A successor to the 8-inch Android tablet Asus MeMO Pad 8 that was launched in November last year, keeps popping up among retailers, which I’ll take as a confirmation of its existence.
The most interesting upgrade will be the change from the AMD processor Asus went with in the 1st generation model, to the new Intel Atom Bay Trail Z3745 processor it is listed with in the 2nd generation model, which has a 1.33GHz frequency with 1.86GHz Turbo mode.
(UPDATE: Asus MeMO Pad 8 ME181C will release on June 22, 2014.)
Since the Asus MeMO Pad 8 ME181C is a successor and not an addition to the lineup, most of the other hardware specs are expected to remain the same as on the predecessor.
What first generation Asus MeMO Pad 8 looks like
It will launch with Android 4.4 and a IPS display, but other than that I expect 1GB of DDR3 RAM though 2GB is possible together with a slight price bump, 16GB of storage with the usual microSD card expansion and free cloud storage from Asus. The resolution will be HD at least at 1280 x 800, but if Asus will launch a tablet of this size with higher resolution, it should be an additional Full HD version coming later. For those who can’t wait for that hypothesis, there’s always the awesome 2560 x 1600 Samsung Galaxy TabPRO 8.4-Inch, at twice the price.
The Asus MeMO Pad 8 II is expected to stay in the same price range as its predecessor, meaning a price of around $179, though the launch price could be around $199. Availability of this tablet should not be expected before June.
Before then, another new 8-inch Android tablet will have been released too, with the launch of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 8.0 just around the corner too.
– Tom Bowen
