Pandigital Supernova available mid-October for $230, is an eReader in Android tablet disguise


Pandigital hasn't made much of an effort to swathe its Supernova tab in mystery. When the 8-inch LCD slate swept through the FCC earlier this summer, we were privy not only to images of the device and its internals, but also to the apps that'd be pre-loaded on purchase -- GetJar and Barnes & Noble's Nook app amongst others. So, what can you expect for $230 when it lands this month? Well, the company's forsaken Honeycomb for the soon-to-be outclassed Gingerbread OS, tossed in a single-core 1GHz A8 processor, 4GB of storage (expandable to 32GB via microSD slot), WiFi and Bluetooth. It's a cheap, me too Android tablet entry, for sure. And with the recent outing of a certain budget-priced, ecosystem-friendly tab, we might suggest you hold off for the higher-specced goods. Official PR after the break.
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Pandigital Expands Android™ Media Tablet Line with SuperNova

New tablet offers high performance Cortex A8 processor, 8-inch capacitive touchscreen, Adobe® Flash®, built-in Bluetooth and more at an affordable price

DUBLIN, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Pandigital today expanded its new line of Android™ media tablets with the Pandigital SuperNova (www.pandigital.com/SuperNova). The SuperNova delivers powerful performance with advanced features and functionality for seamless interactivity with the latest digital applications and content. The new tablet will be available to consumers this month for an affordable $229 MSRP.

The SuperNova is the flagship product in a new line of Android tablets from Pandigital. It features an 8-inch capacitive touchscreen, advanced processor, Adobe® Flash®, HDMI-out, built-in Bluetooth, front- and rear-facing cameras, and many more features and capabilities for the consumer. With the SuperNova whether at work or at play users can surf the web, check email, read the latest best seller, check out popular social media sites, catch up on the news or entertainment, look at family vacation photos, and more.

The powerful 1GHz Cortex A8 processor with a dedicated graphics engine provides fast response times and enhanced performance for playing video games, or watching movies and videos. Adobe Flash makes viewing web pages more fun by enhancing animation, video, and interactivity to the web pages. The 8-inch capacitive touchscreen with multi-touch technology is extremely responsive and makes navigating the SuperNova quick and easy whether playing games or posting an update on Facebook. Taking pictures or video and video conferencing is simple with the front and rear facing cameras and integrated microphone. Sharing the fun of your tablet is easy by experiencing it on your TV with the built-in HDMI connectivity. Integrated Bluetooth 2.1 connectivity further expands the peripheral hardware options for users.

Focusing on ease-of-use and ease-of-access for the consumer, the SuperNova comes with one-touch access to the Barnes & Noble e-book store, GetJar app store, Facebook, YouTube, personal email, photos, movies, music, videos and more. Users can quickly and easily download and read the latest books, magazines or newspapers from Barnes & Noble, or choose from GetJar's thousands of free apps to customize their SuperNova to best fit their digital lifestyle.

"We are excited to deliver our most comprehensive tablet yet – one that offers many of the advanced features and functionality of higher priced tablets - at a price that's affordable to consumers," said John Clough, president, Pandigital. "We added some features to the SuperNova that we didn't offer in previous versions of our tablets, but felt were important to the consumer for this flagship product, including an 8-inch capacitive touchscreen display and integrated Bluetooth."

Customize the SuperNova with Direct Access to Digital Content

With digital content becoming more prevalent and constantly changing, consumers want to customize and update their devices to best fit their digital lifestyle, making it critical to have instant access to the latest applications. The Pandigital SuperNova offers seamless connectivity to more of the applications consumers want, including:

Barnes & Noble's eStore - Quick and convenient access to more than two million eBooks, newspapers and magazines, a wide variety of free eBooks, and more than half a million free classics. It's easy to browse, sample, buy, and download published content in seconds. Also, customers can lend many eBooks with friends and family for 14 days.

GetJar – Access thousands of applications from the world's largest free app store from categories including Education, Social & Messaging, Entertainment, Finance, Food, Games, Health, Search, Lifestyle, Maps, Music, News & Weather, Photos, Productivity, Religion, Shopping, Sports and Travel.

Built-in Wi-Fi and Browser – Access the Internet and surf the web anywhere a Wi-Fi connection is available.

Adobe™ Flash 10.3 – Enjoy the full multimedia web with on-board support

Bluetooth 2.1 – Expands peripheral hardware connectivity options.

Email – Stay in touch with friends, family and colleagues using existing email addresses –including support for MS Exchange.

InTouch – Quick one-app view of your Facebook, Twitter, and email accounts as well as topical RSS news feed data.

U-Player – Direct access to popular YouTube videos.

Gallery and Video Player – View and manage photo files, and play and manage MPEG4 video files.

Music – Play and manage music audio files (MP3, WAV and AAC).

Camera – Use front and rear facing cameras to take pictures and video.

ES File Explorer – View and manage files and apps, and back up files to a microSD card.

OfficeSuite Viewer – Open and view many file formats (DOC, DOCX, TXT, XLS, XLSX, CSV, PPT, PPTX, PPS, PPSX and PDF).

Further enhancing the flexibility of the SuperNova, Pandigital included several custom-developed applications that provide users with a more intuitive experience. Connecting with and monitoring available Wi-Fi networks is easy with the Wi-Fi Connection Wizard. Automated notices of firmware updates and the ability to download them directly to the tablet via the Wi-Fi connection helps make sure that customers have the latest technology available. Other useful apps from Pandigital include InTouch for instant access to social networking sites, a customized calendar, a notes app, a weather app, and an alarm clock with one-touch bedside slideshow, music, and dimming.

Ease-of-Use and Features Enhance Customer Experience

The SuperNova delivers advanced features and functionality, combined with a user-friendly interface to provide an excellent customer experience that's affordable at $229. The SuperNova is powered by the Android™ 2.3 operating system and is upgradeable to new Android™ operating system versions. The tablet will be scheduled for future firmware releases as they become available from Pandigital.

Storing your favorite apps, books, movies, music, videos and more is virtually unlimited with the 4GB internal memory and the built-in MicroSD card reader that accepts up to 32GB memory cards. The built-in mini-USB On The Go (OTG) port provides a way to connect directly to a computer for easy file transfers (Mac and PC compatible), supports a number of peripherals, such as both wired and wireless-via-dongle mice and keyboards, hubs, and thumb drives, and can also be used to re-charge the internal battery.

The SuperNova offers an excellent viewing experience with an 8-inch full-color LCD display with a 600x800 resolution. In addition to the back-lit Android™ buttons, the new tablet features a capacitive touchscreen with multi-touch support. The orientation sensor automatically adjusts between portrait and landscape mode in most applications when the device is tilted, and the 2-Axis Accelerometer is great for controlling games that need simultaneous steering and acceleration.

Encased in a black housing with a brushed metal look front bezel, the SuperNova has a compact and sleek design measuring 6.13-inches wide, 8.38-inches high and 0.44-inch deep, and weighs 16.6 ounces. It comes with a rechargeable Li-ion battery and gets up to 6 hours of use (performance varies based on use –averaging longer for reading with no Wi-Fi and shorter for continuous streaming video).

Product Availability and Pricing

The Pandigital SuperNova (R80B400/R80B452) Android™ media tablet will be available in mid-October at leading retailers across the U.S. for $229 MSRP.