Today I spotted this cool looking EKEN M001 7″ Android MID, although really the best part was the price, at around US$99 (RMB 680), which was a bit of a surprise. It seems to be aimed at the Western market as the instructions on the package are written in English and the case is similar to a normal e-book, although it is not made with the same quality material. But after all, you get what you pay for.

According to the package, it has a VIA 8505 processor, 128MB of DDR2 RAM, an 800MHZ CPU and 2GB of flash storage. The 7-inch touchscreen has 800 x 480 screen resolution, which is OK for surfing the net, but it consumes a lot of battery power and the battery emits a lot of heat after a few hours of use.

The device is a little like an enlarged mobile phone, with a simple front face and basic directional keys. One concern is definitely the system stability, the hot battery and sluggish operation indicates that there could be a few problems down the line. The EKEN is loaded with Android 1.5.5 and the system supports Android apps, and with WiFi it should be fine for browsing pages and news, as long as you don’t expect super fast performance. But it is reasonable for the price.

The guys over at Shanzhai.com have posted a video of the EKEN M001 in action as well.

Tags: gadget, usb, shanzhai, android, android+tablet, eken+m001