(News Today) - The closer you study the specs the more disappointing ViewSonic's ViewPad 7 looks. As I said on Tuesday, ViewSonic’s little $699 ViewPad 7 sports a 7-inch capacitive touchscreen display and runs Android 2.2. Unfortunately there’s only 512MB of storage under the bonnet, which is expandable via a microSD card.What worse, it’s endowed with a mediocre 600MHz processor accompanied by 512MB of RAM, meaning it packs considerably less grunt under the bonnet than the Galaxy Tab. So much so that the ViewPad 7 won’t run Flash 10.1 - negating one of Android’s key strengths. Installing the Skyfire browser will gain you limited Flash features, but you’re still missing out on a lot.
Without a full version of Adobe’s Flash 10.1, the ViewPad 7’s value proposition starts to falter. It’s one of Android’s key selling points in comparison to Cupertino’s iGadgets. If you say “but I can live without Flash” you’ve just played right into the hands of the Apple fanboys.
The iTunes app store does a good job of compensating for the iPad’s lack of Flash but don’t expect as much joy from Android Market. Remember, Android developers expect Android 2.2 devices to be running Flash 10.1.
The lack of Flash certainly helps the ViewPad 7’s browser feel snappier than the Galaxy Tab. Pinch to zoom is still a little sluggish on complicated pages, such as the front page of the SMH, but tap to zoom and scroll are still responsive. The ViewPad 7’s home screen icons also seem more responsive, but iPad owners would still find the experience a little sluggish.
The ViewPad 7’s viewing angles, colours and contrast are also quite good, although they fall short of the iPad. You’ll notice that the fonts are harder on the eyes when reading online, an indicator of what I’d say is the ViewPad 7’s biggest disappointment. It only features an 800x480 resolution display, falling far short of the Galaxy Tab’s 1024x600 display and the iPad’s crisp 1024x768 offering.
Even if I could forgive the ViewPad 7’s other shortcomings, it’s hard to forgive a lowly 800x480 display on a $699 tablet. When you combine the mediocre processor, piddly onboard storage, low-res display, lack of Flash, odd case design and landscape-only menus, ViewSonic’s ViewPad 7 is asking me to sacrifice too much in order to save $300 on the Samsung Galaxy Tab - not to mention an iPad. Perhaps if the ViewPad 7 was sub-$500 I might be more forgiving - it’s certainly head and shoulders over Telstra’s Fisher Price T-Touch Tab.
For now I’ll say the same thing about the ViewPad 7 as I said about the Galaxy Tab - it shows potential but hold off, as there are better Android-based tablets around the corner. We saw a whole swag of tablet announcements at CES a few weeks ago, for example. Just like the early days of the Android smartphones, it will take a few iterations before the manufacturers get all their ducks in a row. Unless you’re busting a gut to be an early adopter, I’d wait a little longer before taking the plunge with an Android tablet.
Source : kompas
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