The gadgeterati are of course all focused on the new iPad and the latest high-spec Android tablets, but as ever, the midrange is where the value for money is. Enter ViewSonic with its ViewPad 10e, available exclusively from Argos and the largest in its range which also includes the 7e and soon the E70, G70 and E100.
Design
The 10e is a slick-looking black tablet like oh so many others and feels sturdily put together, though like Toshiba's AT200 there's a bit of an issue with the rim of the casing jutting out just a little at the back. It's slim enough, at 9.1mm, though it's perhaps a little on the heavy side at 620g, more or less the same as the new iPad.
Despite the 10e name, the screen actually measures 9.7 inches and delivers a respectable, though not particularly impressive pixel count of 1024x768. As with ViewSonic's phones, there's a choice of interfaces, and you'll be offered to choice of standard Android or the proprietary ViewScene 3D, which isn't really 3D though it has some nice graphics and widgets.
Features and performance
Inside is a single-core 1GHz processor backed by 512MB RAM, which struggles a little in operation -- if you're after speed-of-thought opening of apps and crunching of data, the 10e will disappoint. If you take a slightly more relaxed attitude to your computing it'll get there in the end. In numbers, the AnTuTu benchmarking performance test gave the 10e an overall score of 1,999 -- not very impressive really. The Toshiba AT200 scores over double at 5,260.
Our sample came with Android 2.3 Gingerbread, which seems very long in the tooth, especially in these post-Honeycomb times, though we've been promised that it should be getting 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich very soon. We shall see.
Cameras and connectivity
There's no rear-facing camera, which isn't much of a loss (does anyone really use their tablet to take photos?) but there's a 1.3 megapixel model on the front for video calls.
As with other ViewSonics so far, it doesn't have direct access to the Android Market, though the company has promised that will be corrected with the 3G/Wi-Fi G70, due in the summer. Instead there's the 1Mobile Market, which has around 200,000 apps on offer.
There's no 3G so internet access is via Wi-Fi and the onscreen keyboard includes Swype, making it easy to type without lifting your finger off the screen -- fast becoming a must-have on tablets.
It has just 4GB of memory on board and you can bump that up via microSD card, something you can't do on the iPad. Also unlike the iPad it also has a mini HDMI socket hidden behind a plastic cover (but no cable supplied) which will allow you to send 720p HD video directly to your HD TV. Power comes via 12V mains input rather than the mini USB, which unfortunately means you'll have another lead to carry when you're on the move. The battery delivered less than five hours of steady use, so a bit less than you'd expect from pricier tablets.
Conclusion
It's more workhorse than powerhouse but the ViewSonic ViewPad 10e offers a decent range of features for a very reasonable price -- just so long as you're not in too much of a hurry.
Specifications
Software : Android 2.3.1 GingerbreadProcessor : 1GHz single core Cortex A8
Memory slot : microSD
Display : 9.7in 1024x768 pixels multitouch
Connectivity : Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR
Ports : Micro USB, 3.5mm headphones, micro HDMI
Camera : 5 megapixel with LED Flash, autofocus, touch focus,geo-tagging
Video : 720p HD
Battery : Li-ion 2700 mAh
Size : 241.6x188.6x9.1mm
Weight : 620g
source
.
