ViewSonic announced two tablet computers, one capable of booting into either Android 1.6 or Windows 7 Home Premium, and the other devoted to running Android 2.2. The ViewSonic 10 has a 1.66GHz Intel Atom CPU and a 10.1-inch screen with a resolution of 1024 x 600 pixels, while the ViewSonic 7 has an unnamed ARM CPU, a seven-inch screen with 800 x 480 pixels, Android Market compatibility, and dual cameras, according to the company.

Known to most as a display manufacturer — though it released the ViewPad 1000 tablet as long ago as 2001 — ViewSonic said back in August that it was planning to release the seven-inch ViewPad 7 and 10.1-inch ViewPad 10 later in the year. Now, the company has provided availability and pricing details, though specifications still are few.

ViewSonic's ViewPad 10

According to ViewSonic, the ViewPad 10 (above) will be available for approximately $630 during the first quarter of next year. A 1.66GHz Intel Atom processor (exact version unspecified) will allow the device to boot into either Windows 7 Home Premium or Android 1.6, both of which will apparently be preinstalled on the device's 16GB SSD (solid state disk).

The ViewPad 7, meanwhile, will run only Android 2.2. (The device's processor is unspecified by ViewSonic, but is a 600MHz ARM11 CPU from Qualcomm, according to an item by The Inquirer.) Touted as "one of the only seven-inch tablet solutions with Android Google Mobile Services," a.k.a the Android Market, the device will be available during the fourth quarter of this year for approximately $480, the company says.

ViewSonic's ViewPad 7

ViewSonic says both the ViewPad 7 (above) and ViewPad 10 will sport capacitive touchscreens: The smaller device will deliver 800 x 480 pixels, while the larger device provides 1024 x 600 pixels. The ViewPad 7 includes dual cameras — a three megapixel autofocus camera in the rear and an 0.3 megapixel camera in the front — while the ViewPad 10 has a single 1.3 megapixel webcam, the company adds.

The ViewPad 10 is touted as being "ideally designed to view Flash-based content and Office programs with Windows, and for an optimized mobile entertainment experience with Android." According to ViewSonic, the tablet will have 1GB of RAM, a microSD slot, and an accelerometer.

Though ViewSonic did not spell it out, the ViewPad 10 — which appears to be based on the same hardware as the Tega v2 recently announced by Australia's Tegatech — will doubtless also include the usual 802.11b wireless networking capabilities. The latter are definitely confirmed for the ViewPad 7, which is said to include 802.11b/g and Bluetooth, 512MB of RAM, 512MB of flash storage, and a microSD slot.

ViewSonic did not provide further hardware details for the ViewPad 7 except to say that the device provides up to ten hours of battery life. According to The Inquirer author Rob Coppinger, the '7 has a 3,200mAh battery, whereas the '10's is actually slightly smaller at 3200mAh.

Coppinger adds that the ViewPad 7 is "a phone as well," though we did not see this mentioned by ViewSonic. He adds that the device sports a manual volume control located on the top of the device.

About the ViewPad 10, The Inquirer says that there are two standard USB 2.0 ports, a mini-VGA port, plus headphone and microphone outputs. The story adds, "The 10-inch screen is multi-touch and responsive, with no obvious latency when selecting apps, or pinch-zooming photos, or swiping from screen to screen to find apps using Android."

Further information

ViewSonic's product pages for the ViewPad 7 and ViewPad 10 as yet provide few details, but may be found here and here, respectively.

Rob Coppinger's first-impression story on the devices for The Inquirer may be found here.

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