ViewSonic ViewPad 7 to Run Android 2.2

By Geoff Duncan August 31, 2010

Jumping the gun on its presentation at the IFA trade show in Berlin, ViewSonic has unveiled its ViewPad 7 tablet, and Android-running 7-inch touchscreen tablet that the company hopes will give the Apple iPad a run for its money during the end-of-year holiday buying season. The ViewPad 7 will reportedly run Android 2.2 “Froyo” and offer full phone capabilities in addition to tablet computing functionality—although we can’t imagine most people will want to cart around a 7-inch tablet as their primary phone.

Image used with permission by copyright holder

ViewSonic is still being cagey about the device’s specifications: according to reports, the screen will offer an 800 by 480-pixel native resolution and sport a 600 MHz ARM processor under the hood, along with front- and back-facing cameras (VGA and 3 megapixel resolution, respectively), Wi-Fi headphone jack, a microSD slot for removable storage, assisted GPS, and a slot for a full-sized SIM card with support for both voice and 3G data services. ViewSonic says the device will also support handwriting recognition as input.

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ViewSonic has not unveiled pricing or availability information, but industry reports have the company saying it expects the UK pricing to come in at around £350 (about US$550), with a retail launch around October.

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Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…

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