Okay Geek Farm
Enso Announces 5 New Knock-Offs
Jason Tsay
Enso zenPad. Does that ring a bell? Well if it didn’t, you probably haven’t been following the cheap Android tablet story close enough. Basically, Enso was the company that first brought hope to humans of an actual cheap Android tablet. Back in March, they promised a $150 5” tablet that dissolved into vaporware. At least that time, their product was original, somewhat. Today, we dive deep into the world of knock-offs as Enso shows off 2 smartphones and 3 slates.
First up, we’ll start with perhaps the most interesting - the zenDroid (pictured above). This Android 2.1 device throws together aspects of the HTC HD2 and the Motorola DROID. Costing $319 and only available for pre-order at the moment, it packs in a 4.3” capacitive display at an 800 x 480 resolution. The core consists of a 624MHz Marvell PXA935 processor and 512 MB of RAM. Storage is at a maximum of 16 GB with an 8 GB microSD packaged in. For photos, the zenDroid uses 5 megapixel on the back and a 0.3 megapixel on the front (apparently for video calling). As for the future of the device, Enso prints that it will be “upgradable to 2.2 ” (their typo. true knock-off site indeed.)
The second smartphone in this batch is the zenPhone. It appears to be some sort of distorted Nexus One but the word MID is printed in bold letters across the side of the device. Also a 4.3” device, it uses an LED resistive display. The resolution is the same as the zenDroid and the amount of storage is the same. Powered by a 806 Mhz Marvell PXA330 Xscale, it will set you back $349. It also has a 0.3 megapixel front-facing camera but has 3.2 megapixels on the back. The biggest shocker is the OS - Maemo 5!
Now let’s get into the new zenPads. First up is the zenPad 2, a”revision” of the zenPad. The same 5 inch resistive display is there along with Android 1.5, 128 MB of RAM, a 624 Mhz Marvell PXA303 Xscale. Nothing horribly interesting there but if you’re interested, it ships now for $219. The zenPad 3 is the exact same thing but with a 7” display instead. It will cost $30 more than the “2.”
Lastly, we have the zenPad 4. Yes it’s an iPad knockoff. Right from the similar display size down to the face buttons, or rather just the one button. Heck, even the aluminum casing is similar (though this one has much more ports than the real thing). The resistive display is 10.2” rather than 9.7” and is LED backlit at a resolution of 1024 x 600. A 1 Ghz Zenith ZT180 Cortex A8 (haha A8) powers this Android 2.1 runnin’ $199 knock-off.
Hit up the source links if you’re interested in buying any of them!
