Update: Our live review sessions are now available.
The Samsung Galaxy Tab is here and unboxed ready for our live testing session tonight. Enjoy!
Expect lots of testing notes, opinions and videos over the next week.
Samsung Galaxy Tab kindly supplied by Techdepot
Be sure to watch in ‘480p’ for better quality.
Thanks to Techdepot who reached out to us yesterday we’ve got a Galaxy Tab in our hands. Well we think it’s a Galaxy Tab we haven’t opened the box yet!
Expect an unboxing video later today and then at 2100 CEST (Berlin time) [Update: Live session postponed until Friday, 15th] lets sit down together and go over the device in detail. We’ll turn the cameras on the device and give you a chance to watch some detailed testing. We’ll also have a chat channel open for Q&A as we go.
Live at 2100 CEST on Friday 15th Carrypad.com/live – Tega V2 too!
Watch out for the unboxing video on Carrypad later today.
Mi700 on the left. Haiku Concept by Microsoft’s Origami Team (2005/2006)
You love full PC’s in the hand I know, but I just wanted to highlight the Mi700 7 inch tablet that is being reviewed over at Carrypad. It’s running Android 2.2 and it’s fully stocked with all the hardware features you’ll find in a phone, including the phone. It’s arguable that there are things you can do with the Mi700 that you just can’t do easily with a ultra mobile PC or Windows-based tablet. Location services, social networking, 3.2MP photography, instant sharing, always-on, always-on battery life and turn-by-turn navigation to name just a few. On the other hand, what about the productivity apps?
Check out the review and tell me what you think. Personally I think it fits Origami better than the Origami devices did and i’m excited to get down to some serious testing with a similar device, the Viewsonic Viewpad 7, very soon.
Foreword. Many, many thanks to Er Lern out in Malaysia for sending us this review of the CSL Mi700 tablet before posting it on his own blog. Er will be bringing part 2 of the review soon. Make sure you follow Er on Twitter.
Readers might notice that the Mi700 is the same as the Camangi FM600, the OlivePad and the Viewsonic Viewpad 7 that should be launching soon. (all product details here with links and videos) For a 7 inch tablet with 3G, voice, GPS, capacitive touchscreen and Android 2.2, this is shaping up to be a really nice product. The pricing should be competitive (we’re hearing 399 Euros for the Viewpad 7 with 3G included) so this is one review to read carefuly. Take it away Er Lern….
CSL was kind enough to lend me a review unit of their latest Android product (the Mi300 being their first): Mi700 DroidPad. Along with the review unit, I had some time chatting with both the CEO and Senior Manager of Marketing at CSL. The relevant details and observations from that discussion will be inserted in the review.
Unboxing:
The product comes in a fairly large white box. In it, you get the tablet, along with (Please refer to the pictures below):
It is a simple package, which I found quite attractive (you won’t want to throw the box away).
Hardware:
Take note, in this review, I will refer to the tablet in landscape position being its normal, at rest, position. This is how the company has designed it. Not like the Tab where it is displayed as a “portrait” mode tablet. Honestly, I prefer to handle tablets in portrait position; I find landscape a bit too disconcerting as it requires one to relearn habits acquired in using phone UI (User Interaction)s. That is just a pet peeve of mine. By the way, all the photos taken are from my HTC HD2 at 5MP. I will try to include a video in future posts.
This is a 7″ inch device, with the following dimensions: height of 179.4mm, 110mm width and 11.5mm length. It weighs at slightly less than 0.5kg. The DroidPad can definitely be carried using one hand, although not for long stretches; ideal for the short surfing and simple tasks. The best way to hold this device (from my experience) is to put it on any platform (could even be your belly) and leaning it back against your palm/fingers. The weight in that position is negligible.
The build itself is solid. There are no moving parts or rattling noises from the unit. This is not unexpected since it was mainly designed and manufactured by Foxconn (though CSL has input into the design through a subsidiary of Foxconn). The unit does not house a fan to dissipate heat. Frankly, it is not needed as I have not felt any heat coming from the unit, even when under heavy usage. When you turn the whole device around, you will notice that it is all sealed up nicely. The back is a polished, glossy matte (ala iPhone 3G) cover in black. I do not know what material it is made of, but it attracts finger prints on it. The side of the tablet is framed with an aluminium casing (it looks like aluminium to me). The thickness is evident (at 11.5mm), but good to see that the back and the front does not bulge out, but fits that length perfectly. Although everything looks nice, I have a bit of a complaint concerning the front bezel. I admit, I am bit picky at times, and like things to be symmetrical, and thus found the bezel around the display to be of different sizes. I measured the sides, and they are both 11mm. The top is 9mm while the bottom is 12mm. I just find that a bit odd and have no reason to justify their rationale in this (especially since the camera is located at the top left and not at the wider bottom bezel). Anyway, at the right side of the display are 4 touch sensitive buttons. One for ‘menu’, ‘home/voice search’, ‘search’ and ‘back’.
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There are a few consumer tablets that stir excitement more than others. Of course the iPad is a leader in terms of being a complete product but there are three others you should watch out for. The Dell Streak gets Android 2.2 in November giving it a leading position in the Android tablet space. The Galaxy Tab should launch in November too. It will be expensive but will bring some large-screen optimised software to the Android platform for the first time. The third one on the ‘watchlist’ is the Viewsonic Viewpad 7. We were slightly disappointed to hear that it’s an ARM11-based device last week which means it definitely won’t have the ooompf to compete with the other devices mentioned here but having tested it and seen that it’s a complete ‘phone’ tablet with 3G, GPS and a surprisingly fast UI, we’re still happy that it competes. Pricing is said to be competitive.
The Viewpad 7 is a re-badged device manufactured by Foxconn and we’ve already seen that it will appear as the Olive Pad, the Camangi FM600 and the CSL Spice Mi700 Droidpad and it’s the latter version that is getting some attention right now because it’s already available in Malaysia and the blogger that made the in-shop review we highlighted last week now has a review model. Not only that but he’s found out that there’s a Snapdragon version in the works too. No doubt it will be more expensive but it certainly shouldn’t take long to get it to market if they use the same design. Foxconn aren’t using the same design though because our friendly Malaysian blogger says “DroidPad 2 slimmer, Snapdragon, will meet Android 3.0 req, planned release in Q1/Q2 of 2011. inch
With Foxconn being one of the largest computer design/manufacturing companies in the world it’s safe to say that they’re well connected in Google. Knowing exactly what’s required for Android 3.0 is a good indicator too.
We’ll be continuing to follow erlern on Twitter and his blog. We suggest you do to!
This is rather embarrassing
I’ve been a big proponent of ARMs Cortex CPU cores and have regularly highlighted that they are ‘entry level’ for any sort of Web work on an ARM platform. I’ve tested many ARM11 devices from smartphones to tablets and have never seen any browser speed or quality that would make me happy in a productive scenario. In today’s world of advanced smartphones, there’s every chance that the average consumer would notice too. The latest device that I’m testing, the SmartQ T7, is so slow that I’ve postponed my review until the company can confirm that there isn’t a networking fault. I’ve also been fairly public that the Nokia N8 with its ARM11 CPU won’t be a blazer when it comes to Web browsing and my early tests confirm it. I’ve also disputed cries that a new browser will make it better.
Imagine my surprise today when a tablet I’ve been very positive about in terms of speed turns out to be an ARM11-based device. Initial reports from Viewsonic indicated that the Viewpad 7 it would be a Snapdragon-based device but the specifications were changed and the unit will be based on the Qualcomm MSM7227 CPU. I only found out because all the other devices based on the same OED (Camangi FM600, Olive Pad, Spice Mi700) are all advertising the Qualcomm MSM7227. Viewsonic confirmed to me today that the device will now ship with the MSM7227 and interestingly, that the unit I tested at IFA and am basing my positive thoughts on was the ARM11 model. [Gulps]
Of course it doesn’t change the product one bit (unless you have an affinity for Cortex cores) but it does mean I have to be more careful with my analysis in the future. In my defence I was told that it was Snapdragon and it was actually pretty fast but I apologise for this mistake and hope you’ll respect my openness. The relevant product specification pages have all been updated. Learnt from this: Android 2.2 is an extremely efficient OS and it’s possible that Symbian^3 could also be well-optimised in terms of its latest browser software.
At the end of the day our ‘Open Review’ sessions and videos catch any failings and issues and we’ll be planning just that for the Viewsonic products (Viewpad 7 and Viewpad 10) so stick with us for the real story.
Note: I’ve also added a bunch of early review links to the Viewsonic Viewpad 7 product pages.
I remember getting excited about the original Touchbook when information started coming through in mid 2009. The modular keyboard/tablet concept seemed sound and the ARM Cortex processor offered a chance to see how the new architecture could perform.
I remember too, the disappointment in the first weeks of deliveries as people started reporting issues that ran through hardware and software. A year later, many of these early owners are somewhat unhappy about the new product announcement. We cancelled our order before the credit card was booked, walked away and haven’t looked back until today.
That history makes us somewhat sceptical about the latest version of the open-source design from Always Innovating. The Smart Book [Registered trademark no less!] sticks with the modular approach and adds a MID (Mobile Internet Device.) The MID sits in the back of the device and contains the processing unit, an upgraded Ti DaVinci module with a Cortex A8 1Ghz CPU. The MID runs the core software and what you’ve got is a tablet-style frame, screen and connectivity (upgraded to capacitive touch) and an optional keyboard unit with power and additional connectors. If you don’t want the MID module, you can choose to buy the tablet component with its own motherboard in place of the removable MID. The image and video below shows the concept more clearly.
In addition to the hardware changes Always Innovating are offering a tri-OS system that can switch, instantly, between the classic Angstrom distro, Android Open Source and Ubuntu. There’s even talk of Google Chrome being available. When the device ships by the end of the year, these OS’ will be updated to the latest versions. (10.10 Ubuntu, 2.2 Android.) With these operating systems being highly customised to work simultaneously, there’s a lot of interdependence so hacking the builds isn’t going to be simple.
Full Specifications:
Once again I find myself interested but this time I won’t be laying down my credit card and with the total cost at over $550, it’s an even bigger risk this time round. The tablet section can be had for $199.
More detailed information can be found over at Linux for Devices.
We’ve spent a week in San Francisco at one of the biggest developer shows of the year and haven’t posted a single article on Carrypad yet and that’s because most of what we saw was Windows-based. That, in our eyes, isn’t exactly the ideal solution for consumer-focused solutions we would be reporting on at Carrypad. The Dell Duo was cool but it’s Windows 7 on a netbook platform with a launcher. The ExoPC was cool but once again, it was a Windows 7 netbook without the keyboard. The Ocosmos OC1 was amazing but once again, its a Windows 7 device.
Only one item stood out for me in terms of consumer-focused solutions and I haven’t reported on it yet Its an Android tablet…on Intel.
We don’t know too much about the device yet because the NFS NPad was being used as a demonstrator by another company but from what we see, Moorestown is going to enable far far better consumer-focused solutions than the N450 and N550 solutions we’ve been seeing running Windows. It was thin and very light (comparable to the Archos 101 which runs on an ARM Cortex core) and surprisingly, running Android. A quick look around the net tells us that the NPad also appeared at Computex and has also been spotted running Red Flag’s MeeGo-based Linux distribution. This is a sign of what might happen when MeeGo meets Moorestown so if you’re not worried about Windows but still want a powerful tablet, this could be worth waiting for.
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