Vizio has a nice surprise at CES this year: it has one of the only tablets in the world with a Tegra 4 processor inside outside of some death vault at Nvidia headquarters. We used it.
The 10.1-inch slate — just a prototype for now — boasts an eye-pleasing 2560×1600 resolution, and was terrifically light given the horsepower inside.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t really much to do to stress all of that horsepower. The tablet was pretty naked, without any games, internet connectivity or very much in the way of processor-gulping apps to fire up. But all the apps I could find on the thing — Flipboard, the camera, Chrome — all exploded into view instantly. This thing will open apps very, very quickly. HDR camera snaps were, as promised, instantaneous, 1080p video playback was as smooth as it would be on any full PC or laptop, and speeding through hi-res photos (the only stress test I could muster) didn’t lag even slightly.
Without a big-budget game to run on it, it’s too early to be impressed. But the faint signs of awesomeness we can spot in the Tegra 4 in its infancy are exciting. It’s fast, and we hope it doesn’t take too long to hit the market.