New Technology Reviews!.: ViewPad

ViewSonic Viewpad 7e tab officially announced, coming this month

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<img alt="" class="aligncenter" height="181" mce_src="http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/3927/view7e540x301.png" src="http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/3927/view7e540x301.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 640px;" title="View 7e" width="324" />The low priced Viewpad 7e Android 2.3 Gingerbread tablet was just made official today by Viewsonic. We’ve seen this tablet plenty over the past few weeks as well as enjoyed some hands-on time with it back at IFA this year. Today Viewsonic has announced that it will officially hit the shelves this month so you should be able to snag one up any day now for just $199, more details below.</div>
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We saw plenty of this tablet at IFA this year and for all the details you can click here. The Viewpad 7e may not be the thinnest or best tablet around, but for $199 it comes in with some pretty decent specs and hardware — but its no Kindle Fire. We have Android 2.3 Gingerbread (no Honeycomb) with Viewsonic’s new 3D user interface called Viewscene 3D. Hardware wise we have a 7″ 1024 x 600 resolution display, 1 GHz single-core processor to chug things along and only 512MB of RAM and 4GB internal storage. Here is our hands-on video below:</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="strong" mce_style="font-weight: bold;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;">ViewSonic Viewpad 7e hands-on</span></div>
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While it may not be top of the line we do get a 3MP camera on rear and VGA front all included for the low price of just $199. Pair that with mini-USB, micro HDMI-out and a micro-SD slot you have most of the things you’d want or expect in a low priced budget tablet. It does come pre-loaded with the popular Swype keyboard and the viewscene 3D user interface is quite snappy and I’ve heard good things on that front. For full press release details see this page, then head over to Amazon and pre-order the Viewpad 7e today.</div>
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<a href="http://androidcommunity.com/viewsonic-viewpad-7e-tab-officially-announced-coming-this-month-20111024/view-7e-bottom-3/" mce_href="http://androidcommunity.com/viewsonic-viewpad-7e-tab-officially-announced-coming-this-month-20111024/view-7e-bottom-3/" style="color: #0066cc; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;" title="View 7e bottom"><img alt="View 7e bottom" class="attachment-thumbnail" height="150" mce_src="http://img838.imageshack.us/img838/1179/view7ebottom150x150.png" src="http://img838.imageshack.us/img838/1179/view7ebottom150x150.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 640px;" title="View 7e bottom" width="150" /></a><br style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;" /><a href="http://androidcommunity.com/viewsonic-viewpad-7e-tab-officially-announced-coming-this-month-20111024/view-7e-front-camera-3/" mce_href="http://androidcommunity.com/viewsonic-viewpad-7e-tab-officially-announced-coming-this-month-20111024/view-7e-front-camera-3/" style="color: #0066cc; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;" title="View 7e front camera"><img alt="View 7e front camera" class="attachment-thumbnail" height="150" mce_src="http://img835.imageshack.us/img835/1429/view7efrontcamera150x15.png" src="http://img835.imageshack.us/img835/1429/view7efrontcamera150x15.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 640px;" title="View 7e front camera" width="150" /></a><br style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;" /><a href="http://androidcommunity.com/viewsonic-viewpad-7e-tab-officially-announced-coming-this-month-20111024/view-7e-front-3/" mce_href="http://androidcommunity.com/viewsonic-viewpad-7e-tab-officially-announced-coming-this-month-20111024/view-7e-front-3/" style="color: #0066cc; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;" title="View 7e front"><img alt="View 7e front" class="attachment-thumbnail" height="150" mce_src="http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/3504/view7efront150x150.png" src="http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/3504/view7efront150x150.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 640px;" title="View 7e front" width="150" /></a><br style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;" /><a href="http://androidcommunity.com/viewsonic-viewpad-7e-tab-officially-announced-coming-this-month-20111024/view-7e-side-2-3/" mce_href="http://androidcommunity.com/viewsonic-viewpad-7e-tab-officially-announced-coming-this-month-20111024/view-7e-side-2-3/" style="color: #0066cc; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;" title="View 7e side 2"><img alt="View 7e side 2" class="attachment-thumbnail" height="150" mce_src="http://img841.imageshack.us/img841/5697/view7eside2150x150.png" src="http://img841.imageshack.us/img841/5697/view7eside2150x150.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 640px;" title="View 7e side 2" width="150" /></a><br style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;" /><a href="http://androidcommunity.com/viewsonic-viewpad-7e-tab-officially-announced-coming-this-month-20111024/view-7e-side-micro-sd-3/" mce_href="http://androidcommunity.com/viewsonic-viewpad-7e-tab-officially-announced-coming-this-month-20111024/view-7e-side-micro-sd-3/" style="color: #0066cc; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;" title="View 7e side micro SD"><img alt="View 7e side micro SD" class="attachment-thumbnail" height="150" mce_src="http://img854.imageshack.us/img854/1512/view7esidemicrosd150x15.png" src="http://img854.imageshack.us/img854/1512/view7esidemicrosd150x15.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 640px;" title="View 7e side micro SD" width="150" /></a><br style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;" /><a href="http://androidcommunity.com/viewsonic-viewpad-7e-tab-officially-announced-coming-this-month-20111024/view-7e-3/" mce_href="http://androidcommunity.com/viewsonic-viewpad-7e-tab-officially-announced-coming-this-month-20111024/view-7e-3/" style="color: #0066cc; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;" title="View 7e"><img alt="View 7e" class="attachment-thumbnail" height="150" mce_src="http://img705.imageshack.us/img705/9581/view7e150x150.png" src="http://img705.imageshack.us/img705/9581/view7e150x150.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 640px;" title="View 7e" width="150" /></a></div>
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ViewSonic Viewpad 7e tab officially announced, coming this month

The low priced Viewpad 7e Android 2.3 Gingerbread tablet was just made official today by Viewsonic. We’ve seen this tablet plenty over t...

Hands on: Viewsonic ViewPad 10s review

<div align="center"><img src="http://cdn.mos.techradar.com//Review%20images/TechRadar/Gadgets/viewpad%2010s%20review/DSCF4091-200-200.jpg" /></div>Even by the meagre standards of most of the Android tablets out there, the original <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=3630952467398438450&postID=6323386053768130842">Viewpad 10</a> was an absolute stinker.<br />
While the hardware was pretty decent – it was powered by one of Intel's Atom chips – the software implementation was poor. It ran both archaic Android 1.6 and Windows 7 and it did neither particularly well.<br />
The Viewpad 10s is a different animal though. It's a single boot, with Android 2.2 the OS of choice. It's also got an interesting Tap UI overlay, presumably designed to circumnavigate the usual pitfalls of running a phone OS on a tablet.<br />
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Under the hood sits Nvidia's Tegra 250 chip, 512MB of memory and a 1024x600 LCD panel similar to that of the iPad.<br />
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Performance of the tablet is pretty decent. The Tap UI is designed to make better use of the 10-inch screen, as until Android 3.0 comes out, it's very much a phone OS designed for smaller devices.<br />
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It adds some pretty neat new features, too. One such feature is Family Accounts, which allows every member of the family to have their own login. It's a good way to allow multiple users to customise and personalise the device without negatively impacting the experience of others.<br />
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It's good, too. While it's nowhere near as slick and impressive as the Blackberry Playbook, there was no lag, and the screen is responsive. It is rather heavy though, let's hope that's partly due to there being a decent battery in there – we'll test that at a later date.<br />
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<div align="center"><img alt="viewpad 10s" src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/Review%20images/TechRadar/Gadgets/viewpad%2010s%20review/DSCF4105-420-90.jpg" width="420" /></div><br />
<div align="center"><img alt="viewpad 10s" src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/Review%20images/TechRadar/Gadgets/viewpad%2010s%20review/DSCF4103-420-90.jpg" width="420" /></div><br />
<div align="center"><img alt="viewpad 10s" src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/Review%20images/TechRadar/Gadgets/viewpad%2010s%20review/DSCF4086-420-90.jpg" width="420" /></div><br />
<div align="center"><img alt="viewpad 10s" src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/Review%20images/TechRadar/Gadgets/viewpad%2010s%20review/DSCF4085-420-90.jpg" width="420" /></div><div align="left"><a href="http://www.techradar.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Source</a></div>

Hands on: Viewsonic ViewPad 10s review

Even by the meagre standards of most of the Android tablets out there, the original Viewpad 10 was an absolute stinker. While the hardware...

Review: ViewSonic ViewPad 7

<P align=center><img src="http://cdn.mos.techradar.com///Review%20images/TechRadar/Gadgets/Linx%20N700/n700on-200-200.jpg"></P> <br /><P>When is a seven-inch tablet not a tablet? When it's strangely labelled a smartphone, like ViewSonic's ViewPad 7.</P><br /><P>At this small size it's not really competing with the iPad scale of tablets, more the Dell Streak and Samsung Galaxy Tab. Like those two devices, the ViewPad 7 is running Android, this time in 2.2 trim.</P><br /><P>But the strange thing is that ViewSonic is marketing this as a smartphone rather than as a tablet. Admittedly, you can slap a SIM card into the top of the ViewPad and it will operate like a phone, but you'll get a bit of the Dom Joly's should you use it in the street.</P><br /><P>We've actually already seen this device under a different name. Like the ViewPad 10, this seven-inch edition has simply been picked up lock, stock and barrel by ViewSonic from an OEM manufacturer and renamed. In its previous guise it was the Linx Commtiva N700, a £330 tablet that got a decent four stars.</P><br /><P>So what has ViewSonic done with it?</P><br /><P>Seeing as the ViewPad 7 costs more than the same device under Linx Commtiva N700 nomenclature you'd expect to be getting a bit more for your cash. Unfortunately the only real difference between the two bits of tablet tech is what's been removed from the ViewPad 7 bundle.</P><br /><P>The N700 comes with a 4GB microSD card to bolster the paucity of internal storage in the machine itself, but there are no such goodies with the ViewSonic version. Other omissions are less tangible, such as the lack of a Swype keyboard.</P><br /><P>The keyboard that replaces it is an awkward beast. The main difficulty we had was when trying to search from within the Froyo browser where the space bar was replaced by a shortcut that added www.*.com around anything we typed. This is less than helpful unless you only ever search for single words.</P><br /><P>You can however get £100 off until March 2011 with a rebate should you send a functional laptop/netbook back to ViewSonic once you've got your ViewPad 7. </P><br /><P>So price-wise it's not too bad if you've got a machine less than four years old that you don't mind parting ways with.</P><br /><P>The problem we still have with it, though, is the smartphone branding. We did genuinely try to use it as such for 24 hours in place of another Android phone. The experience wasn't great…</P><br /><P>Our main issue was that we had some connection issues. On HSDPA, SMS messages weren't getting sent for some reason. Switching down to a slower mobile connection was the only solution, which then robbed it of the smartphone-on-the-move internet capabilities.</P><br /><P>We also felt like a bit of a tool standing in a busy street shouting at the side of the ViewPad 7 where the microphone was, then pressing one of the stereo speakers to our ear.</P><br /><P>We could've used the bundled headphone/mic set from the box, but that's not necessarily easy to fumble about with when you're trying to answer a call.</P><br /><P>But still, it's not a bad device. The battery life is fine and the build quality is fairly good, too. The only real problems with the hardware itself are the slower CPU and the ropey screen. That 600MHz ARM CPU is unable to cope with the minimum requirements necessary for Flash playback, or for the upcoming Gingerbread version of Android.</P><br /><P>Or for the smooth playing of <EM>Angry Birds</EM>…</P><br /><P>Our other issues are more based around its usage. Realistically if you're in the market for such a mobile internet device then you'll spend the cash on a decent actual smartphone before dropping £300-£400 on this. And if you've already got a decent smartphone you're unlikely to take the time to pick up the ViewPad instead for whatever you want to do.</P><br /><P>In short, the ViewPad 7 is mostly unnecessary.</P><br /><P><STRONG>We liked</STRONG></P><br /><P>At £300 it's not a bad price, and with Android 2.2 and Google Market on board it's not a bad little tablet either.</P><br /><P><STRONG>We disliked</STRONG></P><br /><P>If you've already got a smartphone, you'll more likely use that first for anything you'd do on the ViewPad 7. At seven inches it's a bit of a half-way house between a proper tablet and a good phone, in the end competing with neither.</P>

Review: ViewSonic ViewPad 7

When is a seven-inch tablet not a tablet? When it's strangely labelled a smartphone, like ViewSonic's ViewPad 7. At this small size...