April cool. This tablet’s no blarney

NOT too long ago, if I’d written a column about one big tech company releasing a smartphone with not one, not two, but three rear cameras, and another bringing to market a tablet PC aimed at South African schools that runs on an operating system that’s essentially an upscaled web browser, you’d have thought I was pulling an April Fool’s prank on you.

But that’s just what’s happened in the past week and, far from being a joke, these are serious, pretty darn compelling products. Let’s look at that tablet first. books.

There’s a 2MP HD webcam on the front which, with dual speakers and microphone, will allow for chats over Google Hangouts, while the rear 5MP camera enables pupils to capture video and images.

Another big drawcard is that the device comes standard with a Wacom EMR stylus, allowing pupils to make best use of interactive apps, sketch, take notes and capture ideas. The stylus is embedded in the chassis dock for secure storage. Plus it doesn’t require a battery and is resistant to accidental drops.

Acer claims a battery life of up to nine hours, enough for a full school day, although schools with dedicated labs and wireless carts can use the tablet over several days of classroom time.

Throw in future support for augmented reality, the USB 3.1

Type-c Gen 1 port, which can be used to charge the device as well as other products, transfer data quickly up to 5Gbps and connect to an HD display, as well as the combo headphone/ speaker jack and a Microsd card reader, and this starts to look like an attractive proposition indeed.

The new Acer Chromebook Tab 10 will be available to education and commercial customers in South Africa in May with prices starting at

R4 999. I hear, the threecamera set-up is more than just a clever gimmick.

To start with, there’s an improved version of Huawei’s Leica dual-camera system, which pairs a traditional 12-megapixel colour camera to a 20-megapixel monochrome one. But the P20 Pro also has a third, eightmegapixel telephoto camera below the other two, which offers a “hybrid zoom” of up to 5X. Huawei says this enables the phone to

“see brighter, further, faster and with richer colour”.

This, combined with a beefed-up version of Huawei’s AI system for the camera, which recognises objects and scenes, should make for one of the best smartphone cameras available.

Combine this with IP67 water resistance, the very latest version of Google’s Android operating system (Oreo 8.1) and a 4000mah battery delivering a claimed two days of use between charges and you’ve got a really attractive looking package.

The Chinese tech heavyweight also revealed a lower-specced P20 with just the dual-camera setup, but with many of the other drawcards of its big brother, as well as an upgraded version of its Mate phablet, the Mate RS Porsche Design, now also featuring a triple-camera system.

I’ll know more about these products, as well as the local pricing and availability, after this Thursday’s South African launch, so watch this space.

Follow Cooper on Twitter @ alanqcooper