The Huawei S7 is an Android tablet with a 7 inch display which looks more like an oversized smartphone than a slate computer. That’s fine though, because in some ways it is an oversized cellphone. The Huawei S7 has a built-in 3G modem and you can use it to make phone calls. I just wouldn’t really recommend holding it up to your head unless you enjoy looking silly. That’s what wired or Bluetooth headsets are for.
The tablet is already available in Europe, and now it looks like it might be heading to America. The FCC has published a series of documents related to the Huawei S7, which is one of the first hurdles any wireless device needs to jump through before it can be sold in the US.
There’s not a lot of new information in the documents (unless you enjoy reading detailed wireless test reports). But there’s also not that much we don’t know about the Huawei S7 at this point. It has a 768MHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, runs Google Android 2.1, and has a 7 inch, 800 x 480 pixel resistive touchscreen. It’s gotten lukewarm reviews by some, but my guess is some folks would be willing to overlook some flaws for the right price. Unfortunately there’s still no word on pricing or availability in the States.
It doesn’t say in the article, but I would assume that this does not have the Android Market and Google Apps (GMail, Navigator, etc.), which is an out of the box fail for any Android device. You can find alternatives for everything but Market. Sure, technical users can probably side-load the Market, but as a practical matter no regular consumer will do that. This points to the need for alternative app stores, like the one that Amazon is allegedly getting ready to debut.
Actually, this is one of the few tablets that *does* come with Market access… at least in Europe. That’s because it has all the same components as a smartphone, which means that apps designed to run on phone should run well on the S7.
Has none of the manufactures figured out that what we actually want is: 1. Capacitive multi-touch screen2. 1024×768 or better resolution3. 7″ *widescreen* pixel-qi enabled screen4. Tegra 2505. Android 3.06. Full phone functionality7. No proprietary connectors8. HDMI out9. USB Host Mode10. Large internal storage *and* micro-sd expansion11. Carrier non-specific gsm/cdma radios that will work on all carriersI know I’m just wishing here, but I really feel like manufactures & carriers are not hearing what people really want.
It’s called oligopoly. Economics says that consumers are ill-served
by businesses in such a marketplace.
Carriers aside, Huawei is the company that Cisco sued for copying Cisco’s router code. Huawei is also partly owned by the mainland Chinese government. Not too long ago, it was in
hthe headlines when its proposed acquisition of 3Com raised
US government security concerns because it could compromise
network equipment critical to US government networks.
For those that don’t know:
oligopoly: An oligopoly is a market form in which a market or industry is dominated by a small number of sellers (oligopolists). The word is derived, by analogy with “monopoly”, from the Greek ὀλίγοι (oligoi) “few” + πωλειν (polein) “to sell”. Because there are few sellers, each oligopolist is likely to be aware of the actions of the others. The decisions of one firm influence, and are influenced by, the decisions of other firms. Strategic planning by oligopolists needs to take into account the likely responses of the other market participants.
I want everything you ask for minus the cellular radio. I don’t want yet another cell phone contract, nor to pay the inflated off-contract prices these things always carry. Give me a wifi-only capacitive device with a 7″ Pixel Qified screen and a current (and hackable) version of Android for a hundred bucks less than the cheapest iPad, and I’ll take care of the rest myself.