Creative and eLocity Android Tablets

I feel like I am a little in over my head this holiday season as I’m getting assault from newsletters and reports from all sides. As far as this goes, I would really enjoy some quiet moments of relaxation in the company of a nice full glass of some refreshing beverage. Some might think it is alcoholic, but I do enjoy my tea quite a lot as of recently and I seem to be moving further away from the point I’m trying to make. Some of you might have read or skimmed through the latest bit of news posted on the page, but in any case you got a glimpse at what is coming to our humble homes within the near future. I’m talking about the yet unnamed Motorola Tab running Android 3.0 Honeycomb along with the Samsung Galaxy Tab Luxury Edition.

This time around it’s again time to look at some new tablets which will be reaching the shops pretty soon. To be more precise one is already available through online orders and will reach major retailers in a week or so while the other one is still lurking at the FCC.

Getting right into the action the first tablet is the eLocity A7 Android tablet which is the one launched already. This little device sure packs a punch as some might note the dual-core Tegra 2 T-250 processor hiding bellow it’s calm and peaceful appearance. It will be running Android 2.2 Froyo which is the only real downside, so to speak, I could find on the A7. Would a delayed launch be so bad? Android 2.3 Gingerbread is more or less out. But then again I’m no company manager, CEO, owner or any of the sorts so I’ll resume giving you some of the stats. It’s equipped with a 7 inch capacitive multi-touch display, 4 GB of flash memory and all the usual ports. The official statement said it will have a USB port and thus storage can be increased by up to 64 GB which can only make my spider senses tingle. I also enjoyed that fact that is has 1080p HDMI video output and that its overall size is rather reduce, with 8.2 inches in length and 4.8 inches in width, while weighing in at a little over one pound. All these numbers have made me quite dizzy, but I must say that spec wise this device has some serious muscle under its shiny hood. Still, on to the next contestant.

The Creative ZiiO 10 tablet is the next tablet in the lineup. For the time being those who would be interested in one and live in the US will have to wait as this is still in the hands of the nice people down at the FCC. For those living in the UK however, the device is already up for sale. The ZiiO 10 tablet is coming in with either 8 GB of internal storage or 16 GB, the latter version being available only from Creative themselves. All of this is powered by a ZiiLABS ZMS-08 HD Media-Rich Applications Processor, which clocks in at 1 GHz and 512 MB of RAM. The storage can be expanded with a 32 GB micro SD card, so nothing new on this front. The display is a 10 inch 262K color TFT, resistive touch-screen with a resolution of 1024 x 600 pixels, while all of this weighs in at 650 grams ( which is about 23 ounces). There are some big issues I have with this model from Creative, as they are marketing it as a multimedia tablet which is all fine, but there are other tablets out there which can do the same things this one can and for less money. There is also the “problem” of the resistive touch-screen and most importantly the fact that it’s not yet available.

All of these considered I leave the choice obviously all to you and don’t get rushed because of the upcoming holidays when purchasing any Android device, may it be a tablet or a smartphone. The holidays pass in a few weeks, you’ll be stuck with a device which doesn’t suit you at all for at least another year. Until next time, watch out for those offers which seem too good to be true because most of the times, they are.1

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