We mentioned the supposedly Android and Nvidia Tegra powered ‘Vega’ tablet a few weeks ago, and now it looks like Engadget has gotten their hands on a prototype. Jump over to their story to see the video.

The thing that will probably jump out to any of us is that the prototype is running Windows CE at the moment. It’s possible that this is just temporary while they build and fine tune the Android software that will be purportedly powering the device at launch, but I’m just hoping that they don’t rush the unit out the door with Windows CE and promise Android firmware at a later time. This would put them in some regards on the same unwanted level of the no-name MIDs I wrote about the other day (see the ‘Users as beta testers’ section). I’ve also got to mention that I’m not digging the resistive touchscreen.

At least the Tegra hardware ensures some pretty good performance. A movie playing at 1280×720 is demoed in the video and the device seems to handle it just fine. The ZuneHD might have the same Nvidia Tegra hardware, but it is too small to actually have a screen with an HD resolution, so on the Vega it is nice to see that HD decoding capability put to good use.

A company called Innovative Convergent Devices has put info up on their website about a new device called the Vega, which purportedly will be an Android 2.0 powered Slate device which will come in your choice of size: 7”, 11” or up to a whooping 15.6”.

Check the specs (likely subject to change):

• Android OS
• 7/11/15.6” resistive touchscreen at 1366×768
• Nvidia Tegra (probably the Tegra 600 or 650, which are both Arm 11)
• 4 hour battery life
• 512MB of RAM
• 512MB of memory (expandable through MicroSD)
• Bluetooth and WiFi b/g
• Options for 2G or 3G data module
• headphone jack and webcam
• dual microphones
• accelerometer

And one other thing listed on the spec sheet that is rather odd: 262,000 colors (6-bit) which seems sort of low for a device that claims to be usable for HD content.

The press release on IDC’s site says that the device will be released through “Tier 1” carriers in the US, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East, which should mean that the device will be subsidized. They are also set to show off a demo unit at this year’s CES (Jan 7-10) and hope to launch in the first half of 2010.

There is a lot of talk about the Vega being a “no compromise” product that consumers really want, however, I don’t know about you… but I’d call a Slate device with no physical keyboard and a resistive touchscreen just that: a compromise. Your thoughts? Let us know in the comments.

[GottaBeMobile]