By Patrick Avenell
SYDNEY, NSW: There are no carriers on board and there are no retailers signed up, but that’s no matter to Viewsonic, which today launched its ViewPad 7 and 10 devices, as they won’t be getting stock into Australia until sometime in January 2011.
Consumers will, therefore, have plenty of time to mull over the features of these two devices before making a purchasing decision. And, in Viewsonic’s own words, these tablet devices’ biggest asset is its price.
Sitting comfortably between the Telstra T-Touch Tab, and the Samsung Galaxy Tab and Apple’s iPad, the two Viewsonic devices appear to be aimed squarely at the middle-of-the-road consumer. The ViewPad 7 is RRP $699 and the 10 is RRP $799. This makes both more than twice the much-maligned Telstra offering (RRP $299), but both much less than the Galaxy Tab (RRP $999 for 16GB), whilst being on par with the iPad (RRP $629 to $1,049).
The ViewPad 7 is the focus for Viewsonic, which sees the 10 as more of a business model. The 7 in a full function mobile phone running Android 2.2. It has 512 megabytes of built-in memory, expandable up to 32 gigabytes through a microSD card. There’s 3G, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity; dual camera (3 megapixels on the back, VGA on the front); and a USB 2.0 drive.
The battery life is quoted as 600 hours on standby, 48 hours on audio and 6.5 hours on video. The capacitive touchscreen is 800 x 480 WVGA. Viewsonic’s own dimension figures for this device are 179 x 110 x 11.5 millimetres, and it weighs 375 grams.
According to country manager William Tse, Viewsonic is currently in discussions with carriers to distribute the device on plans, a la the Galaxy Tab. Futhermore, he is chatting with the leading CE retailers about ranging the product when stock is finally made available.
Viewsonic will support the launch of the ViewPad 7 with a TVC.
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The new ViewPad 7 (RRP $699).
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