ViewSonic’s new 10 inch tablet packs both Android and Windows

After several Android tablets under its belt, ViewSonic is trying something different, with a new 10.1 inch slate bundling in both Windows 7 and Google’s Android OS.

Packing in an Intel Atom processor – a fairly uncommon choice for current tablets – the ViewSonic ViewPad 10pro includes 32GB of storage with two operating systems installed onto it: Windows 7 and Google Android 2.2 “Froyo”. To let you switch between them, ViewSonic says that a button on the tablet will give you “near instant switching” between each OS.

With Windows 7 available on a tablet, you can expect access to apps you normally use on a Windows-based laptop, while still being able to take advantage of apps common to Android-equipped smartphones.

While we haven’t played with the new tablet, we have been warned that some Android apps might not play nicely with the tablet, thanks to the version of Android OS the tablet uses. Also, unlike other 10 inch tablets we’re seeing lately, the 10pro takes comes with the mobile version of Android and not the made-for-tablet Honeycomb edition that we’ve seen on premium devices.

The ViewPad will also throw in a microSD slot for storage, support for WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1, and a 1.3 megapixel front camera.

ViewSonic says that the ViewPad 10pro is heading to stores now and will arrive in two versions, with the Windows 7 Home Premium edition fetching $849 RRP and the Windows 7 Professional grabbing $50 more at $899.