I’m back from a week’s vacation and my return is not a moment too soon. Although CES doesn’t officially begin until Wednesday, the early press releases are already flying off the shelves, even if shipping products aren’t. Freescale kicks today off with news of their smartbook reference design that we’ll soon see. Don’t be too judgmental about the look of this tablet powered by smartphone guts — reference designs are meant to inspire original equipment manufacturers. I’ll admit however, that it reminds me of my first UMPC — only thinner, lighter and with more battery life, all things being equal.
This design offers a small 7″ touchscreen display with 1024 x 600 resolution and weighs a modest 376 grams, which is roughly double the weight of my iPhone. That’s definitely something I could carry all day. Freescale’s i.MX515 ARM processor – built on the Cortex-A8 core architecture — powers the tablet, which also offers OpenVG & OpenGL/ES graphics cores and HD video decoder hardware. Other internals include 512 MB of RAM, between 4 and 64 GB of internal storage, optional 3G modem, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1, GPS, USB 2.0 and mini USB ports, a speaker, microphone, 3-axis acceleromter, light sensor and 3 megapixel camera capable of VGA recording at 30 fps. There’s also a slick-looking keyboard concept that docks to the tablet itself — looks like a nice solution while stationary, but offers a grab-and-go function when you want to travel lighter.
Freescale’s energy-efficient ARM processor is paired with a 1900 mAh battery, so this could be an all-day type of unit depending on usage patterns. The CPU also means you won’t see a traditional desktop operating system, so I’d expect some form of Linux to be on board. Freescale says that interested parties could out actual products based on this reference by the middle of 2010. Even better is the potential pricing — $200 or less, but that’s only likely in quantities of scale if and when the smartbook category takes off. We’ve got Freescale on our radar for CES, so stay tuned for some hands on impressions and pics of their offerings.


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