Hmm
Looks literally like a scaled up iPhone 4.
Is there no originality left in the world?
Viewsonic has introduced its 7in Android 2.2-based tablet, as expected. It claimed the gadget is a world first - thanks to the device's "phone functionality". Dubbed the ViewPad 7, the tablet's full specs have still to be published, but Viewsonic did say the device will sport front (0.3Mp) and rear (3Mp) cameras; have Wi-Fi, …
a 7-inch tablet running Android 2.2, phone functionality, front and back-facing 3MP cameras and VGA resolution display, a capacitive multi-touch screen and supports 3G, WiFi, Bluetooth and comes with a full size SIM slot. Also good for VoIP or mobile phone calls and it will have an auto G sensor that reorients the screen.
A 10 inch version is also coming:
http://www.reghardware.com/2010/08/23/viewsonic_android_tablets/
Have to agree about the originality. After all PCW magazine mocked up what future PC's might look like in the early 1980's, a glass touchscreen slab about 7" big, roughly the same form factor as an iPhone, with an icon grid interface in the artists impression...
The iPhone isn't quite as pretty - it's originality is that round the display instead of a edge to edge glass surface. The iPad is obviously much bigger. How original ;)
Of course Apple do seem to believe they have an exclusive license to implement other peoples ideas.
So it's got the screen of a £40 photo frame and costs £350. No thanks. Also going to be useless for reading PDFs or ebooks as it is won't have enough depth (480 vs 600 for most ebook readers).
How is this different form the myriad of £60 Chinese ebook tablets that are flooding fleaBay?
This is only the first of a raft of pads and tablets coming out of S.E. Asia. I guess since this will have a telephone feature it will also be allowed access to Google's App store, Flash, no censorship, etc.
A word of caution: Don't buy any Android pad until OS 3.0+ is released as it has special pad features included.
I assume that as I bothered to read the article, its a phone and it runs Andorid 2.2, which makes it a different beast to a boggo eBook reader. I hope this answers your question....
Viewsonic stuff is usually OK. We used their monitors at work quite a bit. I'd see one running in the flesh before dismissing it.
You get what you pay for, you want a "real" iPad, stump up the money for one (and you won't even get a phone on it... )
I like my general purpose computing device to be capable of doing general stuff, and as this isn't going to be much use for creating media it should at least allow me to consume media in an efficient fashion. Scrolling around badly rendered PDFs just won't cut it.
Until someone comes up with a device that's not tied to the devil's own reality distortion field I think I'll stick to my trusty laptop. This fashion for widescreen displays is nice for watching movies, but website viewing and document reading is less than optimal.
Android shmandroid, I'd have something like a Viliv S5 but with half the weight and a sensible aspect ratio, then I can choose whether to run Windows, Linux or whatever and not be tied to a marketplace or be trapped by some megalomaniac's idea of what the web should look like.
When anyone suggests that these things are copying an iWhatever I can't help but recall that this is exactly how I imagined a touchscreen device would look back when mobile phones only had numeric keypads.
OK, so having a black screen border and metallic sides is a bit of a design decision -- but blandness is always going to be part of the design of something with no buttons.
I was tempted, then I realised I probably want the 10in model, especially as that one has Windows 7 and Android. Leave it running Android and turn off the phone+GPS to keep the battery topped up, then you have a laptop about in reserve when you need it.
Bugger the iPad, that an Android+WINtel tablet really is a laptop replacement. Just hope it isn't horrendously expensive.
that some decent Android based tablets are finally starting to appear, but ye gods! The price! People who want an Android tablet are not the same as the ones who buy iPads. We won't pay fashion-statement prices. When something like this costs half of what they're currently asking or less, I'd buy one. The price they're asking today? Not a chance.