Reported by Techfresh nearly a month ago is early information on a 7” ARM-based tablet from Witstech. The A81. I have a feeling that the ‘WinCE’ specification put a lot of people off but it might be worth taking a closer look as it supposedly has a capacitive touchscreen and runs on an unspecified ARM Cortex A8 core.
There’s also talk about $200-$250 prices and an upcoming Android build.
We had a lot of fun with the ARM11-based Smart Devices Q7 but with the bump in processor power, this would be a lot more useful, especially if WITs can get an Android build together for it.
Specifications (taken from this PDF) are in the database now.
P.S. I know what you’re thinking – 1024×600 would be awesome! (Although Android on 800×480 should be quite enjoyable in my opinion.)
Update: This product seems to be availeble as the Wirelession W1060. Someone in the MobileRead forums already has one.
November 6th, 2009 at 5:42 pm
this and the moto devices, and it seems that android are being used for all kinds of creative products. Gotta love it
Reply (threaded)
November 6th, 2009 at 6:01 pm
Found an English spec here:
http://www.witstech.com.cn/upload/A81%20MID%20English%20Specification.pdf
Reply (threaded)
November 6th, 2009 at 9:48 pm
A preview/review from the A81:
http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=61059
Reply (threaded)
November 6th, 2009 at 11:53 pm
Thanks Tumama
Linking that into the post now…
Reply (threaded)
November 6th, 2009 at 10:07 pm
“We had a lot of fun with the ARM11-based Smart Devices Q7″
…what about the Smart Devices S7 = more powerful version of the Q7 with HDMI output, available in China. I’m in the market for a 7″ ARM device as a reader/video player/web browser, and would love to see UMPCPortal do a comparison / review of some devices in this class.
Reply (threaded)
November 7th, 2009 at 4:17 am
I mean V7, not S7 (slaps forhead).
Reply (threaded)
November 7th, 2009 at 12:55 pm
I think its still an arm11 cpu in that. not a good enough improvement in my opinion.
Reply (threaded)
November 7th, 2009 at 12:42 am
Back in August, the device had a colorful design and the word “velev” printed on the back: http://www.pocketables.net/2009/08/a81-mid-has-7inch-screen-powered-by-arm-cortex-a8.html
Clicking on the source link now, however, shows only the updated info. There’s a user’s guide in Chinese here: http://www.witstech.com.cn/upload/%E4%BD%BF%E7%94%A8%E8%AF%B4%E6%98%8E%E4%B9%A6.pdf
Reply (threaded)
November 7th, 2009 at 12:59 pm
Thanks Jenn. I knew I was way behind on this device!
Reply (threaded)
November 7th, 2009 at 2:04 am
I’ve heard about this before, and it didn’t seem all that different from the soon to be released SmartQ V7, or a variety of similar 7″ MIDs, except for the mention of the capacitive touchscreen. I’m encountered reports of supposedly capacitive touchscreens that turned out to actually be resistive upon release, and so I’m doubtful, but if it actually has a capacitive screen, it sounds like a definite winner.
Reply (threaded)
November 7th, 2009 at 12:57 pm
Regardless of touchscreen tech I think the Cortex A8 core brings enough improvement over the S7. But only with a strongly supported Android build.
Reply (threaded)
November 7th, 2009 at 4:03 am
You’re right on JohnS
It’s resistive (which sort of pisses me off as they are wasting my time with retarded specs (regardless of language issues)
(you can clearly see the resistive screen in the video -unless it’s a Wacom or n-trig which i’m guessing isn’t the case ; )
Reply (threaded)
November 7th, 2009 at 9:32 am
Is someone going to get around to doing a 9″ or 10″ OMAP3 Android tablet? That’d be rather nice to see :-}
Reply (threaded)
November 7th, 2009 at 1:13 pm
Just a few minutes after posting that, I came across this:
http://www.moto.com/amp/amp_specs.shtml
10″ Android Tablet with OMAP4. I think I’m in love.
Reply (threaded)
November 7th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
darn it man, give me time to post, will you
Reply (threaded)
November 7th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
I’m sure we both found it via talk.maemo.org
(and, it’s MOTO, not MOKO)
Yes, it’s an on-paper/vaporware design right now. But it’s the first one that really hits close to my target. The only things better would be a PixelQi e-paper/LCD hybrid display, and DVI-I instead of HDMI. That, and knowing it would have a full desktop browser (Acer is porting Firefox to their Android netbooks, for example).
Actually, my summary of the ideal mid-range device (for me) is at:
http://johnkzin.livejournal.com/55488.html
November 7th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
there is the MOKO 10″, that will apparently be omap4, thats cortex-A9 btw, but so far thats just a paper design with a unknown future date, and will if made, be for rebranding by third parties…
Reply (threaded)
November 7th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
i blame lack of morning coffee on that typo
Reply (threaded)
November 7th, 2009 at 1:41 pm
@ chippy do you have any more info on the SmartQ V7, the successor of the Smart Q7. It is said to have HDMI, and runs on Ubuntu, Win CE or Android (all three preinstalled).
http://www.eletroworld.cn/nb/SmartV_7.htm
Reply (threaded)
November 8th, 2009 at 1:08 am
I haven’t seen anything that says it has HDMI. Video out would be a plus, though.
If they made a 9″ version, with Ubuntu and Android (I’d probably wipe the CE partition), USB Host, and DVI-I out … that might be interesting to me. But 7″ is too small, and HDMI is too expensive to down-convert to VGA (my KVM).
Reply (threaded)
November 8th, 2009 at 12:56 am
The V7 launches on the 15th for about 100 more than than previous.
Reply (threaded)
November 9th, 2009 at 4:15 pm
Hi Chippy,
I posted that preview thread over at MobileRead. I’m working on a full-blown review right now. I’ll let you know when it is done.
Reply (threaded)
November 9th, 2009 at 4:59 pm
Does it have full, hardware accelerated flash? I mean, they shouldn’t bother otherwise…
Reply (threaded)