VIEWSONIC VIEWPAD 7 Price and Review

FEATURES

7-inch capacitive multitouch LCD, 800x480 pixels 600Mhz processor, 512MB RAM, 512MB storage 3MP rear camera, 0.3MP front camera, GPS Quadband GSM, Android 2.2, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth PROs Good build quality, bundled case CONs More expensive than identical Olive Pad. Price : 32,000

THE VIEWPAD 7 IS YET ANOTHER tablet from display major ViewSonic. If you think it looks familiar, you’re right, because it is identical to the previously launched Olive Pad. Save for the branding and a few colour differences, both devices are identical, right down to the placement of ports, functionality and specs.

There’s no doubt that the ViewPad (and Olive Pad) are miles ahead of the ‘basic’ Android tablet in terms of build quality and appearance. As compared to the numerous unnamed Chinese contenders, the ViewPad has a sturdy frame, solid construction and a reassuring feel. It can work as a regular GSM phone as soon as you insert a SIM card, though you can only make/receive calls using the speakerphone or a headset.

Android 2.2 (Froyo) is the OS of choice, and ViewPad will presumably be allowing an update to Android 2.3 sometime next year. For the time being though, 2.2 works just fine and you also get some cool extras, like the ability to share your GPRS/3G data connection over Wi-Fi with other nearby devices.

The interface is basic Android, without any embellishments or customizations by ViewSonic. Of course, you can choose to add home screen launchers and themes from the Android App Market, but you have to understand that Android was never initially meant for tablet use. View-Sonic should have added a few features specific to the screen size of the ViewPad.

Performance is acceptable for all normal needs like multimedia, web browsing, games and phone calls. But it is rather easy to find the limits of the 600Mhz processor; run a few intensive apps simultaneously or try to play an HD video and the device struggles. Battery life is an acceptable 4 to 5 hours with normal usage and a few calls thrown in.

So what else does the ViewPad 7 get to the table that the Olive Pad already hasn’t? In a word: nothing! In fact, the ViewPad does not include GPS software and maps whereas the Olive Pad has lifetime MapmyIndia maps bundled. And things don’t look too good for the View-Pad 7 because it’s been launched at a price of 32,000, a fair bit more than the 24,000 Olive Pad. One wonders why the ViewPad has been priced so high, considering that the US price currently hovers around the $450 mark.

ViewSonic is also selling the ViewPad 10 ( 38,000), a larger device with an Intel Atom processor that can dual boot Android 1.6 and Windows 7. A far more interesting and unique proposition as compared to the ‘me-too’ ViewPad 7, we think.

If you’re still looking to buy a 7-inch tablet and have some cash to spare, the Samsung Galaxy Tab (now at a market price of about 33,000) is a far better proposition. It has a faster 1Ghz processor, a higher quality and higher resolution ‘super’ LCD, TV-out, amazing preloaded software and customizations and overall better performance. Or you could wait for the official launch of the iPad.

FAQ's

I’m using an old HP laptop and the hard drive has now crashed. I need to get a new drive, but can’t seem to find a replacement drive in the local markets. Is it possible to use an external 4 or 8GB USB pen drive as a hard disk?

While it is possible to load up a Live version of an operating system on a USB flash drive and boot your computer from it, this doesn’t work well as a long term solution. Plus, you have no additional storage. The reason you’re probably not getting a replacement drive is that your laptop uses the older type of IDE hard drives, rather than the newer SATA type. While difficult to find, it’s not impossible. You can buy a 2.5-inch (laptop size) internal IDE drive online. Check here: http://goo.gl/kdkiu. The only disadvantage of IDE is that they are rare to find, and therefore quite a bit more expensive than SATA hard drives. For example, 3,000 will get you an internal 500GB laptop SATA drive or a 160GB laptop IDE drive.

I have a Dell laptop with Windows XP and Outlook Express. For the last few days, I keep getting a message that says ‘To free up disc space, Outlook Express can compact messages. This may take up to a few minutes.’ If I let it continue, it starts compacting all folders of Outlook express. However the message reappears again.
What is the significance of this message? Is it harmful to the laptop? Can I ignore it? How can I stop the message from reappearing?

You can let Outlook Express do the compacting - this is nothing but a cleanup of old or deleted emails that happens periodically. It is not harmful to the laptop, but depending on the size of your Outlook Express email folder, it may take a while. You may also find that the program stops responding while the compacting is taking place. Once you complete the compacting of messages a few times (and it is successfully completed) — the message will go away. It’s important that you don’t interrupt the process though.

Also note that the speed of Outlook Express is impacted by the size of the PST (data) file. Over time, with all your mails and attachments, collected over years, the file can become very heavy. Do a complete maintenance of your Outlook email folder by deleting old mails (and clearing deleted items folde too).