HP dives into Android with new Slate 7 Jelly Bean tablet, coming to the US this April for $169

Today at Mobile World Congress, HP has unveiled the Slate 7, a seven-inch $169 Android Jelly Bean tablet. The new device packs an ARM Dual Core Cortex-A9 1.6 GHz processor, a three megapixel camera and “embedded Beats Audio,” with plans to launch this April in the US.

HP has struggled in the past in the tablet space, particularly with the let down that was webOS. The HP Slate 7, however, has already started generating buzz, largely because of its low entry price, selling at $30 less than the Amazon Kindle Fire HD and Google’s Nexus 7. It’s also interesting to see that the company is looking beyond Windows 8, following its release of the ElitePad.

The 13 ounce-device will be available in both grey and red, as shown below. It will also ship with 8 gigabytes of memory, expandable via microSD, a 1024 x 600 LCD display and 5 hours of battery life.

The Slate 7 appears to be a middle-of-the-road device — not bad, and not mind-blowing. Time will tell if the slightly lower price point is enough to help it grow in popularity.