Australia's largest Member motorists association, NRMA, is offering a free Android tablet to customers who join, upgrade or renew on its premium roadside assistance package, but the device is outdated and has low-end specifications.
The company will offer a free 7in Android tablet as a "reward" to both new and existing customers who sign up, or renew a two year membership to NRMA Premium Care, the company's top of the line roadside assistance package.
The free tablet is advertised as a "limited offer" and is valid until Monday, 30 September. It only applies to NRMA's "Premium Care" roadside assistance package, which is priced at $182 per subscription year, along with a $55 joining fee for new members.
However, the device is unlikely to be a significant sweetener for many users due to the fact it has very low-end specifications and runs an outdated version of the Android operating system.
The tablet is listed on the NRMA Web site as the NextBook Premium M727HC. It has a 7in LCD screen with a low 800x480 pixel resolution, runs a 1GHz single-core Cortex-A8 processor, and has just 512MB of RAM.
The Wi-Fi only tablet lacks a rear-facing camera, but includes a VGA front-facing camera for video calls and also has a microSD card slot for expandable memory. It has a non-removable battery but NRMA has not specified its milliamp hour capacity.
Despite being advertised by NRMA as being valued at $199.95, a quick search for the little-known tablet reveals it can be purchased through multiple online stores and shipped to Australia for under $120.
eBay seller topbuyelectronics lists the NextBook Premium M727HC for $108 with free postage at the time of writing, while online store AusPCMarket prices it at $116.60, also with free postage.
In addition to having low-end specifications, the NextBook Premium M727HC tablet also runs a significantly outdated version of Google's Android platform, 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.
Google recently announced the latest version of Android, 4.3 Jelly Bean, which is available now on its Nexus range of tablets and smartphones.
