It was at IFA back in September that iPega showed off a few prototype handhelds of theirs, and 4 months later their quad core 7 incher is ready to roll. It’s an expensive beast at $220, but it sure looks pretty. I don’t know whether it’s the precise machining of the port connectors, the beautiful translucent red action buttons or the sparkling grey finish that does it, but there is something about the way this thing looks that sets it apart from the rest of the crowd. If they wanted to give the impression of a premium device, they managed it in my opinion. There is nothing too exciting underneath that suave exterior though, a perfectly adequate quad core RK3188 and 2GB of RAM drive a 1280×800 IPS screen, and there’s 8GB on board as well as a micro SD slot for further expansion.
Some pics courtesy of china8tech (French site).
It’s a little too rich for my blood else I’d be all over this thing, but if your pockets are heavy and you’re brave enough to be first, you can pre-order now from Willgoo.
And last but not least, here’s a short video demonstration from Vincent Wong.
Does anyone have any more info on this device like a review or something? Interested but its too expensive for me to take the plunge w/o a review.
What currently shipping SoCs are available for use by Shenzhen electronics companies that work better than the RK3188?
Nvidia’s not going to partner with them, so forget about the Tegra 4 or K1. The same goes for Qualcomm. Certainly they’re not going to get their hands on the chips Apple and Samsung make for use in their own phones. So what processors were available to JXD, iPega, etc. in November or December 2013, when they most likely started producing samples like the one seen in the video, that are more than just “perfectly adequate”?
I agree there’s not a lot to choose, but we’ve seen Samsung’s Exynos chips in shenzhen gadgets before (much i4, for example) and the 8 core 6952 from mediatek was available around October or November last year too. $220 just seems too much for a configuration found in handhelds costing far less. But if the build quality and software are up to scratch then it goes some way to redeeming itself I guess.