The rolling ball of speculation and rumor that is the Nexus Tablet keeps going. This time the perpetrator is Android and Me, who quotes a “supply chain source” reaffirming previous rumors that ASUS is the manufacturer of choice this time around. There’s a twist in the story, though: the source claims that the much-anticipated ASUS MeMO 370T Tegra 3 7-inch tablet showed off at CES is no more, and has been scrapped in favor of the Nexus Tablet or whatever it’s being called this week. The price target is reportedly $150-200, something that just about anybody (except maybe Apple) can get excited about.

That’s an intriguing statement, considering that we previously ruminated that the Nexus Tablet sounded like a cheaper version of the 370T. The source goes on to state that it”s a “done deal”, though the cheaper retail price necessitates going with some cheaper materials, including scrapping the quad-core Tegra 3 altogether. A Snapdragon S4 would seem like a smart alternative, getting bigger volume and a lower price without much of a hit in performance. It would probably mean a cheaper plastic construction as well, and possibly a loss-leader price model to give Ice Cream Sandwich a foothold against the iPad.

As if that wasn’t juicy enough, the source claims that the Nexus Tablet will be introduced at CTIA in May, not Google’s very own IO conference in late June. Both could technically be correct: Google could announce the tablet in May for a June release, then give it away to Google IO attendees as they’re in the habit of doing. A few of our regular readers will certainly be upset if the ASUS MeMO 370T doesn’t come to market; the prospect of a 7-inch, quad-core 720p ICS tablet is mighty tantalizing. But an official Google tablet for $150? That’s the stuff of dreams. We’ll see if they come true.

44 COMMENTS

  2. Thats kind of sad, I was looking forward to a nice quad core 7″ tablet of higher quality, and would have paid for it. If its a dual and a bunch of cheap plastic, I’ll probably pass on it.

  5. If it’s not a quad core, I’ll pass.  Too bad if that’s true, I returned my last tablet as soon as I heard about this one.  If the Nexus isn’t going to be quad core, I hope Asus still releases the quad core MeMo.

  8. That’s dissapointing. Hoping to pick up the 370T and it’s quadcore goodness. I hope the nexus tablet is the same but with a different name and lower price. 

  9. I’ll be highly disappointed if they drop the Tegra 3. I was looking forward to the MeMo 370t for the reason that you would be getting a Tegra 3 at a $250 price point (I’d pay the extra for that CPU)

  10. At 150, I’m buying one for each of my parents. At 200, I may only get my mom (or me, I if I like it… lol) one. 

  11. why are people upset about the lack of tegra 3?

    snapdragon s4 is next gen 28 nm and will be faster and get better battery life…

    • I agree. Everyone is caught by the fact that the Tegra 3 is a quad core that they neglect the fact the the architecture of the chip sucks compared to a dual core S4. The S4 benchmarks faster in everything except for graphics and it’s cheaper. 

      • Everything except graphics? Hello what do you use a tablet for? Crunching algorithms? Or playing games…watching videos… creating pictures… ahem.. need I say more. T3 is faster in the RIGHT areas.

  12. Welll….thought I’d be waiting on what seemed like an awesome tablet…guess if they downgrade the specs ill pass.  It’ll just be another nook tablet or fire as far as im concerned

  13. It’s late March, 2012, and I’m still hung on the Asus m370T which was announced at CES.  Dude, I am willing to pay $300 for the Tablet that was promised for $250, but if they change it or drop the plan it’s iEffinPad I come. 

    • This is the only thing I was going to buy this year when it comes to any electronics, why would they do this? Its stupid. Sorry Asus, no Memo 370t no money from me..why would I buy an inferior tablet? Its not what I want. 

  16. i can afford even 300$ for a quad core tablet but i wont give 150$ for a weak tablet because there are a lot of alternatives for 150$ with respect to performance

  17. I agree with the other member who stated
    i can afford even 300$ for a quad core tablet but i wont give 150$ for a weak tablet because there are a lot of alternatives for 150$ with respect to performance

    I was waiting for an affordable quality 7inch  quad core tablet.

    • If I could, I’d buy the 370T for $250 in April/May as a second, more mobile tablet. Then I’d buy a $150-200 lower-specced Nexus tablet in July to give to my wife (and maybe another one for my nephew). She doesn’t really need the performance on her first android device. If ASUS ditches the 370T, I don’t what 7″ tablet I’ll get. The high-quality/medium-low price point is still missing.

      ASUS can sell both of these. The difference appears to be easy to grasp.

  19. Many people are short-sighted, they’ll do anything to save a few bucks in the short term without taking into account the long term consequences. If they’re also going to cut the great 1280×800-pixel IPS LCD display originally specified, the SDHC card slot or the mini-USB port so that Google can milk you for more money on their cloud services like Apple or Amazon do, then I’ll be looking for another tablet. If that’s the strategy that Google adopts, in the long run, you’ll pay that $50 saving ten times over and more.

    • Assuming that this is true I guess the question now is where do we look to for a fully featured 7inch tablet? Seems like the big developers are intent on turning the 7 inch market into vehicles for their services. No SD card slots, no usb ports etc.

  21. Im waiting for asus memo 370t… i wld b very much sad if they drop it…dont do ths stupid thing…v need asus memo 370t with tegra3….

  23. Dammit. This was going to be my first tablet – and the price wasn’t a factor. Now I’m not sure what to go with, but it’s not the Nexus.

  26. Was hoping that I could get the 370T… Now the idea of a cheaper $150 nexus tablet sounds nice but the fact that its build and specs will, obviously, be taken down a notch or two just kills it for me. I mean wasnt the 370T said to be around $250 when they showed it a few months ago? If so Id be ok with that price. To be honest they will probably scrap both ideas and come up with a 10.1 google branded tablet for $450 or $400. OR Maybe a 7 inch tablet but at $350 or $400. It sounded to good to be true. Regardless I hope both come out. The $150 Google Branded and a $250 ASUS Memo 370T. Quench the thirst of the power users and those looking for a good tablet thats easier on the pockets.

  28. Fucking idiots. You changed your tablet in hopes to make more money but ultimately you just lost many potential buyers. Stupid decision. 

  29. so sad, i wanted the 370T… it was practically a 7inch transformer prime in my price range. if i only cared about price i would’ve gotten the kindle fire :p

  31. There’s disturbing news afoot that suggests that the Memo 370T has been superseded by the Nexus 7 – for the benefit of Google.

    But the Nexus 7 is apparently WITHOUT a rear facing camera !!!

    PLEASE change the spec. before it is released in the UK – and include an 8 or better 12 mpixel camera with the software we saw in one of the Memo 370T reviews.

  32. maybe it was scrapped b/c apple made an ipad mini and didn’t want to get sued..

    now only off-brand tablets in the 7″ category seem fair game.. at the higher end ($229+) you’ll have to bump upto the 10″ tablets.. at least there’s some competition there.. I’m eyeballing the tf300 in the range of $349.. it’s either this or a laptop.. haven’t decided yet. anyone notice that they jacked up laptop prices for the holidays.. PFFT!! you can’t get diddly for $299 anymore.. it looks closer to a tablet spec w/ 2gb ram, 320gb hard drive, etc.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.