Acer's 7-inch Iconia B1 Android is officially out and retailed for a low-price tag of $US150, the device manufacturers said in a released statement on Monday.

The announcement confirmed earlier reports that Acer is joining the growing cheap-tablet segment, further crowding an industry segment that is welcomed by global consumers due to widening options of capable but reasonably-priced slates.

However, the official price of $US150 listed by Acer on its press release contradicted floating speculations that the Asian firm plans to make the global tablet competition more interesting by pushing down the product's unit price. It was reported that the Iconia B1 will be priced at $US99, which turned out a bit too low for Acer's marketing plans.

Nonetheless, $US150 remains more attractive when compared to the latest Iconia's market rivals. Google's Nexus 7 starts at $US200, Apple's iPad Mini at $US329 while the price of Amazon's Kindle Fire HD now ranges between $US159 and $US199.

It may appear that the Iconia B1 is the lowest priced in its class but looking on the specs provided by Acer, consumers will naturally get what they will pay for - decent but not too powerful hardware features.

According to Acer, this budget tablet will sport a WSVGA screen display with a screen resolution of 1024 by 600. Powering this brick is a dual core 1.2GHz processor supplied by MediaTek, which will work with a not-too generous RAM of 512MB. Clearly, not too much multi-tasking is welcomed on Acer's new tablet offering.

Internal storage is a bit anaemic too, only 8GB, with some already occupied by the Android JellyBean 4.1 that will be deployed with the device. It's a good thing that Acer allowed a provision for memory expansion, courtesy of the microSD slot.

Per Acer's official release, other features include the following:

- Wireless connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth wireless technology 4.0 and GPS

- 3.5mm headset/headphone/microphone jack

- Internal speaker

- microSDTM expansion slot with up to 32GB support

- Front-facing 0.3-megapixel webcam

- Rechargeable 2,710 mAh battery

- micro-USB (charging and PC connect) with USB 2.0

- Dimensions: 197.4 mm x 128.5 mm x 11.3 mm

- Weight: 320 g

As previously indicated by Acer, "the Iconia B1 is an affordable entry level device to the wide family of Acer products and is designed for everyday usage."

"At 7 inches - the same size as a standard book page - the display is comfortable for e-reading, web browsing, playing games and watching videos," the company added.