Vodafone Smart Tab II Available In UK For £149

Lenovo-built Vodafone Smart Tab II could be the UK’s cheapest 3G tablet

Vodafone has released what could be the UK’s cheapest 3G-enabled tablet, the Android-powered Vodafone Smart Tab II.

The company promised the Smart Tab II will have all the benefits of the PC but with added portability, offering “complete mobility at an unbeatable price.”

The seven-inch tablet is available on a pay-as-you-go basis for £149, or £29 for new customers who take out a £20 a month, two-year contract with the operator. This plan includes an allowance of 2GB of mobile Internet and 1GB of Wi-Fi.

Vodafone Smart Tab II released

The Vodafone Smart Tab II weighs 500 grams, is 11.5mm thick and runs version 4.0 of Android, Ice Cream Sandwich. It is powered by a 1GHz processor and boasts a 2 megapixel front facing camera and a 0.3 megapixel front facing camera for video calling. Only a meagre 4GB of storage is included, although this can be expanded up to 32GB through a Micro SD card slot. Proud owners will be able to protect their device with an optional £25 foldable hard cover.

Vodafone released seven and ten-inch versions of the original Vodafone Smart Tab in selected markets earlier this year and has also previously released its own Android smartphone, the Vodafone 845.

The device will hope to compete in the increasingly crowded seven inch tablet market, but will have the handicap of inferior specifications to the majority of its rivals, although the cellular versions of its competitors are either non-existent or more expensive.

A 16GB Wi-Fi only Google Nexus 7 costs £159, with a 32GB 3G-enabled version priced at £239, while a 16GB Amazon Kindle Fire HD is also £159. The Apple iPad Mini is slightly larger at 7.9 inches, but is considerably dearer, especially if you want support for 3G and 4G networks.

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