8-Inch Lenovo IdeaTab A8-50 Released

One of Lenovo's new Android tablets for 2014 have been launched, with the 8-inch Lenovo Tab A8-50 now selling for a price of $179 with 16GB of storage:
http://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-IdeaTab-59407798
(UPDATED: There is now a newer 2015 model Lenovo Tab 2 A8.)

There will be 4 different color options for this tablet as you can see in the pictures below, but the tablet that's available now is the Navy Blue model. The Lenovo Tab A8-50 is sometimes also referred to with the model number Lenovo A5500, but it is the same model. More specifically, Lenovo A5500-F denotes the Wi-Fi model, Lenovo A5500-H the Wi-Fi + 3G data model, and Lenovo A5500-HV the Wi-Fi + 3G data and voice model.

Depending on which one of these models customers chose, they either have a 1.3GHz MediaTek MTK 8121 processor or a 1.3GHz MTK 8382 processor, both of which are quad-core processors. Lenovo have been using MediaTek processor on their Android tablets for a while now, so they do a decent job in powering the tablets at low cost.

The specs are similar across the models otherwise. So for the Lenovo Tab A8 this means Android 4.2 only (pre-installed when shipping anyway), 1GB of RAM, 16GB memory, and an 8-inch IPS display with a 1280 x 800 resolution. Sensors include GPS, and the tablet also supports the latest Bluetooth 4.0.

The battery capacity is 4200mAh, which gives it an average battery life of 8 hours.
For pictures and video recording it has a 5MP rear camera and a 2MP front camera. The stereo speakers are actually Dolby Digital Plus enhanced, so that's not bad for a budget tablet.

In dimensions, the Lenovo Tab A8 is 8.9mm thick and weigh 360 grams.

In the 8-inch Android budget tablet category Lenovo goes head to head against 3 other tablets that all have a MSRP of $179 and pretty much the same kind of specs with little between them. These are the Asus MeMO Pad 8, Dell Venue 8, and Acer Iconia A1-830.

The Acer A1 have a lower resolution, so I'd avoid looking at that one, but the two other tablets could be worth considering as alternatives to the Lenovo Tab A8, depending on whatever specs and features you want the most for a price of $179.

– Tom Bowen