ViewSonic ViewPad 7 Android Tablet Review
Performance Summary and Conclusions
ViewPad 7 Performance Take-Aways: The ViewSonic ViewPad 7 pleasantly surprised us in spots and disappointed a bit in others. The device proved to be very responsive and actually offered better overall performance than we expected in anything from simple web browsing to a bit of 3D gaming. Small letdowns however were the viewing angle of its screen, combined with occasional glare problems. Finally, from strictly an analytical standpoint, the ViewPad 7's benchmark numbers with its FroYo installation, were actually quite respectable, again especially considering its base processor specifications. It appears Qualcomm's MSM7277 processor has been fairly well optimized for reasonably balanced performance.
In a market that is currently preparing for quite literally a deluge of new tablet offerings, the ViewSonic ViewPad 7 and its larger 10-inch brother, the G-Tablet, have their work cut out for them. If we were to offer an ideal spec wish-list currently, we'd say it's either a Samsung Hummingbird or NVIDIA Tegra 2 under the hood, with 512MB - 1GB of RAM, 2G internal storage with expansion slots, Android 2.2 or 2.3 (Gingerbread) and at least a 5PM camera. Drop that all into a 10-inch slate for $399 or a 7-inch slate for $299, and you should be able to sell more than a few. The ViewPad 7 offers part of that feature set but with lower specifications overall and for an MSRP of $459. Are these shortcomings a showstopper for us? Not completely, no.
The ViewPad 7 is a high quality tablet that actually performs rather well overall and it does offer the ability to cheaply expand on-board storage. With FroYo at the helm, we found ourselves growing more and more fond of the device and think it would make for a decent supplemental PC companion for most folks. If ViewSonic were able to get the price down a bit more, it could even be a slam-dunk. We're taking a look at the 10-inch ViewSonic G-Tablet next. It's based on NVIDIA's Tegra 2 chip, and it's actually slightly lower cost, so stay tuned for details there. For now, we'll have to see how the market shakes out but for anyone interested in an Android tablet alternative to drown out all that iPad hype, the ViewSonic ViewPad 7 is a reasonable option to consider.
In a market that is currently preparing for quite literally a deluge of new tablet offerings, the ViewSonic ViewPad 7 and its larger 10-inch brother, the G-Tablet, have their work cut out for them. If we were to offer an ideal spec wish-list currently, we'd say it's either a Samsung Hummingbird or NVIDIA Tegra 2 under the hood, with 512MB - 1GB of RAM, 2G internal storage with expansion slots, Android 2.2 or 2.3 (Gingerbread) and at least a 5PM camera. Drop that all into a 10-inch slate for $399 or a 7-inch slate for $299, and you should be able to sell more than a few. The ViewPad 7 offers part of that feature set but with lower specifications overall and for an MSRP of $459. Are these shortcomings a showstopper for us? Not completely, no.The ViewPad 7 is a high quality tablet that actually performs rather well overall and it does offer the ability to cheaply expand on-board storage. With FroYo at the helm, we found ourselves growing more and more fond of the device and think it would make for a decent supplemental PC companion for most folks. If ViewSonic were able to get the price down a bit more, it could even be a slam-dunk. We're taking a look at the 10-inch ViewSonic G-Tablet next. It's based on NVIDIA's Tegra 2 chip, and it's actually slightly lower cost, so stay tuned for details there. For now, we'll have to see how the market shakes out but for anyone interested in an Android tablet alternative to drown out all that iPad hype, the ViewSonic ViewPad 7 is a reasonable option to consider.
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