Motion Computing's new LS800 8.4-inch Tablet PC

We all know Tablet PCs aren't selling all that fantastically well these days, but if a convertible just isn't for you, or maybe you're looking for something a little smaller, you might want to peep Motion Computing's LS800 8.4-inch tablet device. The device is a svelte 2.2-pounds and is only about 8.9 x 6.7 x 0.9-inches—not bad for a machine equipped with a 1.2GHz Pentium M ULV CPU, integrated WiFi, Bluetooth, biometric print reader, two USB ports, and an SD slot. Unfortunately you can only equip it with 512MB of RAM and they did away with a PCMCIA slot, but you can't have everything—and at least it's got a dock.

[Awperator @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

That is amazingly beautiful. Get a bunch of these in a hospital (with a way to secure them) and you can do away with pesky paper charts that are so old and outdated. mmm

[steven @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

Umm, "amazingly beautiful"?? Are you sure we're looking at the same picture?

[StarLog @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

This is very kewl, unfortunately the MSRP of $1899.00 is way too expensive.

[Khuffie @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

Something like this could be great as a portable media/video player. Its small enough to throw in a backpack, light enough, and plus it has all the extra functionality of Windows and coupled with WiFi, allows you to check email and what not on the go. If only it wasnt so expensive...

[Awperator @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

Yeah. It's sweet, small, compact, and powerful enough (1.2Ghz... I have the 1.1Ghz m1400). The m1400 by itself is a very nice machine, convenient, and it made me so much more organized my senior year of Chemical Engineering. Having a tablet like this would be pretty nice. 8.9 x 6.7 x 0.9-inches? Dude that's tiny. The size of a paperback. So sweet.

Geeked out mode: Starting to look like a star trek padd :)

[TxdoHawk @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

It looks nice and all, but not at that $1900 price point.

[Wolfman~K @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

$1899 without the "view anywhere" display... ouch.... perfect size tho, I'd get one if it were cheaper.

[Matt @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

wonder what you would use the dvi out on the bottom for...

[Jerry @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

They are getting closer, but still haven't come up with the bBook I've been wanting for years:
http://jerryrig.com/log/a938

[I'm With Stupid @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

"wonder what you would use the dvi out on the bottom for..."

Looks more like a docking port.

[James @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

looks cool, but i feel like the screen is a bit small for my taste..

[Wolfman~K @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

$1899 without the "view anywhere" display... ouch.... perfect size tho, I'd get one if it were cheaper.

[Josh Einstein @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

James, you should look at the Acer C110 then.

This is great but I'm still waiting for one this small with 1024x768.

[jake @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

ill-conceived and over-rated niche product (by over-rated I mean the industry keeps trying to push this down consumers' throat to no avail), the typical consumer cannot "get" the beauty (sic) of much less power for a heftier pricetag, especially when compared to conventional laptops; no wonder these things aren't selling.

[RickP in AZ @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

Two questions: 1) How much will it really retail for? 2) Can I run OS X for x86 on it? ;-)

[shane @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

this is a great size. i'm thinking pair it w/ a bluetooth gps receiver and you have a nice portable unit for travel. just get the price down.

[Peter @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

Very cool.
This is getting close to the ideal portable solution. It shouldn't be too much longer until something like this is powerful enough and cheap enough to be the standard for most users. Excellent.

[Jerry Kindall @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

It shall be mine -- oh yes, it SHALL be mine.

The only thing it doesn't have that I'd want is a CompactFlash slot. And it's got USB2, so I'll just carry a USB CF reader. Not optimal, but it'll work.

Any mention of battery life is conspicuously absent from the promotional materials, however, which is not a good sign. I'll be impressed if it's more than a couple hours. Maybe they'll offer an extended battery.

Those of you griping about the cost, have you checked out what a Sony Vaio U750 costs? A Dialogue Flybook? Same ballpark. Ultra-compact full-featured machines are expensive. Always have been. Always will be.

[harywilke @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

We are getting closer and closer to the Apple Newton.

[S Smith @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

does the Tablet PC represent the first time MS has ever been AHEAD of the curve rather than 5 years behind it?

Give some time for the price, size, and weight to go down while the battery life goes up. It won't be too long before I'm not the only one I know with a Tablet PC. I just hope I'll be running something besides WinXP Tablet Edition on it.

[hobgoblin @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

now this is getting somewhere!

me wants!

who needs pcmcia anyways? only thing i have seen it used for is wifi and thats allready in there.

the rest goes with bluetooth or usb :P

now can i get that with a keyboard, fold up docking station and gobolinux preinstalled please?

[macstibs @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

Gimme one of these with OS X, an 8 hour battery, and an EVDO modem (PCCARD or other) for $1500. Christmas is 170 days away. Get crackin!

Thanks.

[Jack @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

They really need to make a scaled down Tablet PC which costs at most $300 and is only used for reading ebooks, surfing the web with limited video capabilities, and making some notes. The scaled down version shouldn't be able to do everything a regular laptop can, such as having GREAT resolution, or running Word, Photoshop, PowerPoint, etc.

Sure, some of those thing would be nice, but to get the tablet PC in every Hospital, schools, and other places, they really need to figure out what's really necessary and make the price affordable!!

[Woody @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

I don't know if MS is ahead of the curve; it seems like they missed the curve entirely and are trying to convince people that the road follows the high-power line easement... (See Windows Media Center for another example.)

[Suntiger @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

Jack: Have you heard of the PDA concept, by any chance?

[MiniMage @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

Suntiger: it does sound like Jack wants a PDA, or maybe a hacked Audrey or hacked ePods (my ePods makes a decent eBook reader), or some of the other larger CE devices.

As for this, I consider it a good start. Sure, I want more memory, more battery life and higher res, and I�d either accept a much higher salary or a much lower price, but I find the appearance of the LS800 encouraging, even if it�s out of my reach. If I had the dough, it would already be on order.

[Jack @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

Okay, how about a bigger PDA then? The screens on the ones I've seen are too tiny. But aside from that, I would like to be able to make freehand notes like the Tablet PC can, NOT learn some stupid grafitti writing shortcuts.

So no, I'm not looking for a PDA. Some device that's sort of in the middle would be best!

[Jim S @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

I agree with Jack. A PDA screen just doesn't cut it for reading. No eBook reader will ever replace my fiction books but for nonfiction fields that require constant updating of the material, produce books too darn big to haul around with you and would really benefit from hypertext I'd love one that was about the size of a trade paperback with a truly superb display.

[Teferet @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

The HP iPAQ H4700 is a little smaller, turns on instantly, can accomodate notes in writing, has fairly good handwriting recognition. What can the LS800 do the the iPAQ cannot? I mean in a functional sense, not just the fact that it can run Windozzze XP.

[hobgoblin @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

Teferet, is there equipment out that allow for the ipaq to dock and turn into a full computer?

check out those docks available for this one. with one of them you can turn it into a imac kinda solution :P

[J.McMurry @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

I keep hoping Palm will decide to make a portable media player - kinda like their new Lifedrive, but with more flash and a much bigger hard drive. It would go for about 40% of the LS800 tablet (sub-$700?) and have most of what you need on the go anyway (albeit a little slower). They're not listening to the public on this.

[J.McMurry @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

p.s. - in reference to Jack's comment, they do make this thing right now (Lifedrive). It's just about half the size it should be to be useful - just alittle more size, memory and maybe removable (and larger) battery.

[smooth @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

The SD slot support SDIO and supplants the PCMCIA slot. There are WiFi and Bluetooth SDIO cards, for example (though the LS800 already has those built in). PCMCIA just takes up too much space for this size tablet.

[Joe di Piazza @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

Folks,
1. The LS800 also has another necessary feature: a glare-resistant screen. 2. One needs a PC card slot for the broadband cards that Cingular (EDGE) & Verizon (EVDO) have now (WIFI ain't enuf). Some co. makes an external USB PC card. 3. Electrovaya[.com] makes PowerPad80, an external 8-hr+ battery, that could be velcro-ed to the back of LS800, after EV shortens the USB connector (for you). [The voltage & amps appear safe.) [Only 1.1 lbs.]
4. Maybe both fit into Motion Computing's bag for the LS800. 5. I may buy above, if I can re-confirm all of above. How 'bout some feedback? Joe