At China Consumer Electronics Fair exhibition EraThink Technologies company have just demonstrated quite unusual mobile device. EraThink EraPalm is a pocket computer running on Windows 7 operating system. The shape factor of mini-computer is very close to game console’s one. It has sliding screen and full QWERTY keyboard under it. EraThink EraPalm is based on Intel Atom Z series platform and is equipped with 5-inch capacitive touch screen with 800x480px resolution, 1Gb or 2GB RAM, 16/32/64GB SSD, Wi-Fi, 3G module, GPS, USB port, VGA and HDMI outputs. Unfortunately no word about exact release date and price.
Together with its new high-end smartphone Acer also showed its first tablets at Mobile World Congress 2011.
Two of them are Acer Iconia Tab A100 and Acer Iconia Tab A500. Both these devices are powered by Google’s Android 2.2 Froyo (will be updated to 3.0 Honeycomb till the moment of release) and have the same list of specifications – Nvidia Tegra 2 platform with 1GHz dual-core processor, HDMI output, 3G module, Bluetooth 2.1, Wi-Fi, 5MP camera, 2MP camera for video calls, MicroSD external memory card slot. The difference between these two tablets is that Acer Iconia Tab A100 has 7-inch touchscreen, 512MB RAM, 1GB ROM while Acer Iconia Tab A500 features 10.1-inch multi-touch display, 1GB RAM, 16GB or 32GB internal storage. It is expected that both these mobile device will become available in April.
In contrast to the A100 and the A500 this device runs not on Android but on Windows 7. Acer Iconia Tab W500 is equipped with 10.1-icnh capacitive touch screen with 1280x800px resolution, AMD C-50 processor, AMD Radeon HD6250 graphics system, 2GB RAM, 32GB SSD. It is notable that this device comes with a doc-station that transforms this tablet to a netbook. Unfortunately there is no word about release date and price.
Viliv (Yukyung Technologies Corporation) has just announced its three coming tablets. Two of the run on Google Android 2.2 Froyo, the last one is powered by Microsoft’s Windows 7 operating system.
According to the producer Android based tablets feature record-breaking battery life. Both Viliv X7 and Viliv X10 can work for about 10 hours. The only difference between these two devices is that the X10 has larger display – 10-inch capacitive touchscreen with 1024x600px resolution, while Viliv X7 is equipped with 7-inch touchscreen (1024x600pixels). In other respects they have an equal list of specifications that includes 1GHz processor by Samsung, 512MB RAM, 8/16/32GB internal storage, MicroSD external memory card slot, 3MP camera on the back side of the device, 1.3MP webcam, GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, microUSB port, HDMI output. There are also such optional modules as 3G and WiMAX.
Viliv X70 also has almost the same list of specifications as the X7 and X10. It also has 7-inch capacitive touchscreen with 1024x600px resolution, 512MB RAM, 8GB or 16Gb or 32GB NAND flash storage, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, MicroSD external memory card slot and etc. But as it was said it runs on Windows 7 OS and has more high-powered processor – Intel Oak Trail with 1.5GHz clock frequency. The device has 5600mAh battery that provides about 6 hours of work time.
This device was first shown at IFA2010 exhibition in Berlin some months ago. But it has been already available in European shops for EUR400-430. At present moment only version without 3G modem is available. But in the beginning of the first quarter of 2011 Toshiba will release 3G version of its first tablet computer. Toshiba Folio 100 runs on Google Android 2.2 Froyo and features NVIDIA Tegra 2 platform with dual-core processor. Other specifications of this Android tablet are 10.1-inch capacitive touch screen with 1024×600px resolution, 16GB internal storage, 1.3MP camera, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 1.3MP camera, USB port, HDMI output, cardreader, and accelerometer. The Folio 100 measures 281x181x14mm and weights 760g. The battery of this device provides about 7 hour of work time.
This device is positioned as the world’s thinnest external hard drive. The producer of this storage device is G-Technology that is a part of the Hitachi Global Storage Technologies family. G-Drive Slim external storage drive is only 9.9mm thin and weights 144g. Inside the slick looking little enclosure it hides a new Hitachi GST 7mm Travelstar Z5K320 HDD. Power for the drive comes from the USB port. This drive is also quiet and rugged. G-Drive Slim is formatted for Mac and supports Time Machine file backup technology but future owners of this device will be able to reformat file system to work with Windows or Ubuntu. 320GB G-Drive Slim external HDD has been already available in US for $100.
Chinese ZTE Corporation has just announced its first Android tablet. ZTE Light is powered by Google Android 2.1 Eclair and is equipped with 7-inch capacitive touch screen with 480x800px resolution, 1GHz processor, 512MB RAM, GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, FM radio, digital compass, accelerometer, 3.5mm headphones jack, webcam, MicroSD external memory card slot, 3G module (UMTS 900/2100MHz, HSPA 7.2 Mbps). The battery is said to provide about 10 hour of work time. There is no official information about its price but it is expected to be quite affordable.
This tablet computer seems to be a good rival for other devices of such class. ViewSonic G Tablet features NVIDIA Tegara 2 platform that includes two 1GHz Cortex A9 processors and graphics accelerator. Besides this tablet computers is powered by the latest version of Google’ OS for mobile devices – Android 2.2 Froyo. Other specifications of ViewSonic G Tablet are 10.1 inch capacitive touch screen with 1024x600px resolution and multi-touch technology support, 1GB RAM, 16GB internal storage, MicroSD external memory card slot, 1.3MP webcam, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1 +EDR, accelerometer, motion sensor, MiniUSB port, Mini-HDMI output. The battery of this computer provides about 11 hour of work time. ViewSonic G Tablet will become available in October and will cost $430.
ViewSonic is showing at the IFA 2010 exhibition in Berlin its new device. ViewSonic ViewPad 100 is tablet computer that main feature is dual boot. That means that it has two operating systems – Google Android 1.6 and Windows 7. Users are offered to choose between two operating systems when they switch on the device. Other specifications are usual for other devices of such class – ViewSonic ViewPad 100 has 10 inch touchscreen display with 1024x600px resolution, 1.66GHz Intel Atom processor, 1GB DDR3 RAM, 16GB SSD, SDHC external memory card slot, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS, 1.3MP webcam, VGA output, two USB 2.0 ports. ViewSonic ViewPad 100 will become available in Europe in October and will cost about $850.
