Creative ZiiLabs has a couple of new Android tablet designs out today which it’s hoping to flog to willing white label manufacturers. They’re Android 3.x “Honeycomb” compatible, but one option is a bit of a blast from the past: it uses a resistive touchscreen. Is Google’s tablet OS destined for the bargain basement?
A couple of ZiiLabs’ new Jaguar reference platform Android tablets look rather tasty. The 7-and 10-inch slates are powered by ARM Cortex-A9 dual or quad-core processors and capable of outputting full 1080p video to your TV through HDMI, and can pack in up to 64GB of storage as well as 4G WiMAX connectivity.
In a little bit of a disturbing twist however, ZiiLabs is providing options for both capacitive and resistive touchscreens on top of its designs. A little primer: capacitive screens are the ones widely used in smartphones today, not capable of pixel-precise accuracy, but able to recognise multiple inputs and pull off those swooshy zoomy pinch gestures.
Resistive touchscreens on the other hand are generally cheaper and more precise, but as a result need a precise input – such as the point of a stylus, and not your fingertip. And you have to push, hard. Thus in general consumer use, they tend to result in quite a shocking experience, as we’ve see on previous Google-disapproved, cheap Android tablets.
Want proof? Watch BBC tech correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones struggle with the resistive screen on the Next Android tablet in the clip below.
Google has yet to open-source the code for Honeycomb – possibly for this very reason – so we’d be surprised if it’ll fork it over to any manufacturers interested in a cheaper resistive tablet option.
Would Google be smart not to here? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
Out TBC | £TBC | ZiiLabs
