ORLANDO, Fla.—Whether or not T-Mobile eventually ends up absorbed by AT&T, the carrier is still pushing forward into the tablet and smartphone spaces.
At this year's CTIA conference here March 22, the company is showing off the results of its latest collaboration with LG Electronics: the G2x, an Android smartphone with a muscular dual-core processor, and the LG G-Slate, whose powerful hardware and Android 3.0 (code-named "Honeycomb") operating system beg comparisons to the Motorola Xoom and other high-end tablets.
T-Mobile is betting that both devices' 4G capability will give them an additional leg up over competition in a crowded marketplace. But "4G" has also become one of the loudest buzzwords at the conference, and the company's competitors seem determined to enter the market with ultra-speedy devices of their own.
At 8.9 inches, the G-Slate walks a middle ground between 7-inch tablets such as Research In Motion's upcoming PlayBook and the original Samsung Galaxy Tab, and the 9.7-inch iPad that currently dominates the tablet market. Again taking the middle road among its competitors, the tablet also holds 32GB of internal memory. Support for Adobe Flash is a given; in their collective bid to break the iPad's hold on the tablet market, all manufacturers of Android tablets seem duty-bound to hold up their device's Flash support, which allows for the displaying of much of the Web's rich content, as a crucial competitive differentiator.
T-Mobile representatives allowed eWEEK a few minutes to toy with the G-Slate, and its 1GHz Nvidia Tegra dual-core processor certainly makes it feel fast and responsive. More to the point, tablets running Android 3.0 feel like actual tablets, as opposed to oversized smartphones: Multitasking is emphasized, and the generously sized home screens practically demand you crowd them with every widget you can download. At roughly 1.5 pounds, the G-Slate also feels (relatively) light in the hand.
For more, read the eWEEK article: T-Mobile's G-Slate, G2x Offer 4G, Shiny Hardware
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