Espert E301

There’s nothing quite like a device made of metal and glass, as Apple well knows, and the Espert E301 feels like a premium device because of both. Make no mistake, we’re looking at an aluminum sandwich rather than a single machined unibody here — and these prototypes had plenty of rough edges to boot — but the E301 felt like a solid, attractive device and had very little flex to speak of. The spacious screen is not only quick and accurate, but also quite pretty for a standard TFT LCD, with good horizontal viewing angles and bright colors, and seemingly without the the oversaturation of Samsung’s slate’s screen.

Power and volume buttons reside on one edge, a mix of capacitive and physical Android keys join a 1.3 megapixel webcam up front, there’s a 5 megapixel autofocus imager around back, and all the ports (including microSD, micro-HDMI, mini-USB and a 3.5mm headphone jack) are actually on a tiny slab that slightly swings out of the bottom, next to tiny speakers and a pop-out TV antenna. While overseas products typically ditch their DMB antennas before making the journey stateside, that actually may not be the case here, as the E301 actually supports ATSC-M/H, the new Mobile DTV standard for us roaming US bumpkins.

Under the hood, you’ll find a 1GHz ARM Cortex A8 CPU, PowerVR SGX 540 graphics, 8GB of flash storage and 512MB of RAM, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth 2.1, a gyroscope, accelerometer, compass and ambient light sensor, and either a 4,100 mAh or 4,400 mAh battery good for 4 or 4.5 hours of uninterrupted video playback — depending on which spec sheet you trust. Espert’s prototypes ran Android 2.2, but reps told us it’ll sport Gingerbread at launch, and they’re hoping to have it run Honeycomb later on. Unfortunately, they couldn’t confirm whether it’d have Android Market (and other Google apps) on board, saying the company needed to get GSM certification for the device first.

Espert E201

Presently saddled with Android 2.1 (Espert promises Froyo soon), the E201 still feels like a speedy, capable machine if not nearly as stylish or high-resolution as its successor. We only had a few minutes to toss it around, but it felt well-constructed and responded quickly to our touch, and we were surprised to find the fixed-focus 3 megapixel camera around back took decent snapshots, though the LCD panel looked a little sub-par.

The Samsung Hummingbird’s embedded PowerVR SGX540 graphics chip still pulls its weight here, as Asphalt 5 and Angry Birds played butter-smooth. Interestingly, there’s a full-size SDHC card slot and a micro-HDMI socket under a flap up top. Tiny twin speakers and a mini-USB charge cable live on the bottom, there’s a front-facing camera, mic and three physical Android buttons up front, and volume buttons on the side. What lies beneath that faux metal frame? Pretty much the same stuff as the E301, though a product brochure claims it will have a smaller 3,000mAh battery even as the spec sheet lists a 4,100mAh pack.

While Espert tells us its products are already tooling around Korea, they’ll be coming stateside soon — the Identity Tab E301 is “coming to a major US wireless carrier for a back-to-school launch,” while the WiFi-only E201 will hit brick-and-mortar Best Buy stores in the first quarter of this year. We’re looking forward to see how they size up. Press release below!

Update: Espert told Electronista that the E201 will cost between $200 and $250, and the E301 will be “under $300.” Remember, that latter figure likely includes a carrier subsidy.

Via: engadget