Chinese manufacturer Huawei hit London on Monday night for the launch of its upcoming Vision smartphone and MediaPad tablet. Although the MediaPad is not due out in the UK until the first quarter 2012, we managed to get our hands on one of the devices at the launch party.

The MediaPad is a 7in tablet running Android Honeycomb 3.2. It has a unibody design, measuring 10.5mm thick and weighing in at 390g, and features a 1280x800 screen, which Huawei claims as full HD.

The tablet had a very similar look and feel to the HTC Flyer and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7in version. Compared to holding the 600g iPad, it’s noticeably lighter, and we’ve always found 7in tablets much easier to type on in portrait mode while holding the device.

There wasn’t much lag when switching between landscape and portrait modes, however we didn’t find the MediaPad touchscreen as responsive as some other tablet models, especially the iPad. It was also slower to load pages than other models we’ve used, although the 3G connection could have had some part in this.

There’s a 5-megapixel camera on the rear, and a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera for video calling. Video playback was smooth, although those purchasing a tablet mostly for watching video or TV would be better opting for a 10in model.

The MediaPad runs a 1.2Ghz Qualcomm processor, which Huawei said makes it fantastic for gaming. Certainly Angry Birds seemed to run well on the device.

Huawei claims that the battery will last for more than six hours. It will also have Wi-Fi, HSPA+ 3G and an HDMI port. The MediaPad will be priced at £330 in the UK.

As the MediaPad is very similar to the Samsung Galaxy Tab, we asked Huawei if it was concerned that Apple would start legal proceedings against the firm for copying the look and feel of the iPad.

However, the spokesman said that Huawei was not concerned about that at all. He dismissed the Apple patent as being based on just one diagram, adding that he felt Samsung would be the eventual winner in the legal battle.

When we asked Huawei what the key differentiators were between its tablet and other existing models, it cited Honeycomb 3.2 and the full HD video feature. However, the 7in Acer Iconia Tab A100 already runs Android 3.2. The 1280x800 resolution is unique to the MediaPad among 7in tablets, although among 10in models it’s common.

Huawei is aiming the MediaPad at women, as it says that the current 10in models are favoured by men and so feels there’s a gap in the market for a device that females can fit in their handbags. However, Huawei declined to share any sales targets for the tablet, so it’s difficult to ascertain how successful the firm thinks this will be.

Overall we’d say the price point of the tablet could see it fall between the gaps. Current tablet buyers seem to be after one thing – the Apple brand, and will dig deep for an iPad. However, the £300+ price tag will put it out of reach of the bargain hunters, after the cheaper models to just try out this tablet fad. 

We’ll have a full review of the MediaPad up soon.

V3 got its hands on the forthcoming HTC Jetstream Android Honeycomb tablet that aims to take on the iPad 2 and Samsung Galaxy 10.1.

The Jetstream has already been released in the US and looks to be the fastest Android tablet on the market in terms of raw processing power. The 10in device is powered by a 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm processor making it twice as fast as the 7in HTC Flyer, which was the Taiwanese firm's first tablet.

We found the Jetstream very responsive and we don't envisage the radical decline in performance over time that happened with the Flyer.

The Jetstream looks and feels remarkably similar to the Motorola Xoom in terms of design. The HTC tablet is not as svelte as the Apple and Samsung devices, but this isn't a bad thing. Build-quality also seems to have been improved, HTC going for the metallic look and solid back cover.

Hardware highlights on the Jetstream include an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera and support for the superfast 4G LTE network. Sadly, the latter will be cut out from the UK device, as the infrastructure is not yet in place.

The Jetstream will be the first HTC tablet to ship with Android Honeycomb in the UK. We are glad to see that HTC customised its Sense interface for Honeycomb, something that has taken some time.

The Sense overlay is generally deemed one of the best features of HTC devices. The Jetstream comes with familiar customisations, including an interactive lockscreen, carousel and widgets, and is unlikely to break the trend.

A potential stumbling block could be the battery life. HTC devices can struggle to last a full day as they need to power the resource-hungry Sense overlay. It will be interesting to see whether the manufacturer has managed to fix this problem, considering the 10in display.

Pricing could be another barrier to purchase. The 7in Flyer was initially set at around £600 and, although this has been reduced, ii's still one of the most expensive on the market despite not having the best performance.

V3.co.uk got some hands-on time with the forthcoming Archos G9 tablet range at the launch event in central London last night.

There are two sizes being offered by Archos - the 8in and 10.1in - the only difference being the weight, screen size and resolution.

Both G9 models are powered by an ARM Cortex dual-core A9 processor with a clock speed of 1.5GHz, making them 50 per cent faster than tablets currently on the market. However, it remains to be seen whether this will still be the case when they are launched in September.

Although performance of the G9 tablets was quick, navigating around the Honeycomb interface didn't appear any faster than existing tablets. The main performance gains are likely to be in the video output (the device ia capable of playing back full 1080p content) and internet performance.

The 8in G9 features a display with a resolution of 1,024x768, whereas the 10.1in model has a slightly sharper 1,280x800 resolution. Archos will offer the choice between 16GB of Flash memory or 250GB of HDD space, depending on requirements, the latter likely to appeal to business users.

In terms of design, both versions of the G9 did feel a little bulky. The 8in has a starting weight of 465g if users opt for 16GB of Flash storage, rising to 599g if the 250GB HDD is chosen.

Although the basic 8in device is only slightly heavier than the 7in BlackBerry PlayBook (425g) the Archos has a much larger chassis and cannot fit into a jacket pocket, unlike RIM's device.

The 10in model has a starting weight of 649g with 16GB of memory, or 755g with the 250GB HDD. This makes it heavier than the similar sized iPad 2 (613g) and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 (589g).

One of the unique features is the 3G USB dongle, which fits into the back of the chassis. This is incorporated into the design well, and allows the use of a SIM card from an existing dongle to connect to the internet.

The trademark kickstand has also been retained in both models, but there is only one position that can be used, unlike the previous Archos 101 tablet, which had two fixable positions.

Archos claims that the devices will ship with the updated Android Honeycomb 3.1. This will be the standard version of the operating system, with no overlay provided. Access to the Android Market is expected to be included, as are the traditional Google applications.

It's fair to say that the French manufacturer offers some of the best budget tablets on the market and the G9 series looks to continue this trend. We slightly preferred the 8in device and, with prices starting at £199 for the 16GB model, it looks like a solid offering for business users on a budget.

The 10in device could attract those who watch a lot of multimedia and is reasonably priced at £279.

Watch our hands-on videos of the 80 G9 and the 101 G9.

Dell is to launch a 10in Android Honeycomb tablet this summer, as the firm looks to have another crack at the tablet market.

The Dell Streak Pro is yet to be officially announced, but widespread reports suggest that it is imminent and will come with some meaty specifications, including a 1GHz dual-core Nvidia Tegra 2 processor and a 1,280x800 resolution display.

The tablet will come with 16GB, 32GB or 64GB of internal storage and connectivity in the form of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Reports suggest that Dell will start shipping the device in June.

V3.co.uk contacted Dell to confirm specifications, pricing and availability, but the firm had not responded at the time of writing.

It will be interesting to see how well a 10in tablet from Dell does in an increasingly competitive market. The firm had moderate success when it launched one of the first hybrid smartphone/tablets in the form of the Dell Streak. But its successor, the Dell Streak 7 has failed to set the world alight since its launch last month.

With high-profile firms such as Samsung and LG set to launch devices, and even Amazon tipped to release a ‘Super Kindle' Android tablet, Dell is likely to have its work cut out.