With recent murmurings about Android 4.0 being on the horizon, it’s easy to forget that there’s still plenty of Honeycomb goodness to enjoy before that horizon approaches.
But if you’re finding that the Motorola Xooms and Samsung Galaxy Tabs of this world just aren’t quite hitting the spot, maybe it’s time to take Honeycomb up a notch. Anticipating that need, Huawei has announced the world’s first Android 3.2 device, a 7” inch tablet known as ‘MediaPad’.
Packing a 1.2GHz dual-core processor (which Engadget reports is a Qualcomm model), it also features a 5MP camera round the back of its 10.5mm body, with a 1.3MP camera up front. It’s not the thinnest out there (thinner than the first Galaxy Tab, but not the latest model), but at 390g, at least it’s not too heavy.
Also up front, there’s a 7-inch IPS capacitive touchscreen, which Huawei’s MediaPad website describes as being high-def, but the exact resolution isn’t specified (although Engadget mentions a fairly high pixel density of 217ppi; the HTC Flyer and 7” Galaxy Tab both have around 170ppi). We are promised HD recording and “1080p Full HD video playback”, handy for that integrated HDMI port.
If that’s not enough for you, there’s both wi-fi (802.11n) and 3G (HSPA+) capabilities on board, Bluetooth, 8GB of internal storage, plus a microSD slot… oh, and it’s also got Flash 10.3 preloaded, so you can watch all the filth you want to.
Android 3.2 is still a Honeycomb build (so it doesn’t get its own delicious code-name), and is described as being very similar to 3.1, but specifically optimised for 7-inch tablets.
Huawei are still playing a few cards close to their chest – so far, there’s no word on how much this baby’s gonna cost, nor on how much RAM it will carry, nor indeed on whether the device will carry a custom Android-skin, or if it might go commando with an untainted ‘stock’ Android 3.2 experience.
Still, one question they have answered is that of when it will arrive – barring any disasters, it’ll be available in the US in Q3 2011.