Huawei S7 – The New 7 Inch Tab to Arrive Before the Winter Break

The Chinese producer took a look at what’s happening on the market and how handsets are starting to lose ground to tablets and probably decided it was time to launch its first tab. Unfortunately for those who haven’t released or at least announced one until now, there’s already a wide variety of existing or soon to come devices to choose from, so it’s getting more difficult by the day to come up with something that can be considered innovative, attractive and worth buying. In what we wouldn’t really call a surprising move, Huawei decided that the strong point of the S7 should be a low price, targeting a segment that has pretty much been ignored by the competition.

While Apple is focusing on improving the iPad with the iOS 4.2 upgrade and other manufacturers like Cisco plan to launch $1000 Cius tab, Huawei decided to take a more humanly approach on the subject. First of all, it’s pretty clear that people wouldn’t stay in line to buy the S7 if it was directly competing with the Cius or the iPad, due to the extremely vast experience both competitors have. In order to keep the price as low as possible, the S7 will feature a 7 inch display, that puts it in the same class as the Galaxy tab, but this wouldn’t be that great either, as Samsung’s product has created a lot of fuss around it and is clearly in a better position. What to do then? More cost cutting, meaning the Huawei won’t have a rear camera, just a front facing 2 MP one that can be used to place calls, in conferences, or even as a normal picture taking device.

Rumored to be released with a resistive touch-screen and Android 2.1, the Huawei S7 clearly isn’t what you’d call a high-end gadget. It’s more like a low-cost flight that offers buyers the needed services, but without any on-board food, glamorous decors or that false feeling of safety. While Google’s Android has proved a very useful and stable OS, the first versions seem a bit basic and only starting with Froyo one can get the impression that the platform is complex and able to offer the necessary support, so we hope to hear about a possible upgrade to the 2.2 version as soon as possible.

If we change the approach a little and try to see the Huawei S7 as an affordable device, that offers the possibilities to place calls, connect through Bluetooth 2.1 and Wi-Fi as well as store and manage photos, HD videos and other media on supported microSD cards, then the whole concept starts making sense. It’s definitely a tab for those who need a tab, not the coolest toy in town and we’ve seen how much success these kind of fair products van have; take the BlackBerry 8520 or 9300 for example – two low-end BBs that have managed to attract lots of customers who didn’t want to spend a fortune on a handset.

The release date for the Huawei S7 has been announced for December 2010 and the price has been set at $299.99. It’s a more than reasonable price for a tab and taking into consideration the good choices Huawei have made, they might get the recognition and success they’re waiting for even a bit faster than expected. We’ll have to wait for the tab to come out and reviews to start coming in to comment more on the subject.