The Toshiba AC100 is one of the first Google Android powered notebook-style devices to ship. It’s also one of the first products on the market with an NVIDIA Tegra 2 chipset. Sure, it might not actually be available in the US yet, but it’s shipping in Japan, and it should be coming to Europe soon as well. Chippy from Carrypad managed to get a demo unit, and he’s started to run a series of tests.
His preliminary findings? It’s fast. Like really fast. In some benchmarks, it’s about 3x faster than the average device running Google Android. The tablet has no problem playing 1080p H.264 video or playing some top of the line Android video games.
Chippy says the device is also getting high scores in the SunSpider JavaScript benchmark and blowing away the competition in the Quadrant benchmark — even devices that are running the newer Google Android 2.2 operating system. The Toshiba AC100 is currently shipping with Android 2.1.
The NVIDIA Tegra chipset combines a dual core ARM-based processor with NVIDIA graphics to enable HD video playback, 3D graphics acceleration, support for Adobe Flash, OpenGL, and other technologies while offering the long battery life we’ve come to expect from ARM-based devices.
You can read more at Carrypad.
This place is quickly becoming about tablets more and more… How about some real netbook news? I have a hard time swallowing buying a limited tablet running iOS or Android.
This device is not a tablet nor does it offer a slate form factor. It’s an ARM-based ultraportable, like the “smartbooks” that were mentioned in the past.
I agree about the OS. If I could install Debian on it myself and have everything supported driver-wise, then it would be a much better device. I’m unimpressed by most mobile phone operating systems on mobile phones, and I like them even less on devices with more traditional sizes and shapes.
I’d much rather configure my own stripped down version of Linux optimized for a proper desktop than run Google’s junky super-stripped down, java-encumbered version of Linux optimized for phones. In fact, I’d even rather just have Angstrom on it. Either way, apt-get is better than any app store will ever be.
The fact is that through the magic of firmware, Google and vendors are going to essentially tell us what versions of their Linux we are and are not going to be allowed to upgrade to, which is essentially just planned obsolescence, telling us when we’re to be done using the device.
One of the major promises of Linux should be (I’m not claiming that it is), that nobody can tell you what you can and can’t do it with. On the contrary, people have been whining “this device only ships with Android 1.X/2.X” for quite a while now, which points back to same issue. Apple pulls the same nonsense with its operating systems, just ask all of the people that had their PPC-based products go from functional to junk through the magic of OS X. Seriously, when is the last time that ANYBODY said “This only runs Windows XP” or Microsoft said “You may not upgrade to Windows 7”. Extending the useful life of hardware is something that, to my surprise, Microsoft has gotten right recently, and it’s always been a core value of the Linux community. Google’s Android does not have that. It has the opposite of that, and it’s the main reason that I will never buy an Android product. It’s too bad too because this hardware is awesome, and with some form of Open Embedded on it running an e17 desktop, this would be the logical successor to the Psion Netbrook Pro.
I realize this is a bit off topic, but I’m noticing the same thing. It simply means there is less and less to read. Tablets are about as interesting as rocks. But hey, I keep coming back. Only Brad would truly know the readers interest of lack thereof in tablets. I think a poll would pretty quickly sum it up. Then I can look bad by being completely wrong about the serious lack of interest in tablets. I’m pretty middle of the road so everyone has to think like me. 😉
Whether you consider the AC100 a netbook or a smartbook, or something else, it’s certainly not a tablet. It doesn’t even have a touchscreen.
The reason you’re seeing more news about tablets here is because there *is* more news about tablets. Liliputing has always been a place for news and information on low cost ultraportable computers, which includes notebooks, tablets, even nettops and other topics. But there’s no denying that tablets are hot right now, so I’ve been spending a lot of time covering them.
I don’t think this coverage is coming at the expense of netbook coverage though. If anyone can point out major netbook news that I’ve been missing, let me know via the contact page.