You might recognise this hardware but have you seen this operating system running on it before? The Pepper Pad lives!
Hanbit, the original equipment design and manufacturing partner for the Pepper Pad 3 are going to continue to manufacture the hardware after their recent split from troubled Pepper Computer.
Pepper Computer will retain their software following the split which leaves Hanbit free to make some changes. The most obvious of course is that you’ll find XP (Tablet Edition I’m told) on the new device rather than the Pepper Linux-based distribution. Secondly, the touchscreen has been updated to a LED back-lit version which will improve brightness and battery life. Finally, the battery is now easily removable which wasn’t the case on the Pepper Pad 3. The device will continue to run on the AMD LX800 which we know from the Raon and Kohjinsha devices, is perfect for browsing, simple document editing and impressive MPEG-4 and MPEG-2 performance (remember the unit has analogue-video out.) Price is not yet decided so it might be worth putting your thoughts
in the comments here because I know Hanbit are watching! Battery life is said to be around 3.5 hours in-use which tally’s with what I’ve seen on the Kohjinsha SA1. The rest of the specs are said to be the same as the Pepper Pad 3.
Expect the Hanibt Pad UMPC 3 to be available very soon (The Tablet Store, Germany will have pre-order details up next week Germany) and expect new versions of the device to follow later in the year. A Menlow-based version is in the works and Hanbit are said to be looking at new designs.
The Pepper Pad isn’t exactly going to be your pocketable friend but take it from me, it’s one of the best sofa-surfing designs there is.
Thanks, The Tablet Store.
