Maylong M-150 at Walgreens for 100 price

Walgreens has quietly become one of the few chains selling a readily available Android tablet through a posting discovered by Chris and other Electronista readers. The Maylong M-150 would be an extreme budget entry at just $100 and would be a Chinese clone exploiting the popularity of the iPad up to and including a render that appears to simply be a modified iPad image. Its custom UI is based heavily on Apple's, including the app shelf at the bottom.

Most of the cost-cutting comes from the display, with a seven-inch, 800x480 resistive touchscreen. It's also using a low-powered, 533MHz Via VM8505+ chip and 256MB of RAM. Maylong is relying almost exclusively on SD cards for storage. The design is using the year-old Android 1.6 OS and is likely using a basic version of the platform without official Android Market access, although an "App Market" icon is visible.

The pharmacy carries a handful of electronics, but the M-150 is so far its only tablet and an unusual addition to its lineup. Walgreens hasn't explained the decision to carry the tablet but isn't the first to do so in the US, as a $190 Kmart tablet arrived last month from Augen. That device initially didn't arrive as it was discovered that Augen had originally been using official Google apps without the company's permission.

Velocity Micro has largely been credited with having the first mainstream tablets in the US through the Cruz line, though most consider the first widescale release to be the Samsung Galaxy Tab's appearance in two weeks.

By Electronista Staff

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gadgets, Google, Android, Samsung, tablet, Walgreens, Apple, Velocity Micro, Kmart, Galaxy, iPad, Cruz, Augen, Maylong