IT Pro Verdict

Bigger and bolder than the iPad, but not polished enough or convenient enough to mount a serious challenge

published 21 June 2010

But where the joojoo and the iPad really begin to diverge is in their mode of operation, because the joojoo is an internet tablet only. That means you can't install apps to the joojoo's 4GB SSD, but neither are there any basic ones pre-installed; not even an email client. It makes up for this lack by including support for the one thing Apple refuses to back: Flash.

Not only that, but the joojoo also multitasks effectively, so you could open a BBC radio iPlayer stream in the background while working on an Adobe Buzzword document in the foreground and, when you get bored of working, fire up Fantastic Contraption for a bit of a break or read a free book from Project Gutenberg.

And, once you're browsing, the joojoo works very well indeed. You'll soon be wondering why no-one thought of inventing tablet computing sooner. Oddly, you need two fingers rather than one for scrolling, but you soon get used to this, and the speed with which you can flick between open pages is truly impressive. The on-screen keyboard is speedy and responsive to type on too.

All the Flash-based content we tried worked (though note the keyboard doesn't have cursor keys, so you won't be able to play all Flash games), and JavaScript performance was very impressive indeed. The joojoo's WebKit browser completed the SunSpider benchmark in 1,762ms compared to the iPad's 10,864ms. The device's front-facing webcam allows for a spot of meebo.com video calling too.