Sharp on Wednesday announced a 7-inch tablet PC that can serve as a WiMAX router.

The GALAPAGOS EB-A71GJ-B model runs on Android 3.2 OS and will be released on Dec. 17 in Japan.



The new tablet hooks into a UQ Communcations's WiMAX network and can tether up to seven devices. The high-speed wireless technology has peak download speeds of 40 Mbps, with uploads at 10 Mbps.

The new Galapagos tablet features a 7-inch display (1,024 x 600) and it is powered by an Nvidia Tegra 2 dual-core CPU. Other features include front (5mpx) and rear cameras (2mpx), 16 GB of RAM expandable to 32GB with microSD / SDHC cards, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, HDMI output and Wi-fi IEEE 802.11 b/g/n. The tablet weighs 396 grams and comes with Android 3.2 installed. It's battery is able to power up to 6 hours of video playback (MPEG's 480p-4 AVC/H.264).