Why Are Indonesians Lining Up at 5am For Huawei’s New Tablet?

An Indonesia user on Huawei IDEOS S7 Slim. Credit: Okezone.com

In addition to smartphones, tablets are also gaining enormous popularity here in Indonesia. Almost every tablet offered by any vendor has been well-received by users. And the new Huawei IDEOS S7 Slim is no exception. People were seen lining up for the tablet’s first public sale last weekend at the Taman Anggrek Mall, Jakarta.

It’s quite a surprise considering that Huawei isn’t exactly as popular as other mobile maker brands like BlackBerry, Samsung, or Apple in Indonesia. The Chinese mobile giant didn’t splash any big budget on a marketing campaign either. But word about the device was spreading nonetheless among gadget enthusiasts in Indonesia. The end result was a long queue of people spotted at 5am (yes, 5am!) all hoping to be among the first to hold a IDEOS S7 Slim in their hands.

You may be wondering, why such a crowd for a Huawei device? It was an irresistible bargain. Huawei offered 100 units of IDEOS S7 Slim for Rp 2,000,000 (approximately US$231). That’s half the normal price. Plus, it is bundled with 12 months of unlimited 3G internet service by XL, making it a pretty sweet deal for many Indonesians.

The tablet is powered by Android 2.2 and a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. It even has a kickstand to help you view the screen at different degrees, a minor but useful addition for YouTube and movie addicts. It also has a micro-USB and micro-SD card for easy file transfer. You can learn more about its tech specs on the official site here.

While there are many nice things to say about the tablet, the battery lifespan seems to be a major problem as it can only last about 4 hours with running Wi-Fi and perhaps even less if you were to stream videos on YouTube. The battery is replaceable though. But it’s still a big downside for the tablet.

For a closer look at Huawei’s IDEOS S7 Slim tablet, here’s a video review from MyTabletLife:

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