Computer sales have been less than stellar for the past two years. Mobile computing in the form of smart phones and tablets on the other hand has been improving. The problem is that just a few companies make up the majority of these mobile sales. Both HP and Toshiba have not had the best luck with their tablets but that isn’t stopping them from trying a new angle, low pricing. Each recently announced or launched tablets around $100. They are probably hoping that these low prices will help drive sales, and they are probably right, but the margins on such low cost devices generally don’t translate much into profits. Besides, consumers can probably find much better for just a bit more money. So let’s take a closer look at what you can get for so little.

Smaller, Lower Resolution Displays

The screen is probably one of the most expensive components when it comes to a tablet. It is the primary input device but the screen dictates how large the tablet is going to be. It is no surprise that both tablets, the HP 7 Plus and Toshiba Excite Go, use smaller 7-inch screens as they are much more affordable than 8 or even 10-inch displays. To keep the costs down, the screens also offer very limited resolution of just 1024×600. This means that they can’t even display a 720p high definition video stream.

In contrast, consumers can spend between $50 to $100 more for a small 7-inch tablet and get 720p or 1080p capable tablet displays. For instance, the is just $150 and features a 1280×800 display and at $200 you can get either the Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 7-inch or the both of which have a 1920×1080 and 1920×1200 resolution respectively.

Low Resolution or No Camera

Forward and rear facing camera’s have been popular features for tablets as they allow them to be used for web video chats, taking pictures or recording video. In the case of the HP 7 Plus tablet, it still features both a front and rear facing camera but they are much lower resolution than your average tablet. For instance, the front facing camera is a low 640×480 or VGA resolution for limited clarity. The rear facing camera is at least a 2.0 megapixel for alright stills shots. Toshiba has elected to only use a low resolution front facing camera for their Excite Go tablet and has no rear facing camera.

Once again, the camera situation is not surprising but something that consumers will need to take into consideration. The ASUS MeMO Pad HD 7 mentioned earlier features a surprisingly high 5.0 megapixel rear facing camera. On the other hand, the Kindle Fire HDX 7 does not feature a rear facing camera. I don’t think that the cameras will be necessarily a deal breaker for many buyer’s but it is something they need to be aware of.

Lower Performance Processors

HP and Toshiba went in different directions when it comes to the processors for their tablets. Both feature low power quad core processors but the HP uses an AMD Cortex-A7 while Toshiba uses an Intel Atom. The HP is certainly a lower performing processor which is not that different than one found in say the ASUS MeMO Pad HD 7. It works just fine for basic tasks like mail, browsing the web and media watching but it is definitely going to be less stellar when it comes to things like games. Both the Kindle Fire HDX and Nexus 7 offer faster Cortex-A9 processors.

The Toshiba Excite Go is going to be an unknown here. They don’t say what version of the Atom processor they will be using. The thing is that while x86 processor like the Intel Atom can runs the Android operating system it had some performance issues compared to the OS running on ARM based processors. Once gain, it will probably be fine for basic tablet use but it probably not going to excel in tasks such as gaming.

Storage Expansion

At least one thing that both companies did right was the ability to expand the storage of these low cost tablets. Both have limited storage space, 8GB for the HP 7 Plus and 16GB for the Toshiba Excite Go, but both feature a microSD card slot for adding in extra flash storage space via expansion card. This is a critical feature that is missing on many other low cost tablets including the Kindle Fire HDX and the Nexus 7. It is something that is featured on the ASUS MeMO Pad HD 7 though.

Final Thoughts

While the low cost strategy has helped companies like Acer in the past boost their total sales, I don’t know if this is a good sign for either HP or Toshiba. The tablets are fairly basic and not ones that I would recommend over the more feature rich tablets that cost a bit more. Of course many people are much more influenced by prices than other factors these days. I expect that the sales will also do well for those parents who don’t want to have to share their expensive tablets with their kids. Now they can purchase some low cost name brand tablets to give to them.

The HP 7 Plus tablet is for just $100 but they are currently sold out. It is possible to buy them through third parties but they are generally selling for more than $100. The Toshiba Excite Go is expected to go on sale sometime in July with a price of $109.