While many big companies are putting on big press conferences next week at CES, many smaller ones are getting their new gadgets out there early so people will want to drop by their booth. Velocity Micro just dropped a few new things, and we’ll be sure to swing by their corner of the show if we’re in the area.
They’ve got a pair of budget tablets that won’t really blow anyone away, but their new Shine pico projector looks really nice.
The tablets are the 7″ Cruz T507 and the 9.7″ T510. The latter, it is worth noting, has a 4:3 aspect ratio and appears to be very iPad-ish. Not very original, I’m afraid. The 7″ one is widescreen – and that’s about the only thing between them that differs. They both have a 1.2GHz Arm A8 processor, 8GB of internal storage, HDMI out, and a few other little features. Both run Android 4.0, mercifully. Any tablets at CES that don’t are plain crazy. Strangely enough, neither has Market access – just the Amazon market. The T507 will go for $150, and the larger T510 will naturally be a bit more expensive, though no price has been mentioned just yet. More info here.
Then there’s the Shine, a small projector that’s certainly bigger than the early, ~20-lumen pico-projectors, but definitely smaller than the loud, hot, 1000-lumen “real” projectors. The Shine does 300 lumens at a resolution of 1280×768, which means you can do HD content on a fairly large screen, and not just in the pitch dark like weaker pocket projectors. They’re also claiming good color and contrast, which of course I’ll believe when I see it.
I like its unapologetically gadgety look, with the bright red and the grills. Not as tasteful as 3M’s stuff, but not as boring as some others I’ve seen. Price? “Under $400,” which sounds to me like $399. But we’ll see.
Then there’s the little VMUltra drive – optical drive, 500GB of storage, and a few USB hubs to boot. Very handy for the mobile gadgeteer, perhaps the perfect accessory for someone moving to an ultrabook or MacBook Air.
Like I said, we’ll try to drop by and get a feel for these gadgets when we’re down in Vegas. No promises! But we’ll definitely be reviewing one or more of them, so stay tuned.