Could Asus' new 'TV services' tablet be where hardware is heading?

Prosieben tablet, courtesy of Asus
Prosieben tablet, courtesy of Asus

Back in June, Asus launched what it called the world's thinnest 8-inch LTE tablet, it has now brought that tablet, without LTE connectivity to Europe as the ProSieben Entertainment Pad.

It is the first time Asus announced such a tie up with a content provider in Europe; ProSieben is one of the biggest commercial television station in Germany with a significant foothold in neighbouring countries as well.

The tablet, which is on sale for 149 Euros (about £125, $200, AU$210), comes with a subscription package to ProSieben services worth 100 Euros (about £80, $140, AU$150).

Similar model to smartphones?

Asus has only committed to selling the tablet in Germany and it will be interesting to see whether, if successful, it will enlist other subscription-based service providers.

A branded Sky or Virgin tablet could entice some especially if the tablet is free; Virgin Media is already giving a free 7-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 to new customers but it's a freebie rather than one which is tightly integrated with Virgin's service.

The ME181CX, as it is also known, comes with a quad-core, 64-bit Intel processor, the Z3745, one that has a base clock speed of 1.33GHz. Other features include Android 4.4, 1GB of RAM, 16GB onboard strorage, an 8-inch 1,280 x 800 pixel IPS panel, rear and front cameras, Wi-FI, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, a 9-hour battery life.

Asus MemoPad HD 7 review

Desire Athow
Managing Editor, TechRadar Pro

Désiré has been musing and writing about technology during a career spanning four decades. He dabbled in website builders and web hosting when DHTML and frames were in vogue and started narrating about the impact of technology on society just before the start of the Y2K hysteria at the turn of the last millennium.

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