Remember the Eee Pad MeMO ME 171? You know, ASUS’ 7-inch stylus-equipped device, which was spotted over a year ago and mysteriously popped up again at CES? Well, that little guy is finally on sale in ASUS’ home territory of Taiwan. Netbook News picked one up for the price of 17,500 New Taiwan Dollars, or $585 US, and apparently the 7-inch slate has been given no press fanfare – it’s just sitting in Taiwanese electronics retailers, waiting for unsuspecting consumers to pick one up. What gives? Android fans, take note: this is a different device than the much-anticipated MeMO 370T, which is still in tablet limbo somewhere.
If you need a refresher course, the MeMo ME171 is a 7-inch Honeycomb tablet with an integrated stylus. The screen is the standard 1280×800 with the added benefits of IPS. Inside this little guy is running a 1.2Ghz dual-core Qualcomm processor with 1GB of RAM, with 16GB of storage space and a MicroSD card slot for good measure. The rear camera is a surprising 5 megapixels with a 1.2MP front-facing cam. The version that’s at retail in Taiwan has a SIM card slot, and presumably access to 3G networks. As far as size goes, it’s pretty chunky for a 7-inch device, coming in at 7.8×4.6x.5 inches.
The tablet’s running Android 3.2, but ASUS promises an upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich before too long. Like ASUS’ other tablets, the MeMO is mostly stock with some custom apps, in this case catering to the stylus input including MyPainter. Netbook News wasn’t impressed with the tablet, stating that it felt like it was made last year (and given its history, it basically was). The high price – way above the previously quoted $250, though the 3G radio may have something to do with that – was another downer. The MeMO ME171 may or may not come to other markets, but given the extreme lack of enthusiasm on ASUS’ part, I doubt it. Bring on the MeMo 370T and/or Nexus Tablet!
[via The Verge]
I bought one and it arrived yesterday. So far I’m enjoying it. The 3g works well with my AT&T sim card. The stylus doesn’t have a good feel to it and I find that my finger works better. Time will tell if I will keep it. I think that the 370T will probably be a better buy.
where and how did you get an ASUS Eee Pad Memo ME171? if you have some secret it’s safe with me! i looked on pchome taiwan and they won’t ship outside of taiwan. please help!
my guess it was the ones that were already in production, so instead of just trashing them sell them locally, move on and call it a day on that project.