Fusion Garage's JooJoo tablet may not have set the world ablaze when it launched in 2009, but that hasn't stopped the Singapore-based company from making a fresh foray into the Apple dominated space. Fusion Garage has unveiled Grid10, a new 10.1-inch tablet running an Android kernel-based OS known as GridOS. The company has also announced a 4-inch smartphone - Grid4 - which runs on the same customized OS.
The JooJoo tablet was initially referred to as the CrunchPad and it was actually an initiative by Techcrunch's Michael Arrington, who eventually did not participate in the 2009 release of a Linux-based 12.1-inch tablet PC. The JooJoo tablet failed to succeed and Fusion Garage's founder Chandrasekar Rathakrishnan announced its "end of life" back in November 2010, while ensuring that the company will return with new products.
After a bit of a cryptic build-up (Fusion Garage is the company behind the "mystery" TabCo teaser marketing campaign that's been grabbing some YouTube attention in recent times), that return now has a name - the Grid10 and Grid4.
Grid10 tablet
The Grid10 tablet features a 10.1-inch touchscreen (with muti-touch) running at 1366 x 768 pixels resolution and it's powered via Nvidia Tegra 2 platform with a 1.2Ghz CPU and 512MB RAM. It also comes with 16GB storage expandable through micro SD card reader, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1 +EDR, 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera, HDMI output, GPS, accelerometer, optional HSDPA support, while it's battery comes with 5,800 mAh capacity. Based on Android kernel, the GridOS comes with a gesture- and wheel-based UI, where a tap on the screen brings a wheel with a selection of options to choose from. It also offers some smooth 3D animations. Fusion Garage has implemented Bing search engine and there's also a Grid Shop service with apps to download, although Android Market apps are also supported. According to the product website, Grid10 tablet sells with a selection of basic apps to provide multimedia playback, maps, calendar, internet browsing, contacts and the like.
Grid10 measures 274.2 x 173.5 x 13.9mm (10.8 x 6.83 x 0.55 in) and it weighs 690 g (1.52lbs). The tablet is available for pre-order via Amazon, priced at US$599 for WiFi and 3G version or US$499 for the WiFi only version. Shipping begins on September 15.
Grid4 smartphone
Along with the Grid10 tablet, Fusion Garage unveiled its 4-inch smartphone also running GridOS. Measuring just 9.9 mm (0.39 in) thick, Grid4 features a 4-inch, 800 x 480 touchscreen and a 5-megapixel rear camera with LED flash and 720p video recording, while its front facing camera is 0.3-megapixel. The smartphone is powered via Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8255 and 512MB RAM, and comes with 16GB of built-in storage. Grid4 features the same UI as the tablet and comes pre-loaded with nearly the same lineup of apps. Grid4 is expected to be available in Q4 201 at a price of US$399.
