Tablets powered by Android -- Google's open-source operating system for smartphones and tablets -- failed to make much of a splash in 2011. The iPad simply eclipsed them all put together, and then HP won the sales race for also-rans when it put its TouchPad on sale for $99.
Only the Kindle Fire and Nook Color/Nook Tablet managed to sell very well against the iPad. Both are powered by Android "under the hood," but neither run Ice Cream Sandwich, the latest version of Android, which introduces many new features and solves most of the bugs that Honeycomb had.
Here are three confirmed tablets that will run the "full" Ice Cream Sandwich version of Android, and will be available soon.
Acer Iconia Tab A200
What does the new Iconia Tab have going for it, to put it ahead of the pack? A 10.1-inch screen and a $349 price tag for the standard 16 GB version. (An 8 GB version will also be available for $329.)
According to Geoff Duncan of Digital Trends, it will come with Android 3.2 Honeycomb when it launches on Jan. 15, but will be "upgradable" to Ice Cream Sandwich in February. Its other stats are typical of last year's high-end Android tablets, except for its full-size USB port.
Toshiba Excite X10
Cameron Summerson of Android Police had a hands-on preview of this upcoming tablet, which is "expected to be available" sometime in the first quarter. It will have a 1.2 GHz dual-core processor, 1 GB of RAM and a 10.1-inch display. MicroSD and miniHDMI ports are standard. Prices will start at $530 for the 16 GB model, and it will come with Android 3.2 and be "Ice Cream Sandwich ready."
So what makes the Excite X10 worth its price tag? That's debatable, but at only 7.7 millimeters thick it'll be the thinnest tablet in the world when it comes out.
Lenovo IdeaTab K2
Brandon Lancaster of Android Police summarizes Engadget's hands-on: This 10-inch behemoth has a 1,920-by-1,200 IPS display, with more than twice the resolution of a normal 10-inch tablet and full non-washed out color from any angle. It also has a Tegra 3 quad-core processor and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich out of the box, plus a fingerprint scanner that can be used as a mouse-style pointing device (or will be once it's ready).
According to Engadget's Richard Lai, however, the IdeaTab K2 will be released in China first. There's no word yet on when it will reach the States or how much it will cost. But with those specs, it will probably be expensive, as it's "aimed at high-end business users".
Jared Spurbeck is an open-source software enthusiast, who uses an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop PC. He has been writing about technology and electronics since 2008.
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