ViewSonic unveiled two new tablets last week, or a tablet and a phone, depending on how you look at it. ViewSonic calls the 4 inch model a tablet with phone capabilities for some reason, but everyone else in the world is probably just going to call it a 4 inch smartphone. The new tablet is a 10 incher called the ViewPad 10S, which won’t be available in the US, where we get the dual-boot ViewPad 10 with Windows 7 and Android instead.
The 10s has an NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor and runs Google Android 2.2 as well as HDMI and USB ports and a micro SD card slot. It seems like a decent tablet, if a bit large and heavy to hold in one hand — like many 10 inch Android tablets I’ve had a chance to play recently.
The ViewPad 4, by contrast, feels great in the hand. It’s got an extraordinarily angular design that’s bordering on boxy… but in a good way. It’s a striking looking little machine. Unfortunately the 4 wasn’t functional when I wandered by the ViewSonic booth, but the folks at Engadget managed to get a few images with the screen on. The little guy has an 800 x 480 pixel screen, a 5MP rear-facing camera that can shoot 720p video, 2GB of storage, and 512MB to 1GB of RAM.
ViewSonic says it’s working with phone operators to bring the ViewPad 4 Stateside. Unfortunately there are no plans to offer a WiFi-only version of the ViewPad 4.
So it can shoot 720p videos of the user looking at himself? That is not very useful. It would be better to have the high-resolution camera facing forward like any camera (this is the way most people use a camera). A rear-facing camera need only be low-res if it is only to be used for video-calling. Most people cannot see the difference between “front-mounted” and “front-facing”….it really is not that difficult folks !!
For some reason i would love to see the 4″ without the phone bits. Am i old fashioned?