It's no secret that the market for Android tablets is crowded – and getting more so every day. Just ask Samsung, Acer, HTC, Huawei, Lenovo, Pandigital and, oh yes, Verticool. We could keep going, but you get the point: it's a big market out there, one with wildly varying prices and features. And just recently a little company called Amazon made its move in a big way with the Kindle Fire, an Android-powered $199 portal to its corner of the cloud. The world's largest online retailer clearly thinks competing on price is a way to stand out from the pack. Velocity Micro, maker of the 8-inch Cruz T408, wholeheartedly agrees. It's coming to market with a $199 slate, hoping to capture some attention of its own. Can it succeed? Read on to find out.
Hardware:
Inside the box you'll find a handy mini-USB cable (though if you're like us, you have dozens of these laying around), a power cord and a short user guide. And then there's the actual tablet, measuring 8.5 x 6.5 inches, with a depth of just under half an inch. The touchscreen runs at 800 x 600, and feels exactly like what it is: plastic. If you're used to gliding your fingers over glass, the extra friction takes a little getting used to, but it feels solid to the touch, and the display doesn't warp or blemish. The case feels equally rigid, thanks to an aluminum chassis inside. The front is a glossy black that predictably highlights fingerprints, while the back has a matte, quasi-rubberized finish. On the whole, the T408 has the solid feel of a more premium tablet, not a cheap plastic thing that could go flying from your hands at any moment. The microSD, mini-USB and headphone connectors run along the top, while the power button and volume rockers are on the upper-right corner, adjacent to the front-facing VGA camera.
Software:
Given the stiff competition and similar hardware among lower-end Android tablets, software seems a likely place for differentiation. We've seen that with smartphones (for better and worse) running MotoBlur and the Sense UI, and that Kindle Fire sports a significantly revamped interface. The Cruz T408 sticks to the stock Gingerbread look, which might feel comfortably familiar. Unfortunately, it just doesn't have the polish of Honeycomb, and next to similarly inexpensive models such as the Acer Iconia Tab A100 ($330) the 8GB Archos 80 G9 ($300) featuring Google's tablet-optimized OS, this feels like a bit of a letdown. Worse, the T408 includes no Google apps. That means no Gmail, no Maps and no officially sanctioned Android Market. That's a big sacrifice if your address ends in gmail.com; returning to Gingerbread's default mail client makes for a jarring step backward in functionality. (Maps isn't as big a loss, given the tablet's lack of GPS.)
Hardware:
Inside the box you'll find a handy mini-USB cable (though if you're like us, you have dozens of these laying around), a power cord and a short user guide. And then there's the actual tablet, measuring 8.5 x 6.5 inches, with a depth of just under half an inch. The touchscreen runs at 800 x 600, and feels exactly like what it is: plastic. If you're used to gliding your fingers over glass, the extra friction takes a little getting used to, but it feels solid to the touch, and the display doesn't warp or blemish. The case feels equally rigid, thanks to an aluminum chassis inside. The front is a glossy black that predictably highlights fingerprints, while the back has a matte, quasi-rubberized finish. On the whole, the T408 has the solid feel of a more premium tablet, not a cheap plastic thing that could go flying from your hands at any moment. The microSD, mini-USB and headphone connectors run along the top, while the power button and volume rockers are on the upper-right corner, adjacent to the front-facing VGA camera.
Software:
Given the stiff competition and similar hardware among lower-end Android tablets, software seems a likely place for differentiation. We've seen that with smartphones (for better and worse) running MotoBlur and the Sense UI, and that Kindle Fire sports a significantly revamped interface. The Cruz T408 sticks to the stock Gingerbread look, which might feel comfortably familiar. Unfortunately, it just doesn't have the polish of Honeycomb, and next to similarly inexpensive models such as the Acer Iconia Tab A100 ($330) the 8GB Archos 80 G9 ($300) featuring Google's tablet-optimized OS, this feels like a bit of a letdown. Worse, the T408 includes no Google apps. That means no Gmail, no Maps and no officially sanctioned Android Market. That's a big sacrifice if your address ends in gmail.com; returning to Gingerbread's default mail client makes for a jarring step backward in functionality. (Maps isn't as big a loss, given the tablet's lack of GPS.)
