It was inevitable that the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in early 2011 would have a fair share of Android-based tablet devices on show. We look at some of the Android devices that will very likely be heading our way this year.<\/p>\n
Most of the devices here will run Honeycomb, Android’s 3.0 release, which has already been earmarked as being specifically designed for tablet PCs.<\/p>\n
Motorola<\/strong><\/p>\n Motorola put in its comeback bid with the XOOM tablet. Once a mobile powerhouse, Motorola is pinning its hopes of a return on Android and its 10.1-inch screened XOOM is the company’s first big move. Under the screen the XOOM will run a 1Ghz dual-core processor and include built-in 3G support. 4G LTE support is also an option for networks with that capability. The widescreen XOOM will also pack in a 5 megapixel camera capable of 720p HD video and 32GB of on-board storage.<\/p>\n Asus<\/strong><\/p>\n A tablet PC from Asus has been long predicted. The Taiwan-based PC maker is credited with kicking off the netbook market a couple of years ago and has been working on a follow-up to its EEE PC for many months. At CES, Asus showed off the EEE Pad Slider and the Transformer tablets<\/a>. Both of these are slightly different to many of the tablet PCs on the market in that they include a physical keyboard. As the name suggests, the QWERTY keyboard slides out from under the Slider version while the Transformer includes a dock and external keyboard and touch pad. Both will also be built around Nvidia’s Tegra 2 dual-core processor.<\/p>\n Toshiba<\/strong><\/p>\n Toshiba also has an Android tablet PC in its future. Toshiba’s tablet will sport a 10.1-inch screen and, like the Asus tablets, will be based on Nvidia’s Tegra 2 processor. The tablet will run Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) when it is eventually released.<\/p>\n Acer<\/strong><\/p>\n Acer was relatively quick to jump on the netbook wagon with its Aspire, but they have been relatively slow in releasing a range of tablet devices. At CES Acer showed off its Iconia Tab A500 tablet which sports a 10.1-inch screen. Multiple USB (full-size and micro) ports are to be included as is a docking connector.<\/p>\n OLPC<\/strong><\/p>\n The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project has long been active in the ultra-portable PC market, albeit rather controversially. Now Marvel Technologies, the makers of the XO hardware, has confirmed that an Android-based OLPC tablet is close to being released. The XO-3, as the tablet will be known, will sport an ARM processor, the Armada 610, which will reportedly reduce power consumption to just 1W.<\/p>\n