Qualcomm readies Snapdragon S4 developer tablet for Ice Cream Sandwich

While it’s not the first time we’ve seen the latest version of Android on a tablet, it’s fun to see Qualcomm loading Android Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0.1 onto its Snapdragon S4 developer tablet.

This will be the ultimate tablet for developers to test their Android apps on, thanks to the impressive hardware specs and Qualcomm’s Liquid mobile development platform. The device packs just about anything you could want in a tablet, and therefore all the tools necessary for any type of app developers try to throw at it. It will of course feature Qualcomm’s new top-of-the-line Snapdragon S4 processors, which are not yet in any consumer products. The MSM8625 and MSM8225 are dual-core and can be clocked at up to 1GHz. Also found inside is 2GB of RAM and 32GB of storage and it seems to run Ice Cream Sandwich just fine.

There’s a 10.1-inch 1366 x 768 multi-touch display, and scattered around the bezel is seven microphones and one 2MP front-facing camera able to capture full 1080p 30fps HD video. On the back is a 13MP camera, and a pair of two adjacent cameras next to that for 3D shooting. The full set of sensors is here as well, including a three-axis gyroscope, compass, ambient light, proximity, pressure, temperature, dual 3D accelerometers, and a fingerprint reader.

This guy will surely run developers a substantial amount of money, but Ice Cream Sandwich is just another reason to spend it. Qualcomm says it is “rigorously working on the code so it also supports the rest of our Snapdragon processors.” The Liquid mobile development platform is expected to ship in the spring.

Even if you never see this S4 tablet, it does give us a glimpse of what we can expect from future tablets running Snapdragon and that’s pretty cool.

[via Qualcomm and Engadget]