Interesting A81, 7” Tablet from Witstech. Cortex. Capacitive. Coming with Android? (Updated with video)

Posted on 06 November 2009, Last updated on 17 March 2023 by

Reported by Techfresh nearly a month ago is early information on a 7 inch 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.

a81-5

There’s also talk about $200-$250 prices and an upcoming Android build.

a81-6 a81-7

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.

26 Comments For This Post

  1. Steve 'Chippy' Paine says:

    New article: Interesting A81, 7” Tablet from Witstech. Cortex. Capacitive. Coming with Android? http://bit.ly/4nTSMT

  2. turn_self_off says:

    this and the moto devices, and it seems that android are being used for all kinds of creative products. Gotta love it :)

  3. Marc says:

    Found an English spec here:

    http://www.witstech.com.cn/upload/A81%20MID%20English%20Specification.pdf

  4. tumama says:

    A preview/review from the A81:

    http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=61059

  5. chippy says:

    Thanks Tumama
    Linking that into the post now…

  6. pan.sapiens says:

    “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.

  7. pan.sapiens says:

    I mean V7, not S7 (slaps forhead).

  8. chippy says:

    I think its still an arm11 cpu in that. not a good enough improvement in my opinion.

  9. Alessandro Tucci says:

    RT @chippy: New article: Interesting A81, 7" Tablet from Witstech. Cortex. Capacitive. Coming with Android? http://bit.ly/4nTSMT

  10. Jenn says:

    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

  11. chippy says:

    Thanks Jenn. I knew I was way behind on this device!

  12. JohnS says:

    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.

  13. chippy says:

    Regardless of touchscreen tech I think the Cortex A8 core brings enough improvement over the S7. But only with a strongly supported Android build.

  14. Mac Jones says:

    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 ; )

  15. johnkzin says:

    Is someone going to get around to doing a 9″ or 10″ OMAP3 Android tablet? That’d be rather nice to see :-}

  16. johnkzin says:

    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. :-)

  17. turn_self_off says:

    darn it man, give me time to post, will you ;)

  18. johnkzin says:

    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

  19. turn_self_off says:

    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…

  20. turn_self_off says:

    i blame lack of morning coffee on that typo ;)

  21. yet_another_guest says:

    @ 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

  22. johnkzin says:

    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).

  23. icura says:

    The V7 launches on the 15th for about 100 more than than previous.

  24. Mike Cane says:

    LUST LUST LUST: http://tinyurl.com/yc59fwa <– see vid. wish it had Android! @TaxMan45 @dnm54

  25. ColdSun says:

    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. :)

  26. TareX says:

    Does it have full, hardware accelerated flash? I mean, they shouldn’t bother otherwise…

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