Hands on with Tesco’s £119 Hudl tablet
(Morning Wire/Oliver Smith)
Here's Tesco's new Hudl tablet, avaible from Monday in the four colours you see above. (black, blue, red and purple). Analysts had been predicting a £99 price tag, so it's a little steeper than we'd thought at £119.
For those participating in Tesco's loyalty scheme – Clubcard Boost – some customers will be able to purchase the Hudl for less than £100.
The device is only going to be launched in the UK for now, but Tesco "wouldn't rule out going to international markets in the future".
(Morning Wire/Oliver Smith)
The device features a 1440×900 seven inch screen, 16GB of storage, and runs on the Android Jellybean 4.2.2 operating system.
Nine hours of battery life isn't too shabby either when compared with the Google Nexus 7's 8.5. Tesco CEO Philip Clarke said that the device is very high spec for the price tag.
Interesting to note that the device is also being used to promote Tesco's own services. Tesco's group digital officer Michael Cornish said that the device has three custom built Android apps – allowing Hudl users to access streaming service Blinkbox, and other digital services.
Clarke said that product is about "meeting the 21st century needs of customers", and the supermarket boss also considers Tesco "uniquely positioned" to launch a tablet as the company reaches 20m customers a week.
(Morning Wire/Oliver Smith)
Tesco's budget tablet also features a 1.5Ghz quad-core processor, and that 16GB of storage can be extended to 48GB with a microSD card.
Chief marketing officer Matt Atkinson says that the device is about making technology more accessible – presently only a quarter of UK households have tablets.