Tablet Wars 2011

[eastmen]

I'm also interested in win 8 because it may be the first time MS really ties everything together.

when you look at apple there seems to be a division from osx to their mobile products. MS has divisions every where the xbox is almost completely seperated from the os , the mobile os is seperated from everything else .

If they can concect everything through a simple store where it keeps track of all the products you use and then you can buy what you want knowing what platforms it works on , that would be great.

For instance I'm on my xbox 360 and i have a win 8 tablet , a win 8 phone and win 8 desktop. It will tell me that say shadow complex works on the xbox 360 , win 8 tablet and win 8 desktop but doesn't suppor the win 8 phone. Or say I want adobe premeir it will say this works on win 8 tablet and desktop but not the 360 or win 8 phone.

I know its simple to find out but it would be great if all purchases are linked and work on whatever i purchase and also that the programs will automatic be bought for those other products in a single price. Its also so much easier to see on your screen the platforms it works on and the ones it doesn't greyed out.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

http://www.umpcportal.com/2011/03/ecs-s10-oaktrail-tablet-pc-hands-on/

"We took a close look at the S10 production sample and saw some reasonable Windows performance scores and, after a 5 minute performance test, in-use battery life of about 5hrs. ECS tell us there’s more to come in the final version and are quoting 8hrs battery life."

Gah, another slate with a completely unuseable 16:9 display. 16:9 is a horrible horrible ratio for anything that might be used with a large-ish screen in portrail orientation. I'm hoping some company will eventually release a slate with a 4:3 display. Not terribly friendly for video playback, but works far far better in portrait orientation for everything else.

Regards,
SB

 

[Deleted member 13524]

Gah, another slate with a completely unuseable 16:9 display. 16:9 is a horrible horrible ratio for anything that might be used with a large-ish screen in portrail orientation. I'm hoping some company will eventually release a slate with a 4:3 display. Not terribly friendly for video playback, but works far far better in portrait orientation for everything else.

Regards,
SB

Unless you actually use the tablet to watch a few movies/series.
That way you'll avoid wasting a lot of screen area.
16:9 is great for games too, and web pages are now being modeled after 16:9 formats.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Unless you actually use the tablet to watch a few movies/series.
That way you'll avoud wasting a lot of screen area.
16:9 is great for games too, and web pages are now being modeled after 16:9 formats.

That's fine and I mentioned that, at least the video playback. But it still results in a completely unuseable portrait mode. One of the main draws of a slate. At least for any sort of productivity. And browsing the web in portrait orientation on a 16:9 screen is an extremely painful experience.

4:3 is ideal for all that but as mentioned isn't great if all you want is a video playback device. 16:10 isn't "as" bad as 16:9, but still not idea for portrait orientation.

Regards,
SB

 

[Mariner]

Gah, another slate with a completely unuseable 16:9 display. 16:9 is a horrible horrible ratio for anything that might be used with a large-ish screen in portrail orientation. I'm hoping some company will eventually release a slate with a 4:3 display. Not terribly friendly for video playback, but works far far better in portrait orientation for everything else.

Regards,
SB

Here you go:

http://gadgetmix.com/tablet/malata-hd-tablets/

Looks as though they have reasonable screens, hence the "wide viewing angle" quotes for the table with the wider screen ratio and also the mention of the IPS panel on the 4:3 ratio tablet.

Malata are the company who make the cheapo Advent Vega (and perhaps the Viewsonic tablet on sale in the US?) so I'd hope that the price of these new devices will remain competitive. I'm waiting for a tablet with a decent panel before I spend any pennies on them...

 

[Deleted member 13524]

That's fine and I mentioned that, at least the video playback. But it still results in a completely unuseable portrait mode. One of the main draws of a slate. At least for any sort of productivity. And browsing the web in portrait orientation on a 16:9 screen is an extremely painful experience.

4:3 is ideal for all that but as mentioned isn't great if all you want is a video playback device. 16:10 isn't "as" bad as 16:9, but still not idea for portrait orientation.

Regards,
SB

I assume people hold their tablets with both hands anyways. What's the advantage in using a tablet in portrait mode?
With fast zoom-ins\outs through multi-touch, it doesn't seem like a big turn-off to me.

 

[Pressure]

4:3 may not be ideal for watching 16:9 movies but it is a far better aspect ratio for everything else you want to use the tablet for, e.g. web-browsing, reading books / PDF's, viewing pictures (which are usually 5:4) and emailing.

Web pages are not designed with 16:9 in mind but by the lowest common resolution used by your visitors, which translates into around 980 pixels wide.

 

[Mike11]

4:3 may not be ideal for watching 16:9 movies but it is a far better aspect ratio for everything else you want to use the tablet for, e.g. web-browsing, reading books / PDF's, viewing pictures (which are usually 5:4) and emailing.

Web pages are not designed with 16:9 in mind but by the lowest common resolution used by your visitors, which translates into around 980 pixels wide.

I agree that 16:9 is not the best aspect ratio for tablets in portrait mode. I guess that's why Android promotes tablets mainly in landscape mode.

IMHO 3:2, like the iPhone, would have been a good choice for the iPad, it's a good compromise that works well for portrait and landscape mode (on the other side, it's a compromise). But I think for smartphones 16:9 is the future, especially when eventually screens take over like 95% of the front (edge-to-edge, no buttons, just a few mm thick bar on top for loudspeaker, camera and sensors).

 

[AlphaWolf]

what they really need is a 16:9 tablet with a rollout touchscreen that expands to 4:3. So like the playbook would stretch from 1024x600 to 1024x1280 or whatever works.

 

[Squilliam]

what they really need is a 16:9 tablet with a rollout touchscreen that expands to 4:3. So like the playbook would stretch from 1024x600 to 1024x1280 or whatever works.

What about a fold design but with the screen on the outside? That way they can use one screen if they want a narrow form factor and two screens if they want something bigger.

For instance, have two 8" screens which fold into (dunno 12") size screen?

 

[AlphaWolf]

What about a fold design but with the screen on the outside? That way they can use one screen if they want a narrow form factor and two screens if they want something bigger.

For instance, have two 8" screens which fold into (dunno 12") size screen?

heh someone actually did a mockup of a folding playbook on crackberry.com forums, although they had the screens folding together so there were bezels on the inside.

 

[Squilliam]

heh someone actually did a mockup of a folding playbook on crackberry.com forums, although they had the screens folding together so there were bezels on the inside.

I think the screens on the outside configuration is more practical. For one it gives the option of a rear touch screen. Second it would allow the use of the device as both a 'practical tablet' as well as a multimedia tablet. If the screens are on the inside they become inaccessible and that can limit the utility of the device.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Here you go:

http://gadgetmix.com/tablet/malata-hd-tablets/

Looks as though they have reasonable screens, hence the "wide viewing angle" quotes for the table with the wider screen ratio and also the mention of the IPS panel on the 4:3 ratio tablet.

Malata are the company who make the cheapo Advent Vega (and perhaps the Viewsonic tablet on sale in the US?) so I'd hope that the price of these new devices will remain competitive. I'm waiting for a tablet with a decent panel before I spend any pennies on them...

Yeah, that 4:3 tablet looks decent although I'd prefer a 1280x960 screen. And if it was Windows based.

I assume people hold their tablets with both hands anyways. What's the advantage in using a tablet in portrait mode?
With fast zoom-ins\outs through multi-touch, it doesn't seem like a big turn-off to me.

There's plenty but the first that comes to mind is multi-column documents. Being able to display a full page at a time is invaluable, especially if you have a few hundred pages to go through.

You "can" do it with a 16:9 screen but due to the narrowness of the screen, when viewing on the same screen "size" say 10" the text will be far FAR smaller on the 16:9 screen versus the 4:3 screen.

There's a reason my dual monitor desktop PC setup has one screen permanently set to portrait mode.

Regards,
SB

 

[Mize]

http://www.precentral.net/preview-webos-3-0-beta-1-emulator-exclusive

HP TouchPad emulator leaks. Looks very nice.

 

[Deleted member 13524]

Win7 tablets with the C-50 are now in the market, priced way lower than most "high-end" Android tablets and iPad.

And I'm still not voting until that option is in there.

 

[Mize]

Win7 tablets with the C-50 are now in the market, priced way lower than most "high-end" Android tablets and iPad.

And I'm still not voting until that option is in there.

Win7? Seriously?

Let's wait for W8.

 

[eastmen]

Win7? Seriously?

Let's wait for W8.

why it works extremely well. I think you'd have 2 votes for a windows tablet at least

 

[Deleted member 13524]

Win7? Seriously?

Let's wait for W8.

It's a poll with tablet choices for 2011. It's 2011 and we have Win7 tablets right now.

If the poll's choices are limited due to a subjective opinon like yours, then the poll is meaningless.

It's not "tablet wars 2011", it's "tablet wars with ARM CPUs 2011".

 

[DavidC]

http://www.umpcportal.com/2011/03/ecs-s10-oaktrail-tablet-pc-hands-on/

"We took a close look at the S10 production sample and saw some reasonable Windows performance scores and, after a 5 minute performance test, in-use battery life of about 5hrs. ECS tell us there’s more to come in the final version and are quoting 8hrs battery life."

One Tablet vendor was claiming that their Oak Trail tablet in Windows gets 8 hours of battery life, and 16 hours with Android.

 

[Hardknock]

Eee Pad Transformer goes on sale April 26th for just $399.

Laptop dock has a built-in extended battery (of 6 hours) and costs $150.

This thing looks really nice and weighs and costs much less than a Xoom: