Vizio’s 8 inch Android tablet is due to hit the streets later this year, but I got a chance to check out an early version of the tablet at a trade show in New York this afternoon. The tablet has an 8 inch, 1024 x 768 pixel display which gives it a slightly different look and feel than pretty much any other tablet on the market today. The user interface is also a little different, although the software may change a bit by the time the tablet is released.
What’s clear is that Vizio is positioning the tablet as a media companion. It will ship with a version of the Google TV remote control which will let you control media playback on a Vizio television with Google TV software baked in. Vizio will also be releasing a set-top-box for those who don’t have a TV with Google TV capabilities.
You’ll also be able to run many of the same apps on a Vizio TV and tablet.
The 8 inch table features a 1 GHz procesor, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS. There’s an HDMI output and a front-facing camera, and a microSD card slot. It currently runs a customized version of Google Android 2.3 Gingerbread (the default view appears to be the app launcher rather than a home screen), but Vizio may update the software to Honeycomb before shipping the tablet.