Quite a few people have been hoping that PC maker Dell would come out with a Tablet PC. Not only would a Dell Tablet PC help validate the platform it would also make it easier for companies who use Dell computers exclusively to make Tablet PCs available for those employees who prefer them. There have been rumors of a Dell Tablet PC for months and I recently received some additional information that sounds very credible. A jkOnTheRun reader who wishes to remain anonymous recently discussed the Dell Tablet with two Dell representatives at two different public events and this is what he was told by Dell:
- Dell will release a Tablet PC in the September/ October 2007 time frame
- The Tablet PC will be based on the Latitude D420 notebook computer and will be a convertible Tablet.
- It will be compatible with all Latitude D series accessories such as docking stations, power adapters, etc.
- This Tablet PC will be the last system released in the popular Latitude D series.
- The Dell Tablet PC will have an active digitizer only.
- Wireless Broadband will be an option
- Widescreen display
Like all Dell Tablet PC rumors you need to take this with a grain of salt but it seems like a very credible piece of information. It’s worth a look at the Latitude D420 specs to get a feel for what the Tablet PC might have under the hood:
- Intel Core Duo up to 1.2 GHz processor
- Up to 2 GB of RAM
- Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 (up to 224 MB shared memory)
- WXGA (1280 x 800) 12 " widescreen
- SATA hard drive (up to 60 GB)
- Three primary battery options (4, 6, 9 cell)
- Bluetooth, WiFi (a/b/g)
- WWAN CDMA from Verizon
James,
This may be true, but I heard the same exact rumor last year. But the rumor said that the talet was going to be released by Oct 2006.
Personally I’m waiting for a Dell (or HP for that matter) UMPC. It has to happen within the next year in my opinion (Fujitsu is now on board suggesting these are becoming mainstream devices)
Your post is now being reported by Engadget quote “jkOnTheRun (which has tons of cred when it comes to this stuff)”
http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/22/dell-tablet-pc-coming-this-fall/
There a rumour the HP TX1000 series has a new model out in the UK in May at John Lewis stores (tx1183 from memory). Hopefully this time it will have an active digitiser and Intel chips
ew lets hope those specs get a bump before/if its released.
I would suspect that Dell would handle this as a refresh as well as Tablet based on the D420 so I wouldn’t be surprised if the specs got bumped quite a bit. The engadget quote is pretty cool, especially coming from Peter Rojas himself. I’ve met Peter a couple of times and he’s a genuinely great guy. He uses a Dell ultra-portable laptop even smaller than the D420 so who knows, maybe we’ll get him on a tablet yet. :)
Indeed those specs are sooo last centrury,lol. Many new Tablets are now at least Core Duo. One good thing though is this will hopefully lower the prices on Tablet PCs.
From an engadget comment
“My Dell rep (I work for a large university) confirmed at our last meeting that a Dell tablet would be released in Q3 this year. I have a dell road map that indicates this as well, but it doesn’t have any specs or anything really useful.”
Sounds like an Edsel to me.
Two years ago in NYC Michael Dell answered niche, niche, niche when asked about a Tablet PC.
Intel’s Santa Rosa chipset is due out in about three weeks, along with the Core2Duo it will be x64 so you can add 4 gigs of RAM.
When we get a comparably GPU the Tablet PC will be amazing!
Actually, I have sat in on a large university Dell rep meeting as well, and he confirmed the existence of the tablet, but he was almost sure that it was being released under a new name (not the D-series) so it will not be compatible with D-Series docks, etc. Also, he showed a roadmap with MANY more D-Series notebooks on it, so that will run for at LEAST another year or so.
As Dell are already pushing their D430′s to large global organisations for testing, why would they base a tablet on a 420?