Many sites, including mine, have witten about the mysterious Haleron Mini iLet HAL and finally came to the conclusion that it might be a scam product or a scam company. While this is not confirmed, but nobody has seen or recieved a Haleron device yet, we know now which company originally produces this device, its EKEN, a chinese electronics manufacturer from Shenzhen. Since a while, they present a device called the EKEN TP701 / M001 on their website. Haleron maybe planned to rebrand them or just took their product pictures.
Here’s a picture of the EKEN TP701:
… thats exactly the same picture as Haleron used. But I found some more pix of the EKEN device:
To see if they are really the same devices let’s compare the specification sheets:
| Specifications | EKEN TP701 / M001 | Haleron iLet Mini HAL |
|---|---|---|
| Processor | VIA MW8505 / 600MHz | Via ARM with Freescale MX Integration 600 Mhz (whatever that means?!?) |
| RAM | 128MB DDR2 | 128MB DDR2 |
| Screen | 7″ LCD / 800 x 480 / Touchscreen | 7″ LCD / 800 x 480 / Touchscreen |
| Storage | 2GB NAND Flash built-in / SD card | 2GB NAND Flash built-in / SD card |
| A/V Input | Microphone | Microphone |
| A/V Output | Stereo Audio Out / Stereo Spekers | Stereo Audio Out / Stereo Spekers |
| Network | WLAN (802.11 b/g) / Ethernet 10/100M / optional 3G through USB | WLAN (802.11 b/g) / Ethernet 10/100M / optional 3G through USB |
| Connectors | 2 x USB / Audio Out / Ethernet | 2 x USB / Audio Out / Ethernet |
| Sensors | Accelerometer | ??? |
| Battery | ??? | 16 hours in active mode / 72 hours standby |
| Extras | Android 1.6 | 10GB “Cloud Storage” / Android 1.6 (they call their version “Ocean Android”) |
| Price Range | official: unknown/ on dhgate.com: 125 – 137 $ | 179$ – 229$ (Depending on the quantity you order) |
| Manufacturer/Vendor | EKEN | Haleron |
You see, these are the same devices. But while it is not sure if you will recieve anything when ordering a Haleron device (google for +haleron +scam for more information), I spotted some of these EKEN devices on the chinese wholesale site dhgate.com (that’s where the above pictures are from) for a price of around 130$ (but you have to take two, order on your own risk!). EKEN seems to sell these devices in quantities starting from 100 pieces with prices from 85 to 102$ as it is visible on alibaba.com.
In my eyes this device is massively underpowered to run Android as snappy as it deserves. But if somebody is just looking for a eBook reader with a color screen and huge energy consumption, there you go… that should work.
By the way, EKEN plans to release more and bigger Android tablets, as they write between the lines of the TP701 product specifications. The website shanzai.com spotted a 8-Inch Android tablet from EKEN at the Global Sources China Sourcing Fair in Hong Kong. Along the EKEN tablets they also spotted some iPad clones of various shapes running Android from Shenzhen based manufacturer Sungworld. Have look… not very promising, but hey – it’s Android!
UPDATE April 21, 2010: shanzai.com made also a new video of the EKEN M001 / TP701:
UPDATE April 28, 2010: There is another video from shanzai.com showing a bit more of the EKEN M001 / TP701:
FYI, it can be bought on chinese wholesale sites like aliexpress.com or dhgate.com and soon there will be some on ebay.com I think…
UPDATE May 4, 2010: The EKEN M001 is now available in the US through matricom.net, where it is called the “Google Android bSocial xE Internet Tablet”
For those of you who want to buy this device (I wouldn’t), it is listed on Amazon
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