7-inch 3G Honeycomb tablet made official for Sprint, coming February 5th

It was only a matter of time before more affordable tablet options started finding their way to carriers doors. Many people want them, but can’t afford $300+ to have the luxury. Unlike cellphones, a tablet is a thrill not a necessity just yet. In efforts to help the consumers, many carriers have turned to a few lesser known names to offer a solution. Sprint is making that happen with a well known Chinese manufacturer, ZTE.

Launching this Sunday, February 5th, you will have an opportunity to snag on for just a hair under $100. You will need to sign your life away to Sprint for 2 years of course. Beyond the low price tag the ZTE Optik will give you a pretty solid device. A 7-inch screen with a resolution of 1280 X 800, which is up from most 7-inch tablets at 1024 X 600. It has a 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor, 1 GB of RAM and 16GB internal storage. Downsides, it will come loaded with Honeycomb 3.2 and I am not so sure that ICS will ever be on the table for it. Also, it is only packing in a 4,000 mAh battery. You should get through nearly two Netflix movies before it dies, but it still seems a bit low to me.  We can hope enough interest is seen for the low-cost option for development to kick it up a notch.

Via Sprint