Compal Android tablet with next-gen Tegra demoed at CES (video)

Man, it's almost like every hour we come across another tablet-esque device here at CES 2010, and this time around it's a prototype concept device from Compal being shown off by NVIDIA. This 7-inch tablet / slate / MID / whatever was running Android 2.0 and packed Wifi -- sadly, there was no GPS or Bluetooth to be found. Up top there was a SIM card slot as well as a microSD card slot for extra storage, and an HDMI out port around the side. Unfortunately, the device is plagued from the start as its rocking a resistive touchscreen instead of a capacitive one. Despite the next-gen Tegra chip inside, our user experience was pretty abysmal, with touches barely registering and general usability pretty low. However, once we got some HD video up on the display, we got to see that Tegra doing what it was made to do... and it almost made up for that horrendous resistive display.

Compal Android tablet with next-gen Tegra chipset hands-on

[Jake Root Posted Jan 8th 2010 12:45AM]

Video not available. Still looks cool, though. What I can't seem to figure out is why these new devices aren't running Android 2.0. Anybody know?

[Edobe Posted Jan 8th 2010 12:48AM]

@Jake Root Did you read the article. "This 7-inch tablet / slate / MID / whatever was running Android 2.0"

[Jake Root Posted Jan 8th 2010 12:58AM]

@Edobe No, of course I didn't. I saw the analog clock, and I remember that very clearly from the first gen Android OSs. Should've paid attention.

[xberxinfinity Posted Jan 8th 2010 12:59AM]

@Jake Root Lmfao jackass!!

[Jake Root Posted Jan 8th 2010 1:01AM]

@xberxinfinity Oh, well thank you, I think? No, wait, that wasn't nice now was it?

[jennycoldeyes Posted Jan 8th 2010 1:03AM]

@xberxinfinity So this is what Nvidia has been up to lately, Not to say that the Tegra opportunity is a needle on a hay stack, but I don't like the idea that Nvidia will stop manufacturing PC GPU cards in the future. Detailed point of view about Tesla and Tegra: http://bit.ly/tesla-and-tegra-what-are-they

If this year, will be a tablet year then I think nvidia may got alot of shot with their Tegra for tablet manufacturers to use.

[Oghowie Posted Jan 8th 2010 12:49AM]

I find it hard to believe that the market will be able to support this many tablets.

[Average White Boy Posted Jan 8th 2010 9:37AM]

@Oghowie

The Apple tablet hasn't gone into production yet. I think Apple is waiting to see what everyone else is offering and finding out what everyone else is doing, then they'll pull out some prototype that has features the other tablets don't offer and put that one into production.

[Elranzer Posted Jan 8th 2010 10:17AM]

Apple will likely only use technologies present in existing tablets, but then the cultists will claim Apple was the first to implement them. If anything, their excuse will be that Apple was the first to implement them "successfully."

[gerrrg Posted Jan 8th 2010 12:54AM]

Add 3" to the diagonal and you're set.

[Teslanaut Posted Jan 8th 2010 1:05AM]

@gerrrg That's what she said.

[Jehryan Posted Jan 8th 2010 12:59AM]

Why do i have this feeling that i can make a better tablet than what I have seen so far at CES.

I think I will get started on some sketches.

If anyone wants to help just hit me up.

[Jacinth Posted Jan 8th 2010 1:03AM]

@Jehryan Lets do it.

[Jake Root Posted Jan 8th 2010 1:05AM]

@Jacinth Oooh oooh oooh!!!! I can design the OS!!!! I love doing that shit!

[Jake Root Posted Jan 8th 2010 1:07AM]

@Jacinth What's a good resolution? 1280x720?

[Jacinth Posted Jan 8th 2010 1:07AM]

@Jake Root You do that. I'll work on some crazy insane hardware.

[Jacinth Posted Jan 8th 2010 1:08AM]

@Jake Root That resolutions fine. Make the whole thing customizable.

[Uberich Posted Jan 8th 2010 1:26AM]

@Jehryan

Start a project and peeps will come and see and even do. Open Pandora started that way.

[Alban Posted Jan 8th 2010 3:19AM]

@Jake Root Hi Jake, you don't fancy Ubuntu? There's quite a bit of support behind it already :)

[maddawg579 Posted Jan 8th 2010 9:17AM]

@Jehryan
I'm game. I can help with sketches and choosing some crazy insane hardware too.

Let's show the world how to make a tablet the right way.

[microlith Posted Jan 8th 2010 1:00AM]

It's tragic that the Engadget staff have wasted away to the point that they cannot muster up the pressure to use a resistive touchscreen anymore.

Whats more tragic is that I'm not the first to make that joke.

[Lessthantito Posted Jan 8th 2010 1:17AM]

my ideal tablet/internet/home media device is getting closer to fruition, if they mashed this up with the dell slate/whatever added the chrome browser to Android and gave it a 10" screen and maybe 8-10gb of internal flash it would be close to perfection

[Alban Posted Jan 8th 2010 3:14AM]

@cherryboom Tegra is not a first try but a product which works and especially developped for this form factor. Tegra 250 is newer and would be more efficient. Reading another article gave 16 hours HD in a single charge: http://www.intomobile.com/2010/01/07/nvidia-tegra-250-dual-core-arm-cortex-a9-running-up-to-1-ghz-full-1080p-encodedecode.html
Between 16h and 2h, I would bet on the higher value, otherwise they wouldn't sell much.
The AW Vaio CPU is not based on ARM.

[Ferrarimangp Posted Jan 8th 2010 4:30AM]

@Alban
Fantastic, you put cherryboom in their place. With sources.

[Ferrarimangp Posted Jan 8th 2010 4:28AM]

@cherryboom
You seem to be familiar with every aspect of the Tegra except battery life. Remember that the Zune HD got well over 8 hours of battery life. Granted this is the Tegra 2 and the screen is much larger on this device, but I'm sure the battery life is not as obnoxiously low as you predict.

[TareG Posted Jan 8th 2010 8:44AM]

@cherryboom
It gives 10 hrs of HD playback, according to NVIDIA.

[akarol Posted Jan 8th 2010 11:03AM]

I can't judge the video quality since I can't see past that plethora of fingerprints.

[johnkzin Posted Jan 9th 2010 10:54PM]

make it a 10" display, with pixelqi display tech, and I might be interested.