What would CES be without a good tease? We don’t have any more information than in the pictures but we’re definitely meeting with Viliv at an early stage at CES to find out more about the X7 ‘Anywhere Connectivity’ Android tablet and the X10 and X70. We suspect the latter is a re-design of the original X70 EX using Oaktrail and Windows 7 but as we said, there’s no information available at the moment. The X70 EX was UMPC of the year for us over at UMPCPortal in 2009 so we’re expecting good things. The X10, a 10.2” Android tablet is touted as having ‘longest’ battery life and is likely to be a development of what we saw at Computex.

All will be revealed in the first few days of CES so keep it tuned to Carrypad.

We caught a sniff of a hint that an Android device was in the works when we met Viliv at CS in Jan and here it is. A 10” Slate-style device with the usual high quality Viliv design and materials that turns out to be one of the best we’ve seen here at Computex. (It’s in the running with the MeeGo tablet and the Huawei S7 for me right now.)

The X10 runs on a Samsung 1Ghz Cortex A8-based CPU and, even in the early stage of the software build looks fast. Check out the brochure image for a few more tech details. The X10 is being penciled in for Q4 and Viliv appear confident that they will get marketplace and Google applications onto the device for launch. I asked about price and the only hints I could get were that it would come in at a price below the Viliv S5. We’re looking at the sub $500 bracket here which of course, is a figure you could probably work-out yourself!

Viliv have also worked on a Windows 7 version of the X10 and I’ll have some information about that in a later post.

Check out the video below where I take you round the device, demo a fast racing game which looks great on the 1366×768 screen, show you the Aldiko book reader and  talk about some of the specifications.

More X10 Android pictures in the gallery.

The core of a ‘smart’ device or consumer tablet/netbook  is the software and despite its shortcomings, the iPhone OS is recognised as the market leader. Android isn’t far behind though and for some, the multitasking and ‘openness’ put it way into the lead. If you want the best Android experience out there, you’ve got to look slightly below the handheld tablet and smartbook category at the new high-end smartphones that are appearing. The Droid/Milestone, Nexus 1, HTC Desire and Xperia X10 are fast, fluid and a lot of fun. Only 10 days ago I bough an Xperia X10 and I’ve been writing about it on a sub-blog at XperiaX10.Carrypad.com Yesterday evening I posted the second part of my first impressions.

Overall it’s an impressive bit of kit with a fast browser, great daylight camera, enjoyable UI and of course, seamless access to Google applications and the thousands of Google Marketplace applications.

It’s a highly converged device and for anyone looking for the ultimate in web-capable smartphones, it’s up there with the best of them but I can’t help thinking that it would be even more enjoyable if it were simply a handheld tablet rather than a smartphone. On a 5” screen the experience would be way more useful/readable and the on screen keyboard would be much easier to type on. Finger-sized icons and menu items would take less effective screen space and there would be space for a battery that would last more than the 9-12hours that I get out of the X10 when I start using it like it should be.

I discussed the topic of convergence over at UMPCPortal and put the argument forward that I might be better off with something bigger and a separate phone but right now there isn’t much choice out there so the question is, do I keep the X10 or sell it and drop back to my trusty N82 while I wait?

Of course, that’s just me. I know that the majority of people out there just want one device if possible and if that you, take a closer look at the XperiaX10 blog because I’m continuing to test the device from every perspective. I’ll also be interested to hear from Droid/Milestone, Nexus One, Desire owners too. How do you feel about total convergence?