Viewsonic Viewpad 4 will have Android 2.4

VIEWSONIC'S VIEWPAD 4 smartphone will run Android 2.4, which is codenamed 'Ice Cream', and will be demonstrated at Mobile World Congress next week.

When it first announced it at the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this year, Viewsonic said the Viewpad 4 would run Android 2.2, Froyo. But The INQUIRER has since learned that it will use Android 2.4. Other websites have reported that Android 2.4 could be an updated version of version 2.3, also known as Gingerbread, but The INQUIRER has been told it is called 'Ice Cream'.

Given the popularity of Android, getting the latest phone version of the operating system is a marketing coup for Viewsonic. Android 3.0, Honeycomb will come with the Motorola Xoom tablet, probably in the next quarter, along with Acer tablets that are also expected to have the tablet specific OS. Android 2.4 might incorporate features that will also be seen in Honeycomb.

The Viewpad 4 smartphone has a 4.1-inch WVGA capacitive touchscreen display, a Qualcomm MSM 8255 1GHz processor chip, Bluetooth 2.1, 802.11b/g WiFi, GPS and A-GPS functionality, a front facing camera, is Flash 10.1 compatible and has a 5MP auto-focus camera that can record HD 720p video for upload or playback with the handset's HDMI display output. Like Viewsonic's 10S model, the ViewPad 4 pricing will be confirmed later this quarter. µ