What do you get when you combine all the latest buzzwords in consumer electronics? Apparently, you get the i-Station Z3D. Let’s see, is it a tablet? Check. Does it run Google Android? Check. Does it have a 3D display? Check. Wait… what?
That’s right, Korean company i-Station has dumped a 3D display onto a 7 inch Android tablet. And it’s not one of those fancy 3D displays that you’re supposed to be able to see without special glasses. Nope. You need to don a pair of shades to get the full 3D effect.
I guess if you buy into the idea that consumers are going to buy 3D HDTVs and appropriate glasses for their homes, maybe this makes sense. After all, if you’ve got the glasses lying around anyway… Nah. Still doesn’t really make much sense. While I could maybe see putting on a pair of glasses to watch a 2 hour movie or even to play a PC video game, I just don’t see myself wearing accessories to stare at graphics on a 7 inch display.
Anyway, the rest of the Z3D tablet’s specs look halfway decent. It runs Android 2.1, has 802.11b/g/ WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1, an FM radio, and a DMB TV tuner for catching digital TV signals in Korea. It has a high capacity 5,000mAh battery and comes with 32GB to 64GB of storage.
Well, this seems dumb, but you can bet that in 2 months there will be a linticular 3d Android tablet coming out of China or Korea. In four months five more will come out that seem a bit more reaslistic. In eight months two dozen more will be shown of which two or three that will come out here. By April of 2011 all nearly all mid & high end 7″ tablets, high end cell phones, and cool gadgets will be stereoscopic lenticular 3D.