This past week Walmart stores have started selling two new 7-inch tablets from Hisense that have some really impressive specs for the price. In fact the Hisense Sero 7 Pro has similar hardware as the Google Nexus 7, and at a price point of $50 less. It even adds a couple of important upgrades over the Nexus 7 with a microSD card slot and mini HDMI port.
Other specs for the $149 Hisense Sero 7 Pro include a 1280 x 800 resolution screen, a 1.3GHz NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core processor, 1GB of RAM and 8GB of on-board storage, it supports Bluetooth and NFC, and there are front (2MP) and rear (5MP) facing cameras. The tablet runs Android 4.2 Jelly Bean and has a battery life estimate of 7-10 hours.
Those are certainly some of the best specs your are going to find on any 7-inch tablet, especially for the price.
The only two concerns I have is that I’ve never heard of Hisense before. From what I can tell this is their very first time selling tablets. The second concern is there’s no mention about the screen tech. The resolution is good, but if it’s not an IPS screen then it’s not going to look nearly as good as the Nexus 7. If it has a cheap TFT screen with poor viewing angles it could ruin everything.
I plan on buying the Hisense Sero 7 Pro to review to find out if it is as impressive as the specs indicate, but apparently these Hisense tablets are only sold at Walmart, and none nearby have this model in stock yet so I’ll have to wait. They do have the other new model in stock, however. The specs aren’t as impressive with it but it only costs $99.
The cheaper model is called the Hisense Sero 7 LT. It has a 7-inch 1024 x 600 resolution screen, which is a step up from other sub-$100 tablets. It runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and is powered by a 1.6GHz dual-core processor. The tablet has 1GB of RAM and 4GB of on-board storage space. There’s also a microSD card slot, a front-facing camera, and mini HDMI port. Battery life is less with this model, in the 4-6 hour range.
Both tablets come with support for Google Play, which is surprising for budget tablets at these prices. Once I’m able to get my hands on the Hisense Sero 7 Pro I’ll let you know if it’s worth getting or if it’s better to just pay a little more for a name brand tablet like the Nexus 7.
”The second concern is there’s no mention about the screen tech.”
Look at the back of the box in the comment section which gives the specs, including the fact the PRO model has an IPS display.
http://liliputing.com/2013/05/rumor-hisense-sero-7-tablets-with-tegra-3-chips-to-sell-for-99-and-up.html#comment-903584850
Sweet. That is definitely good news. They should advertise that better.
I’m really looking forward to the review. I want to replace my aging nook color and so far it sounds awesome
Looking forward to your review of the Hisense Pro. I haven’t decided on a tablet yet, but the Galaxy Tabs are front runners right now (due to my need for a microSD card slot). Hopefully, the Hisense Pro will offer some low-priced competition. Maybe it’ll even have a user-replaceable battery, though that’s a long-shot nowadays 🙁 Hope to see you review soon.
Nathan sorry but I know I posted this in the wrong place.. Are you going to get/review the hp slate 7 ????
No. It’s too under-speced for the price. It’s more comparable to the $99 Hisense tablet. I’m going to stick to reviewing the high res tablets for the reading aspect.
Picked one of the Pro tablets yesterday at my local Walmart. I messed with it a little bit and I like it a lot. Seems to be on or close to par with the Nexus 7 I had and sold. The Microsd is big plus plus the rear camera with flash. Almost made a Big mistake and buy a hp Slate 7
I got one too and am working on the review for it. I really like it a lot so far, nice and smooth. It’s going to make me get rid of my Nexus 7 because of the card slot, hdmi, and rear camera.
Cool Nathan looking forward to review. To see if I missed anything
*sigh*
When this was first posted, I went *YAAAYYYY!* and headed to the WalMart web site to get more info. The listing said “not available via mail order” and only available in select stores. As of this afternoon, WalMart no longer has this item listed.
And, while OT, it appears BestBuy will no longer be selling Kobo products. (Nor will WalMart.) Seems the plethora of tablets out there for sale on the websites of BigBox stores are very cheap with single or two star ratings — BestBuy has a zillion of different poorly rated tablets, while at the same time discontinuing sales of tablets and ereaders with 4 star and up ratings. How does this make sense??
Tnx
Tom
The listing at Walmart seems to appear and disappear regularly, I’ve noticed. They only sell them in stores for some reason. When I was looking to get one on the website it said no stores in my area had any in stock. But then I went down and checked in person and they had a whole bunch locked up in the tablet display.