Viewsonic’s first seriously sized tablet, the ViewPad 10, gives a perfect demonstration of how little the right hardware really matters in this growing market.
Tablet PCs have been around for aeons, but until Apple got in on the action by injecting it’s iPhone with growth hormones, they were poorly functioning badges of geekdom, not the highly desirable, consumer products they are (or can be) today.
As well designed and as well made as it indeed is, the iPad still represents a very locked-down look at the mobile world. What we’ve been waiting for is a device to rival it with the freedom of creation and expression that the more open platforms offer.
And every time we see a new tablet from outside the Jobsian world there’s a little something in all of us that’s hoping this time the designers and manufacturers have got it right.
To be honest though, we hardly needed to lay eyes on the ViewPad to know it didn’t stand a chance.
The first surprise is in the name. Viewsonic is not normally a name we’d associate with producing a tablet device; it’s more well known for its monitors and projectors.
But thankfully, at least this is no Next tablet. The Android OS is the only similarity the Viewpad boasts compared to that poor excuse for a paper-weight. And Viewsonic has also seen fit to cram another operating system on there too in order to distract you away from any comparison. Yep, this is a dual-booting effort, packing both Windows 7 Home Premium and Android 1.6.
The dual-booting nature of the ViewPad 10 is one of the few standout features of this new tablet, the other is the use of the Intel Atom N455 processor at its heart.
That Atom CPU is the saving grace for the Windows 7 Home Premium OS that represents the ViewPad’s other boot option.
Having a relatively speedy processor humming away in there means the Microsoft OS has a fighting chance of actually being usable, and at 1.66GHz the Atom N455 actually punches pretty well for its weight.
The rest of the specs include a 16GB SSD, a ropey looking 1.3M webcam and 1GB of memory; all housed beneath a 10-inch, capacitive multi-touch panel with a thoroughly widescreen 1,024×600 resolution.
There’s also a micro-SD slot too, capable of coping with up to 32GB of teeny-tiny storage.
That though is not the neat extra you might think it is. Nope, the micro-SD slot is completely essential, as a large quantity of the apps you might wish to install in the increasingly geriatric-feeling Android 1.6 OS will do precisely nothing until you add in an SD card.
The operating system cannot even distinguish between a USB storage drive and an SD card – it sees them as the same if you plug anything into the two USB 2.0 ports on the one side of the ViewPad 10.
As well as these two confused USB sockets there’s also a mini-VGA output if you can find such a lead capable of firing the images into an external panel, with a standard size headphone jack beside it too.
In terms of wireless connectivity you seem to be limited to Wi-Fi and Bluetooth only. There is a SIM slot above the webcam but it wouldn’t accept a normal-sized SIM, so it looks like 3G isn’t available in this model.
The hardware performance of the ViewPad 10 isn’t really the issue with this tablet. The real problem, as ever, is the performance of the operating system.
It seems an almost cowardly move opting for a dual-boot solution, giving the user the optimal experience in neither. Viewsonic hasn’t had faith enough in its product, or more likely simply wasn’t able, to optimise it for either OS.
That was something Apple got, and continues to get, right.
The iPad isn’t incredible hardware, the OS is just tailor-made for the best end-user experience. The ViewPad 10 however delivers a flaky, semi-functional and often frustrating experience. That might have been good enough for the geeks of old, but we expect to be better treated by our devices these days.
The fact the Atom is still tied to Android 1.6, and the restrictions on the Android Market for devices that aren’t smartphones, makes that OS an incredibly off-putting experience. There are likely to be few times you’ll deliberately boot into Android once you’ve used it a couple of times.
Of course you may accidentally start it up having failed to hit the correct bizarre combination of button presses necessary to coax the Linux Grub loader into doing your bidding.
Seriously, my ageing HTC Magic, forever tethered to Android 1.6, has more functionality than the weighty tea-tray the ViewPad 10 becomes in its open source OS.
I can count on the elbows of one arm how many times I’ve had to reset my phone because the OS froze, though that kept happening for the days I was fortunate enough to spend in the company of the ViewPad.
The AndAppStore, the faux Market catering for the ViewPad 10, has a number of programs on there to choose from, though it’s a nightmare searching through when many lack any form of description whatsoever.
And somewhat disappointingly, the seeming wealth of porn-related apps failed to work on the ViewSonic either…
Though I doubt that’s because of any clever filtering as half the apps I tried to install failed to respond or scale to the non-phoney screen anyway.
Aspects of Loathing
When the iPad was first announced there was a certain amount of consternation and criticism about the size, but more importantly the aspect ration of it’s screen.
With the world going Cuckoo’s Nest crazy over 16:9 widescreen the fact it went for a more squared-off ratio turned some heads. Viewsonic (or whoever actually designed and manufactured the ViewPad) obviously thought shrinking the screen was the way to solve such a supposed issue.
In Windows 7 the 1,024×600 resolution is simply too-tight when used in landscape mode and far too narrow in portrait. And when the otherwise responsive on-screen keyboard comes up there’s little screen left when the device is held horizontally.
I don’t care that there’s no black bars on the widescreen movies you’re playing back, the chugging playback from the Intel graphics kinda precludes me from even wanting to hit the play button, let alone measure the movie-framing of the iPad.
A real killer for the ViewPad though is the battery-life.
At five and a gnat’s hair hours on Window’s battery-saving profile, and with minimal brightness, it’s far from ideal. That combination of 3-cell battery, Windows OS and the Intel Atom CPU which robs it of any long-term performance also mean that it chugs through power even when it’s in standby mode.
So a fresh boot is called for unless you’re into haemorrhaging power.
This is not a device you’re going to leave under the sofa and be able to flick it on in an instant. Unless you’ve got a powered dock under there anyways.
So all in all the ViewPad 10 is a very confused li’l device.
Neither of the operating systems really do the responsive hardware justice. Windows 7 Home Premium simply isn’t an OS designed to work well on these machines.
I’m happily running it on my flip-screen Acer because that laptop will effortlessly switch between tablet and notebook modes in a trice, not because it’s the best system to marry with a touchscreen.
Likewise the rapidly ageing Android 1.6 OS is at best an abortive attempt to be relevant and at worst a horrifically frustrating experience that’s likely to be responsible for turning more people away from Android than the iPad.
And that is the problem right there. Every tablet is now going to be compared, rightly or wrongly, to the iPad. That machine is a perfect example of computing designed for the optimal end-user experience.
The ViewPad may as well come with an irreplaceable desktop wallpaper with the words “screw you” standing out in high contrast for all the effort ViewSonic seems to have made ensuring the usability of its device.
Given the ViewPad 10 costs the same as a 16GB Wi-Fi iPad, the comparisons are going to continue to be made, and never made favourably.
It’s a shame because, battery-life aside, the hardware propping up the two failing operating systems actually works pretty well. I’m not sold on the too-widescreen aspect ratio, and the viewing angle is fairly poor, but the Atom and 1GB RAM are as responsive as the touchscreen is.
The build quality too is generally good; there’s no creaking and no flexing of the frame when you pick it up one-handed. It’s a little on the heavy side, but nothing too serious.
The ViewPad 10 then is an ideal example of why the likes of Asus and MSI are steering clear of the tablet game for now, or putting their prototypes out there for OEMs to pick up and furnish themselves.
The long-awaited EeePad and WindPad from the Taiwanese twosome are unlikely to come before there is a functional OS ready and waiting to look after the capable componentry that’s already on offer.
So, in terms of the iPad-beater, we are still waiting.
We liked:
Surprisingly the hardware powering the ViewPad 10 is rather responsive. The capacitive screen works well and despite the low memory capacity the Atom CPU helps make sure the Windows OS is rarely sluggish.
We disliked:
Well, pretty much everything else.
Neither of the dual-boot operating systems are relevant for this type of device and only the Windows 7 OS is actually usable; the Android 1.6 option continually fell over.
The AndAppStore too is shockingly poor. Without the Android Market to give it life the 1.6 OS is doomed forever to lie unbooted in the hardware.
Despite the responsiveness of the capacitive screen, the viewing angle is poor, the dotpitch chunky and the aspect ratio positively obstructive to anything but movie-viewing.
And the five and a bit hours of battery-life is just not good enough for a tablet. And the fact it uses up so much power just in standby is unforgiveable given that state is the one tablets invariably find themselves sat in. Especially if they’re lumbered with the long load times associated with a Windows OS.
Related Links
View full post on TechRadar: All PC & Mac feeds
Android tablets are now starting to come in all different sizes. Take for example Archos, they have tablets ranging from 2.8″ all the way up to 10″. Dell has their 5″ Android tablet/phone and will soon be releasing a 7″ and a 10″ tablet as well. Viewsonic isn’t wasting any time, either. They have already displayed their 7″ and 10″ tablets, and are now planning on unveiling a 5″ tablet too. According to 
Recent Comments