Will be launched in July

May 7, 2010 14:55 GMT  ·  By

Even months after its launch, the iPad is, more or less, the only tablet to really be scoring sales on the worldwide market, even though other companies have made their own move in this area. Still, it is only a matter of time until the competition really fires up, and German company Neofonie seems to plan on joining in on the fun sometime in summer. The supplier will introduce a slate running Android OS, which will play on the iPad's perceived weaknesses while trying to stay competitive, price-wise.

The slate will be known as the Neofonie WePad and was spotted by the folks over at Fudzilla not too long ago. It will target the same consumer base as Apple's tablet, but it will have a configuration based on the x86 architecture instead of an ARM CPU. The actual chip used is the Intel Atom N450, clocked at 1.66GHz, the same one used in most of today's netbooks, and it will be backed by 1GB of memory and 16GB of flash storage.

One of the more impressive assets of the WePad is its screen. Measuring a significant 11.6 inches, the display's maximum resolution is of 1366 x 768 pixels. Other important details include a pair of USB connectors, wireless connectivity via WiFi and Buetooth 2.1, and an SDHC slot, by means of which the maximum storage capacity can be increased. Unfortunately, the graphics solution that will be used was not mentioned, though it should be quite decent considering that it will be able to run Adobe Flash.

There is no way of knowing just how this product will fare on today's market, but, as far as the hardware is concerned, it should at least be able put up a fight, even if its battery life and content availability turn out to be lower than desirable. The slate will undoubtedly benefit greatly from its price of 449 Euro (150 Euro lower than that of the iPad). Neofonie should officially launch the WePad in July and begin volume shipments in August.