After market
Out of the box, the Viewsonic Viewpad 10e lacks any Google goodies or the official Market but a ton of free apps can be found in the preloaded 1Mobile Market. I found up-to-date versions of GMail, Skype, the SwiftKey keyboard, the official Facebook, Twitter and BBC News apps and Google Maps to name only a few.
AnTuTu score appears low but performance remains more than acceptable – BBC news content tiles
If you want the real deal there is a very simple instal process to add the Android Market and key Google apps. Alternatively, you can download Amazon’s Appstore which should start to work in the UK as soon as the company's Kindle Fire is released here. Adobe’s Flash Player comes preinstalled and works a treat, even when running 1080p YouTube content in the stock browser.
Browsing
Internal storage is a so-so 4GB, but at least it’s been divided up sensibly so you get 2GB for files, 1GB for applications, and the rest..? Well I can’t actually track the rest down, but the MicroSD slot is good for cards up to 32GB, so who cares?
Docs and Swiftkey
In the top right hand corner you will find a 1.3Mp camera that works a treat with Skype video calling. There is no main camera but that’s not a loss in my book.
Slimline at just over 9mm
Music sounded pretty good through the two speakers tucked away at the bottom. Furthermore, all 720p video content – no matter what format – and most 1080p MP4 files played smoothly in the bundled Vortex media player. Also, games such as Angry Birds and Sprinkle ran perfectly.
Next page: Low life
COMMENTS
> 'alas no USB charging'
> "Fair play to ViewSonic for being honest about the 2,700mAh power pack only offering around 5.5 hours "
> The combination of these two factors makes for a massive fail."
Massive fail ? Really ? From my own tablet use, and that of others I known with one, the normal usage tends to be
- stick tablet in dock/on charging slab
- watch tablet in dock OR take out and veg on sofa/where-ever for a few hours or so of surfing and video watching
- stick tablet back in dock
I really don't know anybody who relies on a tablet for all day usage away from power. I'm certainly not saying they don't exist - far from it, i've heard people who do - but I personally think there are enough people who *don't* need that to make calling this tablet a "massive fail" a bit short-sighted (to be generous to you).
Re: The saving
I disagree. To people who are actually short of cash 200 quid is a lot cheaper than 330 quid. If you don't think so then you're probably not the target market, but there are plenty of people in the UK today who'd find 330 quid out of the question but 200 just about doable.
Re: The saving
Just on the point of storage a few quid more will get you 32GB for this as it has an expansion slot.
£130 is also about two-thirds of the purchase price again so it's not a trivial price hike.
I agree though that this does show the difficulty rivals face in trying to compete with Apple tablets - it's difficult to beat their price to any significant extent without intolerable compromises being made.
This looks like one of the best attempts yet to me.
Re: would
that depends on whether or not the saving of £400 (a mortgage payment right there) was important to me.
Re: The saving
But then you're up into territory where you could have bought a laptop, instead of a toy for browsing the web, which the cheap-o Android one will do a serviceable job of.
