Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Mobile

Hands on with ViewSonic ViewPad 7e, 7x, and 10pro tablets

By

Anybody who’s anybody has a tablet coming out this year. ViewSonic has three. Last night, at the Holiday Spectacular show in New York City, we spent a bit of time with ViewSonic’s lineup and walked away both impressed and bewildered. ViewSonic has tablets with every OS available: the ViewPad 7e runs Android Gingerbread, the ViewPad 7x runs Android Honeycomb, and the ViewPad 10pro runs Windows 7 and has an Android Gingerbread emulator. Oddly, the only tablet that really stuck with us was the ViewPad 7x, the only tablet of the bunch to run an OS built for tablets.

Here’s a quick run down of the group:

ViewSonic ViewPad 7e tablet

Recommended Videos

ViewPad 7e: This is ViewSonic’s attempt at capturing the spirit of the Kindle. Though it’s a 7-inch Android tablet, it looks a lot like what I’d imagine the upcoming Amazon tablet might. It runs a heavily modified version of Android Gingerbread, is white (and a bit thick), and has four highly visible navigation buttons at the bottom. If it didn’t look enough like a Kindle, well, the Amazon Kindle and Amazon Appstore integration may give you a hint where ViewSonic is headed with this one. The interface was a 3D-ish carousel, like a messier version of HTC’s Sense 3.0. Overall, I didn’t spend much time with the device, but it didn’t jump out as particularly usable or intuitive at first. It’s clear that ViewSonic is going for a particular market with this one, but I’m not sure the market will bite, especially with an actual Amazon Kindle tablet on the way. It will hit shelves at the end of October for $200. 

ViewSonic ViewPad 7x tablet

ViewPad 7x: This tablet looks a lot like Acer’s recent Iconia Tab A100 7-inch tablet. It runs what appears to be an unmodified version of Android Honeycomb, presumably version 3.2. This guy runs on a 1GHz dual-core Nvidia Tegra 2 processor, as seems to be the norm with Honeycomb tablets, and has full access to the Android Market. The 7x will retail for $380, which is right in the price range of most 7-inch tablets.

ViewPad 10pro: Oddly, though the ViewPad 10pro is a $600 to $700 tablet, it was our least favorite of the bunch. We weren’t happy with the responsiveness of Windows 7. The OS just isn’t built for touch, at all, and ViewSonic’s touchscreen doesn’t seem to do it any favors. We look forward to a dual-booting operating system, but so far Windows 8 seems to be more attractive than Windows 7 running Android.

Topics
Jeffrey Van Camp
Jeffrey Van Camp
Former Digital Trends Contributor
As DT's Deputy Editor, Jeff helps oversee editorial operations at Digital Trends. Previously, he ran the site's…
The Galaxy S25’s lock screen will have its own AI assistant
A person holding the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra.

Samsung has given us an early look at one of the big software features we can expect on the Galaxy S25 series. It’s called the Now Bar, and Samsung shared some details about it when it released the beta version of One UI 7. Now, we’ve got a lot more details and a better idea of how it fits in with Samsung’s big AI vision.

The Now Bar will live on the lock screen and show personalized data about your day and activities. Samsung states it’s where you will “control your entertainment, time your next personal best workout, get directions to your next meeting, or start communicating in other languages.” It doesn't specifically say the Now Bar is an AI assistant, but when it goes into more detail about what it can do, it certainly begins to sound like one.

Read more
Samsung’s next stylus may take inspiration from the Apple Pencil
A person using the S Pen stylus with the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra.

In its quest for thinner, lighter phones, Samsung is considering a new design for the iconic S-Pen. The next Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 could be a bit thinner than the current model, with an S-Pen that more closely resembles an Apple Pencil. Such a change would come with some trade-offs: namely, that the S-Pen would require charging to function.

Most of Samsung's phones have what's called a digitizer — a thin layer of glass that translates touch input into something the phone understands. That digitizer takes up space, however, and a thinner option would allow phones to be even smaller. According to tipster Jukanlosreve, Samsung might do away with the digitizer on the Galaxy Z Fold 7 in favor of the Active Electrostatic (AES) method.

Read more
The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra has a nasty display issue. Here’s what’s wrong
The Galaxy S24 Ultra's screen.

If you own a Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, there's some unfortunate news. Several users have reported that the oleophobic coating on their device’s display is wearing off. This coating is designed to repel oils and smudges. Instead, it's causing displays to look (surprise, surprise) dirty, oily, and, in some cases, even scratched, severely diminishing the overall user experience.

As noted by Android Authority, these reports have surfaced primarily on online platforms like X, highlighting a growing concern among users.  Rajan Thakur, for example, notes a permanent glass polish mark appearing on their phone. Plyush Baid meanwhile asks a simple question: "What's the point of a screen guard if it makes the anti-reflective coating ineffective?"

Read more