We’ve had the (final version) Viewsonic Viewpad 7 for 2 days now and last night we completed 3hrs of live testing in front of an audience of 480 people. We’re now in a good position to be able to bring you a good round-up review of the device. Live recordings of the stream are embedded below. Unboxing video is here. Thanks to Viewsonic Europe for sending the device over. UK customers can find details of a trade-in offer and retailers here.

Overall quality of the £400 pound tablet is good and we feel that Viewsonic have got the price/quality ratio right. This is a lot more than a £200 open-source Android tablet here and less than a £500 high-end 7” Tablet (e.g. Galaxy Tab) and it sits alone as the cheapest 7” 3G+Voice Google Android tablet on the market. ‘Google’ means that it really does have everything that you find on a Google Android phone including voice capability, compass, GPS, compass, capacitive touchscreen and the latest Android software.  So why is the Viewpad 7 cheaper than the Galaxy Tab then?

Click to enlarge. More in the gallery.

Let’s start with the processor that tricked me. I was originally told it was a Snapdragon CPU at 600Mhz but despite some reasonable Web performance, it turned out to be an ARM11-based device. In real-use yesterday I was still quite happy with the browsing speeds and although I would never recommend anyone get an ARM11-based device for serious web work, when laid-back in a passive usage mode, it’s quite acceptable. You’ll see some browser tests in part 3 of the video review below. The GPU, Adreno 200 – the same as that found on the Snapdragon platform, is probably helping a lot here because UI actions seem smooth, if not ‘physical’ like the iPad.  Android 2.2 helps too. It’s a far more efficient build than 2.1 and helps to pull everything possible out of the platform. This is probably as good as we’ll ever see on an ARM11-based device and at this point it has to be said that this is the best ARM11-based mobile internet device I’ve ever used.

Full specifications, gallery, news and more in our Viewpad 7 tracking page.

There are more hints of ‘value’ though that don’t hide themselves so well:

• Screen – At 800×480 this isn’t the sharpest. Although Android apps are only designed for up to 800×480 screen, there are photos, videos, ebooks and browser pages to consider. A full-screen, page-to-fit web page is not easily readable and will require a pinch or double-click to zoom to readable quality. It’s bright enough but there are differing results from vertical and portrait viewing angles. This is a typical horizontal-optimised LCD. I won’t go into detail here but portrait mode is not perfect. Text seems to stretch vertically too indicating that the pixels aren’t square. It’s a good screen, but not top-of-class.
  Note: After measuring the screen, pixels are indeed not square. Resolution ratio: 1.666:1  Size Ratio: 1.78:1
• CPU – Mentioned above. Don’t expect to squeeze much more out of this CPU in the future. There are already applications that aren’t supported on this CPU (Flash for example)
• Software – This is, to all intents and purposes, a raw Android experience. Some people will prefer this and at least the Market is there to help. In the live review we downloaded and installed about 15 applications suggested by viewers in less than 10 minutes. Try doing that on a Windows 7 laptop!
• Camera – The 3.0MP camera shouldn’t be regarded as anything more than a snapshot device and the results show high grain and huge traces of plastic lens. It’s easy to smudge fingerprints over the camera lens too so quality can degrade even further. Videos aren’t anything to get excited about either.
• Video Playback – There are quite a few video formats out there and each has variable bitrate and ‘profile’ levels. Codecs cost money and Viewsonic have chosen not to add them in. You’ll get 3GPP, MPEG4 (not Xvid/Divx support) and H.264 support for low bitrates and resolutions (sub 720p/1Mbps) but that’s it. Software players such as RockPlayer add new codecs in but the CPU isn’t powerful enough to deliver anything above about 1Mbps. Disappointing.
• User Interface and touch – While not up there with the best ‘physical’ user interfaces, this is a reasonable capacitive touch experience and fine for everyday use. It’s a lot better than a resistive touchscreen for this type of finger usage.
• On screen keyboard – Typical of loaded Android systems on ARM11 CPUs, the response on the keyboard slows down if there are other things happening around the device. Coupled with a rather ugly layout (we loaded ‘Better Keyboard’ and found it, better!) and a hit-rate that doesn’t come close to the Galaxy Tab or Apple iOS devices, we can’t recommend it for anything more than micro-mails, tweets, SMS and other short-form messaging.

On the positive side, we saw great 3D performance in synthetic tests and games with Angry Birds and Raging Thunder Lite working perfectly. There are other high-points too.

3G throughput in our tests was good. We haven’t tested reception performance.

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Battery life. In our 1-hour test with screen, Wi-Fi, GSM enabled and under testing conditions saw the battery drop 15% indicating a 6-hour heavy-use run-time. It matches the Viewsonic specs and in the rest of our testing over the last few days we were also seeing similar battery performance. We estimate the battery life to be 10-15% less than the Galaxy Tab but still, very good. Charging over USB is a slow process. Expect 8-9hrs for a full charge over a standard USB cable. We can’t get the supplied charger to work through our UK-EU adaptor but we’re told it does enable a ‘fast charge’ mode of around 3hrs.

Speaker quality is good which makes the Viewpad 7 perfect for radio, MP3 and podcast duties around the house. In a 20-minute speakerphone call, quality was very high. We also made a successful Skype call without headphones.

Other points

• No heat or noise
• Quadrant scores around the 250 mark
• Launcher Pro works well (and is recommended) as a home-screen alternative. It enables portrait mode homescreen which the standard build doesn’t.

• YouTube (tested with the latest player available in the Market) works flawlessly
• Neocore benchmark returned 32 fps
• Kindle reader and the pre-installed Aldiko reader work well.
• PDF reading with the included, full version of Documents To Go, worked well
• Again, note that Flash 10.1 is not available for ARM11 devices such as this
• The Viewpad 7 is slightly smaller (about 4mm in width and depth) than the galaxy Tab. Same thickness. Same weight.
• Storage on the device is limited to 512MB and after installing 20 applications, we were down to 24MB of storage space. Inserting an SD card is necessary in order to move some applications over (where possible) and to store audio, image and video files.
• Wifi reception was average (b/g standards) We haven’t tested Bluetooth
• Hotspot mode works. (Wifi sharing of 3G connection – We expect 8-10hrs on this mode with screen off)
• No stand. (Update below)
• Case is plastic
• No USB On-The-Go
• GPS locked quickly (sub 10 seconds with A-GPS enabled) indoors, 1M from a Window
• No video out (digital or analogue)
• Skyfire (and included flash video playback) works

Update: Case will change for final retail versions.

Viewsonic notified me that the case has been re-designed for the final version. Its good to see that it now includes ‘standing’ capability.

At £400 we find the Viewpad fairly priced. If you’re in the UK and have a working netbook or laptop you want to trade-in, Viewsonic retail partners will give you 100 pounds cash-back which makes it tempting if that old EeePC 701 is gathering dust for you. Ultimately though, Viewsonic need to capitalise on the fact that this is a well-rounded ‘value’ tablet with a complete feature set, today. In 3 months time when Android devices 2.3 appear, when ARM11 becomes ‘end of line’ for some applications, when high-end applications start demanding more of a CPU and when the market fills with other device options, it may not look so attractive and at that point Viewsonic and their retailers will have to compete in a price war. We say, ‘take the risk’ and drop the price by 50 pounds to capitalise on holiday-season buying and make this an even more attractive package. Throw in a 4GB micro SD card, a cleaning cloth and maybe a free version of ‘launcher pro’ to solve that portrait mode homescreen limitation and you’ve got yourself a great little mobile internet device.

Continued on page 2…

The Viewsonic Viewpad 7 arrived just as I was finishing off the Galaxy Tab review today so it’s perfect timing for a close comparison. I won’t be doing that yet though because first-off we need to do the unboxing and overview (below) and the Live Review (info) Join us tomorrow at 8pm London time (2100 CET other times here) on the Live Page and spread the word! Some new images are going up into the Gallery so keep checking that too. Full specifications and links, gallery and other videos available on our Viewpad 7 tracking page.

Availability information and information about the trade-in program in the UK can be found here. For Germany, keep an eye on MediaMarkt. We hear that France and Netherlands are next in line but there are no confirmed details as yet.

The Live Review video and chat session will be available here on the 10th November 2010.

The Viewsonic Live Review videos and detailed impressions/review is now available here.

Follow, view or subscribe to Chippy on Twitter for any late changes and updates. Please don’t forget to pass the message on via Twitter if you’re a twitter user, or ‘like’ this post on Facebook. Thanks to Viewsonic Europe for sending it over.

With a huge thanks to Viewsonic Europe I’ll be taking delivery of the Viewpad 7 in just a few days. Retail packages go out for review later in the week but we’ve been promised a final sample from the product managers personal stash. They’ve seen our in-depth reviews and warts-and-all live reviews so they must be feeling confident !

At 399 Pounds it’s a little above what we thought we’d see but there’s a nice little trade-in program going on where you can send in an netbook or notebook under 4 years old and they will give you 100 pounds back. If you’re one of the thousands of people that have an old Asus EeePC 701 knocking about, this is a great opportunity.

Besides the trade-in though there’s the potential for a really nice little value-for-money tablet here. We’re not talking Galaxy Tab quality or performance but we are talking the ability to do almost everything the Tab can. It really is one of the few complete Android experiences to be seen on a tablet. Everything is there from multitouch capacitive screen, Android 2.2, Market, quad-band 3G and tri-band GSM. Yes, this can be a phone if you want! Full specs and information here on our tracking page.

I read a hands-on from @faaborgs in Denmark today and although the translation is a little iffy, you’ll be able to pick up that the owner is happy. Not bad for someone who likes Porsche! While Galaxy Tab owners might be praising performance and quality, I think the Viewpad 7 owners are going to be praising value-for-money.

So, the Viewpad 7 is expected here on Wednesday and that means one thing – Live Video.  Bring along a beer because at about 8pm London time (2100 CET – other times here) we’re going to be spending a couple of hours going over the device for you and with you.  A chat session will be open and if you’ve got questions, just ask! In the latter part of the live testing, we’ll highlight some of the differences between the the Viewpad 7 and the Galaxy Tab because we’ve got one of those here too. JKK from JKKMobile is due to join us and if we can get anyone else to chip-in over Skype, we will!

Will there be a showstopper? Will the video performance be up to scratch?  (we’re sensing stock Android here which means no 3rd-party codecs) will the YouTube player be able to support HQ videos. What about the lack of Flash (this is an ARM11 device; It doesn’t support Flash despite the Android 2.2 build.) How about the battery life from the slightly smaller battery (compared to the Galaxy Tab) is the 800×480 screen going to be a handicap and critically, for many, is the ARM11 CPU going to return acceptable Web performance. We have questions about USB OTG and box contents too. Does it include the case for example?

The Live Review video and chat session will be available here.  Follow,view or subscribe to Chippy on Twitter for any late changes and updates. Please don’t forget to pass the message on via Twitter if you’re a twitter user, or ‘like’ this post on Facebook.

Again, The Live Review video and chat session will be available here. Some parts of the review will be recorded but for the full review, join the Live Session

Got an old but booting netbook or notebook? How about that old EeePC 701?

Want a Viewpad 7 or 10?

If you’re in the UK you’re in for a good deal because Viewsonic are offering £100 for the Viewpad 7 and £125 for the Viewpad 10 if you send in your old, but working, laptop or netbook.

Details were announced at a press conference today and are up on a new website. Check it out for details and let us know if you’re ordering.

Retail price for the Viewpad 7 is £399 and I see that Misco already have pre-order available and Scan should have details soon. We’re also hearing that MediaMarkt will be stocking in Germany. We’ll update when we have more details. Fingers crossed for the same trade-in deal.

We’ve just reported on the UK price and availability for the Viewpad 7 and turned around to see that NetbookNews have had hands-on at a launch event in Taiwan. It’s all happening today! Check out the video below.

Once again, we’re getting positive vibes!

Source: NetbookNews

If you’ve been thinking about an Android tablet purchase over the next 2 months, these devices are probably on your list. Galaxy Tab, Dell Streak, Notion Ink Adam, Viewpad 7, Archos 70, Archos 101 and maybe the Toshiba Folio. Only 2 of them are currently available and both the Tab and the Streak are great quality products (Streak even gets a 2.2 upgrade soon) but what if you’re looking for something a little cheaper? The Viewpad 7 might be just what you’re looking for.

We tested it extensively at IFA in Sept and were tricked by its speed into thinking it was based on a Snapdragon CPU.It’s not!  Our reports from IFA here.

The Galaxy Tab is almost like-for-like in specs (although it is fair to say that it will be a higher-quality device in terms overall ‘product’) and it is retailing for £529 at Amazon.co.uk today [affiliate link]  The Viewsonic Viewpad 7 is available by pre-order now for £399. We think that price might come down a little soon too, just like the price of the Tab did. Admittedly, the price is 50 pounds more than we were promised at IFA  – “no more that £350” was heard a number of times – but retailers are obviously free to charge what they think is right and with the Tab price ranging up to over £600, £399 sounds fair as a starting point.

Availability is set for the 15th November (confirmed with Viewsonic) and we also heard that there’s a press event on Thursday 28th so expect a number of hands-on reports to go out from the .co.uk tech press. We’ll try to get there.

Availability in the UK will be through Maplin, Scan, Misco and Expansys. Only Misco is showing pre-order details at the moment although you can find the Viewpad 10 up for pre-order on Maplin (£499.99)

My advise is to wait just a week. After the press event you’re likely to see a scramble to get the Viewpad into online retail channels / price comparison engines and the price will find its place.

We had a chat with Viewsonic yesterday and it look like we’ll get a Viewpad 7 in early November so keep an eye our for news about the live testing session. We also heard that Germany is also on the list. MediaMarkt will be the partner according to some emails that have gone out.

We’ve got a few videos coming up on the Viewsonic Viewpad 7 but first, here’s the pics and a few thoughts (I need to hit decent internet connection before I upload the videos – they’ll come later.)

In summary, the Viewsonic Viewpad 7 is delivering most of what the Galaxy Tab is delivering, for an excellent price. You haven’t quite got the build quality (it’s good though) and you’ve got a known brand, Android 2.2, capacitive touch (good screen quality), 3G, voice and the Google apps. The only thing you might notice is the user interface. It’s not as swift as the Galaxy Tab and that’s clearly because the CPU is a Snapdragon at 600Mhz and not the high-end A8 Cortex device of the Samsung. It’s not bad though and in my tests over 3G I was happy.

The price, BTW is a decent 399 Euro (350 UK pounds) and it’s coming soon. (Within the next few months)

Full gallery available here.

Watch out for more later. I’ve got two videos of the Viewsonic Viewpad 7 and I’ll also be checking  out the Viewpad 10, an X86 device.