Recognizing that there is a market for super low-end tablets, Sprint has announced the ZTE Optik, an Android tablet that it plans to sell for $99.
Available February 5th, the Optik features a 7-inch 1280 x 800 display, a 1.2 GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM and 16 GB of storage. Not a bad set of features for its price.
Of course, its $99 price tag comes before the accumulated cost of a two-year contract. With 1GB data plans going for $20 a month, the final cost of the ZTE Optik will hover around at least $600 after twenty-four months. So it’s not the best deal in the end. Off-contract, the Optik will sell for $349, which is also a bit high.
Of course, in an effort to keep the tablet’s price low, ZTE didn’t furnish the Optik with a 4G chip, putting a damper on the hopes that this would be a $99 WiMAX experience.
So, in short, approach this one with caution.
