CES Preview: Notion Ink Android Smartpad

It’s tough to say what’ll be more fun in 2010: getting hands on with the onslaught of new tablets and separating the winners from the fails or just sitting back and seeing what oddball names that manufacturers come up with to separate their devices from the pack. So far we’re already off to a good start on the latter with this “smartpad”.

The product, which hasn’t been given an official name, is an Android-based tablet device that uses a not-quite-available-to-us Nvidia Tegra T20 chipset. It looks pretty stylish and packs a 10.1-inch 1024 x 600 screen, 1080p playback, integrated WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, 3MP camera with video, A-GPS, digital compass, various sensors and UMTS/HSDPA. Connections include HDMI, USB, 3.5mm headphone jack and microphone input. Storage comes in 16GB and 32GB SSD flavors and an SD slot is included.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the device is that it is the first to use a Pixel Qi transflective display–a new type of display that acts as an LCD screen in regular light but doubles as an e-ink display out in the blazing sun. The device also delivers plenty of battery life–48 hours standby,8 hours of 1080p playback or 16 hours of Web browsing.

Pricing and availability information are not yet being offered, but more info should follow at CES in a couple weeks. [via SlashGear]