We had a chance to fondle the ViewSonic ViewPad P100 Windows-running slate at MWC, and came away fairly satisfied with what we saw - for a Windows tablet, that is. ViewSonic is one of the brave tablet makers that venture into Windows tablets before Win 8 was even a twinkle in Ballmer's eye, and now it capitalizes on the acquired know-how with the ViewPad P100, pure Windows 7 device, upgradeable to Win 8.
It is a solid device, feeling rather hefty in the hand compared to its Android brethren, and comes with a 10.1" 1280x800 pixels IPS LCD display, which seemed with decent brightness, at least indoors. A 1.6GHz dual-core Atom processor paired with 2GB of RAM are running the show, and ViewSonic promises 4.5-5 hours of battery life out of the P100, which is on par with your average Sandy Bridge laptop.
The heft is undoubtedly also contributed to by the plethora of ports, slots and buttons around the Windows tablet, such as two USB 2.0 ports, home, menu and lock buttons, a protective flap under which are hidden the SIM slot and the SD card insertion point, as well as the usual audio and power jacks.
The screen felt fairly responsive to the touch, although the slate registered presses with a slight delay, or that might be due to trying to pin something meant for a mouse cursor with your finger. It is usable, but apparently not built from the ground-up for touch.
Well, Windows 8 is fast approaching, so the ViewPad P100 can be touch-optimized very soon with it. As it is, though, the $799 MSRP for the Wi-Fi-only version seems a bit steep for a stopgap solution.
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