Google Inc. (GOOG) has been much more choosy with Android Honeycomb than it has with past versions. It did not release the source of the new tablet operating system, despite claiming that it was still open source. And the company frowned on 7-inch Android 3.0 and 3.1 designs, pushing 9 to 10 inch designs instead.
Now a Chinese company, Huawei has unveiled a slick new 7-inch tablet running Android 3.2, a point-release upgrade of Honeycomb. With the new version of Honeycomb, Google is reportedly at last easing up on the pressure against 7-inch designs. In fact, Android 3.2 is tailor-fit for these designs.
Reportedly, Android 3.2 is the final release to come from Google before the long awaited "Ice Cream Sandwich" Android version, which is expected to merge the disjointed tablet and smart phone codebases.
The new tablet, dubbed the "MediaPad", features a slick 217 pixels-per-inch IPS capacitive touch panel, indicating an approximately 1200x800 pixel resolution. Also onboard is a dual-core 1.2 GHz Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM) CPU (likely the same model found in Hewlett-Packard Company's (HPQ) webOS TouchPad), 8 GB of Flash storage, a microSD slot, Bluetooth, HDMI (1080p) out, GPS, 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera, 5 megapixel rear-facing camera, and 802.11n Wi-Fi. Battery life is predicted to be around 6 hours and Adobe Flash 10.3 comes preinstalled.
The small slab measures in at a modest 10.5mm thick and weighs 390g (0.86 pounds).
It comes with a built in HSPA+ (14.4Mbps). No plans for a Wi-Fi only version have been announced. Pricing is also not yet available.
The new tablet was revealed at the CommunicAsia convention in Singapore. A wave of invading Android 3.2 slates is expected to hit the U.S. soon as well, though Huawei has not revealed when the MediaPad might land in the States.
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