Freescale announce recession beating tablet

At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas this week some impressive technology has been unveiled, among them, the new Freescale Smartbook Tablet which is due to be launched this summer.

At the risk of sounding like a complete luddite, I’m not sure I fully comprehend the excitement and hype around the tablet.  Essentially it is what would happen if a smartphone mated with a laptop, or maybe a smartphone and an eReader – either way, I’m not entirely sure what is wrong with the classic netbook design as it stands but then if we all thought like that there would be no room for innovation would there?

Much scope has arisen recently around Freescale’s announcement especially as the creators behind the Kindle chip have promised the new Tablet to cost a very recession-friendly £125.  From a purely superficial perspective, it certainly looks impressive.  Its sexy design carries a smooth and simple 7-inch wide touchscreen fixed within a black soft-edged frame that gives it the sort of newness that makes you want to use it once then polish it clean of fingerprints.

Internally it comes with a 3D desktop framework, the ability to support web browser applications, an RSS reader, an office suite and add-ons for all of your favourite social networking sites.  It also has between a 4 and 64GB storage space and 512 MB memory, wi-fi and bluetooth connectivity, USB, audio and SIM ports, a speaker and a microphone as well as a 3MP webcam and an optional keyboard docking station. The only oversight seems to be the absence of non-capacitive screen, left out presumably to cut costs; but given all they promise to pack in isn’t £125 somewhat unrealistic anyway?

Remember though, that this is the first of many tablet designs to launch with Apple and Dell also promising their own models to be built with added wow-factor.