The Viewsonic Viewpad 7 arrived just as I was finishing off the Galaxy Tab review today so it’s perfect timing for a close comparison. I won’t be doing that yet though because first-off we need to do the unboxing and overview (below) and the Live Review (info) Join us tomorrow at 8pm London time (2100 CET other times here) on the Live Page and spread the word! Some new images are going up into the Gallery so keep checking that too. Full specifications and links, gallery and other videos available on our Viewpad 7 tracking page.

Availability information and information about the trade-in program in the UK can be found here. For Germany, keep an eye on MediaMarkt. We hear that France and Netherlands are next in line but there are no confirmed details as yet.

The Live Review video and chat session will be available here on the 10th November 2010.

The Viewsonic Live Review videos and detailed impressions/review is now available here.

Follow, view or subscribe to Chippy on Twitter for any late changes and updates. Please don’t forget to pass the message on via Twitter if you’re a twitter user, or ‘like’ this post on Facebook. Thanks to Viewsonic Europe for sending it over.

With a huge thanks to Viewsonic Europe I’ll be taking delivery of the Viewpad 7 in just a few days. Retail packages go out for review later in the week but we’ve been promised a final sample from the product managers personal stash. They’ve seen our in-depth reviews and warts-and-all live reviews so they must be feeling confident !

At 399 Pounds it’s a little above what we thought we’d see but there’s a nice little trade-in program going on where you can send in an netbook or notebook under 4 years old and they will give you 100 pounds back. If you’re one of the thousands of people that have an old Asus EeePC 701 knocking about, this is a great opportunity.

Besides the trade-in though there’s the potential for a really nice little value-for-money tablet here. We’re not talking Galaxy Tab quality or performance but we are talking the ability to do almost everything the Tab can. It really is one of the few complete Android experiences to be seen on a tablet. Everything is there from multitouch capacitive screen, Android 2.2, Market, quad-band 3G and tri-band GSM. Yes, this can be a phone if you want! Full specs and information here on our tracking page.

I read a hands-on from @faaborgs in Denmark today and although the translation is a little iffy, you’ll be able to pick up that the owner is happy. Not bad for someone who likes Porsche! While Galaxy Tab owners might be praising performance and quality, I think the Viewpad 7 owners are going to be praising value-for-money.

So, the Viewpad 7 is expected here on Wednesday and that means one thing – Live Video.  Bring along a beer because at about 8pm London time (2100 CET – other times here) we’re going to be spending a couple of hours going over the device for you and with you.  A chat session will be open and if you’ve got questions, just ask! In the latter part of the live testing, we’ll highlight some of the differences between the the Viewpad 7 and the Galaxy Tab because we’ve got one of those here too. JKK from JKKMobile is due to join us and if we can get anyone else to chip-in over Skype, we will!

Will there be a showstopper? Will the video performance be up to scratch?  (we’re sensing stock Android here which means no 3rd-party codecs) will the YouTube player be able to support HQ videos. What about the lack of Flash (this is an ARM11 device; It doesn’t support Flash despite the Android 2.2 build.) How about the battery life from the slightly smaller battery (compared to the Galaxy Tab) is the 800×480 screen going to be a handicap and critically, for many, is the ARM11 CPU going to return acceptable Web performance. We have questions about USB OTG and box contents too. Does it include the case for example?

The Live Review video and chat session will be available here.  Follow,view or subscribe to Chippy on Twitter for any late changes and updates. Please don’t forget to pass the message on via Twitter if you’re a twitter user, or ‘like’ this post on Facebook.

Again, The Live Review video and chat session will be available here. Some parts of the review will be recorded but for the full review, join the Live Session

Got an old but booting netbook or notebook? How about that old EeePC 701?

Want a Viewpad 7 or 10?

If you’re in the UK you’re in for a good deal because Viewsonic are offering £100 for the Viewpad 7 and £125 for the Viewpad 10 if you send in your old, but working, laptop or netbook.

Details were announced at a press conference today and are up on a new website. Check it out for details and let us know if you’re ordering.

Retail price for the Viewpad 7 is £399 and I see that Misco already have pre-order available and Scan should have details soon. We’re also hearing that MediaMarkt will be stocking in Germany. We’ll update when we have more details. Fingers crossed for the same trade-in deal.

We’ve just reported on the UK price and availability for the Viewpad 7 and turned around to see that NetbookNews have had hands-on at a launch event in Taiwan. It’s all happening today! Check out the video below.

Once again, we’re getting positive vibes!

Source: NetbookNews

If you’ve been thinking about an Android tablet purchase over the next 2 months, these devices are probably on your list. Galaxy Tab, Dell Streak, Notion Ink Adam, Viewpad 7, Archos 70, Archos 101 and maybe the Toshiba Folio. Only 2 of them are currently available and both the Tab and the Streak are great quality products (Streak even gets a 2.2 upgrade soon) but what if you’re looking for something a little cheaper? The Viewpad 7 might be just what you’re looking for.

We tested it extensively at IFA in Sept and were tricked by its speed into thinking it was based on a Snapdragon CPU.It’s not!  Our reports from IFA here.

The Galaxy Tab is almost like-for-like in specs (although it is fair to say that it will be a higher-quality device in terms overall ‘product’) and it is retailing for £529 at Amazon.co.uk today [affiliate link]  The Viewsonic Viewpad 7 is available by pre-order now for £399. We think that price might come down a little soon too, just like the price of the Tab did. Admittedly, the price is 50 pounds more than we were promised at IFA  – “no more that £350” was heard a number of times – but retailers are obviously free to charge what they think is right and with the Tab price ranging up to over £600, £399 sounds fair as a starting point.

Availability is set for the 15th November (confirmed with Viewsonic) and we also heard that there’s a press event on Thursday 28th so expect a number of hands-on reports to go out from the .co.uk tech press. We’ll try to get there.

Availability in the UK will be through Maplin, Scan, Misco and Expansys. Only Misco is showing pre-order details at the moment although you can find the Viewpad 10 up for pre-order on Maplin (£499.99)

My advise is to wait just a week. After the press event you’re likely to see a scramble to get the Viewpad into online retail channels / price comparison engines and the price will find its place.

We had a chat with Viewsonic yesterday and it look like we’ll get a Viewpad 7 in early November so keep an eye our for news about the live testing session. We also heard that Germany is also on the list. MediaMarkt will be the partner according to some emails that have gone out.

We’ve got a few videos coming up on the Viewsonic Viewpad 7 but first, here’s the pics and a few thoughts (I need to hit decent internet connection before I upload the videos – they’ll come later.)

In summary, the Viewsonic Viewpad 7 is delivering most of what the Galaxy Tab is delivering, for an excellent price. You haven’t quite got the build quality (it’s good though) and you’ve got a known brand, Android 2.2, capacitive touch (good screen quality), 3G, voice and the Google apps. The only thing you might notice is the user interface. It’s not as swift as the Galaxy Tab and that’s clearly because the CPU is a Snapdragon at 600Mhz and not the high-end A8 Cortex device of the Samsung. It’s not bad though and in my tests over 3G I was happy.

The price, BTW is a decent 399 Euro (350 UK pounds) and it’s coming soon. (Within the next few months)

Full gallery available here.

Watch out for more later. I’ve got two videos of the Viewsonic Viewpad 7 and I’ll also be checking  out the Viewpad 10, an X86 device.