On the surface, Pioneer Computer's DreamBook H10 HD Tablet looks to be a reasonable example of an Android 3.2 (Honeycomb) tablet. Its big 10in multi-touch capacitive screen features 1,280 x 800-pixel resolution and it’s powered by a 1GHz dual-core Nvidia Tegra 2 processor. There are dual cameras (front 2MP and rear 5MP), there’s 16GB of onboard storage, plus a microSD card slot for adding up to 32GB more. Unlike some other Pioneer Android tablets we’ve seen, this one comes with Android Market and Gmail preinstalled.
However, there were a few things we weren’t fond of. First, Pioneer claimed ‘flawless 1080p video playback’ on its web site. We didn’t see it — the H10 HD comes with what we think is a tiny Type D HDMI port for video output (the unit doesn’t include one, so we were unable to test this aspect), but even on the tablet’s own display, the H10 couldn't downscale 1080p H.264 video to the native 1,280 x 800-pixel resolution and maintain a full frame rate — not even close. Another thing we didn’t like is the power brick — its connector is a proprietary dock connector, so replacement can only come from Pioneer.
On the upside, the Android 3.2 interface was swift and smooth, the built-in YouTube app worked pretty well, although we suspect the HD videos we saw were only 720p (1,280 x 720-pixel) versions, and even they were a bit jittery. The H10 HD comes in two versions: Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi + 3G. For the latter, all you need to do is add a SIM card and you’re away.
However, at $599 for the Wi-Fi version and $699 for the 3G model, it’s too expensive. Major retailers are selling Toshiba, Acer and ASUS 16GB 10in Android tablets for under $500 and with Apple pushing the 16GB Wi-Fi iPad 2 for $579, the H10 HD just isn’t competitive enough.
