Not content with flogging other companies' tablets, today UK supermarket chain Tesco is launching one of its own. Priced at £119 and available from September 30th, the Hudl features a 7-inch (1,440 x 900 resolution) display for watching those Blinkbox titles in 720p, a quad-core Rokchip 1.5GHz processor, stock Android 4.2.2, a microSD slot for supplementing the 16GB of internal storage and, according to Tesco, a battery that'll last around 9 hours on a full charge. Some of the specs, such as dual WiFi antennae and stereo speakers on the rear face seem carefully designed to square up against Amazon's elderly (and soon-to-be-replaced) Kindle Fire HD, which, at £160, may suddenly look expensive beside the Hudl. Amazon, however, can claim the stronger ecosystem, while Google's £199 Nexus 7 boasts better all-round hardware.
The device is slightly chubby and plasticky, as you'd expect, but it's not some rebadge. Tesco says it worked directly with a manufacturer (Archos, as it turns out) to produce a tablet of its own design. Also, to the retailer's credit, the tablet feels sturdy, which seems to be a theme of certain optional Hudl-branded accessories, too. These include a pair of headphones and a rubbery case intended to make the slate more child-friendly. Tesco says it'll double the value of ClubCard vouchers put towards a Hudl purcahse, meaning customers can pick one up for free if they have enough points for a £60 voucher. There's also an offer coming for Blinkbox vouchers, designed to tempt you into Tesco's content ecosystem that complements its first foray into hardware -- we hear the promotion starts next week and vouchers will be half-price, so you'll be able to get £20 of streaming content for a tenner.
Sharif Sakr saved up all of his ClubCard points for this report.
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