Emdoor to introduce more affordable Windows 8 tablets

By Rich Edmonds
published

If you believe paying anything around $150 is too much for a Windows 8 tablet, you may be in luck with Chinese manufacturer Emdoor. According to PadNews, the company has revealed its product roadmap, which includes affordable 7-, 8- and 10-inch tablets. Pricing for these new devices could reach as low as $60, depending on which configuration you opt for.

The roadmap shows that we could see these new Windows tablets this summer, with models sporting 3G connectivity starting at just $99 and 4G setting you back just shy of $200. The cheapest Emdoor model will pack a 7-inch display (1024x600), 1GB RAM and 16GB of internal storage, which is essentially resting on the bare minimum in terms of specifications to run Windows 8. The beauty of these tablets is the full Windows experience.

Emdoor Tablets

Intel Bay Trail chips will be powering the affordable tablets, and you can all thank Microsoft for the price reductions through its recent announcement that Windows will be available for free to manufacturers on devices under 9 inches. This new wave of hardware is set to compete against more affordable Android tablets. Would you look to pick one up?

Source: PadNews, via: Windows Blog Italia; thanks, Guy, for the tip!

Rich Edmonds
Rich Edmonds
Senior Editor, PC Build

Rich Edmonds was formerly a Senior Editor of PC hardware at Windows Central, covering everything related to PC components and NAS. He's been involved in technology for more than a decade and knows a thing or two about the magic inside a PC chassis. You can follow him on Twitter at @RichEdmonds.

81 Comments
  • Seems faster
  • Just shut up already
  • Seconded. That phrase is getting older than saying "First".
  • Yes, it is even getting older faster.
  • This is where android made its push into the market. All the original high end expensive tablets never got anywhere.
  • Good point.
  • Good for adoption of a superb platform!
  • Do you think the screen would be of good quality?
  • Not at all. Probably has horrible viewing angles and dead pixels... Atleast that's my experience with cheap Chinese electronics.
  • I get burned every time I get a cheap Chinese import.  I'm tellinging myself never again. Just say NO! 
  • Agreed! Plus it's always worse since you have to sit around waiting for 3 weeks for it to arrive... Then it breaks after 2 weeks.
  • Probably not... but at the same time, the tablets we have trouble keeping in stock are always the cheapo junko tablets with 800x480 TFT displays that have such poor quality that just seeing it gives you the feeling you're hunting for the 3D on a 3DS.
  • Yes, the minimum wage earners in poor countries will not care about dead pixels and horrible viewing angles. They'll just look at the price and that the thing works and will happily buy it. It's obvious these are not meant for developed countries. Although I'll not buy them, but I'm happy they're coming for people who would need and be able to afford them.
  • While you are right there are also millions upon millions of not that wealthy people all over the world that will appreciate these, not to mention even more kids playing ning for their first tablet.
  • Whoa! That pricing is crazy. Watch out Android!
  • Is the resolution really 1024x600? I've seen netbooks with this resolution and they can't run Metro apps!
  • The can in WP8.1
  • You mean W8.1 bro ??? :) ;)
  • Yeah, maybe it's a new thing in 8.1 update?
  • No its not a new thing in 8.1 Update! I just tried 800x600 resolution on my machine running the update and Modern apps dont work. A minimum of 768 pixels vertical is requried to run Modern apps. So those tablets with 800x600 resolution will be totally worthless. I am sure there is a mistake somewhere inte the specs here.
  • Maybe it's an Update 2 features? Or perhaps something has to be enabled in the BIOS. Anyway, it's cheap crap, so hopefully not something anyone here would be considering.
  • Ermm im considering it? i know you might be rich or what ever but as a student its really annoying when you see your pals with their £80-£100 tab 3 and there are no windows 8 option for you at the same price! personally i can't wait for this
  • The only thing that makes sense on these specs is the Intel Atom Bay Trail-T processor. I may not be reading this correctly, but 16GB of storage, or is it 16+1 meaning 32GB? Bay Trail-T supports 64bit connected standby. They should make a version with 4GB of RAM, 256GB storage, 1920*1200 for $399! :D
  • Awesome, this is the beggining of the end for android tablets
  • you forgot the sarcasm tag
  • No
  • I just hope the tablet will not lag like hell. Pray those bay trail chips can deliver reasonable performance
  • Baytrail is fine for modern apps.  Even for a lot of x86 apps they'll do the job.  The biggest issue is that 1) No storage, 2) If the storage is slow, that's terrible.  (See the original Ativ 500T for an example of terrible storage).
  • Don't expect even a good experience on those cheap ass tablets.
  • Then again, the same applies to cheap Android tablets, except that those Android tablets have a lot less functionality these full blown W8 ones.
  • Yet still sell like laggy hot cakes! Why oh why do people buy those horrible android tablets??
  • Because there was never really competition in that price range. The only other competition in tablet space is iPad but as you know, their price is sky-rocketing compared to those cheap Android tablets. So, those who want sub $100 tablet have no choice and they went with Android instead.
  • The venue was already nice, but now, no excuse to stay with an Android
  • The Venue Pro is not that expensive and has Windows 8.
  • Wich is a freat tablet, fast, smooth and has Office.  I love my Dell Venue 8 Pro.
  • Yeah, well... I own the 11" one and I love it. I received with the A01 version stylus (the one not working was A00) so I'm happy. BUT... in Europe Dell delivers Venue Pro without the Office License. They told me they only include that license in the price in USA. I got mad with that... really. I don't know why the follow different marketing policy in Europe and in the US. Anyway the tablet is GREAT. (I own the CPU ATOM model).
  • The tablet it self is alright, but the accessories are shit. I wish I had waited for the Lenovo tablet that actually comes with a proper stylus.
  • Yea but I got my 64 GB venue 8 pro for 264 and they are rereleasing the pens and should be rolling out now it said after mid Feb
  • There is a red pro classed as "coming soon" is the lenovo out now?
  • Nice. Good for kids but for me I'm holding up for surface 8" inch tablets.
  • Me too!
  • Any info as to when it could be released?
  • As far as i know, W8 metro UI does not work on 1024x600. Is this a new thing on W8.1 update?
  • Yea, they got rid of that requirement with 8.1. I don't know what the minimum size is now, though.
  • But must be aware that the tablet may b very lag in later . So must be bear with the risk of lagging .
  • Tablets without 3g will be more cheaper. We can use wifi or data card. Posted via the WPC App for Android!
  • This is absolutely great news for consumers, specially for students and young profesionals..
  • will be looking to waste my money..
  • Exactly. These machines are aimed at people in emerging markets - and for them it's great they can get into computing with these cheap machines. For anyone else it's a waste of money and you should be spending at least double this for something with better components and build quality.
  • Wow..
  • Lag probably won't be the problem, it will be the lack of storage. I'm afraid MS made a mistake here.
  • Well if they have an SD card slot all is well.
  • Good
  • i will definitely buy a low cost windows 8 tablet as most of my time is spent in web surfing and adding content to my blog... Relatively low cost tablet should be good enough for my requirement.
  • Would be great to pay $300 for a full windows 8 experience, 2G RAM, 32GB storage, 1080p HD screen and an attachable keyboard for a great mobile device like it is Windows 8.1 w update 1!!! I am excited.  Finally MS is doing great for real.
  • My venue 8 pro 64gb was 264
  • These are awesome, great news for MS. Anyone expecting a surface 2 experience, don't hold your breath! Look at the price, you will get what you pay for, a low end device to woop androids ass. The thing is you might be surprised, be optimistic guys. I will be buying one of these as my throw around, for the kids etc and to keep my Lenivo thinkpad 8 as my pride and joy.
  • I am sorry for going out of topic....but my windows 8.1 fails to update to update 1. I get error code 80073712. I tried 5 times it will install around 25% thn fail.
  • Try a disk clean, including windows files first. Restart your machine, then try the update again.
  • It's great these machines are coming out to bring a decent computing experience to the masses in the emerging markets. But for the rest of us it's good that Windows can now compete on price with Android; and I expect some decent £300-400 tablets over the next few months; but I wouldn't touch these cheaply built machines.
  • So a lumia 520 is virtually as fast as a 920 but I fear tablets wont be the same, surface rt version one if only just fast enough....
  • Not at all Nokia 520 runs fine til u need power I.e games and apps that are 512mb Nokia is the exception
  • Are these running W8 (RT) or W8 pro? As good as rt seems, without support for little apps that allow you to configure Logitech unified receivers or hp programs for printing and scanning the W8 (rt) experience is hampered
  • Since they use Bay Trail as the core, it's definitely not RT. And since the price is so low. I also doubt it will be Pro. So, it will run just Win8. Not RT, nor Pro. Just 8 (8.1 to be exact ^^a).
  • Waw Rs6000 only.
  • This will have way more power than any other tablets at its price point. Say "Hi" to the new generation of tablets.... Which windows power most of them :)
  • On the forest moon of emdoor......
  • lol
  • this is good. get those numbers up.
  • Nice.
  • I think Microsoft is going to canabalise itself with these things, nevermind Android. Surely these smaller and cheaper tablets would be better suited to run Windows Phone? But eh, cheaper tablets running Windows are mostly a good thing, so yay!
  • Naah. It won't cannibalize anything. Those who want high quality physical build and higher and reliable specs still after the better ones.
  • The front one in the picture, it might be cheap, but it looks beast with the thin bezel!! I'm a thin-bezel-man.
  • I'm thick, Thick, THICK haha
  • This kind of pricing strikes me as having the potential to completely kill the RT variants of Windows 8.X. One of the reasons for RT was to get good battery life and low price. Many Windows 8 Pro machines already had the battery life and some had good pricing. With these machines pricing becomes highly competitive and you have a machine with a full OS.
  • Yes, RT devices never took off like MS imagined so it's pretty much dead as a standalone OS for manufacturers. Even the Surface mini is rumoured to be full Windows. I'd prefer RT on these size devices as the desktop is too awkward to use for me but unless the app situation changes where people really don't need desktop apps anymore this is what people will buy.
  • The reason of RT lied on Intel. At the beginning of win8 development, Intel couldn't deliver a proper low power cpu. Now it does
  • Good battery life and low price are not the only factors. Usually with ARM based designs you are getting the faster SoCs compared with likes of Baytrail in particular on the GPU side of things. Connected standby also looks to work much better on ARM as i am getting nowhere near the standby time with the Dell Venue Pro compared to the Surface 2. Also the Dell keeps missing Skype calls etc. Finally you are getting an inherent protection agains viruses or trojans, as most of this maleware is just not working on ARM. So based on this advantages and since i have no need for desktop apps on my tablet, i choose ARM any day. Also what makes you think Windows RT is not a full OS? Infact it matches Windows x86 feature by feature, because it is the same, just compiled for ARM.
  • I thought Windows 8 wouldn't run on resolutions smaller than 1024x768...?
  • No, i would not pick one up. Buying cheap more often then not means buying twice. Apparently i do need the full Windows experience, but i do not need x86 desktop apps on my tablet. So it is Surface 2 for me.
  • I probably wouldn't want to buy anything that is in that price range, but Microsoft's decision to give Windows away for free is completely what the marketplace needs.