Coby Android Ice Cream Sandwich Tablets

CES 2012 was flooded with affordable low price tablets But Coby has been steadily building a reputation and they’re jumping into Ice Cream Sandwich in a big way. Coby showed an early hardware version of the tablet on the show floor. The “MID9742-8″, just one of nine tablets coming from the company in the next few months, is on the higher end of their Kyros product line.

The hardware we tried out wasn’t full baked (for example, the manufacturer still isn’t sure whether they’ll be including a rear camera) but the software seemed almost ready to go – the tablet was running a surprisingly solid version of Android 4.0.1. Unlike most of the more expensive models, not to mention other offerings from Coby itself, this tablet has a 4:3 1024×768 screen, and at 9.7 inches it’s almost exactly the same size and resolution as the HP TouchPad and iPad.
Under the hood you get a rather pokey 1Ghz single-core Cortex processor, but a generous 1GB of RAM. Internal memory is capped at 8GB, but a MicroSD card should allow for media junkies to add as much storage as they can use. Standard hardware like an accelerometer, microphone and B/G/N WiFi should make for an Android experience that’s at least comparable to more expensive slates, though you’ll have to rely on GetJar for apps.

The 9.7-inch Kyros is intended for a Q2 release at under $200. Various other models with smaller screens and less powerful hardware will be even cheaper, though a 16:10 models of the 10-inch tablet will have better resolution.