Creative ZiiO 7 Android Tablet Hopes to Rock Your World

The most recent entry into the slate sphere, the Creative ZiiO 7 is being billed as an entertainment tablet. Going for $249 in the Creative.com web store, this 7-inch, 800 x 400-pixel resolution iPad competitor running Android 2.1 looks a bit like the Samsung Galaxy Tab. But the ZiiO 7′s claim to fame is audio quality, such as built-in X-Fi support for restoring quality lost during compression. The preloaded Pure Android Audio app offers audio-enhancement options for output to headphones or Bluetooth 2.1 speakers (such as those available from Creative).

The specs are rounded out with 8GB of storage (with an option to upgrade to 16GB for $20 more), 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, and a front-facing VGA camera. The processor is a ZiiLABS ZMS-08 HD. Creative has its own ZiiStore that comes preloaded, and is where you can go to download apps, games and eBooks, so presumably there’s no Android Market here.

Other preinstalled apps include ZiiMusic, ZiiPhoto, ZiiVideo, ZiiExplorer (for managing apps), Task Manager, ZiiAcademy (ePUB book reader), RSS Reader, Status Control Bar, Mail (for POP3 accounts), Notepad, Browser, Calendar, Clock, and ZiiMicrophone. There is no support for PDF documents, and no word processing doc pre-installed.