It’s only been a few weeks since Asus launched the MeMo Pad ME172V, but that clearly isn’t stopping the Taiwanese company from embarking on the next step of its budget tablet crusade – the MeMo Pad HD 7.

Wading through the plethora of Asus devices released at Computex, TechRadar got to have a play with the Nexus 7 evolution that’s at least been getting the attention of people’s wallets.

Asus announced that the MeMo Pad HD 7 will be released for $129 and $149 for the 8GB and 16GB models respectively. We also know that the 8GB won’t be coming to the UK, with the 16GB to be priced at £149 when it arrives in August.

Design

With a few different colours to choose from – light green, hot pink, black and white – the MeMo Pad HD 7 has a little more character than its contemporaries from the off.

The design of the tablet overall is very reminiscent of the Nexus 7 (but around 40g lighter) though we reckon some people will be less keen on the MeMo Pad’s glossy plastic body, despite the fact it feels pretty sturdy.

The tablet also packs dual stereo speakers that sit at the bottom and face downwards. We weren’t able to do any proper quality tests, but it seemed pretty loud despite the incessant buzz of the Computex show floor.

Specs

The MeMo Pad comes powered by a 1.2GHz MT8125 quad-core CPU with 1GB of RAM and running Android 4.2.

In the US, the tablet comes with with either 8GB or 16GB storage, but Asus also is offering users 16GB of its Webstorage for one year on top of that. However, the MicroSD slot is the big win over the Nexus 7 here, letting you add up to 64GB of additional storage.

Asus promises that you’ll get ten hours from its 15Wh battery, though we weren’t able to put this to the test in the time we had.

Display and camera

The 7-inch 1280 x 800 IPS display is capable of 720p HD playback. Perhaps our only complaint is the incredibly glossy display, which meant fingerprints and strong lights shone right back at us during our play.

The 5-megapixel rear camera certainly isn’t bad for a such a budget tablet – the pictures we took on the show floor certainly came out crisp enough at least on the device’s screen – while there’s a 1.2MP HD lens on the front.

However the lack of a flash is likely to frustrate those who like to get snap-happy with their tablets.

It would also be nice to see Asus do something like Acer’s new multitasking Float UI on the Liquid S1, which feels ripe for a slate of this size.

Early verdict

The MeMo Pad HD 7 takes a fairly decent swipe at the Nexus 7 – and yes, the iPad mini – and considering it’s offering comparable specs at a lower price, it has a good chance of getting a KO when it touches down.

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