Vizio, best known for affordable HDTV sets, is making a huge leap into the world of Android smartphones and tablets in 2011. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, the company will unveil both the Via Android smartphone and Via tablet at CES 2011.
Here’s what we know about the Vizio Via Android smartphone. It features a four inch WVGA display, five megapixel rear camera and front-facing video camera for video calls and runs a custom UI on top of Android.
The Vizio Via Android tablet on the other hand uses an eight inch display, uses WiFi for data, has three built-in speakers and a front-facing camera for video calling. There’s no word on what resolution the tablet is running at, but we couldn’t imagine it would be lower than the Via smartphone.
Now for the rub — the Vizio Via smartphone and Via tablet were developing in the past year and a half by a team of less than ten people. This team included “mobile specialists from Nokia” so they certainly had a solid foundation. The goal of the phone and the tablet is to offer affordable and compelling alternatives to the iPhone and iPad.
In a move to embrace the electronic ecosystem, Vizio is taking a page from Apple’s playbook. Both the Via phone and Via tablet will work in conjunction with the company’s line up of product in 2011. This means you’ll be able to use both devices as remotes and possibly even do some media sharing, similar to the AirPlay function on iOS devices.
As far as a release date, the Unwired View believes Vizio’s Via smartphone and Via tablet will be commercially available in Summer 2011. Both devices will be on hand at CES 2011 this week so we’ll have plenty of time to put the shiny gadgets through the paces. For now, we’d like to ask if there’s anything
Coming Soon | Vizio | TBD
