Quick Look: ViewSonic VPAD7

Posted by User Submitted Post + on April 12, 2011, filed in: Hardware, Quick Look, Tablets

Now I know how my 3 year old feels! The VPAD7 is like a huge phone.

My employer recently purchased one of these devices for each member of my department. Why, you ask? So we can play with them and give recommendations for or against a much larger future purchase. I’m marginally impressed.

While it seems fast initially, that feeling quickly fades as more complex tasks are attempted and the tablet gets more and more sluggish. The choice of a 600Mhz processor seems a little shortsighted when other similar devices are being released with at least 1Ghz and some with dual-core processors.

Storage space is also lacking, but can be augmented with a micro-sd card. A memory card is absolutely necessary for this device. 512MB doesn’t last long.

Screen resolution on the VPAD7 is 800×480. Pixel-wise, this is actually a smaller screen than some newer high-end smartphones and is equivalent to my current phone.

Speaking of my current phone, I’ll close with a comparison chart.

	ViewSonic VPAD7	Samsung Vibrant
Available Storage	512MB	16GB
Processor	600MHz Qualcomm MSM7227	1 GHz ARM Cortex-A8 processor, PowerVR SGX540 GPU, Hummingbird chipset
Screen Size	7 inch	4 inch
Screen Resolution	800×480	480×800
Adobe Flash Support	No	Yes (With Android 2.2)

My verdict: If I was paying for it, I would buy something else! The only thing this device has going for it is a bigger screen. Everything else about this device is lacking when compared to competitors, even phones. I’ll advise my employer to buy something else.

Submitted By: Michael