Category: Tech

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One of the more intriguing stories to come out of CES so far has been Vizio’s decision to enter the PC market. The company’s laptops and desktops have been leaked, announced and shown off in press shots, but now we’ve gotten up-close and personal with the machines. We also got a chance to manhandle its 10-inch tablet that officially broke cover this morning. Check out the gallery below for some hands on impressions. We spoke with CTO Matt McRae about the cooperation with Microsoft that surrounded the development of the PCs, and confirmed they would ship (late summer / back to school time frame most likely) with a clean Windows 7 (8 when that is available) image — no bloatware. While the hardware, specs and design were still not final, we can confirm they’re as thin and light as they looked in the press pics. The screens on these demo units were equally impressive, and Vizio promises they will be among the best available when they ship.

All but the smallest laptop feature 1080p screens, and the desktops even have HDMI passthrough, so they can be used as an HDTV with the PC portion turned completely off. The thin profile of the all-in-ones (that neck is a single piece of metal, not just painted plastic) is made possible by integrating the power supply into the subwoofer. As for the tablet, it’s running an upgraded version of Vizio’s custom Android skin, currently built on Honeycomb, although the company mentioned it will upgrade to the latest stable version (read: ICS) once it’s available. The 8-inch that’s currently available was also in the house running the upgraded skin, and all of those units should see an OTA patch kicking them up a version eventually.

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ViewSonic Announces New Mobility Initiative with Android™ and Windows®-Based Tablets, New Dual-SIM Smartphone at CES 2012
New ViewPad® tablets and ViewPhone™ 3 enhances the company’s family of mobility solutions for consumers and mobile professionals

Expanding its ViewPad product portfolio, ViewSonic released the ViewPad 10e and ViewPad 10pi, both 10″ tablets designed to fit into today’s mobile lifestyle. The company’s ViewPad tablet line, which also consists of the ViewPad 7e and the ViewPad 10pro, are perfect options for consumers to surf the web and interact with friends, and for the mobile worker to enhance productivity while on the go. On the heels of the successful smartphone line currently available in Asia Pacific, the ViewPhone 3 is the company’s first dual-SIM smartphone for the Latin American region.

The new products include:

ViewPad 10pi – For today’s busy mobile professional, the ViewPad 10pi offers robust performance and state-of-the-art usability and productivity. The Windows® 7 Professional device features dual cameras for business video conferencing with a crisp IPS 1280×800 display panel. The tablet’s ViewScene™ user interface is powered by Thinix® Touch to ensure users have an easy-to-touch, web-browsing experience. A dual-OS device, the ViewPad 10pi is powered by Intel’s Oak Trail z670 processor and can run Android 2.3 in addition to the Windows OS. The ViewPad 10pi has an ESP of $849 and is available late January 2012 in North America.

ViewPad 10e – Designed with ViewSonic’s power efficient model, the ViewPad 10e is paper thin and delivers more than 200 hours of standby life, ensuring the tablet withstands even the biggest power users. A perfect powerful tablet at an economical price point, the ViewPad 10e is ideal for every member of the family. Measuring just 9.1mm, the 10″ enhanced, multi-viewing IPS display provides a superior ebook, movie viewing and game-playing experience. The device also includes many Android applications, such as the Amazon Kindle Reader and Amazon App Store for Android, and the 1Mobile market, which provides access to thousands of other free apps and games. Running Android 2.3 and a 1Ghz Cortex A8 processor, the ViewPad 10e also includes the ViewScene 3D customized interface to bring a user-friendly, 3D-like experience to consumers. The ViewPad 10e has an ESP of $299 and will be available late January 2012 in North America and Latin America.

ViewPhone 3 – A dual-SIM phone, the ViewPhone 3 allows users to separate work and personal calls, providing more freedom and privacy across all networks, including GSM, EDGE and HSDPA. With a 3.5″ capacitive touch display, the ViewPhone 3 is the first ViewSonic phone to arrive in Latin America – a perfect fit for users based on research from Informa, who found that about 27 percent of all mobile subscriptions in the region are classified as multiple subscriptions. ViewSonic is directly addressing this market demand by enabling users to select the carrier and plan that best fits their individual use case. The ARM 800Mhz processor and Android 2.3 operating system ensure the phone brings powerful functionality to consumers. The ViewPhone 3 has an ESP of $279 and will be available in late Q1 2012.