LAS VEGAS —
Tablet PCs dominated the International
CES like few products before, with dozens of
models being unveiled here in early January.
The Consumer Electronics Association reported
that more than 80 tablet models were on display during
the four days of the show.
Here is a roundup of many of the tablets that were
on display during CES:
Coby’s
first three tablets, all using the Android OS,
consist of 7-inch, 8-inch and 10-inch models with resistive
touchscreens, Wi-Fi, web browser, FM tuner,
MicroSD slot to expand memory, 1080p HDMI output
with included cable, USB 2.0 port with included cable
and two embedded speakers. They also come with the
Coby media manager to access stored audio, video and photos. World alarm clock, calendar and game
apps are included. They’ll be available in the first quarter
in 4GB and 8GB versions.
Dell’s
tablet assortment centered on the Streak 7,
which uses the Android 2.2 OS. It has Flash 10.1, a
1.3-megapixel front-facing camera, 32GB of internal
storage, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS. The company reported
the OS will be upgraded to Honeycomb soon
after its release.
Digital Gadgets,
under the Sylvania brand, shipped
its first tablet to Sears in November, and it went to CES
with two more tablets, both priced at less than $200.
The Sears tablet was based on the Android 2.1
OS, but one of the two new tablets will run on the Android
2.2. The other new one will run on the Windows
Compact 7 OS, and while both feature a 7-inch touchscreen,
the Android model uses a resistive touchscreen
and the Windows 7 model uses a capacitive
touchscreen. The Android version will retail for $129.
Pricing on the Windows 7 version was unavailable.
Shipments start in the first and second quarters.
Lenovo
took the wraps off its IdeaPad U1 hybrid
with LePad Slate.
The Android 2.2 device comes in two parts: a base
unit that resembles a traditional laptop and a removable
10.1-inch tablet, or slate, that when attached to
the base acts as the display and has its own built-in
intelligence so it can operate separately.
The LePad slate can also be purchased as a separate
unit, the company said. The product will hit China
during the first quarter of 2011 and will cost about
$520 in the Chinese market. Pricing and availability
for other markets has not been released.
LG
and
T-Mobile
have teamed up to offer in the coming
months an Android 3.0 Honeycomb-powered 4G
tablet operating on T-Mobile’s HSPA+ network. The
device will be called the T-Mobile G-Slate with Google
by LG. It will be among the first tablets, including a Motorola-
made Xoom 4G tablet for Verizon’s 3G and 4G
networks, to use the tablet-optimized Honeycomb OS.
Motorola
discussed at CES the Xoom, an Android
3.0 tablet for Verizon Wireless. It is equipped with
dual-core 1GHz processors. It’s one of the industry’s
first tablet built on the Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) OS
designed specifically for tablets.
Motorola is targeting first-quarter availability of the
3G Xoom with the 4G coming in the second quarter.
Tablet features include 10.1-inch 1,280 by 800
touchscreen with 16:10 aspect ratio, 1GB RAM,
32GB embedded memory, SD Card support, 802.11n
hot spot, rear- and front-facing cameras for video
chats, HDMI output and Adobe Flash 10.1.
Naxa Electronics’
first Android tablet and first
combination e-reader/multimedia player are on tap.
The tablet is the $149-suggested Android-based
The Core, or NMI-1500. It was to be shipping by CES.
The NMI-1500 features a 7-inch color LCD touchscreen,
Wi-Fi, gravity sensor to rotate the display into
portrait or landscape mode, web browser, email capabilities,
SDHC card slot, USB inputs, 720p HDMI
output and embedded 8GB memory.
The e-reader/multimedia player is the
$109-suggested NER-1400 with full
wireless capabilities. It was scheduled
to be currently available with a 7-inch
800 by 480 TFT LCD screen, 90-degree
screen rotation via a gravity sensor,
built-in speakers, SD card slot and
embedded 4GB memory.
Noah
will enter the tablet business
under the Envizen Digital brand with five
Android models in 7-, 8- and 10-inch sizes.
Additional details were unavailable.
Research In Motion (RIM)
announced
a 4G PlayBook tablet for use
on Sprint’s network beginning sometime
in the summer. Additional details
and pricing will be released closer to
launch, RIM said.
The long-promised Wi-Fi-only version of
Samsung’s
Android-based Galaxy Tab
tablet is in the works along with a 4G Tab
for Verizon’s 4G LTE network and a pair
of Wi-Fi-equipped Sliding PC 7 tablets
based on the Microsoft Windows 7 OS.
The Wi-Fi-only Android-based Tab
will arrive in the first quarter.
Samsung also announced plans for
the first 4G LTE-enabled Galaxy Tab but
didn’t say when it would become available
for the Verizon Wireless network.
Sharp
reported it would officially
jump into the U.S. tablet computer market
in the second half the year with U.S.
versions of its Galapagos tablets, now
on sale in Japan. The company is still
deciding on an OS and screen sizes,
although the Japanese versions sport
5.5- and 10.8-inch displays.
Pricing was not mentioned.
Sungale plans to launch its first Android
tablets sometime this year, having
released a Linux tablet in 2009.
The two models in the Cyberus line
are the 10.1-inch ID1010WTA at a targeted
$329 and a 7-inch ID708WTA at
a targeted $229. They feature Android
2.2 OS, 3D gaming, 3D gaming applications
with the integrated 3D accelerator,
e-book reader and compatibility with
Microsoft Office. The 7-inch model has
a front-facing camera for video chats.
Toshiba
exhibited an as-yet-unnamed
tablet at CES that will use the Android
Honeycomb operating system and will
be powered by Nvidia’s Tegra 2 dual core processor with integrated graphics.
The first version will be Wi-Fi only, but the
company is looking at other options. The
tablet will have a 10.1-inch multi-touch
LED display with 1,200 by 800 resolution.
The screen is adaptive and can adjust
to different lighting situations. It will
weigh about 1.7 pounds. The company
said it will be priced similarly to the iPad.
ViewSonic
showed its first three
tablets. They are an Android 2.2-based
ViewPad 7 with 7-inch touchscreen; 10-
inch Android 2.2-based gTablet; and
10-inch ViewPad 10, a dual-OS tablet
that boots up in the user’s choice of
either Android 1.6 or Windows 7. All
feature Wi-Fi, but the ViewPad 7 adds
a SIM card slot to adds circuit-switched
cellular voice and 3G data.
As of mid-December, the gTablet was
available, the ViewPad 7 was available
for preorder, and the ViewPad 10 was
on track for first-quarter availability at an
expected $629.
The Wall Street Journal reported
Vizio
would come out with a tablet; however,
the company would not comment on the
story. According to the Journal, the tablet
will feature an 8-inch screed, a frontfacing
camera and Wi-Fi. The news report
had it shipping this summer.
Other companies with tablets at the
show include: AOC, Stream TV Networks
and oCosmos.
— Reporting was
done by Joseph Palenchar, Greg
Tarr and Doug Olenick.
