Windows 8 Tablets Showed Off In IFA 2014: Microsoft to Take On Android?

Cheap tablets are shown at IFA, Acer and Toshiba are just some of the companies that announced its new cheap tablets that run on Windows 8 OS. These tablets are reportedly to have fairly low specs to sport a 7 or 8-inch screen and most of these tablets might run on Intel Atom (Bay Trail) SoC, according to ExtremeTech. Having the new tablets at a cheap price, Microsoft hopes to attract more consumers.

The Iconia Tab 8 by Acer is reported to sport an 8-inch 1280×800 display, to be released by October at the price of $150. The Encore Mini by Toshiba is reported to be the first small-screen Windows tablet to be announced at IFA, according to ExtremTech. Encore Mini is expected to sport a 7-inch (1024×600) screen, quad-core Bay Trail (Atom Z3735G) SoC, 1GB of RAM and 16GB of storage. ExtremeTech reports that the early leaks on Encore Mini suggests that its screen has bad viewing angles and for its connectivity, Encore Mini has a support for microSD, USB 2.0 port, bluetooth 4.0 support and WiFi. It is expected to have front and rear facing cameras. Of course, since it is reported to run on Windows 8.1, it is expected to come with the pre-loaded apps by Windows. These apps include a year of subscription to Office 365 Persona, 1TB of OneDrive storage. The device can now be purchased at $120 and it will be shipped after a couple of weeks, according to the report.

ExtremTech adds that HP could also announce its Stream 7, a 7-inch (1280×800) Windows 8.1 tablet at IFA and it might cost around $150 as well. A 7 or 8-inch tablet is also expected from Dell.

These cheap Windows 8.1 devices are interesting especially now that Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1 are offered for free for all devices that have 8-inch or smaller screen display. These devices could possibly match the cost of Android devices that was more popular for most tablet users for quite a while now. ExtremeTech believes that these tablets may not make Windows the better OS than Android but having these tablets at a low price could somehow lure consumers to take a look at it before opting to buy Android tablets. The report also notes that these are full flat version of Windows 8, so if users want to use the desktop feature, it can just grab a bluetooth mouse, keyboard and maybe some external hard drive and it could turn into a cheap yet productive device.