Asda's flogging a 7-inch Medion Android tablet for £77
The Medion LifeTab E7310 probably won't win any awards for its performance, but apart from an unpromising screen it could well be a bargain.
Attention bargain hunters: Asda's got its bum-patting hands on a 7-inch Android tablet from Medion that it's selling for just £77, following up the £5 phone it launched last week.
Don't expect too much of the Medion LifeTab E7310. Its most obvious shortcoming is its low-res 1,024x600-pixel screen, which isn't hi-def (despite what Asda claims on its site) and has a miserable density of 170ppi.
Otherwise it's not half bad for so little cash -- dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, Wi-Fi (no 3G of course), a 2-megapixel camera on the back and a stone-age 0.3-megapixel camera on the front, for abysmal quality video calls. There's 8GB of storage, and helpfully a microSD card slot so you can add another 64GB.
It runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, which is now pretty ancient, and I wouldn't expect a KitKat update any time ever. But it does have full Google Play access, so you can download tonnes of apps and widgets. There are some basic office and drawing apps preinstalled too, but really this is aimed at people who just want to do email and Web browsing.
We're getting one in for review soon, so stay tuned to find out if it's worth £77 of your hard-earned. It'll be up against Argos' utterly horrible £100 Bush MyTablet and Tesco's kid-friendly £119 Hudl. It'll really have to be staggeringly bad to be worse than that Bush.
The best value sub-£150 7-inch tablet we've seen is the Asus Memo Pad HD 7, which has a genuine HD screen and a quad-core processor. With Apple's new iPad mini starting at £319, there are plenty of alternatives if you're not made of money.
The Medion LifeTab E7310 goes on sale in Asda stores on Friday 15 November, and limited stock is available direct from Asda now from this page. (Note: this is a slightly different tablet to this product, which confusingly has the same name, same price and is out of stock. Go to that first link.)
Have you spotted any other super-budget Android slates around? Are they worth a punt, or too basic to be much use? Every comment helps, either down below or over on our money-saving Facebook page.