So, Remember CES back in January?
That was when we first saw Visual Land. Some of you may recognize their involvement in our forums, passing along information about the tablets, and Visual Land has even supplied us with firmware so people who fall outside of warranty can recover their tablets when there is a problem. At CES Visual Land mentioned that their Prestige line (then unreleased) would include 7, 8, and 10 inch models. Since then, there has been a ‘wait and see’ stance on the 8 inch model, but we have already reviewed their Prestige 7 and now have the 10 inch model in our hands.
Well, Visual Land has provided me with a Prestige 10, and I have some videos (which you can see by clicking on the headings) to give you the chance to see it before you make your purchasing decision.
Hardware:
The Prestige 10 makes some improvements over the Prestige 7 that are quite welcome. The addition of Bluetooth is quite splendid, and means that a bluetooth headset can be used natively for any type of video conferenceing you have planned.
1.2gh processor
1GB RAM
WiFi b/g/n
Bluetooth 4.0
1.3mp front camera
2mp rear camera
MiniHDMI out (1080p)
2 MicroUSB ports (keyboard & mouse)
1024×600 resolution screen (which makes for great widescreen movie viewing)
Much interest was generated recently by projects that put android on your television, whether in the form of a dongle, or a gaming console. With the Prestige 10′s hardware, it certainly trumps the dongles, and makes for a more versitile package than the console: Consider attaching a keyboard, and a mouse to the Prestige 10, and running the HDMI out to your television: There is your Dongle’s functionality. Throw in a Bluetooth controller, and that is a gaming console, and you still have a tablet to use when you need to take your setup on the road. Having the ability to use 2 USB devices, output HD video, and throw in Bluetooth connectivity makes this a powerful package.
The prestige 10 measures in at a respectable 11.1″ x 6.5″ x 0.5″ (28.2 x 16.5 x 1.3 cm) and weighs 19.2 oz (28.3 g).
Software:
The Prestige 10 is running Andriod 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, and has Visual Land’s custom launcher. We got a look at this launcher back in January of this year, and it looks just as it did then, complete with 7 specialized homescreens. If that just is not your cup of tea, then it is possible to change it. For those of you unfamiliar with Android 4.0 it has many improvements over the previous versions of android, and the video that is linked in the ‘Software’ heading should give you a better idea of what Android 4.0 looks like.
Battery Life:
The Prestige 10 is one of the few tablets that I have experienced that lives up to its advertised battery life. The press release stated “Up to 8 hours continuous (up to 5 days standby)” I was able to get 5.5 days standby, and by the 8 hour mark, I still had some battery left to go. I suspect that I could even get longer if I had turned on airplane mode, and turned down the screen brightness. I imagine that 8 hours will not be the maximum on the battery, but near the average of a days usage.
One of the most frequent critiques that I hear about android is its battery life in comparison to apple’s iOfferings. Although this will not dethrone the iPad in its battery usage, the Prestige 10 is where android devices SHOULD be.
Final Thoughts:
This Prestige 10 is a leap forward in many respects for Visual Land. The ten inch tablet, being offered at a very reasonable price (approx $200 usd) combined with Visual Land’s very cordial attitude towards the development community mean that this tablet is a great purchase with a slew of great features, at a hard-to-beat price. I have been most pleased with the Prestige 10 and at the price point at which it is being offered, I see little reason to purchase a different 10 inch tablet.