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It’s not the cheapest Android tablet to hit the shelves, but at £129 the Andy Pad is definitely up there. And believe it or not, it’s actually made by mattress seller Mattressman. That’s right, the company with a flying mattress as its logo.
But let’s not judge the Andy Pad too harshly. The 7-incher is running Android, and comes in two incarnations. The basic 8GB model has an 800×480-pixel resolution touchscreen, which admittedly isn’t great, but it does have an HDMI socket, and you can expand the memory using an SD card.
The Andy Pad Pro version has 16GB of memory, a 1,024×600-pixel screen, and costs £179 (£50 more than the basic model). Both have white borders, though the design is anything but Apple.
Both output video to your TV in 1080p HD, both are powered by 1.2GHz processors, and both support Flash. Front-facing cameras on each allow video calls (you can always tell the person calling you’re Skyping from an iPad 2, they’ll never know). The basic model has a ‘Resitouch’ screen, ie resistive, while the more expensive is described as ‘Sensatouch’, which is the company’s description for multi-touch, so you can pinch to zoom.
There’s no mention of which incarnation of Android it runs, but from the look of its interface and the promise of Flash it would seem to be Gingerbread
, the latest mobile version. That means you can use thousands of apps from the Android Market. There’s a range of accessories, including carry cases from the company website, and seeing as it makes mattresses as its day job, they’re sure to be well padded.
We’ll reserve judgement till we get our hands on one, but it’s a low cost Android tablet that looks hard-wearing enough for kids annoyed at their return to school. And it’s got to be better than this.
Update: We’ve had both Andy Pad models in for testing. Check out our Andy Pad review and our Andy Pad Pro review at your earliest convenience.
