Screen experts ViewSonic have announced a brand new Android Tablet to enter the market, the ViewSonic ViewPad 10e.
Being screen experts, ViewSonic have really made sure their latest tablet has one of the best screens you’ll find on a tablet device. The ViewPad 10e has a 9.7-inch IPS display with a resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels. The IPS (In-Plane Switching) technology was first used on a tablet device in the original iPad, and it means that the device will have a fantastic viewing angle. You can tilt it in all directions and still experience a bright, vivid and crisp picture.
It’s pretty slim and sleek, too, as you can see from the picture above which gives a side view of the tab. To be precise, it’s just 9.1mm thick, which is only 0.3mm thicker than the super-svelte iPad 2.
The ViewPad 10e has a single-core 1GHz processor, HDMI output, microSD card reader slot and a MicroUSB connection. It also has Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n connectivity to get you online, plus Bluetooth 3.0 for wireless connectivity to many different devices.
Internally there is 4GB of storage space and 512MB of RAM. 4GB may not seem like a lot compared to the 16 and 32GB options provided with many tablets, but you can easily up it using a microSD card.
Unfortunately ViewSonic have opted to use Android Gingerbread (2.3) as the operating system for this tablet, rather than the tablet-optimised Honeycomb. This means there are three touch-buttons located below the screen to take care of the menu, back and home functions that won’t be on the screen itself.
With regards to Android and the OS used on this tablet; it hasn’t received Google’s authorisation or ‘blessing’ as some would say. This means there will be no Android Market, Google Maps or Gmail apps as default. You should be able to install these manually using the ArcTools app, though.
The HDMI output will allow you to play 720p HD video from the tablet onto your HD tablet with relative ease. Battery size is pretty hefty at 5400 mAh, which should give you enough juice for around 8-10 hours we reckon.
UPDATE: Earlier in the week when this story broke, we anticipated the price to be around the £300 mark, but boy were we wrong! ViewSonic has announced the price for this device, and it is just £199 in the UK. Argos are the first retailer to confirm they will stock the device, and they have already slapped the bargain price tag on it. For a tablet with a 9.6-inch IPS display, you’d be getting quite a bargain here!
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