Acer added another tablet to its device portfolio, the Iconia B1-A71, the first tablet from a major technology company that will sell for around £99 (119 Euros) at launch. The tablet will be available in the UK as from 25 January at DSGi outlets (PCWorld, Currys), Argos, Tesco and a number of online retailers.

The tablet – which is a step down from the Acer Iconia A110 which at some point was available from £130 - comes with a dual-core system-on-chip clocked at 1.2GHz, the Cortex A9-based Mediatek MTK8317T. We’ve noted that Acer seems to be switching from Qualcomm to China-based Mediatek for entry level devices.

Other features include 512MB of RAM, 8GB onboard storage, a 7in 1,024x600 display, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, a microSD card slot, a microUSB one, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, Wi-Fi, a front facing webcam and a 2,710mAh battery. The Iconia B1-A71 is similar in size and weight to other 7in tablets in an increasingly busy market.

Acer’s offering undercuts the new Amazon Kindle Fire by about £30 and the Lenovo IdeaTab A2107 by around £60 (although this one comes with 3G capabilities and a single core SoC). As for the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0, perhaps the most potent rival to the B1, its price has reverted back to more than £150.