Freescale Announces 7-inch $200 Tablet Design

By Jane McEntegart
published

Forget the JooJoo or Apple's supposed plans for a touchscreen tablet. Freescale is talking about a $200, 7-inch touchscreen tablet that it plans to show off at CES 2010 later this week.

The tiny device packs a 1GHz i.MX515  processor, 512MB of DDR2 RAM, a 1,024 x 600 touch panel, 4GB to 64GB of internal storage, a microSD expansion slot, optional 3G WWAN module, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1, GPS, a USB 2.0 socket, audio in / out, 3 megapixel camera, an accelerometer and a 1,900mAh battery.

While Engadget reports that the device is "little more than a great idea" at the moment, the company is said to be aiming to make the device available for partner evaluation starting next month, which would be excellent timing considering all the touchscreen tablet talk we've been hearing from/about other companies lately.

What do you guys think? It might be ugly as sin (I think it's so ugly it's actually kind of charming, but there you go) though $199 isn't something to turn your nose up at. Interested?

Read more here.

Jane McEntegart
14 Comments Comment from the forums
  • 08nwsula
    too bad the screen is supposed to be resistive and not capacitive
    Reply
  • darkknight22
    at this point with the circus surrounding the JooJoo, I'm gonna go with "I'll believe it when I see it".....
    Reply
  • idisarmu
    08nwsulatoo bad the screen is supposed to be resistive and not capacitive
    Is multitouch THAT important to you???

    What's wrong with resistive? Pinch zoom is nice, but not worth the extra price at the moment.
    Reply
  • littlec
    I agree with idisarmu, for $200 I'd love to have one just for shits and giggles as I don't have any practical need for one.
    Reply
  • Shadow703793
    Can it run... nevermind :lol:

    Anyways, imo, this is only good for web browsing or such. mainly because it's on ARM so not an insane amount of software for it....
    Reply
  • nbelote
    It's touch-screen small-scale tablets like this that are going to be the way of the future. Think about Star Trek: all these great ideas that Gene Roddenberry had have pretty much found their way into modern technology: cell phones, laptops, LCD touch-screens, there's tons more. Why not the PADD, that little device that ST:TNG people handed back and forth like a clipboard. It was touchscreen and small and very portable.
    Reply
  • nbelote
    Add current tablet technology into ebook readers like this:

    http://www.tomsguide.com/us/skiff-ebook-reader,news-5464.html

    and you'll have exactly the ST:TNG PADD.
    Reply
  • wildwell
    I think a $200.00 tablet would be popular with the e-reader crowd, but the display will have to be very easy on the eyes.
    I think it would be worth $200.00 if it only was a full color e-reader.
    Reply
  • christop
    Kinda nice...
    Reply
  • 08nwsula
    idisarmuIs multitouch THAT important to you???What's wrong with resistive? Pinch zoom is nice, but not worth the extra price at the moment.it's more than just pinch and zoom, it's also is more scratch resistant and has higher visibility. Plus, multitouch does do pinch and zoom but it also offers a lot more versatile programming than just that.
    Reply