Vizio made a name for itself by selling tons of affordable, yet quality, flat-screen TVs, and helping make the HDTV more of a standard household accessory. Now the company wants to do the same for smartphones and tablets. Details about the eight-inch Via Tablet and four-inch Via Phone are not 100-percent filled in, but we do know that they'll be arriving this summer, and that they'll be running Android (likely Honeycomb) with 1Ghz processors. The phone will have a five-megapixel rear-facing camera as well as a front-facing cam for video calls. What carrier the device is destined for is a mystery, but we do know it will be packing a full assortment of connectivity options, including GPS, Wi-Fi N and HDMI. The tablet loses the 3G and GPS, but it will have a "high-resolution screen," Wi-Fi, "three speakers" and a front-facing camera, according to the Wall Street Journal. Pricing is also still up in the air, but expect the devices to be surprisingly affordable.
Vizio spilled the beans on its 2011 plans to the Journal ahead of CES. Also in store from is a new line up of dirt-cheap 3-D TVs starting under $300, as well as Google TV-powered devices (which the company is branding as Via Plus) and a new video on-demand service, predictably called Vizio On Demand.
