T-Mobile announced its SpringBoard Android tablet the other day and we were able to go hands on with the device. It’s pretty sleek, considering what a designer can actually do with such a slim form factor, and appeared to work smoothly without any hiccups. That could be thanks to its 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor, too. The T-Mobile SpringBoard runs Android 3.2 Honeycomb, and features a 7-inch touchscreen display. Given its light weight, overall size and thinness, portability definitely won’t be an issue.
The tablet itself is manufactured by Huawei, though you probably wouldn’t know it at first glance. Or second, or third. The lack of branding is unusual, especially for a company that hopes to be one of the top five mobile vendors in the U.S. in the next few years, so we’re going to poke and prod both T-Mobile and Huawei about that later.
At the face of the device, we have a high-resolution display and a 1.3MP front-facing camera for self-portraits and video calling. Along the right side, in portrait mode, you’ll find the power button and the volume rocker. Down below, there are stereo speakers and a 3.5mm headset jack. Up top, there is an HDMI port so you can view your content on your HD television sets, a micro-USB port, microphone and a proprietary charging port. It’s interesting that the SpringBoard uses a separate port for charging instead of its micro-USB port, and probably a little annoying in the long run.
T-Mobile’s SpringBoard comes with a few apps pre-loaded, like Netflix and T-Mobile TV, but otherwise it’s vanilla Android Honeycomb with no custom user interface. It also supports microSD cards up to 32GB, so storage shouldn’t be an issue.
Pricing hasn’t been announced yet, but if this tablet goes for $199-299, it’s probably a decent buy. Huawei tells us that it will be available from T-Mobile “soon,” and definitely before the holiday season.
