Viliv S7 mini convertible tablet

source – alltouchtablet.com/

Viliv S7 convertible tablet. It’s not in the same league as the Asus EEE PC T101MT and Lenovo S10-3t, mainly because it features a smaller 7 inch screen with the same number of pixels (1024 x 600) as the two mentioned before. Hardware specs are somehow at the same level of performance because of the Intel Atom CPU.
If portability is what you seek, then you can’t get something better and cheaper than the 799 grams Viliv S7 that offers up to 9.5 hours of typical battery life and 7 hours video playback (I suppose DivX Video, not HD). Smaller size also means smaller keyboard but if you ever used one of the first netbook on market, the ASUS EEE PC 701 then you’ll be OK with this one, plus you can always use your fingers for typing.

Another inconvenient of the Viliv S7 is the OS, Windows XP in this case, but you’ll always be able to upgrade to Windows 7 Starter of Home Premium if you feel constrained by the old Microsoft OS. Alternatively you can buy the Viliv S7 Premium that adds Windows 7 Starter and a 32 GB SSD (versus the 60 GB HDD or 16 GB SSD on the base model) but that adds almost 300$ to the base 549 $ price.

Now let’s see the specs of the Viliv S7 convertible tablet:

• Intel Atom 1.33GHz (Z520)
• 1 GB DDR2 RAM
• 16, 32 GB SSD or 60 GB ‘classic’ HDD
• 7″ WSVGA (1024 x 600) with Swiveling Touch Screen
• 34Wh battery
• 9.05(w) x 5.6(h) x 1.02(t) inches
• 800 ~ 830g (with battery) / 1.76~1.82lb (with battery)
• Built in HSPA modem (optional on the S7 Premium model), WLAN 802.11b/g, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR
• SDHC, Audio, USBx2, USB (link), Multi I/O, VGA, Mic, 1.3M pixel Webcam
• Shuffle UI special designed finger friendly interface on top of Windows XP

Don’t expect too much performance thanks to the Atom Z CPU, but basic tasks will be no problem for this small convertible tablet. I would definitely see it as a choice for my third computer (after my desktop and laptop) that I would take away with me while on vacation and don’t plan to do too much office work. It’s definitely a better alternative to the other 9-10 inch convertible tablets and doesn’t cost more either.

Here’s a video preview hands on with the Viliv S7:

From the video above I can draw some conclusions: device is pretty well built (not Vaio X levels of course), speakers are strong, the Shuffle UI is better than on other convertible tablets and is quite useful in this small netbook tablet, the touchscreen accuracy is very nice, the trackpad positioned on the right top side of the keyboard is good enough but size is the real problem here, the keyboard bends a little while typing but nothing out of the ordinary, screen pivoting happens very fast which is always good when switching modes.

About construction I can tell you that the hinge seems pretty solid, but reliability is not something you test in two or three hours so we’ll have to wait and see what customers who bought the Viliv S7 will tell us in a few months.

So here are the prices on Amazon for the three babies:

• Viliv S7 Express – 549$
• Viliv S7 60 GB  – 579$
• Viliv S7 Premium 3G – 827$

Read on entire article and see the photo gallery of the Viliv S7 at alltouchtablet.com