Hardware

T-Mobile G-Slate Hits This Spring: 8.9", Tegra 2, 3D Support

Comment


T-Mobile and LG’s G-Slate, one of the first devices to sport Android 3.0, has just been made more official than before, with specs, release date, and even real pictures. It’s got an 8.9″ screen and an NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor, that should enable HD content playback.

The screen’s resolution is 1280×720, so you can watch HD stuff in its native resolution — or you can use its HDMI port and send out a full 1080p signal to your TV.

The most surprising spec? 3D support. You can take 3D pictures using the two cameras on the back, and view 3D content, though it isn’t autostereoscopic, as the rumors held. 3D is displayed in anaglyph form, and uses glasses that will be provided with the tablet. What the hell? Pretty weird. Anyway. The main rear camera is five megapixels and will take 1080p video. The resolution of the 3D video isn’t clear, but it also isn’t 1080p.

It also has 4G connectivity, or at least what T-Mobile calls 4G, AKA HSPA.

The built-in storage is 32GB, and although there’s no mention of an SD card slot, I’d be quite surprised if there isn’t one. Then you’ve got a gyroscope, accelerometer, light sensor, and the usual tablet fixins.

No price yet, and “Spring” isn’t really a date, but we’ll probably get the rest of the info in a few weeks. I’d guess you’ll see it for $300 subsidized with a plan, and the plans will probably be… let’s say $25/mo. Just a guess.

Update: Commenter benmarvin points out a leak I’d forgotten about. The rumored date for release is March 23rd.

Here’s the full press release:

T-Mobile and LG Mobile Phones Unveil the T-Mobile G-Slate With Google,
Delivering a Premium Mobile HD Entertainment Experience on a Tablet

The 4G Android 3.0 Tablet Enables 3D and HD Capture, Viewing and Sharing

BELLEVUE, Wash., and SAN DIEGO — Feb. 2, 2011 — T-Mobile USA, Inc. and LG Mobile
Phones today unveiled their Android™ 3.0 (Honeycomb)-powered tablet, the T-Mobile® G-Slate™
with Google™ by LG. With a brilliant, high-definition (HD) 8.9-inch, 3D-capable multi-touch display,
the T-Mobile G-Slate delivers a groundbreaking mobile entertainment experience, including the ability
to record 3D and full HD video.

Expected to be available this spring, G-Slate is built for speed on America’s Largest 4G Network™
and is the first tablet in T-Mobile’s pioneering G-series of devices, which began with the world’s first
Android-powered smartphone just over two years ago. The first 4G tablet from T-Mobile and LG, the
G-Slate is powered by Android 3.0 (Honeycomb), the latest version of Google’s Android platform,
which is optimized for tablets. In addition, the G-Slate will be among the first tablets to feature 3D
capabilities including built-in support for 3D graphics, enabling consumers to capture and share their
own 3D videos and experience 3D HD content right on the device with the aid of 3D glasses.

―The G-Slate represents the next chapter in T-Mobile’s rich history of Android innovation,‖ said Brad
Duea, senior vice president, marketing, T-Mobile USA. ―Tablets enable users to take with them the
rich Web and entertainment experiences they have at home, and this will radically shift the way people
interact with and consume content while mobile. The G-Slate delivers a powerful combination of
premium mobile HD entertainment and T-Mobile’s lightning-fast 4G mobile broadband network.‖

―We are excited to introduce the T-Mobile G-Slate by LG, which offers consumers an engaging new
way to communicate, entertain and stay connected,‖ said Tim O’Brien, vice president of marketing for
LG Mobile Phones. ―Bringing consumers the latest in revolutionary HD tablet technology and an
Android platform perfectly optimized for tablet use, G-Slate provides a unique multimedia
experience.‖

The sleek, lightweight G-Slate can easily be held upright in one hand for reading an eBook or
magazine, watching streaming TV or browsing the Web while on the go. Featuring a rear-facing
stereoscopic video recorder with 1080p for HD video capture and a 5 megapixel camera with LED
flash, the G-Slate makes it easy to capture moments on video or with a photo. With the front-facing
camera, customers can video chat with friends and family over T-Mobile’s network or Wi-Fi with
Google Talk™. The G-Slate also supports 720p HD on-device video playback and HDMI output to
show 1080p content on 3-D and HD displays. With a NVIDIA Tegra 2 mobile processor with dual-
core CPU and full Adobe® Flash® Player support, the G-Slate enables quick and seamless browsing
of rich Web content, multitasking and gaming. The G-Slate will also provide a superior entertainment
experience when streaming live TV or downloading music and videos with lightning-fast speed over
T-Mobile’s 4G network.
In addition, the G-Slate includes 32 GB of internal memory and features a built-in gyroscope,
accelerometer and adaptive lighting for the latest applications and the ultimate gaming experience.

T-Mobile’s 4G network, America’s largest 4G network, has expanded into more than 100 major
metropolitan areas, reaching more than 200 million people nationwide. Beginning today, T-Mobile’s
network is also delivering 4G speeds to Albany, Augusta, Columbus and Macon, Ga., and
Chattanooga, Tenn., in the South region as well as in Champaign, Ill.; Lansing, Mich.; and Rochester,
Minn., in the Midwest. In addition to the expanding its 4G footprint, T-Mobile has aggressive plans to
double the speed of its 4G network in 2011. T-Mobile expects that 140 million Americans in 25 major
metropolitan areas will have access to these increased 4G speeds by midyear.

Visit the T-Mobile G-Slate product page to register for updates.

More TechCrunch

Around 550 employees across autonomous vehicle company Motional have been laid off, according to information taken from WARN notice filings and sources at the company.  Earlier this week, TechCrunch reported…

The deck included some redacted numbers, but there was still enough data to get a good picture.

Pitch Deck Teardown: Cloudsmith’s $15M Series A deck

The company is describing the event as “a chance to demo some ChatGPT and GPT-4 updates.”

OpenAI’s ChatGPT announcement: What we know so far

Unlike ChatGPT, Claude did not become a new App Store hit.

Anthropic’s Claude sees tepid reception on iOS compared with ChatGPT’s debut

Welcome to Startups Weekly — Haje‘s weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Friday. Look,…

Startups Weekly: Trouble in EV land and Peloton is circling the drain

Scarcely five months after its founding, hard tech startup Layup Parts has landed a $9 million round of financing led by Founders Fund to transform composites manufacturing. Lux Capital and Haystack…

Founders Fund leads financing of composites startup Layup Parts

AI startup Anthropic is changing its policies to allow minors to use its generative AI systems — in certain circumstances, at least.  Announced in a post on the company’s official…

Anthropic now lets kids use its AI tech — within limits

Zeekr’s market hype is noteworthy and may indicate that investors see value in the high-quality, low-price offerings of Chinese automakers.

The buzziest EV IPO of the year is a Chinese automaker

Venture capital has been hit hard by souring macroeconomic conditions over the past few years and it’s not yet clear how the market downturn affected VC fund performance. But recent…

VC fund performance is down sharply — but it may have already hit its lowest point

The person who claims to have 49 million Dell customer records told TechCrunch that he brute-forced an online company portal and scraped customer data, including physical addresses, directly from Dell’s…

Threat actor says he scraped 49M Dell customer addresses before the company found out

The social network has announced an updated version of its app that lets you offer feedback about its algorithmic feed so you can better customize it.

Bluesky now lets you personalize main Discover feed using new controls

Microsoft will launch its own mobile game store in July, the company announced at the Bloomberg Technology Summit on Thursday. Xbox president Sarah Bond shared that the company plans to…

Microsoft is launching its mobile game store in July

Smart ring maker Oura is launching two new features focused on heart health, the company announced on Friday. The first claims to help users get an idea of their cardiovascular…

Oura launches two new heart health features

Keeping up with an industry as fast-moving as AI is a tall order. So until an AI can do it for you, here’s a handy roundup of recent stories in the world…

This Week in AI: OpenAI considers allowing AI porn

Garena is quietly developing new India-themed games even though Free Fire, its biggest title, has still not made a comeback to the country.

Garena is quietly making India-themed games even as Free Fire’s relaunch remains doubtful

The U.S.’ NHTSA has opened a fourth investigation into the Fisker Ocean SUV, spurred by multiple claims of “inadvertent Automatic Emergency Braking.”

Fisker Ocean faces fourth federal safety probe

CoreWeave has formally opened an office in London that will serve as its European headquarters and home to two new data centers.

CoreWeave, a $19B AI compute provider, opens European HQ in London with plans for 2 UK data centers

The Series C funding, which brings its total raise to around $95 million, will go toward mass production of the startup’s inaugural products

AI chip startup DEEPX secures $80M Series C at a $529M valuation 

A dust-up between Evolve Bank & Trust, Mercury and Synapse has led TabaPay to abandon its acquisition plans of troubled banking-as-a-service startup Synapse.

Infighting among fintech players has caused TabaPay to ‘pull out’ from buying bankrupt Synapse

The problem is not the media, but the message.

Apple’s ‘Crush’ ad is disgusting

The Twitter for Android client was “a demo app that Google had created and gave to us,” says Particle co-founder and ex-Twitter employee Sara Beykpour.

Google built some of the first social apps for Android, including Twitter and others

WhatsApp is updating its mobile apps for a fresh and more streamlined look, while also introducing a new “darker dark mode,” the company announced on Thursday. The messaging app says…

WhatsApp’s latest update streamlines navigation and adds a ‘darker dark mode’

Plinky lets you solve the problem of saving and organizing links from anywhere with a focus on simplicity and customization.

Plinky is an app for you to collect and organize links easily

The keynote kicks off at 10 a.m. PT on Tuesday and will offer glimpses into the latest versions of Android, Wear OS and Android TV.

Google I/O 2024: How to watch

For cancer patients, medicines administered in clinical trials can help save or extend lives. But despite thousands of trials in the United States each year, only 3% to 5% of…

Triomics raises $15M Series A to automate cancer clinical trials matching

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! Tap, tap.…

Tesla drives Luminar lidar sales and Motional pauses robotaxi plans

The newly announced “Public Content Policy” will now join Reddit’s existing privacy policy and content policy to guide how Reddit’s data is being accessed and used by commercial entities and…

Reddit locks down its public data in new content policy, says use now requires a contract

Eva Ho plans to step away from her position as general partner at Fika Ventures, the Los Angeles-based seed firm she co-founded in 2016. Fika told LPs of Ho’s intention…

Fika Ventures co-founder Eva Ho will step back from the firm after its current fund is deployed

In a post on Werner Vogels’ personal blog, he details Distill, an open-source app he built to transcribe and summarize conference calls.

Amazon’s CTO built a meeting-summarizing app for some reason

Paris-based Mistral AI, a startup working on open source large language models — the building block for generative AI services — has been raising money at a $6 billion valuation,…

Sources: Mistral AI raising at a $6B valuation, SoftBank ‘not in’ but DST is