Let the rumors subside: Dell will indeed have a Tablet PC this year and you can see it showcased in a short video right on the Direct2Dell blog! My first impressions: this looks light and very thin, possibly the thinnest convertible yet! I see a fingerprint reader and several hardware buttons and heard "pen and touch", but there’s not much else to be gleaned just yet. If I had to guess, I’d say this is around a 12-inch widescreen unit. According to Jeff Clarke from Dell, the tablet is designed for the education, healthcare and corporate marketplaces, which is a wide ranging group. Might we see many configuration options?
Here’s a snapshot of just how thin this baby is:
Thanks Bob for the heads up!
Fingerprint reader and no webcam. The opposite would be better with the education market they plan to “hit”…
If this was a leak, investigating the leak would be no problem. That shirt is unmistakeable. :)
Hmmm, looks very Compaq-ish.
Looks really thin and light. Nice.
I’ve never had a tablet before, how do the screens hold up to the pen/finger scratch wise. I heard there is something called X2 on the Lenovo that makes the screen scratch-resistant, but I thought maybe a plastic screen protector may be needed (like the ones for PDAs)? I’m a little worried that the glue that makes the plastic stick to the screen may do more damage than a fingernail or pen, but then again, maybe it wont. Any suggestions?
By the looks of it, this jives with what Dell discussed with our institution in a few months back. I assume since it’s public now, it can be discussed… this video seems to confirm what was said – that it is *not* a D-series product as some have rumored (in the powerpoint it was called the Latitude XT I believe). However, something to note is that we were told “pen and touch” as well, but that the pen was not an active digitizer, just a stylus like the 1610. I hope this spec has changed since then, as I love the active digitizer myself, and dual-use would be quite convenient. Also of note was that one of the reasons Dell states they took so long to get a product, was that the chassis, particularly the swivel hinge, had to live up to latitude durability standards. The primary reason however was supposedly Vista, because they felt XP’s tablet support was lacking. Battery life was also supposed to be good on this device, but that’s always in the air until we actually see it.
I look forward to this making market – if it lives up to expectations it could really be a product leader and get convertible tablets moving in the direction they must to be truly successful – durable, thin, light, powerful and long battery life. And since it’s Dell it will get the business market penetration to maybe cut down on the people still saying they don’t “get the point” of tablets.
That tablet oc really looks great. I hae used one from FS before and was not very satisfied with the results! I’d rather use the m1330 subnotebook from Dell. If you have time, check it out at http://www.dell-m1330-info.com.
The tablet comes with no cd drive, but the docking station has one (thats why it’s so thin)
The screen is pen touch enables, but also you can use your finger. but note that if you plan to use fingers I suggest you make icons larger, I find it almost impossible to use with normal sized icons.
the specs on the test model that I’m using are 1.2 ghz core solo
~2gb ram
but those are likely to change by the time it goes public.
currently the fingerprint scanner isn’t enabled, and may be either kept as an option or dropped completly on the public model
PS: the pen is an active digitizer
PS: the pen is an active digitizer