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$99 Dual-Core Polaroid Tablet Now Available at BigLots

ne wpolaroud tabletEver since I came home from CES 2013 I have been predicting that the new standard for 7″ budget tablets would be a dual-core CPU and a sub-$100 price. We’ve already seen at least one tablet that met the standard, and today another one showed up at BigLots.

The new Polaroid PMID720 is only available in stores, and the flyer is a little short on details, but luckily at least one user over at the Freaktab forums bought one and shared their impressions online.

This tablet is running Android 4.1 on a dual-core CPU with 1GB of RAM, a front-facing VGA webcam, and Wifi. Storage is limited to a paltry 4GB, but this tablet does have a microSD card slot.

ne wpolaroud tabletThis tablet also has a single speaker (but no microphone) and it has HDMI out. And according to early user reports, screen resolution is a underwhelming 800×480.

So far this isn’t that bad of a tablet and you might think it’s worth buying. But after reading the first impressions over at Freaktab I certainly won’t be getting it.

According to CaptED, this tablet doesn’t ship with Google Play. That surprised me because I assumed that most if mot all new budget tablets would have that app store, but apparently this one didn’t pass Google’s certification.

Okay, that’s not much of a limitation given that you can install the Amazon Appstore or use a hack to install an older version of Android Market, but that might not be worth the effort for this tablet. Battery life was a disappointing 2 hours, and the general quality of the screen was described as low with a narrow viewing angle.

With all the issues, I think this tablet is probably one that is worth avoiding.

I think that the recently released Coby Kyros MID7065 is a better value (as well as easier to get). That is also a dual-core tablet, only it has a higher resolutions screen, better battery life, and it comes with Google Play – all for under $90 at Amazon.com.

The MID 7065 also has better early reviews than the Polaroid tablet, making it a better choice all around.

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Comments


Tony Hursh May 20, 2013 um 7:52 pm

Bear in mind that this isn’t the classic Polaroid company (which is essentially defunct; I think the shell still exists). Someone bought the brand name.

Nate Hoffelder May 20, 2013 um 9:57 pm

The company behind this tablet is named Southern Telecom, and they are based in Brooklyn. They actually licensed the name; they didn’t buy it.

Thomas May 20, 2013 um 10:07 pm

The Polaroid name is owned by a holding company that rents it out to other companies to use of their products.

These tablets are sold by "Southern Telecom". I don’t who manufactures them, I assume it’s one of the nameless Chinese companies. I have one of their earlier tablets, a Pmid701i, and it’s a pretty good tablet for the $99 I paid. That said, I wouldn’t try this one. You should be able to get a much better tablet for $99 now.


edward saxon December 27, 2013 um 9:31 am

This product (or similar one) was recalled on 3o Oct, 2013 for defective A/C adaptor; yet Big Lots was still selling in Dec, 2013.


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