Redpad: China’s US$1,600 Tablet That’s Not an iPad

Chinese officials will soon be carrying tablet computers that cost US$ 1,600 apiece. It’s not an iPad 3, nor is it gold plated. The tablet comes with pre-installed apps that will supposedly make the tablet worthy for the officials to use, including Red Microblog, Electronic Public Opinion and all of China’s state-funded newspaper publications. Will the tablet and its content be worth as much?

China's Redpad, meant for government officials, costs twice as much as the comparable-spec iPad. But even with pre-installed content and apps, is it worth the price?

Dubbed Redpad, the tablet is an Android 3.2 tablet with a 9.7-inch screen, 5 MP rear camera, 2 MP front-camera, 3G radio and is powered by an NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor. The tablet also has a massive 8000 mAh battery which lasts up to 20 hours. Did I say massive? Make that gigantic. That battery has twice the capacity of most tablets in the market today.

Are those specifications worthy of a US$ 1,600 price tag, though? I don’t think so. No Android tablet has established itself as a better tablet than the iPad. And paying twice the price for a product which is only half-good? That notion is priceless.

This looks like a colossal waste of taxpayers money for an Android tablet with some pretty apps. Redpad will easily win the medal for being the most expensive Android tablet, but it will not find any takers elsewhere.

Why not go the British way?

The presence of tablets in government is nothing new. As we all know, President Obama uses an iPad tucked in a DoDO case. Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron also uses an iPad but instead of spending US$ 1,600, PM Cameron just got an app designed for himself. Indian parliament has allocated a Rs. 50000 (US$ 1,000) budget for each member of parliament, to get an iPad or Samsung Galaxy Tab.

Speaking of taxpayers money and expensive tablets, how did India miss an opportunity like this?

Someone with contacts in the government could have created a fake company, sourced some tablets from Taiwan, billed an exorbitant price and raked in some serious money. On second thought, that really isn’t serious money. At best it could fetch less than US$ 2 million. And India is no country for million dollar scams. It only concentrates on billion dollar scams.

What do you think of Redpad? Isn’t the iPad a better option? After all, the iPad is also made in China, just like virtually everything else.

Via MIC Gadget | The Verge