Most tablets and mini-laptops I’ve seen with Windows CE have used the same start menu and desktop design that Microsoft has been using on mobile devices for the last 10 years. But in this day and age, mobile device makers are all over finger-friendly user elements, widgets, and shortcuts. Chinese manufacturer Hongrun Electronic has put together a mobile tablet that does a pretty good job of showing that Windows CE doesn’t have to look like Windows 95.
While the 7 inch tablet is running Windows CE 6.0, it appears to have a custom user interface with home screen widgets for a clock, calendar, and searrch function. Unless I’m mistaken, that home button on the bottom left probably works like an old fashioned start menu, by bringing up a list of programs and other actions. But at the top of the screen you’ll find finger-friendly buttons for launching the media player, office apps, web browser, and settings. I haven’t had a chance to test the UI myself, but at least based on the pictures posted at Shanzhaiben, I have to say it looks pretty nice.
The tablet has an 800MHz Telechips TCC8901 processor, 800 x 480 pixel resistive touchscreen display, 256MB of RAM, and 2Gb of flash storage. It can handle 1080p HD video and has an HDMI ouput as well as a USB port, mini-USB port, and SD card slot.
The Hongrun tablet sells for about $145 in China. I doubt we’ll see it in the US at that price anytime soon.
via Cloned in China