Direct Merchandise Marketing might not have the most alluring name as a tablet maker, but it still raised a few eyebrows with its Matrix One in June: it hoped to crack the $100 barrier while still producing a device you’d still be proud to take home to Mother. The 7-inch slate is going on sale ever so slightly past its late July target, but with a surprise price drop to $90 — more or less, considering that shipping costs a minimum $10. Whether or not that extra Hamilton bill’s difference is an illusion, you’re still getting a surprisingly competent device for the money, with a 1.5GHz ARM Cortex-A8 chip, 512MB of RAM and 4GB of built-in storage moving Android 4.0 along at a decent clip. The 2-megapixel front camera, full-size USB and HDMI also help reinforce that it’s more than just a no-frills slab. Having said this, we’d be brave enough to crack the triple-digit barrier and spring for the considerably more future-proof $130 edition with 1GB of RAM and 16GB of space. The feature gap is still wide enough that Nexus 7 owners won’t experience buyer’s remorse; at this price, however, it’s not hard to imagine handing out Matrix Ones to family members like so much candy.

Filed under: Tablet PCs

Matrix One tablet goes on sale for an even more frugal $90 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Aug 2012 23:53:00 EST.