iLet Mini HAL Android Tablet: Half the Price of the iPad & None of the Limitations

iLet Mini HAL Android Tablet: Half the Price of the iPad & None of the Limitations: Let the Tablet Price Wars Begin - With Tablet PC's being all the rage, it is time for the price wars to begin, don't you think? Apple's iPad has driven the media's attention to the whole tablet concept in a very big way. Sadly, for Apple much of the press has centered on the hype, promise and reality that it (the iPad) will never "live up to the hype"

Starting with CeBIT earlier this year, different Asian manufacturers showed off a boatload of tablets. Many of which are coming in at prices that leave the door open for some questions about the prices of many of the "Trendier" offerings. Some prices are as low as the $95.00 tablet, and some are even lower. I mean think about it, a Tablet PC is a laptop with the keyboard removed. So it should be far less expensive that a laptop, right?

Well so far, the Big Apple has shown that this is not necessarily the case. The most notable competitor to the iPad is the HP Slate. It was recently mentioned on the internet that HP is planning on competing with the iPad on pricing. However, that still means that with laptops running as low as $399.00 both will be as costly or even more so than a comparable equivalent laptop. That just was not the point of the tablet was it?

Let Me Introduce...

Lets turn our attentions to just one of the "new kids on the block," a company called Haleron Technologies (Haleron.com) and their newest product, the iLet Mini Hal Android Tablet. The point of this article is the price issue, so a little about that first. The Haleron website is not shy about the pricing of this unit:

Price per Unit (piece):$229.00$199.00
The price for 1 to 4 units rests at $229 $199 a piece.
The price for 5 to 20 units is $199 a piece.
The price for 21 to 100 units is $189 a piece.
The price for 101 to 1000 units is $179 a piece.

This was a table, taken from the Haleron Technologies website (with written permission), shows they (Haleron) are a manufacturer of the tablets and these are the distributor prices. While right now they are marketing to the distributors, they will be more than happy to sell you, someone from the general public-anyone-one for $199. That's the bottom line price for anyone who wants one, not just the price the distributors will pay. The actual retail prices are yet to be determined when they finally come to market. Their Press Release is scheduled for March 26 2010. However, the price will never be any higher and may very well actually be lower. Some are actually saying the final prices could be as low as $159.00, depending on the distribution channel. Not bad, but is it worth it? As compared with what you are paying for an iPad and considering it's lack of features for its price, I think so. Let's look at some specs, and compare with the iPad, shall we?

A Look Under the iLet's Hood

The iLet mini HAL sports a 7-inch TFT LCD touch screen with 800 x480 resolution. Not quite as big as the iPad, but considering the price difference it is not bad. It comes with Ethernet, Wi-Fi out of the box and is 3G ready with an optional USB connector-yes it has USB ports-two of them! That bruises the Apple a little. It has 128MB of DDR2 RAM. OK, now that is not too shabby, but the iPad has not released details yet so we have no way of knowing about their memory, maybe a 128? Nevertheless, considering the price... The iLet comes with 2GB of built in storage, and is expandable to 32GB using flash memory, or up to 250GB through the USB ports (again- there's two of them -vs.- iPads none of them), and you also get 10GB of cloud storage free with the unit. Sweet; in fact, it is much sweeter than an Apple. It comes complete with full audio ports for speaker hookups, microphones and audio out. Pretty good, huh?

It Only Gets Better

As for battery life, the iLet only makes things better. It boasts 16 hours of active use with 72 hours standby power. The iLet runs on standard 3-volt, 6-volt, or 9-volt batteries, meaning you don't have to pay to have them replace the battery or get someone else's iLet back in its place-(or with Apple, if you get one back at all). Well, the fabled iPad comes in at only10 hours and that's still hype. The iPad also makes you pay to ship the unit to them when you need a new battery, and you may never get it back and if you do it will be someone else's old iPad, not the one you sent in.

It will run Android 1.6 Ocean, iLet's version of the OS, and the manufacturer confirms that it will be upgradable. Meaning it is an open source device and you can install whatever you want. When the next version of the OS is available, you can upgrade all by yourself just like a grownup. The Windows CE 6.0 OS is also available for $25 more, if that is your wish and it comes in black and white. The iLet is driven by a VIA ARM Freescale MX 600MHz processor. Yes, the iPad has a 1GHz ARM processor but thinking about the price, the balance of the equation is still with the iLet.

The Bottom Line

The value chain here is clear. For less than half the price, you will get double the features translating to double the value and none of the limitations, which is how it should be. Oh, by the way... If you want more than what the iLet mini HAL offers, you might want to check out their iLet 10 model; it has 1GB of internal RAM, 10 hour battery life, 3 USB ports, a camera, Bluetooth, the Intel Atom N270 1 .6 GHZ CPU and 160gb of hard drive storage. All for, wait for it... Wait for it... $449. That is the unit price right from the MFG, it will not get any higher and could actually cost less once it hits retail. However, you do not have to wait for it, you can go and order one now. Oh, iLet 10 is also $50 less than the cheapest Apple iPad in the bushel. All of the iLets are ready to be shipped and is just awaiting directions. So before jumping on the iPad hype-wagon, you might want to check out the other options first and confirm what you are willing to give up by purchasing an iPad.

References & Resources:
Haleron Technologies: iLet Mini Hal Price & Specs
Apple: iPad Specifications
Engadget: Dead Battery? nevermind that-Apple Replaces iPad for $99
Wired: Free iPad with battery Replacement

Table Reprinted With Permission from Haleron Technologies.