Notion Ink smartpad comes with Tegra, aims to be first Pixel Qi device
Now here's a way to excite all the tablet naysayers. Slap that ultra-efficient Tegra chipset inside a 10.1-inch touchscreen tablet, make the display a matte (yay!) Pixel Qi slice of glory and then stand back as all of geekdom rejoices. We're still only looking at renders, but this device is all set to make waves at CES with an impressive spec sheet that also includes WiFi, Bluetooth, UMTS/HSDPA, and A-GPS on the wireless front and connectivity via USB, HDMI, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. The most important thing is still that display, though, whose efficiency leads to the unnamed device boasting 48 hours of battery standby juice, also good for 8 hours of HD video playback or 16 hours of WiFi-enabled Engadget reading. Driven by a default (for now) Android UI and supposedly capable of running three simultaneous 1080p streams with little frame loss, this should be one hot piece of kit come January. For now, we have another shot after the break as well as the full data sheet.


























MY Ho MY that thing rules, for what the specs is concerned :D
@DeviantmacG
It's a wet dream! Now the only thing that remains is for the price to come in under $400.
@tonicboy Sorry put look at the size of this thing and it's still rather thick with just 3mpx camera and no qwerty. Most of all it dosen't run Maemo ;)
Thought don't get me wrong i love these kind of devices and i can easily see me buying this as my N900s friend. Can't wait to see the screen in action.
@Pdexter And this was meant for NokiaN900
@tonicboy
i think it's almost impossible be under $400. That big touchscreen alone is probably around $200 and, with all the components listed above, the cost of production should easily get above $300.
I hate it when geeks want beautiful industrial design + powerfull specs + great OS & GUI at dirt-low prices. Dont be a cheap moron.
@BogdanGC
Considering that you can get an ION-enabled, HD-video capable netbook for $400, it's not at all an unreasonable price. And you may want to consider a different career, as your parts estimation skills are severely lacking.
@tonicboy
The netbook has a NON touchscreen display, right? So that should be way cheaper than the display of this tablet, not to mention that if the design will look like the render above (which i doubt) there are considerable costs of manufacturing, probably much bigger than with a bland netbook.
@Pdexter You can see it in the sun compared to Kindle and ordinary LCD display: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oawX3wenxNc and it looks GREAT
@DeviantmacG that is one sexy cake-cutter!
Niceeeeeeeee !
@Nokia N900
this will poo poo on joo joo
@Nokia N900
This is vaporware.
@Nokia N900
YES because I'm absolutely sure this is meant to be carried in your pocket and make phone calls, thus belongs in the same category as competition.
/sarcasm
Now THAT is the Droid I've been looking for. (Well, non-phone, that is.)
Question: what version of Android....
And the million dollar question: any word on price?
Very cool!
This, i think, could be a major win.
THAT is what I call design.
Waiting for people to point out how much this is ripped from Apple.... *oooh the irony
@hq
What could possibly be “ripped” from Apple and why would it be “ironic”? Sure, there are elements that are similar to many Apple products today that aren’t as readily found with other vendors, but most importantly this is a tablet and Apple has none to date.
What I think is most important here, if you recall the iPhone rumours prior to it’s unveiling is the very similar way in which the tablet rumours and change in this market segment are mirroring what was happening in late 2006. I fully expect Apple to have a tablet come early 2010, let’s hope we can get some real competition between vendors and the subscriber market for periodicals when this segment does explode. If these specs are even half true and the price reasonable I think it will grow quickly.
This looks like the dream device I have been waiting for for years. No seriously when I was still I school I 'designed' (well sketched) what my ideal gadget would be. This meets and exceeds my expectations.
My only issue is the android stuff, I have seen great stuff done with it on phones but I dont think It is mainstream enough for a tablet. What if I want to run 'real' apps instead of silly old school arcade games etc. I accept that better webapps could be an answer to this down the line, but bandwidth restraints and their quality is far from mainstream.
It really is a beauty. I want one now!
Really innovative...it IS the tablet which can make its place in daily routine..
How many cameras (and it's only one that's there is it front facing or on the rear?)? Will there be mini keyboards available for it? Wait that's a dumb question it has USB ports.
Wow, I've been excited for Apple's tablet, and this thing just sneaks in there and steals all my attention! This thing looks amazing, though I feel like it's going to cost me an arm and a leg to get one.
@cherryboom
What could possibly be “ripped” from Apple and why would it be “ironic”? Sure, there are elements that are similar to many Apple products today that aren’t as readily found with other vendors, but most importantly this is a tablet and Apple has none to date.
What I think is most important here, if you recall the iPhone rumours prior to it’s unveiling is the very similar way in which the tablet rumours and change in this market segment are mirroring what was happening in late 2006. I fully expect Apple to have a tablet come early 2010, let’s hope we can get some real competition between vendors and the subscriber market for periodicals when this segment does explode. If these specs are even half true and the price reasonable I think it will grow quickly.
@cherryboom
Dammit! clicked the wrong button. Vote me down to hide my post.
This thing blows away the joo joo !!!
Hurray for competition :D
Wow! Though it seems the camera isn't front facing for e.g. skype view... not sure why you would want to snap video with this.
Er, take that(!), JooJoo?
Sure is a lot of renderings and concepts floating around. I'm just hoping they deliver on all the promises made.
What`s the point of this device? Is it a tablet for drawing? If not, who will buy it? It`s not a convertible, doesn`t have a keyboard. Seeing as it has an oleophobic coating, this is probably with a capacitive touch screen, meaning not really a tablet.
The only purpose to this device apparent to me would be video playback, since web browsing would be a lot more adequate with a keyboard.
I also saw positive comments about the design... What design? This is just a very smoothly rounded blob, this is the easiest design to make it`s not a challenge by no means. You don`t have to plan placement of buttons and so on.
@substance90
Hmmmm. If industrial design were so easy, 90% of the computers out there wouldn't look like ass...
@substance90
I believe this has two markets: as a browsing device a la the joo-joo tablet (and, yes, I can browse quite a bit without a keyboard - I do it every day with my iphone) and as an eReader (thus the "eink" b/w display). I'm just curious what eReader software they will be using - i.e. where will the content come from.
Nothing learned from the joojoo?
Don't believe the hype!
or
If it sounds to be too good to be true, it probably is!
The price will be in the high three figures. Not mid or low, HIGH!
If it makes the three figures at all ...
Vapourware!
Notion Ink are a start up cant ever see this happening, I'd say there after press to drum up interest to get funding
http://www.notionink.com/Home/about-us
Also they say they have agreements with Foxconn for production, would be suprised if Apple let that happen? or does that confirm that Quanta are producing the Apple tablet?
Excerpt from thier blog
And this is how the world is changed!
Posted in 1 by Rohan Shravan on June 5, 2009
Last 4 days has been like a dream!
Signed 4 collaborations in 4 days. Pixel Qi, Inventec, Foxconn and Compalcomm in sequence. And there is yet 1 more day to go! So finally we saw how the screen would look like. Its really impressive and is exactly what we predicted in terms of the performance and quality. We love it. It will bring in a revolution in itself.
Most impressive meetings we had were with Pixel Qi and Foxconn. Pixel Qi has shown trust and confidence in our firm and its a huge moral boost for us. With their wisdom and experience coming into play, we can quite well deliver exactly what we want. Special thanks here goes to Mr John Ryan and Mr Frank Lee. We are young and can take more risks. If we are going to take 5 years before we succeed, then five years is a good experience. And if we are successful in our first attempt, it will definitely be because of the people who are providing us moral, mental
You never know but Joo Joo rings in my ears...
It would be nice to know if the SOC will be a Tegra 2 or the current Tegra.
I will buy this in a heartbeat if it comes with Tegra 2 because that is a dual Cortex-A9 core, performance monster (in the embedded, low-power sense).
A dual-core, Cortex A9 SOC beats current Atom chips easily (possibly on par with the new gen Atoms) and still consumes quarter of the energy of the Atom+chipset.
The PixelQi screen is only the icing on this thing, although it will likely add a couple of hours to the battery runtime.
By the way: The PixelQi screen is designed to be low-cost, the ARM socs are designed to be low-cost, so NOTHING warrants, that this device will be expensive. This can ge below 300 USD easily (it should if an unknown startup wants to sell it).
Android will be the first thing I will replace if any of the decent desktop linuxes become available for the device (like Ubuntu UNR).
Since Microsoft won't open up ZuneHD gaming even though it has Tegra, maybe this can show what Tegra can do.
I have to agree with mglphil; this thing will never see the light of day. Don't get me wrong; a Pixel Qi screen coupled with tegra and android would rock, (oooh, and slap a Stantum multitouch controller on there!) but these guys don't have anything but a picture and some specs.
Nice. It has a 'Water Senor.'
@tike0rz
Yeah that's exactly what I was wondering, a water sensor...?? Is there a use for that beyond proving that a user voided their warranty?
I wanna see how Tegra handles this, maybe it'll convince Microsoft to start making stuff to leverage it in the Zune HD
Did i saw a curved / 3d surf glass window on this tablet ??
water sensor .... seriously?
oh my...
A holiday miracle.
All I can say is lol
It's my dream come true. 2 questions tho.
Resistive or Capacitive screen?
Tegra1 or Tegra2?
I am quite concerned about the price.
This seems that they are not going to have a decent profit margin if they sell it at $321. Also, it seems impossible that they can make it at that price unless they manufacture the whole thing in India instead of Taiwan. P.S. - Indians made the cheapest car on the planet and may be they will make the cheapest tablet too!
Fingers crossed. Let the games begin.