With the Consumer Electronics Show now over for another year, manufacturers who didn’t set up a booth at the event are free to unveil new devices again. Asus has become one of the first with the unveiling of its new MeMO Pad, a 7-inch Android tablet that looks a lot like the Nexus 7. Priced at $149, the device will begin shipping later this month.

Now, before you brand this a Nexus 7 copy, remember that Asus manufacturers the Nexus 7 for Google, so it’s kind of okay that the two look remarkably similar. There’s also a big enough difference between the two devices for the MeMO Pad not to damage the Nexus 7’s sales at all.

Let’s take a look at those differences, then. Its 7-inch display boasts a 1024×600 resolution, and the device is powered by a 1GHz VIA WM8950 processor. There’s 1GB of RAM, 8GB or 16GB of internal storage, and a 1-megapixel front-facing camera. It’ll ship in white, grey, and pink, and it’ll be available later this month is selected markets.

The MeMO Pad is $50 cheaper than the Nexus 7, but it’s nowhere near as nice. It doesn’t quite look as good, the display is a lower resolution, and the processor’s nowhere near as fast. It’s clearly aimed at the budget-conscious tablet buyer who isn’t too concerned about having the latest and greatest specifications, which means it could be quite popular. If only it had launched a few weeks before Christmas.

• ViaPocket-lint