Alcatel One Touch Pop 7 and Pop 8 tablets hands-on

You may be familiar with the saying about something being “the new black” or the latest “in-thing.” If you are a regular reader of our site, then you know that tablets are in the midst of very large surge in sales and popularity.

In fact, many people that now own a tablet may not have envisioned what they might use it for in the first place. They are quite versatile and now you would be hard pressed to find a sector of technology that does not involve tablets in some way.

Design

This year at CES, Alcatel announced two new compact tablets, the One Touch Pop 7 and the One Touch Pop 8. These tablets have a basic form factor that cover all the essentials. Each is a 3G/HSPA+ device, supporting speeds up to 21Mbps. At the heart of each tablet sits a different version of a MediaTek CPU.

Display

The Pop 7 has a 7-inch display as you might expect and as such, you would be correct in assuming the Pop 8 tablet has an 8-inch display. They have different resolutions which ultimately provide similar pixel density. The Pop 7 tablet carries a basic resolution of 1024 x 600 while the Pop 8 is packing a similarly basic 1280 x 800 pixels. While not class leading, these resolutions are perfectly adequate for a tablet. There are no surprises with the displays and it suits Alcatel’s penchant for producing accessible technology.

Interface

The Pop 7 and Pop 8 tablets share the same user interface that is found on every other Alcatel One Touch smartphone. The user interface is consistent with the experience and it is not overbearing. Underneath the One Touch UI is Android 4.2.2.

Processor and Memory

Alcatel has picked MediaTek as its main silicon supplier. The Pop 7 tablet has a dual-core 1.3GHz CPU while its larger Pop 8 sibling has a quad-core CPU also clocked 1.3GHz. Neither tablet displayed any apparent trouble with the Android OS or One Touch experience. Both tablets have 1GB of RAM and 4GB of microSD expandable storage.

Cameras

Both the Pop 7 and Pop 8 tablets have a 2MP main camera. There is a 0.3MP front facing camera for video chat work. Cameras are not typically part of a tablet’s forte, so we are not expecting Ansel Adams-like images.

Alcatel’s new tablets bring the Android experience to bear using a feature set that is not going to command a premium price. These tablets Alcatel is squarely focused The Alcatel One Touch Pop C9 is expected to be available in the first quarter of 2014 and pricing has not yet been announced. Given its form factor and spec sheet, this device is aimed at those that want a large screen and access to the rich Android ecosystem without
having to shell out a bunch of cash in the process.