Give me a quick rundown on tablets? (New tablets)

yo guys

I was wondering if you could give me a quick rundown on tablets?

To be honest, I used to hate the idea of tablets, but now that they are getting more and more powerful, they are kinda just like more "portable laptops". that's what I'm looking for really.

I'm relatively new to tablets, but they are pretty kickass and the functionality keeps getting better and better.

I was curious if you guys could recommend a good one?

I want a new model designed for windows 8.

What I want: USB 3, nice size hard drive, bigger screen size.

Questions: do some of them have full qwerty keyboards? How is the display and audio? Is it feasible to play steam games on them? Does netflix work on them?

I also like asus, and dell.



Do you guys know any kickass tablets designed for windows 8 that will be released soon? (My friend told me there are some badass w8 tablets coming out, what are your thoughts?)

Any of your thoughts is invaluable, I'm just trying to learn.

PS: Sorry for disorganized thread with lots of questions. Any thoughts are appreciated.

And big thanks for any info you guys can provide! (Sorry for not searching on wiki or on the forum, I prefer to gather my knowledge from humans)

Yo what up?!

I used to bash on tablets as before, they were thin wimpy ARM based things that did nothing more than a smartphone. But with Windows 8, that changed! The concept is more appealing to me.

I also am an ASUS fan myself!


This here is Microsoft's own tablet PC, the Surface Pro which will be released in January 2013. The Surface RT (ARM processor) will be released on October 26th. The Surface Pro is at the moment my choice. Specs aren't available yet, but what is known is that it has a USB 3 port (1 or 2 USB 3 ports?), probably an i3 or i5 processor or an Atom processor, a nice built in kickstand and from Microsoft described it, it will be satisfying to open and close it. It has a vaporized magnesium coating that they claim is wear and tear proof. It has two cameras, from and back and both are built in such a way so when you open the kickstand, the cameras are perfectly level which is a huge nice! The keyboard can simply pop off and you can use it just as a tablet. The Surface has different keyboards, the Pro has a tactile keyboard and the RT and Pro can use this touch cover keyboard. Basically, the touch keyboard is like a cover for the PC and a keyboard that Microsoft claims you can type faster with as it's super sensitive. The touch covers also come in different colors like white, red, magenta, or cyan, or black. I'm getting a red one!! The Pro also comes with a digital pen which also snaps onto the PC like the keyboards, and the screen's digitizer recognizes if you're writing with the pen so you don't screw things up; as I would assume all new Windows 8 tablet PCs will do. Price isn't known yet, but expect 700-1,000 dollars. Storage options for the RT version are 16 and 32 gigs, Pro options are 32 and 64 gigs of Solid State Drive storage. I'm not sure if the SSD drive is a 2.5" drive, as you could probably swap out pretty easily for a larger one and reinstall or clone Windows onto the new one. But I think it's an mSATA card, which might also be able to get a larger one. I think there is also a mini HDMI connector too, not too sure on that.

www.microsoft.com/surface/en/us/default.aspx

ASUS has a few Windows 8 PCs coming out, one convertible and two tablets, one an RT version and the other a traditional one like the Surface Pro.

The Vivo Tab has as an Intel Atom processor with two gigs of RAM. These ones are expected to have pretty decent sound that their other laptops have that have the good sounding sound. It also comes with NFC support, so with a Windows Phone 8, some interesting things can be done like contact sharing, playlists even, or maybe financial transactions from Windows Phone's Wallet hub to maybe amazon.com or newegg or whatever later in the future.


This is another one by ASUS, and it's strange but an interesting concept. Basically, it has two touchscreens. So you can use it as a normal touch laptop, and then close the lid and use it as a tablet. This one has a backlit keyboard, two USB 3 ports, micro HDMI and DisplayPort, all the Windows 8 tablet PC required tablet buttons like a volume rocker, one of Intel's I-series processors and 4 gigs of RAM. Screen size is about 11-13 inches.

Overall, Windows 8 tablet PC screen sizes will be about 10-13 inches you'll find. Windows 8 will have a native metro Netflix app coming soon, most likely before or immediately after Windows 8 hits retail. Steam games, I'd go with the dual screened ASUS tablet/ultrabook but we don't know if the Surface Pro will have an i5 processor. I'm not too sure on the gaming aspect for Steam, but I would bet a tactile keyboard like the ASUS ultrabook or the Surface Pro could suffice along with a mouse. Some other tablet PCs will come with an i3 or an i5 processor, but many will have an Intel Atom chip. The ARM variants, or Windows RT tablets will have a Qualcomm processor or NVIDIA's Tegra 3 quad core processor. Most of the Intel and AMD based tablets will usually come with a digital pen or stylus.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151082394662669.455889.30968512668&type=3
This is basically the current official rundown of the new Windows 8 PCs that will be coming out in October. Some PCs are shown in this album, some aren't yet. Personally, I believe the Surface RT and Pro tablets are basically THE best true Windows 8 tablet PC so far. It is a very competent tablet and exudes what a tablet PC is all about. I'm not too big on the tablets that are basically a detachable screen from a keyboard base of a laptop or netbook. A Surface is really what Windows 8 is all about I think, it's flexible and can be used for whatever.

And good for you! Put people first and use humans for information! You should check out the bing.com, it kind of does that.

Thanks man, very thorough information.

Will bookmark this for future reference.

How am I to decide!??!

I'm still not sold on tablets. I happen to own a Asus Transformer, but its rare that I ever use it. My kids use it to watch Netlix and YouTube. I've used ipads, galaxy tabs, blackberry playbooks, kindle fires, motorola xooms, and nexus 7's. Without a physical keyboard dock, I find them very hard to type on. And I spend most of my time typing on forums. So, I almost always put down the tablet in favor of my laptop.

My reommendation on the tablet front is the google nexus 7 as its cheap and full featured. If you near the 500 price point, I think its better to move into the ultrabook area that can run real pc software. Tablets with phone style "apps" are just far too limited to me.

The most significant difference between a nexus or android tablet and a Windows RT tablet is purely in the fact that Microsoft didn't take Windows Phone, chop Phone out of it and call it a tablet OS. Or simply put, it's not a phablet, a phone-tablet. That's essentially why Microsoft chose not to do that for a tablet OS because we already have an ios based on, and a multitude of android ones that still do the same as ios and therefore have nothing better to offer unless if you don't like apple. Windows RT is totally different than that.

Now pparks1, have you tried a Windows 8 tablet yet?



I'm a bit conflicted myself on a tablet choice, but the Surface Pro so far is still my choice. I've yet to see something better or equivalent to. But I guess it will have to come down to what feels best for you. I'm waiting until October 26th to go play with ALL the new touch PCs at my local not so best buy.

No, haven't tried a windows 8 tablet yet. I'm just basing my opinion thus far on the fact that most people love their tablets, regardless of which they own, but I've played with them all and haven't really liked any of them. I will certainly give a windows 8 tablet a try, we will certainly get some at work. I was pretty excited about the surface pro, but if its over 800 including a keyboard, I'm out. That's true laptop and ultrabook territory and that's more my style.

pparks1 said:

No, haven't tried a windows 8 tablet yet. I'm just basing my opinion thus far on the fact that most people love their tablets, regardless of which they own, but I've played with them all and haven't really liked any of them. I will certainly give a windows 8 tablet a try, we will certainly get some at work. I was pretty excited about the surface pro, but if its over 800 including a keyboard, I'm out. That's true laptop and ultrabook territory and that's more my style.

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Hi there
Have to agree 100% with this.

BTW Acer still has the 11.5 inch laptop available with an I3 processor, USB3 support + 8 GB memory (and you can swap the built in HDD for an SSD) available for around 400 USD -- for a far cheaper alternative to a tablet - brilliant choice.

This is my "Weapon of choice" when I'm travelling.

Cheers
jimbo

I want to thank everyone for their continued contributions.

When it comes time to buy, (yeah, I'm gonna probably plunge the tablet route. don't be mad) I'll reference this.

PS: Don't worry. It will be an uber elite tablet.

;D

Later

Here is some information from Tom's hardware on new Windows 8 units.

Acer Details Iconia W700 Windows 8 11.6-Inch Tablet PC

Lenovo Reveals 4 New Windows 8 Tablets, Ultrabooks

Jim

Since a link above was made to Ultrabooks, it's been fun these past 2 weeks because my company bought some UltraBooks (Dell XPS 13 and Del XPS 14) to evaluate for corporate business use. Casual PC users were happy with the look and particularly the size and lightweight nature of the XPS13 for traveling. But any of the more savvy power users ended up turning their noses at the limited processor speeds, limited ports integrated into the device, the absolute poor performance of the USB 3.0 docking station compared to a standard Dell Latitude docking station.

The industry sure is pushing for tablets and Ultrabooks...but for those who really utilize the features of their PC's or laptops, these units simply disappoint in the end.