Pocketables

Video review: ZTE 7-inch Tegra 3 tablet

 

At CES 2012 I had a chance to check out the ZTE 7-inch tablet powered by the new NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor.

The device was running Ice Cream Sandwich, which some apps were clearly not optimized for and others force closed, but overall it was fast and very responsive. The 1280 x 800 resolution was easy on the eyes, and the unit felt great to hold with its rubberized back. The overall size is small and would make a great portable tablet for road warriors and other users.

There's no word on a release date or pricing, but if you're in the market for a 7-inch tablet then you might want to consider looking into getting one with the next-gen Tegra 3 processor. 

Fujitsu shows Arrows prototype running Tegra 3

 

Fujitsu teased us at CES 2012 with a prototype Arrows smartphone running the Tegra 3 processor and invited everyone to give it a try.

Based on what we know so far, the waterproof device will have a 4.6-inch HD display and 13MP camera to capture those great moments with a high ISO sensitivity for better low light pictures. As you can see in the video, you will be able to pump out your games over HDMI or use DLNA to stream media to your big screen.

This Arrows prototype suggests that the phone could launch with Android 4.0 ICS, which would be nice. We should hear more about this next month at MWC, and I sure hope it makes it to the US.

Hands-on with BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 email, contacts, and calendar apps

RIM introduced the BlackBerry PlayBook a year ago at CES 2011 without any native applications for email, contacts, or calendar. At CES 2012, the company unveiled OS 2.0 (due out February) for the tablet that promises the long awaited native email, contacts, and calendar without the need to have a BlackBerry phone.

Fujitsu claims Arrows WCDMA model is world's thinnest smartphone

Fujitsu is claiming that the Arrows WCDMA model is the world's thinnest phone at a ultra slim 6.7mm. Yeah, that's right, 6.1mm thin. That would make it about 1mm thinner than the Motorola Razr and much lighter at 105g, with great style overall.  

Fujitsu now waterproofing Arrows smartphone line

Fujistu now has you covered if you happen to get your hands on any of its Arrows smartphones . . . and you drop them in your fish tank while cleaning it out.

Not only is the Arrows line waterproof, but it's dustproof as well. Fujitsu has also managed to include decent specs into the mix, so when I gave the device a test drive I found it to be very smooth with no noticable lag between screen swiping and overall use.

Skytex unveils new SkyPad Argos, promises Alpha 2 ICS update soon

CES is starting to wind down, but that doesn't mean the announcements and unveilings of tablets are doing the same thing. Today, Skytex, a name we've seen before from the Primer Pocket and the SkyPad Alpha 2, has announced a new model of the SkyPad line, which the company is calling the SkyPad Argos. Skytex also confirmed that the existing Alpha 2 will be getting an update to Ice Cream Sandwich soon.

Anyway, let's talk about the new Argos tablet. Like the Alpha 2, it will cost roughly around the low price point of $199. Spending those two Benjamins (or whoever else is on a 100-unit note in your respective country) will get you Ice Cream Sandwich, a single-core 1.2GHz processor, Mali 400 GPU, and 8GB of internal storage, not to mention the 7-inch 1024 x 600 capacitive display.

The Argos also has a removable back; unfortunately, it's just for show, as Skytex plans to bring backings with different colors to the market, as well. Still, less than $200 in Skytex's eyes certainly gives you a heck of a tablet for the money. I hope the company will push these into big box stores and even megastores like Walmart. Putting a cheap yet quality tablet into a lot of hands would almost certainly help the brand skyrocket in terms of popularity. 

[Lilliputing]

Novo7: World's first Android 4.0 tablet for $99

With CES in progress, I set out to find which manufacturer would come out with the lowest priced Android tablet, and I think this is it. It's the $99 Novo7 tablet and along with the cool price comes Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0).

Viewsonic Viewpad E70 undercuts the Kindle Fire, does Ice Cream Sandwich for $170

If you have been following the pocketable tablet scene, you know what an impact the Kindle Fire made with its great hardware at a really low price. Personally, I though Amazon did a great job with the Fire, but it appears ViewSonic thinks they can do better. Today at CES, the company announced the ViewPad E70, which will have both Ice Cream Sandwich and a $170 price point.

Understandably, specifications have suffered slightly as a result of this price cut. The tablet will ship with a single-core 1GHz processor, front facing camera, WiFi b/g/n, 4GB of storage, and 1080p HDMI output. The most concerning element is the 7-inch display, which has a disappointing 800x 480 resolution. Quality could also be an issue, but I would hope a monitor company would be able to get a good panel for its own tablet.

Also, I find it a little odd that the bezel of the device still includes capacitive hardware buttons. As Ice Cream Sandwich comes with onscreen buttons, they would seem unnecessary and their inclusion could indicate quite a bit of oversight on ViewSonic's part. On the other hand, it could change before the release or even be a purposeful decision, so I wouldn't worry to much about it.

The device has also not received Google approval, which means it will not have the Market any of the Google apps. It could, of course, make do with the Amazon App Store like the Kindle Fire, but it would have been nice to have the official market. 

With only a $30 savings over the Fire, most casual users would probably be better off with Amazon's offering. However, if like me you would like to try Ice Cream Sandwich on a 7-inch display, the ViewPad E70 will certainly suit your purpose without breaking your budget when it launches later this quarter. If you've got just a little more cash, though, the Asus MeMo will serve you much better.

[ViewSonic via. PhoneDog]

Qualcomm S4 chip runs Windows 8 with LTE very well

Windows 8 was shown off last night, but a lot of the stuff Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer talked about was either already known about or pretty much expected. 

Thankfully, CES is so much more than the software developers; it's also about hardware manufacturers. Qualcomm is a supplier of some of the best mobile chips in the world, and it's poised to be a major player in the Windows 8 game.

The tablet you see above is a genuine copy of Windows 8 running on an ARM processor, which is actually the first time anyone has seen a public display of such a thing. The tablet reportedly ran incredibly well and buttery smooth, which is obviously a much-needed feature in a tablet that consumers want to look nice and perform like a beast. 

More importantly, given Qualcomm's expertise in the mobile networking market, this tablet was also running on a carrier's LTE network, meaning that we should see a healthy selection of connection options with an already-healthy selection of hardware. 

Thank goodness for CES week! Being able to somewhat look into the future just makes me so excited for what's gonna come out of it. 

[SlashGear]

Intel demos its Medfield smartphone platform at CES

CES may just be the most amazing time of the year for all us technology enthusiasts. There's already been plenty of amazing new gadgets to come out of the convention, but none of them has been quite as cool as Intel's. 

This is the first "smartphone" running the chipmaker's smartphone platform, named Medfield. It's going to go head-to-head with the existing chipsets that other companies make, and it's going to do so with major force. Inside this rather ugly 4-inch piece of plastic is a 1.6GHz Intel Atom, GMA graphics, and an Intel modem. All of Intel's components are running Gingerbread, which isn't exactly what they should be showing off at CES.

The platform is capable of pushing out HD content from the micro-HDMI slot, as well as playing some relatively power-hungry games (like Modern Combat 2 that you see above) without skipping a frame. 

On top of the impressive performance, Intel is also touting the battery life that using Medfield will bring: 45 hours of audio playback, eight hours of talk time on 3G, 14 days of standby, and five hours of browsing the web on 3G. Of course, this was on a pre-release device with a 1460mAh battery, so when others start manufacturing with these chips, we could see different numbers.

Awesome stuff, right? Intel doesn't give a specific release date but I'm hoping that manufacturers pick this up sometime before summer. 

[Engadget]