Windows 8 Tablet in action (Acer Iconia W510)

[buckshot24]

Can it play Crysis?

haha

 

[ITHURTSWHENIP]

why does this $500 tablet have a 1366x768 screen when the 9" Kindle and Nook have 1920x1200 screens and cost less than $300 ?

tablets are all about the screen.

Most likely its a chassi requirement by Microsoft to avoid cannibalizing sales. If you notice all the "Atom" processors have low resolutions while the I series processors have 1080P screens

 

[dguy6789]

Atom cpu. 1366x768.

Why does this sound like a $500 netbook with a touchscreen instead of a keyboard ?

Surely I'm wrong ?

A netbook with a touch screen is not an inaccurate way to put it. That said, the word netbook has a negative connotation with it that isn't wholly deserved. Netbooks(including this one) are significantly more powerful than the most powerful ARM based tablets.

 

[dagamer34]

why does this $500 tablet have a 1366x768 screen when the 9" Kindle and Nook have 1920x1200 screens and cost less than $300 ?

tablets are all about the screen.

The problem with high DPI screens today is you make a serious trade off in battery life and performance and in order to run such a display smoothly, you really need to design a chip with enough memory bandwidth to run it comfortably. None of the Qualcomm, TI, or nVidia chips were originally designed to run a 1920x1200 display at a smooth 60 fps. The ASUS Transformer Infinity Pad brute forces it's way through by using higher binned chips and increasing clock speed at the cost of battery life.

Also, Amazon is selling the Kindle Fire HD 8.9" at cost, so that's not really a business plan for a pure hardware manufacturer. And we still haven't any performance testing of that tablet, if it stutters like all other Kindle Fire tablets, then it will prove my point.

If you want a high DPI display in a tablet, gotta wait for the S4 Pro or Exynos 5.

 

[Tom]

The problem with high DPI screens today is you make a serious trade off in battery life and performance and in order to run such a display smoothly, you really need to design a chip with enough memory bandwidth to run it comfortably. None of the Qualcomm, TI, or nVidia chips were originally designed to run a 1920x1200 display at a smooth 60 fps. The ASUS Transformer Infinity Pad brute forces it's way through by using higher binned chips and increasing clock speed at the cost of battery life.

Also, Amazon is selling the Kindle Fire HD 8.9" at cost, so that's not really a business plan for a pure hardware manufacturer. And we still haven't any performance testing of that tablet, if it stutters like all other Kindle Fire tablets, then it will prove my point.

If you want a high DPI display in a tablet, gotta wait for the S4 Pro or Exynos 5.

Kindle Fire HD doesn't "stutter". And I don't believe Amazon is selling the Fire HD+ at cost, it probably costs them $150-175 max.

But it doesn't matter, those are the devices along with the ipad that W8 tablets are competing with.

I don't care one way or the other but when review sites start comparing tablets, which they will, I don't think they're going to be impressed with a low rez screen on a device that isn't low cost.

 

[runawayprisoner]

A netbook with a touch screen is not an inaccurate way to put it. That said, the word netbook has a negative connotation with it that isn't wholly deserved. Netbooks(including this one) are significantly more powerful than the most powerful ARM based tablets.

Not in GPU power. Atom lacks behind ARM in GPU power by a good margin now.

Plus ARM is creeping closer to Atom in terms of performance. I expect Cortex A15 to give Atom some serious competition

But that aside, like I said, Intel has been notoriously bad wih Atom Z drivers support. It's not that the chip isn't capable. Intel simply doesn't put in the effort to make it work.

 

[Ravynmagi]

I can't believe we are even comparing a Windows 8 tablet to a Kindle Fire HD.

/facepalm

 

[Tom]

I can't believe we are even comparing a Windows 8 tablet to a Kindle Fire HD.

/facepalm

I can't either. The Fire is probably considerably better at the function of consuming content, which is a widely accepted reason to have a tablet in the first place.

 

[Ravynmagi]

I can't either. The Fire is probably considerably better at the function of consuming content, which is a widely accepted reason to have a tablet in the first place.

Kindle Fire HD is a content consumption device as you said. A Windows 8 tablet is in an completely different category as it's capable of truly being a complete replacement for a laptop and being able to do actual work.

 

[Tom]

Kindle Fire HD is a content consumption device as you said. A Windows 8 tablet is in an completely different category as it's capable of truly being a complete replacement for a laptop and being able to do actual work.

Really ? a complete replacement ?

Since its possible to buy a laptop with an i3, 500gb hd, dvd drive, HD3000 gpu, for $300, why is this $500 tablet better ?

 

[BladeVenom]

Kindle Fire HD is a content consumption device as you said. A Windows 8 tablet is in an completely different category as it's capable of truly being a complete replacement for a laptop and being able to do actual work.

Amazon succeeded in their category then, while MS has failed with tablets since XP Tablet Edition.

 

[Genx87]

Spendy with the dock. The 32GB version isnt terribly priced. But tough to justify it with so many Android tablets on the market for much less.

 

[Ravynmagi]

Really ? a complete replacement ?

Since its possible to buy a laptop with an i3, 500gb hd, dvd drive, HD3000 gpu, for $300, why is this $500 tablet better ?

That really cheap $300 laptop is a brick and has a pretty small battery. The $500 tablet has a much more power efficient processor and up to 9 hours battery life. It can run all the apps that the laptop can. And it's much lighter, portable, and has a MUCH better IPS display ($300 laptop displays look like ****).

 

[Ravynmagi]

Amazon succeeded in their category then, while MS has failed with tablets since XP Tablet Edition.

Amazon has done very well with a low priced device designed specifically for consuming Amazon content.

Windows 8 tablets are not pigeon holed into such a narrow and specific task. And Windows 8 is actually quite impressive on tablets.

 

[Ravynmagi]

PS... I really do like the Kindle Fire HD. I had the 7 inch model, returned it, decided I want the larger 8.9 inch coming later. It's a great device.

I have enough love in my heart for the Kindle Fire, Nexus 7, iPad, and Windows 8 tablets. I think all these things are really cool and there are places and uses for them all.

 

[Tom]

PS... I really do like the Kindle Fire HD. I had the 7 inch model, returned it, decided I want the larger 8.9 inch coming later. It's a great device.

I have enough love in my heart for the Kindle Fire, Nexus 7, iPad, and Windows 8 tablets. I think all these things are really cool and there are places and uses for them all.

I'm pretty much the same. I'd like for the W8 tablets to succeed, I'm just pointing out what I see as mistakes on someone's part as to how to succeed in the marketplace.

 

[ITHURTSWHENIP]

I dont think the X86 tablets will compete with Kindles or iPads. If they grow it will be at the expense of laptops. I know Microsoft and some people believe everyone how owns a tablet wishes deep down it had Office and legacy software but i dont subscribe to that theory. Most people just want a light device thats either cheap or Apple with good battery life and lots of apps

It also remains to be seen just how well people react to Windows 8. Even former MS guys like Paul Allen thinks its gonna be a big learning curve

 

[Puddle Jumper]

I don't care one way or the other but when review sites start comparing tablets, which they will, I don't think they're going to be impressed with a low rez screen on a device that isn't low cost.

The Fire HD doesn't really have anything going from it aside from price and screen resolution. The OS is crippled compared to normal versions of Android and the UI and browser performance has been less than perfect from what I have seen. The Amazon App Store is also rather lacking compared to the Play Store, I've actually ended up repurchasing apps I have from Amazon on the Play Store just so I can avoid dealing with their slow updates.

This is a full Windows PC as well as a fully capable tablet, it can do everything the Fire can plus a ton more.

 

[Munky]

I dont think the X86 tablets will compete with Kindles or iPads. If they grow it will be at the expense of laptops. I know Microsoft and some people believe everyone how owns a tablet wishes deep down it had Office and legacy software but i dont subscribe to that theory. Most people just want a light device thats either cheap or Apple with good battery life and lots of apps

It also remains to be seen just how well people react to Windows 8. Even former MS guys like Paul Allen thinks its gonna be a big learning curve

Most people are probably also too dumb to realize that they wouldn't need all the paid and/or adware apps on the x86 tablet. The benefit of x86 is that it has tons of great software already available for free, while on Android/Apple you have to pay money just for basic functionality like a decent video player.

 

[runawayprisoner]

Most people are probably also too dumb to realize that they wouldn't need all the paid and/or adware apps on the x86 tablet. The benefit of x86 is that it has tons of great software already available for free, while on Android/Apple you have to pay money just for basic functionality like a decent video player.

Except very few (if not "none") of those tons of x86 apps (oh God, what did they do with the term "application"?) is actually tablet-friendly, or even compatible with Windows 8.

The bulk of x86 legacy has always been targeted at users with keyboard and mice... and personally, I think that's the superior way to do computing for a while to come.

Tablets are great for viewing, but they aren't great for computing.

I bet most people thinking about Windows 8 on tablet are thinking "oh great! I can have Windows in the palm of my hand now!"... but for those who are way too used to the traditional Tablet PCs and UMPCs, I can bet you anything that they'd all say "desktop on a tablet doesn't work".

 

[ITHURTSWHENIP]

Most people are probably also too dumb to realize that they wouldn't need all the paid and/or adware apps on the x86 tablet. The benefit of x86 is that it has tons of great software already available for free, while on Android/Apple you have to pay money just for basic functionality like a decent video player.

Maybe. Or you are still subscribing to the fallacy that they wanted X86 functionality in the first place. X86 tablets have been around for a while, if legacy software is the killer feature then why doesnt Microsoft own the market already? The difference between Windows 7 and Windows 8 desktop mode is minimal, its still crap to navigate around in without a mouse on a tablet.

The only thing they have added is a touch-friendly "other" UI except this one uses its own apps and has even less of them than Windows Phone 7 right now. So if John Doe buys this tablet for doing simple stuff, he will find out that "Metro" doesnt even have 10% of the apps his friends iPad has. But its fine since he can just go to Desktop mode and do whatever, oh wait he needs a mouse and keyboard for desktop mode.. but isnt that the same as having a laptop?... what was the point of this tablet again?!

 

[Dominato3r]

I can't either. The Fire is probably considerably better at the function of consuming content, which is a widely accepted reason to have a tablet in the first place.

That is just stupid. If we keep thinking this way, then tablets will be stuck in that realm forever.

Consumption isn't the "widely accepted reason to have a tablet", it's just what people know about current tablets. There is nothing beyond consumption, yet when rumors of an actual Office suite coming to the iOS and Android platforms flare up, the blogosphere goes nuts.