UPDATED 11:30 EDT / JANUARY 04 2011

Korean Firm Enspert, Looking to Rival Samsung Galaxy Tab in Power, Cost

Enspert S200 Home Media The Korean technology firm, Enspert, has taken aim at the Samsung Galaxy Tab and media smartphones by producing a more powerful product, which will be delivered to the public a little bit cheaper. They have also announced the release of a home-media phone that will connect with the tablet that will allow users to control their entertainment center and move their TV content from the living room onto the tablet. PCMag brings us some details and coverage of these new Enspert products in the wake of scattered announcements from other companies before CES 2011.

The home-media smartphone caught our attention first. The part of the article that mentions “…pushing TV shows from a big-screen TV…to the tablet for bathroom or bedroom consumption.”

The Enspert S200 Home Media Phone has two pieces: a handset that looks like a cordless phone with a large color screen, and a “media convergence hub,” a 7-inch Android-powered tablet that connects to a home Wi-Fi network. It may launch under the Time Warner, Enspert or VTech brands. With the cable provider’s cooperation, Enspert will be able to enable multi-screen viewing, pushing TV shows from a big-screen TV down to the portable tablet for bathroom or bedroom consumption.

The S200’s tablet component has an 800-by-480 touch screen and runs on a 1-Ghz Samsung, Cortex-A8 processor. Initially the tablet is being developed with Android 2.2 Froyo, although it will probably launch with Android 2.3 Gingerbread, Cha said.

“Our platform enables a multifaceted use where you can push pictures, movies and content from a PC, to a laptop, to a TV and back to your cell phone,” Cha said.

Overall the media-center device doesn’t do anything that we haven’t seen our tablets and smartphones already do—except for the paired smartphone plus tablet, which isn’t common. Why Enspert decided to go with two devices—a handset and a tablet—when just a tablet would have probably done just as well.

The next update from the company puts Samsung in their sights by releasing a Wi-Fi only tablet that looks extremely similar to the Galaxy Tab, but sells much cheaper. According to the company, the Enspert E301 matches the Galaxy Tab component-for-component but will sell around $300-$400 when it goes to market. The Tab still has price that hovers around $500, making the E301 extremely enticing to consumers who shy away from mobile devices that approach that price point.

The S200 won’t be Enspert’s first retail product in the US, though. That honor goes to the E301 tablet, which looks a lot like a lower-priced version of the Galaxy Tab. (Remember that Enspert, like Samsung, is Korean; the E301 has actually been on sale in Korea since October.) The E301 mirrors the popular Tab’s specs: a 1024×600, 7-inch screen, a 1-Ghz Samsung processor, 8GB of memory and 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi. But unlike the Tab, which is right now sold through wireless carriers, the E301 will be a Wi-Fi-only tablet sold direct to consumers through Best Buy.

So, if you want to get hands-on with an E301 and try it out, get to a Best Buy. The tablet doesn’t look like it’ll be much of a comparison to a device like an iPad, as it cannot connect to 3G/4G networks; but it’ll probably be a good pair for a desktop or a laptop in enabling you to wander around the house for somewhat cheap. Even without the cellular Internet anywhere aspect, the ubiquity of free wireless hotspots still makes cheaper tablets like this an interesting buy. Give me a McDonald’s or other restaurant, my tablet, and viola I don’t need an expensive data plan to get on the Internet and poke around (although it is far less convenient.)

It would be interesting to hear how well this product is selling in Korea vs. the Samsung Tab, it’s obviously a cheaper product—but it’s hard to tell from the current specs and the hype how it stands up to its more expensive rival.


A message from John Furrier, co-founder of SiliconANGLE:

Your vote of support is important to us and it helps us keep the content FREE.

One click below supports our mission to provide free, deep, and relevant content.  

Join our community on YouTube

Join the community that includes more than 15,000 #CubeAlumni experts, including Amazon.com CEO Andy Jassy, Dell Technologies founder and CEO Michael Dell, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, and many more luminaries and experts.

“TheCUBE is an important partner to the industry. You guys really are a part of our events and we really appreciate you coming and I know people appreciate the content you create as well” – Andy Jassy

THANK YOU