ViewSonic ViewPad 7 Android Tablet Review
ViewSonic ViewPad 7 Tablet PC - Spec and Video Review
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ViewSonic is a household name that many consumers can identify with in terms of their lineage in the LCD market. So, at least on the surface, it would make sense that a panel manufacturer (akin to Samsung actually) would have solid leverage in components and materials, to compete in the white-hot tablet arena. We gave you a preview of their 10-inch Tegra 2-based g-tablet, not long ago and we actually have that in house right now for testing, though there are OS updates coming that we're hearing should offer a better experience. In the meantime, we also have their 7-inch ViewPad 7 tablet here and it has been recently buffed out with Android 2.2 for what is arguably the best tablet experience on the market currently, at least on this side of the Apple fence. The ViewPad 7's 7-inch form factor is decidedly more portable than a 10-inch slate, and this device has every IO option you could ever want, including micro-USB, micro-SD card, and SIM card slots, as well as front and rear facing cameras.
Let's demo it for you quickly first and then we'll dive into performance and user experience.
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USB, Bluetooth, micro-SD card slot, SIM card slot -- that's a laundry list of specifications above, many of which iPad owners wish they could lay claim to as well, save perhaps for the 600MHz ARM11 CPU and only 512MB of internal storage. However, drawing parallels to the iPad really isn't the right approach. The two are very different devices really, though competing in the same product segment. In addition, micro-SD cards are cheap, so dropping in another 16 - 32GB of storage could be a small $25 - $50 upgrade. And as you'll find out, that 600MHz ARM11 isn't quite as underpowered as you might think. Let's drop down another level for a closer look.