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We may have to wait until next year to get our hands on the iPad 3, but for the more budget-conscious tablet fan, there’s an Android model that may fill the gap. It’s the ViewSonic ViewPad 10e, coming next month, and while it looks like fitting right into the company’s budget product line, it features some pretty impressive screen technology.
IPS (In-Plane Switching) is the name of the game, and it allows a far wider viewing angle than standard LCDs, as well as truer colour reproduction. So that trailer for The Avengers should look even more impressive on the tablet.
The screen is an iPad-matching 9.7-inches, and it’s only slightly fatter than Apple’s tablet, at 9.1mm. A 1GHz Cortex A8 processor powers it, along with 4GB memory that can be beefed up with an extra 32GB using a microSD card.
It doesn’t scrimp on media abilities either, with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0, and a mini HDMI connector piping 720p footage to your TV. Amazon Kindle software comes pre-installed too, giving you access to over 700,000 books, magazines and newspapers, shown off thanks to that IPS technology. And it has 3D on board as well, with ViewScene 3D offering 16 customisable 3D panels, 3D widgets, and multiple time zone support. This is far more than we expect from a budget Android tablet.
It runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread, the latest update for phones, which is able to handle larger screen sizes, though not Honeycomb which is optimised for tablets.
The ViewPad 10e will be out from the beginning of November in the UK. Pricing hasn’t been revealed yet, but we’re expecting it to be far more budget than the iPad 2.
Do you think it’ll be up there with the better budget Android tablets? Let us know on our Facebook page.
