Hands-on with Creative’s new Ziio tablets
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Posted on 3 Nov 2010 at 16:08
Creative, a company better known for its sound cards and MP3 players, today gave us a preview of two new Andoid-based devices, the Ziio 7 and Ziio 10: products it hopes can capture the rapidly growing tablet market.
Designed to offer a budget alternative to Apple’s incredibly popular iPad, the Ziio range comprises a 7in and 10in model, both of which are based around Google’s Android 2.1. This lacks the improvements and updates that were introduced in version 2.2, although Creative has promised that an update is on the cards following the devices’ release.
Both devices will feature a custom ZiiLabs ARM-based processor, 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1 and an implementation of Creative’s X-Fi audio quality boosting technology, designed to make the devices significantly more usable as a media player. An HDMI output, a feature missing from the iPad, is also included. The 10in version has an SD card slot for users to add up to 32GB of extra space, while the smaller model has a micro-SD slot.
During our brief hands-on with each model, we were impressed with how responsive Android felt, even on a resistive touchscreen display. Most touchscreen devices have a capacitive screen which don't require any pressure to register your finger. While neither version has multi-touch support, the screens needed very little pressure to register a touch. For a little more precision, Creative will be including a stylus with every tablet.
Both models look sleek, although we preferred the 10in version’s piano-black finish. Both tablets felt light and construction seemed sturdy, even in the pre-production versions we tried. New apps could be found only in the Ziio store, as neither tablet has access to the Android marketplace.
While we couldn’t test Creative’s claim that the processor in the Ziio tablets is powerful enough to output 1080p video to an external display, we were impressed with the image quality on both devices. The white 7in model has a decent 480x800 resolution, while the black 10in version ups this to 1,024x600.
We particularly liked the Bluetooth wireless audio feature. Using a set of Creative’s wireless-enabled speakers, it was possible to stream music with the press of a button. It was also great to be able to tweak the speakers’ X-Fi settings directly from the tablet.
Prices start at at £200 for the base 8GB 7in model and rising to £269 for the 10in. We'll be taking a more in-depth look at both models closer to the early December launch date.
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