Olivetti’s Olipad tablet lacks style
Olivetti, once the maker of beautiful typewriters, has gotten into the tablet game. The inevitably named Olipad will be sold through TIM, the Italian telecom company, from today for €400 ($561). That sounds like a lot, but it’s €100 less than the entry-level iPad, which goes for €500 ($700) here in Europe.
The Olipad eschews Olivetti’s history of beautiful design and instead opts for an ugly slab-like block. Inside, the tablet is equally uninspiring. In fact, you can probably guess the commodity specs in just the same way we used to “guess” the specs of every single netbook: Dual Cortex A9 NVidia processor, HDMI and USB ports along with an SD card slot, a ten-inch screen and a customized version of Google’s Android OS (no mention is made of the version).
The tablet also works with some custom accessories: a dock, a capacitive pen and a “touch mouse”.
It’s hard to get enthusiastic for such a humdrum machine. It almost seems like there’s an Android tablet factory somewhere in China that pumps out generic slabs and slaps on a logo, the computer equivalent of getting pens printed with your corporate colors.
It’s especially sad because Olivetti was such a great brand, now squandered. Why? Because — according to the proud press release — “Olivetti is a 100%-owned subsidiary of Telecom Italia”. Sigh.
Olivetti Launches Olipad, Italy’s First Tablet [Olivetti]
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