The Smartbook promise is full connectivity and low price, and if Freescale can successfully sell their new Smartbook Tablet reference design to their OEM partners then it stands a good chance at delivering on both. The 7-inch touchscreen slate has integrated WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1 and optional 3G, and is powered by a Freescale i.MX515 applications chipset based on an ARM Cortex A8 CPU. Best of all, they reckon pricing could realistically start at under $200.
AdvertisementThere's also an optional docking station with QWERTY keyboard being discussed, shown below, which Freescale reckon could be as cheap as $50 more. To be demonstrated at CES 2010 in both Android and Linux versions, Freescale expect the Smartbook Tablet to support web browsing, Flash playback, handwriting recognition and plug-ins for social networks such as Twitter, Facebook and Flickr.
Other tech specs include between 4 and 64GB of flash memory (plus a microSD card slot), 512MB of RAM, GPS, a 3-megapixel camera, 3-axis accelerometer, ambient light sensor and both USB and mini-USB ports (the latter also used for charging). The i.MX515 chipset supports OpenVG and OpenGL/ES graphics, along with HD video decoding, while the 1,900mAh battery is said to offer "all day" battery life.
AdvertisementFreescale say that end-products based on their reference design could be on shelves by Summer 2010. As long as they can keep to that price point, we'll be waiting for them.
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