This might not be the $199 Tegra 3 tablet that NVIDIA’s keen to see, but hey, a 999 yuan ($160) quad-core phone is just as impressive. Unveiled in China earlier today, this ZTE U950 smartphone packs a 1.3GHz Tegra 3 chip, 1GB of RAM, 4GB of internal storage and a 2,000mAh battery beneath the 4.3-inch display. There’s also a five-megapixel camera plus a VGA front-facing camera inside the 9mm-thick body. Pretty standard stuff for an Android 4.0 phone, except for the price-per-performance ratio, of course. The first 100,000 customers who register now will be eligible to order on November 11th, though chances are the quota’s all gone by now.
In case you haven’t heard, a lot — and we mean a lot — of Windows devices are going on sale this week. Today it’s ASUS’ turn to give its lineup a formal coming-out party: the company is hosting a press event here in New York City, where it just announced the dockable VivoTab RT will be available on October 26th, starting at $599 for the 32GB model, keyboard included. Alternatively, you can buy the 64GB tablet and docking station for $699. As we previously reported, an LTE version is coming to AT&T. Finally, ASUS says it will also sell the tablet and dock individually, but we haven’t yet learned final pricing for those items. We’ll update this post when we do.
If this is your first introduction to the VivoTab RT, here’s a quick recap: it basically offers everything people loved about ASUS’ Android-based Transformer tablets, except it runs Windows RT instead. Like the Infinity and other recent ASUS tablets, it has a 600-nit Super IPS+ display, offering 178-degree viewing angles and Gorilla Glass protection. Other specs include a quad-core Tegra 3 chip (the new T30, to be exact), 2GB of RAM, NFC and an 8-megapixel rear camera with an auto-focusing f/2.2 lens. Then there’s that keyboard dock, which has a USB 2.0 port and built-in battery rated for seven hours. (The tablet itself is said to last up to nine hours.) Finally, of course, as a Windows RT device it comes loaded with all of the same stock applications you’ll find in full Windows 8 (Mail, IE 10, etc.), along with Office 2013 Home & Student. The main difference: you won’t be able to install legacy Windows programs.
The VivoTab RT arrives the same day as the Surface for Windows RT and indeed, we’ll be eager to compare the two, especially since pricing for the keyboard-tablet bundles is identical. In fact, ASUS sent us one to test, and you can expect a review any day now. Until then, we’ve embedded some press photos below, in case you’re just getting your first look.
Want an early glimpse of the VivoTab RT without having to attend ASUS’ special event? Thanks to our tipster, you’ve got it. An Office Depot has received at least one example of the Windows RT slate a full three days in advance. The short impressions: it’s an “awesome” Tegra 3-packing tablet, although the OS reportedly chews up more than half of the 32GB of storage, and USB depends on an adapter if you’re not relying on the keyboard. While price wasn’t immediately available, we’re not expecting retail to deviate greatly from the $599 pre-order formula.
Behold the magnificent LaVie Y or LY750/JW for NEC, the company first Windows 8 RT Hybrid laptop! Announced for a launch date of November 22nd at around 90,000 Yen, the LaVie Y is one of the first Japanese Hybrid Laptop that will not be powered by an Intel CPU but by an NVIDIA Tegra 3 CPU at 1.3Ghz! Like the Pansonic AX2, you can turn your LaVie Y into a tablet and enjoy its nice 11.6″ (1,366×768) touchscreen and enjoy a fully capable Hybrid computer the way you like! By default the …
Don’t think that Lenovo is keeping the IdeaPad Yoga’s bendy secrets all to itself: its Japanese partner NEC is bringing a variant of the ARM-based Yoga 11 to the land of the rising sun as the LaVie Y. The 11.6-inch blend of laptop and tablet keeps the signature 360-degree display, 2GB of RAM and 64GB of storage as its more internationally-minded counterpart, and confirms that there’s a quad-core Tegra 3 powering either of the Windows RT systems. What differences exist will stem from the software: there’s hints of a custom NEC app on an otherwise vanilla interpretation of Microsoft’s platform. The LaVie Y should precede its IdeaPad sibling by days, arriving in stores around November 22nd, although any local buyers will pay dearly for the privilege with an estimated $1,136 price. We’d suggest that patience ought to be a virtue for everyone else.
Acer has revealed its latest Android tablet, the Iconia A110, taking on Google’s Nexus 7 with a Tegra 3 powered 7-incher for $229.99. Fronted by a 7-inch, 1024 x 600 display and tipping the scales at 0.86 pounds, the A110 has a 2-megapixel front facing webcam, 1GB of memory, and 8GB of storage.
There’s also a microUSB port supporting USB Host, MicroSD card slot for augmenting the onboard storage, and a micro HDMI port for hooking up a bigger screen. Inside there’s WiFi and Bluetooth 3.0, though no cellular wireless option, and a battery which Acer claims is good for 7.5hrs of runtime.
Like the Nexus 7, the OS is Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, and Acer slaps its own “circles” app launcher on there too. Sales will kick off on October 30 in the US and Canada, with the Iconia A110 priced at $229.99.
At that price, Acer will be in for some very strong competition, and we’re not sure whether the Iconia A110 can quite hold up to the scrutiny. Both the Nexus 7 and Barnes & Noble’s NOOK HD are cheaper out of the gate – each kicks off at $199.99 – and have better quality displays, running at 1280 x 800 and 1440 x 900 respectively.
Acer hasn’t had an easy mid-year: it trotted out the Iconia Tab A110 at Computex as a budget Android tablet that could still claim Tegra 3 speeds, only to watch the Nexus 7 arrive and leave virtually every other comparable tablet in a tight spot. It’s North America’s turn at the A110 this month, and the side-by-side looks aren’t getting much easier. When the 7-inch Jelly Bean slate ships to the continent on October 30th, it will cost $230 in both the US and Canada for the lone 8GB version — a better value than we see in Europe, but still a slightly awkward middle ground between an 8GB Nexus 7 at $199 and its $249, 16GB edition. We’re guessing that Acer is counting on the microSD and micro-HDMI expansion to tempt would-be North American buyers away from a less flexible (if Google-blessed) rival.
If you’re Toshiba, what do you do when you’re looking to goose interest in the Excite 10 tablet? Roll out a quick follow up, of course. Accordingly, the FCC has just recently cleared a refreshed tablet, the AT300SE, that the Bluetooth SIG suggests will be called the Excite 10SE in North America. As shown, it’s a European-spec WiFi model that gives away little by itself. It’s when we combine this with the Bluetooth listing and speed tests that a clearer picture of the upgrade emerges — there’s been an AT300SE in GLBenchmark’s performance charts that we’ve seen running Jelly Bean (unavailable to current Excites) on top of what looks to be the familiar 1,280 x 800 display and 1.3GHz Tegra 3. While there may be other surprises lurking in areas the tests can’t reach, the documents point to a quick nip-and-tuck from Toshiba to keep tablet sales afloat rather than a full overhaul.
We’ve had our first look at the beta version of the first person shooter version of SHADOWGUN: DEADZONE, out in beta form on the Google Play app store for Tegra 3 devices exclusively. This game is the multiplayer version of the benchmark-quality shooting game SHADOWGUN that’s been optimized for NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 quad-core processor on the market for some months – now you’ll be able to take your Transformer Prime to the web to shoot em up in real-time! This game is absolutely free – for now – and is available for download right this minute.
This game has a bevy of options including four playable characters, two game modes, and two full maps. These options will expand once the full version of the game is released, but for now it’s time to practice your death skills in a limited fashion. The beta test includes a soldier, mutant, assassin, and a dancer – we’ll leave that last one to you to see for yourself. The two game modes available here at the start are DeathMatch and Zone Control, with the first being a shoot-die-regenerate model with a clock and lots of red.
This release is made specifically for you beta testers out there to try out for free and give lots of feedback to NVIDIA and the creators of the game, Madfinger. With your massive amount of destructive tools on-hand and a perfectly playable iteration out right this second, you’ll have to stop yourself every once in a while and write down your thoughts – you’ll get lost in the destruction if you don’t.
* Weapons – Bandit (SMG), Vega (Attack Rifle), Big Boy (Machinegun), Spate (Plasma Rifle), Mace (Shotgun), Osog (Sniper), Sh*tStorm (Rocket Launcher) * Gadgets (Sprint, Medi Kit, Ammo Kit, Flash Bang, EMP Grenade, Frag Grenade, Sentry Gun, Mine)
Your feedback can be sent in-game with the Feedback button – make it so! This game will be out in full rather soon, so you’d better get your practice time in right this minute. You can find yours truly in the game at username “Burnsy” – let’s have a round or two! You can download the game now – again, for free – on the [Google Play app store]. Go for it!
It’s time to have a peek at Lenovo’s next big crack at the tablet game with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and a massive set of built-in apps on a quad-core processor-toting 9-inch tablet by the name of IdeaTab A2109. This device’s NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor with 4-plus-1 technology allows it a massive amount of battery life as well a lovely collection of games that are unique to the NVIDIA Tegra architecture. Meanwhile the tablet is one of Lenovo’s best – but is it worth the less than perfect display and device weight?
Hardware
This device is 259.8mm x 178mm x 11.65mm (9.3″ x 6.5″ x 0.46″) in size and 570g, that is, just under 1.3lbs. The device is certainly not the lightest 9-inch tablet on the market, nor is it the thinnest – but it sounds great. It’s got 2 stereo speakers with SRS Surround Sound, both of them with ever-so-slightly raised bits of plastic near their grilles to assure sound delivery even if the device is flat.
You’ve got a 1.3 megapixel camera on the front for video chat and a 3.0 megapixel camera on the back that takes OK photos and video – don’t expect to get too many masterpieces from either unit. See a few examples of the quality of this device’s main camera lower in this review. The sound collection quality is surprisingly decent, on the other hand, with one mic hole on the left and the other on the right of the device, this aiding in sound cancellation.
The ports you get around this device are relatively abundant for how expensive the device is, starting with a microUSB port on the right side near a micro-HDMI port for HD video output. The quality of the video you get here to an HDTV (provided you’ve got the right cable) is generally good – not spectacular, but certainly good enough for basic Google Play video and YouTube viewing. You’ve also got a basic combo jack for your headphones and microphone if you’d like, too.
You can get this device in 8GB and 16GB internal storage iterations and right under the top-back panel you’ve got a microSD card slot where you can expand your memory by another 32GB if you wish. The overall build quality of the tablet is rather high, with Lenovo letting us know that they’re not skimping on the construction just because it’s not a laptop or a desktop unit.
The display, on the other hand, is of a surprisingly lower-quality build than the rest of the device. The viewing angles are OK for the most part save – believe it or not – the top angle which does a color-flip once you’re at about 45 degrees. It’s a bummer, but if you’re the kind of person that keeps your tablet flat on the table most of the time, you’ll have a fine time. You’ll want to check this out in the store before you pick it up for this reason alone.
Software
This unit works with Lenovo’s own flavor of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich – this means there are a few modifications in the way you move back and forth between homescreens and you’ve got a vast collection of apps right out of the box. You also have some lovely widgets that are essentially giant folders where you can store your apps, get weather information, access music you’ve got stored on the device, and write notes.
You’ll want to check out our hands-on with the device in the video in this post to see how the software functions – there are a few hiccups here and there due to what we must assume is a firmware build that’ll be updated by Lenovo in the future. Lag here and there and some tiny one-pixel-row skips. Nothing to get too bent out of shape over.
The list of apps that you get in this device, if I’ve not said it enough already, certainly appears large compared to its competition. GO Keyboard, AccuWeather, Amazon Kindle, Lenovo App Shop, Cut the Rope HD, Docs to Go, ES File Explorer, Evernote, GameTanium, Lenovo Registration, LoPokeTALK for low-priced calls (for real, really), News Republic, Norton Security, ooVoo, PrinterShare for Lenovo, Skype, SugarSync, Wi-fi Direct, and Zinio – and these are only the apps added by Lenovo, there’s also the full set of Google apps you get with basically every Android device on the regular – the list also changes based on which region you pick this device up in.
This device is designed for the first-time Android user – one who wants to see what a variety of apps can do without looking for them first on the Google Play app store. If that’s you, you’ll feel perfectly comfortable in this environment. There’s also a lovely app simply called “UI Intro” that shows a video for your benefit – a lovely presentation of the user interface on your device – and it looks nice!
Camera
The camera on the back – all 3 megapixels of it – is in place for basic shooting only. Don’t expect it to perform any miracles. That said, if you’re into the Instagram scene, you’ll have some great success. Have a peek at some examples of highest-definition-possible photos and video.
Battery Life and Benchmarks
With the NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core processor under the hood here with 1.2Ghz clock speed, you’ve got what’s basically the best piece of architecture in the whole device. NVIDIA’s constructed a processor that makes this device run smoothly – for the most part – with its only limits appearing to be the user interface in certain areas which seem to lag upon opening. Having seen the processor in action on several tablets in the past, I’d say these oddities have more to do with the software build than they have to do with the hardware – but in the end it’s always a combination of the two.
Have a peek at the basic benchmarks we’ve run on this device above and check the battery time below as well. This device benefits from the “ninja” 5th core in the processor (the Tegra 3 actually has 5 cores, the 5th only running when the device doesn’t need to be running high-demand tasks) – here the A2109 Lenovo tablet uses this architecture well, with battery life that does great on a regular basis.
Wrap-up
This device is a good effort from Lenovo, but put up in a competition against the rest of the Tegra 3 tablets we’ve seen, it’s just a bit lacking. If you’re looking for a 9-inch tablet with NVIDIA processing power inside it, this is your best bet, that’s for certain – especially if you just want it to be your radio all on its own: the speakers are really worth a listen. The A2109 really does have the power to run next-generation apps too, and you’ll have full access to the NVIDIA TegraZone app collection as well.
This device will run you $299, and for that price you’ll not be finding another tablet like the A2109. You can of course pick up a Nexus 7 for $199 – but that’s smaller than this. You could get an iPad mini (if it does indeed exist in a few weeks), but that won’t have Android, of course, and it certainly wont have a 9-inch display. Basically the final verdict is this: with a unique build, you won’t find Lenovo’s offering here lacking if you want it for a media-delivery system – unless the display will trip you up: check it out in the store, you simply must.
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