Hey gang, Valkor here. About a week or so ago, I received an invite to attend a Hisense/NVidia event in NYC; throughout my time at TOV I've never met with either company, so this was an opportunity that was hard to pass up. And I'll be quite honest, I was quite curious to see what the two companies – together, would have in store. My initial thought: it's a Hisense monitor or television with integrated NVidia graphics chipset. Not only was I wrong, but also the gang over at Walmart was also in the mix, introducing Hisense newest tablet – the Sero 7.
The event, held at the Yotel in NYC, was small starting with a small conference discussing the ins and outs of Hisense entry in the tablet market. The Sero 7 comes in two flavors - Lite and Pro. At the end, we were taken to another area where laden with Sero 7 tablets, giving us some hands on with the device. My initial thoughts: it's very lightweight, about the size of a Google Nexus 7, it has a very smooth interface and picture quality was crystal clear. Now where does NVidia come into play? If you get the Pro version, they provide the Tegra 3 processor, which gives the device a graphic bump and saves on battery life.
So let's take a some of the features of the Sero 7 Pro and Lite version tables, starting with the Lite.
- 1.6 GHz dual core processor
- Android 4.1 Jelly Bean
- 7 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel display
- Built-in WiFi, Mini HDMI, SD, and Micro USB ports
- 1GB of RAM
- • 4GB internal memory
Now let's take a look at the Pro version:
- NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core processor
- Android 4.2 Jelly Bean
- 7 inch, 1280 x 800 IPS display
- 1GB of RAM
- 8GB of on-board memory
- 2.0MP front camera
- 5.0MP rear camera with flash and auto-focus
- Mini HDMI, SD, and USB ports
- 10-hour battery life - Twonky Beam, which allows users to share local and Internet resources with other equipment via a DLNA network
- Built-in NFC (Near Field Communications) to share pictures, playlists and videos clips
- Bluetooth enabled, providing secure transmission of data to and from devices
To round out the features, the Sero 7 will come pre-equipped with several apps including VUDU, Walmart, Sams, NookeReader, Pandora Internet Music, Facebook, and NVidia's TegraZone. TegraZone will allow you to try out some of the hottest games, making full use of the Tegra processor. Each tablet comes with a limited amount of space, so I asked about the expandable memory of the tablets and I was told you can only go as high as 32GB, with the possibility of going higher through firmware updates. I hope that holds true as most tabs and smartphones can push into the 64 and 128GB range. What about the price point for each device? The Lite will go for $99 and the Pro version costs $149. This is where Walmart comes into play - it's where you can pick up the device exclusively either in store or on the website. Here's a statement from Kevin O'Conner, vice president and general merchandising manager of electronics.
Today's announcement from Hisense underscores our commitment to give our customers access to a range of high-quality tablets at low prices. This is just one example of how we are working with leading technology companies to expand our current assortment of brand-name tablets as well as bring to market new products that deliver on quality and price"
Both Sero 7 tablets are currently available and I look forward to spending some quality time with the tablet once it reaches TOV shores, so stay tuned.
