ViewSonic ViewPad 10Pro review

Dual-boot Android 2.2 and Windows 7 on a slate tablet sounds clever, but does it work?

ViewSonic ViewPad 10Pro
This 10.1-inch tablet runs an Android OS designed for smartphones

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ViewSonic viewpad 10pro

Media support is woefully lacking on the ViewSonic ViewPad 10Pro, at least for Android. Once you run the virtual window for Android, there's no way to play movies.

The Gallery app enables you to browse photos you've loaded. But the options for capturing a photo or video don't work because apps don't recognise the built-in 1.3MP front-facing camera, which is unfortunate.

In Windows 7, the Intel Atom processor, running at 1.5GHz, is up to the HD challenge. Movies played back smoothly and without any stuttering, with good audio quality using two rear speakers.

Music played using the Windows Media Player also sounded distortion-free with rich bass. In fact, the ViewSonic ViewPad 10Pro is a capable media machine in terms of the hardware specs in Windows 7.

The problem is that Windows 7 isn't designed for touch, despite what Microsoft tells you. When you play music in Windows Media Player, you'll find yourself clicking several times to play songs. There's no cover flow interface where you can quickly flip through albums to play the one you want.

ViewSonic viewpad 10pro

And what about games? We tested those included with the tablet, which are those included with Windows 7, and most of the card games worked fine. But none of the Android games we downloaded, including Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja, would even install.

Movies we played over the HDMI port, connected to a 20-inch monitor, looked terrible. The refresh rate was too slow, so our test movies were unwatchable.

Worse, when we played a movie, the entire tablet started running slowly, so resizing in a small window while typing in Word didn't work either.

John Brandon
Contributor

John Brandon has covered gadgets and cars for the past 12 years having published over 12,000 articles and tested nearly 8,000 products. He's nothing if not prolific. Before starting his writing career, he led an Information Design practice at a large consumer electronics retailer in the US. His hobbies include deep sea exploration, complaining about the weather, and engineering a vast multiverse conspiracy.

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