Tablets, Android Dominate MW Congress

By Joseph Palenchar On Feb 21 2011 - 6:01am

BARCELONA, SPAIN — Tablets and Android smartphones dominated the introductions here at the Mobile World Congress, where new tablets were unveiled by Samsung, HTC and Huawei.

New Android smartphones ranged from the low to high ends, with new models appearing from HTC, LG, Huawei, Samsung and ZTE.

Key launches included the world’s first PlayStation- certified smartphone — the Xperia Play from Sony Ericsson — and what was described as the industry’s first glasses-free 3D phone — the LG Optimus 3D.

Also launched were HTC’s first tablet, which features Android 2.4 OS and 1.5GHz processor, the industry’s first two smartphones, both from HTC, with dedicated Facebook button, and Samsung’s second-generation Galaxy Android tablet, whose upgrades include dual-core 1GHz processor and Android 3.0 tablet-optimized OS.

For its part, RIM announced that it will expand its PlayBook tablet selection in the second half with two more 4G models, one with HSPA+ and the other with LTE.

Here’s what select vendors announced:

HTC: The company unveiled the industry’s first two smartphones with a dedicated Facebook button and its first tablet, which will access HTC’s planned movie-download service and a planned cloud-base gaming service.

The two smartphones will be available exclusively through AT&T sometime “later this year,” and the tablet, called the Flyer, is due in the second quarter globally and in the U.S.

The tablet, equipped with Wi-Fi and HSPA+ cellular data, is likely headed for T-Mobile because it operates in HSPA 14.4Mbps mode in T-Mobile’s 1.7/2.1GHz AWS band and in foreign 900MHz and 2100MHz bands.

The 14.82-ounce tablet features 1,024 by 600 7-inch touchscreen, aluminum unibody, 1.5GHz processor, Flash 10 and HTML 5 for web browsing, and fingertip and pen interaction with the screen.

The tablet does not use the Android 3.0 Honeycomb OS optimized for tablets but uses a tablet-optimized version of HTC’s Sense smartphone user interface on top of the new Android 2.4 OS version. The tablet will be upgraded to Android Honeycomb in the second quarter, a spokesperson said.

The tablet also features new HTC Scribe digital-ink technology, which lets consumers use a stylus to handwrite notes in script, sign contracts, draw pictures, or write on a web page or photo.

The tablet’s cloud-based gaming service will be supplied by OnLive. The planned HTC Watch movie-download service will feature HD movies from major studios. It wasn’t clear if online gaming and movie downloading would occur only via Wi-Fi only or also via HSPA+ cellular.

Flyer pricing wasn’t disclosed.

In smartphones, the company is targeting the HTC Salsa and ChaCha to social networkers at moderate price points. They feature deep Facebook integration, including a dedicated Facebook button, and dual cameras for on-line video chats. They use 7.2Mbps highspeed HSPA cellular data, and both feature 600MHz processors.

Huawei: The Chinese company unveiled a slimmeddown version of an existing tablet and a new slim smartphone here at the Mobile World Congress, but U.S. availability wasn’t announced. Both use the Android OS.

The Ideos S7 Slim tablet is thinner than its predecessor, the S7, which is available at Best Buy at $299 with embedded Wi-Fi and 3G HSPA cellular data in the 850/1900/2100GHz bands. Best Buy’s website, however, doesn’t promote the 3G capability. The new model also features 850/1900/2100GHz HSPA.

Both models also feature 7-inch touchscreen and 1GHz Snapdragon processor. The new model, however, adds capacitive touchscreen with multitouch instead of resistive touchscreen, front-facing video camera for video chats, 720p HD video capture, Android 2.2 compared with 2.1, battery increased from 2200mAh to 3250mAh, on-device mini HDMI output, and rear-facing camera of 3.2 megapixels compared with 2 megapixels.

As an option, the tablet supports circuit-switched cellular voice calling.

Thickness was reduced from 13.5mm to 12.5mm.

It will ship globally in April at pricing that wasn’t announced.

The new smartphone is the Android 2.3-based Ideos X3, a touchscreen-only model with 3.2-inch HVGA capacitive curved touchscreen and front-facing 3.2-megapixel camera for video chats. Its 3G HSDPA 7.2Mbps cellular technology is banded for foreign 900/2100MHz 3G bands.

Samsung: The second-generation Galaxy Tab tablet is the company’s first tablet to use Google’s tabletoptimized Android 3.0 Honeycomb OS. It sports a larger 10.1-inch touchscreen compared with the original Tab’s 7-inch screen.

The Galaxy Tab 10.1 will be available in Europe in March, but U.S. deliveries were not announced.

The new model is available with Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n and 4G HSPA+ with a theoretical peak download speed of 21Mbps. It comes in 16GB and 32GB versions and lacks memory-card slot and USB port.

Compared with the original Android 2.2 Tab, the Tab 10.1 features Nvidia dual-core 1GHz Tegra 2 processor instead of the original Tab’s 1GHz Hummingbird processor. Both models feature front- and rear-facing cameras, with the new model featuring an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera with LED flash and a front 2-megapixel camera.

The next-generation Galaxy-class Android smartphone is the touchscreen-only Galaxy S II, which adds multiple upgrades, including a dual-core 1GHz processor compared to its predecessor’s 1GHz processor. Pricing and availability weren’t disclosed.

Other upgrades include Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) OS, 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Plus display compared with a 4-inch Super AMOLED display, 1080p video capture compared with 720p, Wi-Fi Direct, and upgraded dual camera, with the rear-facing camera going to 8 megapixels from 5 megapixels and the front-facing video chat camera, currently available only on the Sprint 4G Galaxy Epic, going to 2 megapixels from VGA.