters more confusing, Asus recently also announced the MeMo Pad 7, a cheaper Nexus 7-lookalike, featuring a 1GHz VIA WM8950 CPU, 1GB of RAM, and 8GB or 16GB of storage. According to pocket-lint, the MeMo Pad will retail for $149 and launch in the US in April.

It remains to be seen if any of the new tablets are going to be able to challenge Google's 7-inch low-cost tablet in any way. There is no question that the Nexus 7 has been a huge success: after the initial release, supply could simply not keep up with the demand. When we reviewed the tablet last August, we were very happy with the overall package - especially at a price point of under 200 USD.

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