The ViewSonic ViewPad 7 is neither a tablet PC or a SmartPhone. It is in fact both. Confused? I'd be surprised if you weren't. The ViewPad 7 is essentially, a 7 inch smartphone. They use a smartphone optimized operating system, with no disguise that the device has a 7 inch screen, which is something I can guarentee that you wouldn't be holding up at your face whilst walking down a busy street! However, saying that, the device does have quite a few good points.
Looks
The ViewPad 7 looks quite sleek. With a shiny black plastic contruction with matte silver edges, it looks almost like an over-sized iPhone 4! Because it is plastic, you may think that it is not built to the quality that some people expect, but let me enlighten you: The ViewPad 7 has quite a nice weight and I would be happy if it fell from my desk to a wooden floor (which it has done in the past). It has survived several falls without any damage.
Features
Marketed as a 'large screen smartphone', the ViewPad certainly offers many of the same features. We have outlined below some of the specifications:
-600mhz Qualcomm CPU
-500mb RAM
-Android 2.2
-miniUSB
-7 inch Screen
-500mb internal memory
-Front and Rear camera
These are just basic specifications. Please visit the ViewSonic Website to get the full list.
A tablet device is primarily used to browse the internet, watch YouTube, check email, look at TheGeekPanel website, play games and maybe listen to music. We tested the device on all of these things and most of them worked extremely well.
Web-browsing was fast and smooth, reading ebooks was flawless, due to the pre-installed Aldiko book reader and YouTube was a breeze because of the YouTube app preinstalled.
All of the features that you would require in a device like this are there and work well.
Conclusion
The ViewPad 7 is a great budget tablet, starting at around £170 in the UK. It is a great device for anyone wanting to do any of the tasks mentioned above. The battery life was very good, our studies revealing that battery life was stretching to a maximum of 8 hours! When I'm reading ebooks, I sometimes don't even have to charge it for 2 days. I like that a lot.
Overall, I recommend this tablet to anyone who has maybe not owned a tablet before. It is a great addition to my collection of gadgets.
Stay tuned for another review on a different product shortly.
Comments welcome.
