On Friday, Best Buy revealed the mystery product it had been releasing teases about as the Insignia Flex, a 9.7 inch tablet running Android Ice Cream Sandwich. A price wasn’t provided in the announcement, however, leaving many to speculate that it would fall somewhere between $150 and $250. The speculation was close, if not a tad ambitious, with a source claiming that the Flex will be priced between $239 and $259.
Unfortunately, there are still few precious details on the tablet’s specs. According to the announcement made on Insignia’s Facebook page, the Flex will have a 1GHz dual-core processor, a 9.7 inch display, and a 10 hour battery life. The picture released on the company’s Twitter page shortly before the announcement shows a microSD slot. The source added to these details, saying that it will have a camera and weighs about 1.45 pounds.
According to the source, the Flex will be available exclusively from Best Buy on November 11th. It’s price makes the tablet more expensive than the smaller – yet vastly popular – Google Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire HD, both of which are priced at $199. Although priced lower than the iPad and many other Android tablets with similarly sized screens, such as the 10-inch Galaxy Tab 2, it’s up against some stiff competition in a fairly saturated market.
Insignia is Best Buy’s in-house brand, and has been used to provide fairly low-cost electronics for those who aren’t in the market for more expensive devices from big name brands. It is possible this could have a potentially negative effect on sales, with consumers choosing to pay a bit more for a tablet from a brand with a different reputation. Still, the specs seem decent, and the price is modest, making the Flex a potentially nice budget tablet.
[via Reuters]
Best Buy’s Insignia Flex to be $239 to $259, source claims is written by SlashGear.
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