*** NEW TO OcUK *** Viewsonic Viewpad 10 ***

hi all im thinking of getting one of these tablets but are the ssd drives 1.8in or bigger i have searched everywhere but cant seem to find the answer

thanks in advance del
 
Ordered One

Hi Guys,

Have just order a Viewpad 10 - fits in nicely with what I want to do & still be able to run iTunes (you can now use airplay from iPhone/iPod Touch to stream video to Windows devices too!)

Question the Memory is reported as an SO-Dimm 1Gb DDR3 - anyone know the speed of the chip - would like to get a 2Gb DDR3 module to replace it with.

Also, the SSD is of interest too - obviously this has been specially partitioned to provide dual booting for both Android & Windows 7 (& the user manual says there is a partition that shouldn't be touched) - Will be looking at that closely too

FYI: Here is the Viewsonic ViewPad 10 info page (+downloadable user guide & tech sheet)

http://www.viewsoniceurope.com/uk/products/viewpad-10.htm

[Spec pdf]

[User Guide pdf] (English/French/German/Spanish/Turkish/Russian)

Really looking forward to playing with this in a week or 2 all going well

A few videos on YouTube - "Viewsonic Viewpad 10"

Look forward to seeing what can & can't be done - although this will probably better my netbook (although screen is 1366x768 on that)

Cheers!

(p.s. 1st post, so let me know if I've done anything wrong)
 
Received today - and it's going back, here's why...

1st off it *is* very nicely designed, a bit heavy but comfortable to hold in either hand, but...

1. The 16Gb SSD HDD is 16Gb - but only 2.8Gb of this is usable on a fresh, clean install for Windows. Stick on there a version of Photoshop (Elements) - and maybe you have storage for a 2Gb download from a Digital Camera, which isn't a lot. I'm not sure how much space is assigned for Android, I didn't look too closely as I primary wanted a device that could run Windows with Android as backup.

2. The fan noise in a quiet room is unbearable (especially if you have the device on a hard surface).

3. Speaker placement is on the right hand side, so even if you do watch a video, all the sound is coming out of 1 side (unless you plug in headphones)

4. Installed iTunes on the device to test - sound quality is okay, normal video playback (non h.264) is fine, a bit jerky to start with then smooths out - playback of a h.264 file is very stop-start using iTunes (but wasn't expecting it to be fantastic)

5. You Tube seams to run smoothly (once you install the flash player on Win7), again 720HD is problomatic.

The good bits about this device is that it is super quick on Android (as fast as an iPad (maybe?), has a couple of USB ports for devices (plug in a mouse & keyboard & that's all) - or maybe you could try using a bluetooth mouse & keyboard?

Windows Experience Index (scale 1.0-7.9 where 7.9 is fantastic)

Processor -2.3
Memory Speed - 4.5
Windows Aero GFX - 3.1
3D GFX - 3.0
SSD/HDD - 5.9

(as you can see from above the Processor really lets it down followed by GFX - which to be honest is expected for a small netbook/windows tablet device)

(I didn't know how to bench mark Androids in a similar way - I usually run windows as previously mentioned)

So, there you have it, wanted to like it, but it's failings put me off. You'll notice in the demo videos on youtube that they mention the lack of SSD storage capacity, but I had assumed that was because of stuff already installed for demo purposes (this is *not* the case - it simply has a low usable area for programs/storage [excluding using a micro SD card bought at an additional cost])

Sending unit back to Amazon from whence it came - refund only option - will probably purchase just an Android 7" tablet now - may even give the Viewsonic 7 a good look

Hope people will find this info useful & informative - it's not a *bad* system, just a badly managed system in respect to usability.

Reagrds.

p.s. Android 2.2 upgrade should be good on this device - maybe best option if purchased would be to delete Windows partition & run the entire SSD as Android? :cool: (if you can get over the price and this devices failings)
 
Yay

The SSD in the Viewpad is of the non-standard size. You could have simply jumped onto ebay or even purcahsed one of the brand new intel 1.8" ssd's, but, no. Shame really.

I now have one by the way...

If you like Tinkering, you could always install Windows 7 embedded standard, with all the options you need to get on the web and play medi etc, which arrives at around a 2.6Gb install!! Yes, that small. Not sure why the media channels have not pushed this information more...

You could also add a Broadcom decoder chip £50ish on ebay) to ensure that 720p/1080p media plays as it should. Will find out what Rams in the thing tomorrow.

"The chipset fully supports the MPEG-2 standard so that compatibility with existing media (DVD) can be maintained. The chipset supports any compliant resolution from QVGA up to 1920 x 1088.

Multistandard high definition video decoding in the following formats:
H.264/AVC HP at L 4.1 1080i, 40 Mbps
H.264/AVC HP at L 3.0 480i
H.264/AVC HP at L 3.2 720p
SMPTE VC-1 AP at L 3 1080i, 40 Mbps
WMV9 (VC-1 SP and MP)
MPEG-2 MP @ ML and MP @ HL
720p, 1080i and 1080p support
Blu-ray disc playback on PCs/x86
Protected media playback on PCs/x86 "

As it stands, the Viewsonic 'NEEDS' to be £100 cheaper to pass as a viable device. Personally, its not a bad device, but there's certain oems on ebay selling (virtually) the same thing for less

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180592143584&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT

I also have one of the above. Feels 'stronger' than the Viewsonic.
 
I was hoping to have something a bit more usable out of the box - there is no 32Gb option for the Viewsonic but there is for 3rd party devices.

RAM would have been upgraded to 2Gb at later date

An improved install would have been great - no doubt Linux would work well from a USB stick too

As to GFX - iTunes is a strange beast - and they copy-protect it so you can't play it on anything other than Apple's solutions - they also don't use hardware decoding (even if it's available, unless apple use the same hardware in their devices)

I totally agree that the price of this device needs to drop £100-£150

btw, I try not to buy from sources in some parts of the world as you take a gamble.

I think knowing what I do now about this device, I would have found/bought a 32Gb SSD model & also found some way of quietening down that bloody fan! - those 2 things alone put me off it - why buy a viewsonic viewpad tablet for £424 when you can buy a touch-screen Samsung net-book of similar speed for £316?

(I tell you that Samsung Netbook is tempting (but it defeats the purpose of having a tablet device) ;)

I may look into another device at a later date, as I like doing away with a keyboard - the virtual keyboard on Win7 was pretty good & easy to use
 
Recently picked up a Viewsonic Viewpad10 and im looking to open it up and have a fiddle around inside. Most likely I aim to upgrade the SSD to something more beefy but im new to opening up and tampering with consumer grade electronics in general. Built a ton of PC's so I know my way around computing systems in general. The last time I tried to open up a Ipod Touch Gen 2 and it did not end well for the device... ;)

I was hoping to find some information about tearing the thing down or upgrading it hardware wise but unfortunately so far I have pulled up a blank.

MDPlatts; you posted some images of a partially disassembled unit, did you go any further and look into replacing any of the bits? Im looking at a voided Warranty by opening it up im guessing?

Software wise I think im fairly competent, reinstalling Win7 or Android from scratch shouldn't be an issue as long as you can use one of the USB drives to boot from. This seemed like the most logical place to post but can move this to its own thread if its warranted?
 
I'd love to know as well. Any kind of visual guide or list of steps would be good. maybe some information on what is reasonably safe to switch out/upgrade?
 
Just out of curiosity if i was to get one of these and didnt want to use the Android OS would there be anyway of taking it off and just having it for Windows 7? Or would that just create a problem for it being setup as DUAL BOOT?
 
I just simply installed Windows 7 Professional via USB but I'm sure removing the Android and GRUB partition and then restoring the MBR is also very do-able.

Now, Is there anyone ho knows how to replace the RAM? I'm desperate to do so. :(
 
If anyone is still interested: A new build of Android 2.2 x86 version is available for this specific device that is currently stable. Its not a RAM upgrade but I suspect it will make the dual boot option that much more of a viable choice.

http://groups.google.com/group/android-x86/msg/0d0ac8e9b4b30fbe?pli=1

I have gotten myself a copy of the pre-built OS Image and I intend to virtualise it to have a look before trying it out on the actual device itself. If anyone was thinking of giving it ago, id suggest that they read the documentation that comes along with the OS image that can be found here:

http://www.android-x86.org/releases/release_2_2
 
l4t3ncy said:
If anyone is still interested: A new build of Android 2.2 x86 version is available for this specific device that is currently stable. Its not a RAM upgrade but I suspect it will make the dual boot option that much more of a viable choice.

http://groups.google.com/group/android-x86/msg/0d0ac8e9b4b30fbe?pli=1
Click to expand...

There is a more up to date version than that version for the Viewpad 10. It has a few more issues fixed like Sound. It's still not really useful for everyday use since a lot of bugs still need to be ironed out but you can download it here anyway:

http://code.google.com/p/android-x86/downloads/detail?name=vp10-20110221.img.gz

You can also get the Viewpad 10 Hanvon 10.1 touch screen working now for ubuntu. I wrote a blog post on how to get things up and running, which can be found here:

http://ollie-reardon.co.cc/?p=182

I'm still interested on how to access the RAM slot in the Viewpad 10, if anyone knows please share their wisdom. :)
 
Last edited:
FruitForce said:
I'm still interested on how to access the RAM slot in the Viewpad 10, if anyone knows please share their wisdom. :)
Click to expand...

The RAM slot is in front of the main board, follows a picture of the location.

To access the slot, have to take off 4 screws on the motherboard, remove the SSD and move to main board to the left. Have to be careful with the flexible cables.



This tablet is a revival of TEGA V2, they are working on a stable version of Android 2.2, and offering support, upgrade and Guaranty ViewPad, the site can be found all the drivers and software ViewPad.
 
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