Trying hard to be heard above the whoops of excited expectation for the iPad is the Hanvon Touchpad BC10C.
With specs to spank the botty of Apple’s finest and coming with a full suite of external controls and sockets , the multitouch Windows 7 device packs a 1.3GHz Celeron M ULV 743 CPU and GMA4500 graphics.
Connectivity options and physical controls abound: there’s a rocker switch, mini HDMI out, five programmable keys, mic/heaphone sockets, VGA out (with dongle), 2 x USB 2.0 ports and a SD card slot.
There’s also stereo speakers and twin microphones backed by a neat optical mouse with flick actions – described as “one of the best” ever used by the reviewer from jkkmobile, who starts his piece seductively lolling around a sofa.
The glossy capacitative multi-touch 10″ screen packs a 1024 x 600 pixel display, and looks great in action with 1080p video and Microsoft Surface Globe demos hurtling along.
As you can see, Windows 7 runs smoother than a penguin on ice-skates on the device, which adds up to a very powerful and rather desirable netbook replacement – and the HDMI out socket means you can hook this puppy up to your hi-def TV screen with no fuss.
A slight catch
There is a catch though – the price tag looks to be hovering around the upmarket $880 mark and the battery will only keep you going for 3.5 hours of YouTube joy.
That said, there’s an awful lot to like about this tablet, and the smooth operation and full range of sockets will make this a far more versatile performer than Apple’s offering.
The BC10C launches in China March 25th and there’s no word yet when it’ll be rocking into Blighty.
Specs:
10 inch 1024 x 600 capacitive multitouch screen
Intel ULV743 at 1.3Ghz with 2GB RAM
Intel GMA 4500
Wifi and bluetooth
250GB – 320GB HDD
Webcam
2 x USB, Mini HDMI out, VGA out dongle
Mic and speaker port
5 + 3 shortcut buttons
Internal dual mics and speakers
SD card slot
253mm x 168mm x 18.4mm 980g
Windows 7 Home Premium
[Via]
This is a nice looking tablet and the ability to run a full version of Windows – and Flash – along with USB ports make this a far better prospect than the over hyped iPad.
They’ve just got to get the price down for the UK.
I would imagine we will see dozens of these devices hit the market in the coming weeks and months. I would be willing to bet however that the companies producing them will sell fewer units collectively than Apple will sell iPods. Apple is sitting on a mountain of cash (US $40 billion, according to its latest financial statements) mainly because of its unparallelled ability to design and sell products with a very high degree of customer acceptance. It will take more than a cheap, Chinese knockoff to change that.
Got one of these a few weeks ago. I use an Intel Core i7 which has been overclocked to +4Ghz. Going back to something that has specs like this, I had no real high expectations. I have been extremely happy with the machine, it’s just great. So glad I went this way rather than an Ipad, the ability to run all my normal programs (Office etc) means it is very versitile. Plug in a wireless mouse/keybord and large monitor when you get home and it becomes a worth desktop too. Don’t expect to do anything flash with it, no video editing etc (I haven’t even bothered trying yet), but it will do your emails, word docs, excel sheets and web browsing etc very well. Wifi, USB, SD reader, WebCam… What more could you ask for? BRILLIANT! Oh…n it is very solid feeling, not like a chinese knock off.