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CES 2012: Nvidia and Asus lift lid on $249 7-inch Tegra 3-powered tablet

China the focus for Ice Cream Sandwich device

CES 2012: Nvidia and Asus lift lid on $249 7-inch Tegra 3-powered tablet
If nothing else, Amazon's Kindle Fire has helped re-establish the boundaries when it comes to tablet pricing.

Where once manufacturers were praised for simply matching iPad's RRP, now they're being encouraged to heavily undercut it.

As such, the latest 7-inch Android-powered tablet from Asus – unveiled at Nvidia's press splash at CES 2012 – will launch at $249: not quite the $199 price point cornered by Amazon, but certainly very competitive given its tech specs. 

Power play

The MeMO, or perhaps the ME370T (no one seems entirely sure, as MeMO was the same name Asus gave its Qualcomm 1.2GHz dual-core tablet in 2011) will sport Nvidia's quad-core Tegra 3 processor, as well as the latest version of Android, dubbed Ice Cream Sandwich.

Engadget also reports the tablet will feature an 8MP camera, though no such specs were mentioned during the unveiling itself.

Crucially, by packing Nvidia's latest chipset, it will also out perform Kindle Fire by some distance, yet won't require consumers to part with all too many more dollars to see the benefit.

China in its hands

"Dressed in a trademark short-sleeve black shirt, Jen-Hsun noted that tablets have already been morphing to meet different, specialised, needs," Nvidia said of the tablet's unveiling.

"Sony's unique Tablet P, featuring a folding design with dual 5.5-inch screens, has found a core following in Japan. Designers like pen-input tablets, such as the Lenovo IdeaPad. And in China, seven-inch tablets are the rage.

"That's likely to be a key market for a new Tegra 3-based seven-incher announced at the press conference by Asus CEO Jerry Shen, who also came to the stage."

MeMO (or ME370T) will launch in North America during Q2 2012.

[source: Nvidia]

With a fine eye for detail, Keith Andrew is fuelled by strong coffee, Kylie Minogue and the shapely curve of a san serif font.