ViewSonic is introducing two new 10 inch tablets. The ViewPad 10pi is a premium Windows tablet aimed at enterprise users and “mobile professionals.” The ViewPad 10e is an Android tablet which is basically a larger version of last year’s ViewPad 7e.
The ViewSonic ViewPad 10pi has a 10.1 inch, 1280 x 800 pixel IPS display, a 1.5 GHz Intel Atom Z670 Oak Trail processor, and support for Google Android 2.3 Gingerbread as well as Windows 7 Professional. It’s expected to launch later this month for $849.
The ViewPad 10e is a$299 tablet which runs Google Android 2.3 Gingerbread. Like its smaller cousin, the 10e comes with SPB Shell software which provides a little 3D eye candy to the home screen, letting you scroll between screens using a 3D carousel.
At $299, the 10e seems a bit pricey for a tablet with a 1 GHz ARM Cortex-A8 processor, 1024 x 600 pixel display, and a version of Android that was developed for phones rather than tablets. It also ships without access to the official Android Market. Instead you can download apps from the much smaller Amazon Appstore.
If this tablet had been released with these specifications 6 months ago it might have seemed like a good deal, but today it feels like a new tablet with old specs.
The ViewPad 10e will also be available in late January.
At work I have a Viewsonic 10pro, which we bought to support some customers that use them. Windows 7 on tablets is a train wreck, and the tablet itself is heavy and annoying. The Android VM is OK but slow and incompatible with some apps.
In short, I’d avoid the 10pi like the plague.