It was actually back in June of 2009 that we got our hands on Viliv’s first generation 7” slate for a full review, the Windows X70EX. Now at CES 2011, Viliv has unveiled the second generation of this device, the X70.

The X70 runs Windows 7 out of the box and Viliv claims that it’s the “slimmest and lightest” Windows tablet in the world, but I’m certain that there’s some subtext to that claim. The 7” 1024×600 screen has been upgraded to a capacitive touchscreen which will certainly improve the input experience. Viliv says that the X70 will use “Intel’s next generation mobile CPU”, but we’re still waiting for specifics on that front. For the time being, we do know that the device will have 2GB of RAM and weigh 0.926lbs (420g).

You can keep an eye on up to date specs, links, and additional info at our Viliv X70 tracking page. I’m sure Chippy will do his best to get some hands-on time with this device at CES 2011, so stay tuned! Here’s another press shot for the road:

In press events on Tuesday, Intel launched Moorestown and gave journalists their full marketing package on the smartphone and tablet-focused platform.  The key highlight was ‘performance’ and one element I want to focus on is Web browsing.

In tests I’ve been doing with many devices over the last 6 months using the SunSpider javascript benchmark, the Atom CPU, running at 1.3Ghz, whips the A4 CPU into the ground with a >3X speed advantage. Moorestown, with its 1.5Ghz clock looks to improve that to a 4x speed advantage according to the slide below. That’s a huge win for web-based applications implemented in AJAX.

Of course, javascript is only a component of the total time needed to fetch and render the average web page so I decided to do a real world test.

To simulate how Moorestown would perform under web-browsing conditions I took the Intel Atom-based Viliv X70, a 7” tablet with a 1024×600 7” touchscreen running Windows XP Home, installed the latest Google Chrome, locked the CPU to 800Mhz and did some random web browsing tests. Remember that the Menlow platform used in the X70 is very close to the architecture used on Moorestown. The CPU are GPU are architecturally almost exactly the same. I side-by-sided it with an iPad which is, according to my tests with the Archos 5, X10 and HTC Desire (all running high-end ARM V7 architecture cores) the fastest ARM-based browser solution out there.

The video below shows that the browsing speed with the Viliv at 800Mhz is almost neck and neck. An 800Mhz Atom on a multi-tasking OS matches a 1Ghz A4 on a single-tasting OS. Ignore the UI and product, this is just a test of web page loading speed.

In the second part of the video I boosted the Atom CPU up to 1.3Ghz, the maximum on this platform, to simulate what would happen when a Moorestown smartphone ran at the highest clock-rate of 1.5Ghz. Remember the CPU and GPU architectures in Menlow and Moorestown are the same although Moorestown has a 200Mhz advantage here, can support faster memory and has a faster GPU clock.

The difference is very noticeable with the X70 rendering pages much more quickly, even with Flash enabled. Move to Firefox and disable flash and the difference is even bigger.

I see real-world advantages here. Faster, full Internet experience and a huge advantage for web-based applications and compressed or encoded content although it has to be said that in this high CPU-load scenario, battery drain on the Moorestown platform is likely to be slightly (although not considerably) more.

Remember, we’re ONLY comparing CPU platforms here and in this simulation, the Moorestown platform is showing great potential. It can deliver web pages, process script, decrypt HTTPS, GZIP and images much faster than the best ARM-based solution out there. It also adds multitasking and large memory support too. As a platform, if it delivers on the battery life claims, Moorestown is going to be a great, high-performance smartphone, tablet and even netbook option.

Recommended reading – Why social netbooks have a ‘lock-in’ opportunity. In this article I talk about key features of a smartbook. Many of these apply to a Moorestown/MeeGo-based product.

Recommended reading – Anandtech on Moorestown. Detailed with good background research and knowledge.

There have been rumors flying about for a while now that the X70 UMPC [#2 in our charts today] includes the voice-capable version of the Huawei 3G modem so when Viliv sent me a replacement for my pre-production X70 sample the first thing I did was to check the 3G hardware and software.

Sure enough the installed software includes a phone dialer and the hardware is wired up to the mic and speakers. It’s a phone! Video demo below…

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Dynamism seems to have had great success selling the Viliv S5 [Portal page] and X70 [Portal page] devices to a limited number of people who were able to order them right as they were released. Now that the premium models are ready for release, it looks like Dynamism is ready to open the offer up to a lot more individuals.

Starting from today (July 16th) through August 5th Dynamism will be offering anyone who orders the X70 or S5 the same nice accessory bundle (worth $135 for the S5, or $195 for the X70) as they did with their initial launch specials. What does this mean exactly?

For the Viliv S5, an order from now through August 5th will secure you a spare battery, car kit, and leather case all at not additional cost.

For the Viliv X70, you have two choices depending on which model you order. The first is for the express model: a free upgrade to 1.3GHz from 1.2GHz, a car kit, leather case, and protective screen cover. Or you can go with a premium model which will get you an additional battery in place of the CPU upgrade along with the other parts of the accessory bundle.

All in all, I would say that if you have your heart set on the S5 or the X70, now would be a good time to buy.

Viliv has managed to create some great UMPCs which have been receiving quite a bit of praise over the last several weeks. A reader in the comments suggested a size comparison of the devices which I thought was an excellent idea.

Products compared: Viliv X70 | Viliv S5 | Viliv S7

You can also click through to the Size Easy comparison to hide/show different devices, and add your own items for comparison.

Several days ago I put up a post asking which device was most anticipated by readers of our site. 648 of your responded and I’m here to share the results. Take a look at the graph below:

For readers who didn’t have a chance to participate in the poll from the previous post, here is the list of devices which readers could have chosen from (click the link to be taken to the product’s Portal page).

Crunchpad | Asus Eee T91 | Archos 9 | Always Innovating Touchbook

As I watched the results roll in, the Eee T91 stayed the leader for nearly the entire duration of polling. The CrunchPad came in second, followed by the Archos 9 and then the Always Innovating Touchbook. There was a good amount of ‘other’ responses. in fact enough to tie the CrunchPad for second place (I’ll add more devices to the poll next time!). What I found interesting was that some people filled in the ‘other’ dialogue with existing devices, and some filled it in with devices that they would like to have, but might not be products at this point. Here is a short list of ‘other’ entries for existing products:

• Viliv X70 [Portal page]
• Viliv S7 [Portal page]
• Asus Eee T101H [Portal page]
• Kohjinsha SK3 [Portal page]
• Asus Eee Keyboard PC
• Open Pandora
• ION/Tegra based netbook

And a short list of ‘other’ entries featuring devices that don’t yet exist:

• Apple tablet
• Archos 5” Android device
• LG UMPC (this person must be old school!)
• Next Nokia Internet Tablet (several people called this the N900)
• Viliv S5 with keyboard

Interesting suggestions everyone. Thanks for participating in this poll. Its good to know people are looking forward to these devices. We have quite a few nice products lined up that we’ll be reviewing for our readers. Chippy has the Viliv S7 coming eventually, and we’ll also hopefully have our hands on the Asus Eee T91, and the Always Innovating Touchbook in the near future.

I’ll be attending a mobile internet presentation hosted by Vodafone Germany this afternoon and although I will continue to microblog (they will appear in the middle column on the front page) I wanted to highlight a couple of points before I go.

Firstly, Pocketables have news that the Viliv S7 is nearing launch in Korea. There’s information on pricing and model details but these details will obviously change for models outside Korea. We’re trying to get more info from Viliv about this. I’m very excited about the S7 and wondering if it will beat the ASUS T91 to market! Check out the Pocketables article for more. What do you think of the pricing? I’m guessing that it will translate to a $650 entry point in the U.S.

JKK and I spent 3 hours with the Kohjinsha SK3 [details] and a bunch of other UMPCs last night. The live session was recorded and if you’ve got 2+hrs free, check out the videos. I will be doing a full review of the SK3 in the coming weeks.

The Vodafone event should be interesting this afternoon. I am taking a bunch of UMPCs and will be using the X70 + PC Navigator to find my way there. The MiFi 2352 will also be given a good work-out!

The master of mobile modding, jkk, wastes no time tearing apart new gadgetry. Case-in-point, the brand new Viliv X70 [Portal page].

Good to know that someone is brave enough to break open a new piece of kit and post up some high resolution pictures so that we don’t have to do it ourselves! Swing by jkkmobile for additional images.

You may have seen the Viliv S5 navigation demo from the guys over at Streetdeck recently; now it’s the Viliv X70’s turn. The X70 [Portal page] is larger than the S5 [Portal page], and has integrated GPS as well as 3G data. That means that everything needed to run the great looking Streetdeck software is already under the hood. With the car kit that Viliv has made for the X70 and the Streetdeck software, it looks like the X70 could work wonders as a navigation device. The power of using a full fledged PC as your navigation unit really shows over that of a simple dedicated GPS device. As you watch the demo below, take a look at the map as Chuck drives the car around. You can practically watch the map turn in real time as the car turns. Most of us using dedicated GPS devices are probably used to seeing the screen update every one or two seconds. With the X70’s relatively huge screen, you can bet that it will be easy to operate the Streetdeck interface and see all of the necessary navigational information. Take a look at the video below, the first few mins are a short overview of the device and car kit; the in-car demo starts at 6:30.

We pointed you to James Kendrick’s video overview of the upcoming Viliv X70 UMPC, but now he has a great gallery, including shots of the impressive looking case, and some additional impressions of the unit over at jkOnTheRun.

The more I see this device, the more solid and awesome it looks. If only they could squeeze a keyboard on there somehow…. Seems like it would work great for around the house browsing, and James says he loves it already as an e-book reader.

After all of the coverage that the Viliv S5 [Portal page] has seen lately, it is about time that its bigger brother, the Viliv X70, gets a little bit of face time. James Kendrick from jkOnTheRun has a nice video showing off the brand new Viliv X70. The X70 as I mentioned is a Viliv UMPC that is larger than the Viliv S5. The X70 has a 7” screen as compared to the S5’s 4.8” screen. While the sizes are different, the internals are very similar, with both devices running Atom. The X70 that James is checking out has an SSD as well as 3G connectivity. The X70 has many of the same connectors as the S5 as well including the host port that allows it to be used as a USB HDD while plugged into a different computer.

The X70 also comes with a great looking case that is themed like the one designed for the S5 (sharp red inside). There is a physical connector built into the back of the X70 that locks it into the case from the back. The cool thing about the case is that in addition to protecting the X70, it can also fold back and lock into a stand position.

The X70 looks quite nice and it made me realize how big this device could be when James said that it reminds him of “…a thinner, lighter, svelte Samsung Q1”. The return of the UMPC? What do you think?