Acer's slider hinged C200 Tablet PCs are here

Acer is releasing in the US their C200 series we mentioned a while ago, so here are some more specs and a picture of this oddly hinged Tablet PC. First off, the portable runs off a Pentium M 760 at 2.0 GHz, sports 1GB of Ram, a 100GB HD, a 12.1-inch XGA screen, and a DVD+/-RW drive, along with the fingerprint reader we mentioned before. They're quoting the battery life at 5 hours, and are offering WiFi, Gigabit Ethernet, and Bluetooth for connectivity. That's the C204TMi model, which retails for $1900, they are also offering the lower end C203ETCi that drops the processor to a Celeron M 370 at 1.5GHz, halves the RAM, goes 80GB for the HD, and loses the DVD burning for a combo drive. The GeForce Go 6200 graphics of its older brother are also gone, with integrated Intel acceleration in their place. You can nab that one for $1400, and why not? We know you're just going to get this to complete you collection of expensive, oddly hinged items that never really took off. Though we're kind of liking this form factor, in looks at least.

[Via TPCRS]

[Rombus @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

Wow! That is a really cool looking design, and its got some nice specs to boot! A bit on the thick side, i guess my only complaint would be the screen. 12.1" and its only 1024x768? Comeon! I guess im a bit addicted to the way 1024x768 looks on my 10.1"

I really want to see some hands on reviews of this unit!

[Dave Zatz @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

To get that battery life, it looks like you need the higher-end model with TWO batteries... The form factor is interesting, but at 5.7 pounds (including both batteries, or 5.5 for one) it's a more heavy than I'd like for a 12" model. I'd take the ThinkPad X41 tablet instead. Acer has the product page up here: http://us.acer.com/acerpanam/page4.do?dau22.oid=12916&UserCtxParam=0&GroupCtxParam=0&dctx1=25&CountryISOCtxParam=US&LanguageISOCtxParam=en&crc=2618007934

[Rich @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

Looks good and nice healthy spec. Anyone have idea when we are going to get these in the UK?

[Computers.net @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

What's with the "oddly hinged" look? Is there some advantage to having it designed that way?

[Roygbiv @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

One obvious advantage would be that it could flip between tablet and closed mode, with less the danger of breaking a hinge, but without a armrest, that thing would be a pain to type on though...

[Brad @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

I was about to drop some cash on this...Then I realized it only supported more 262K colors. So much for that.

[cypher @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

The hinged design looks like it might be optimal for use on an airplane where you don't get much room to open your notebook, particularly if the person in front of you is leaning back. With that unusual hinge you cut down on overall depth required without giving up screen size.

[tonicboy @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

This looks like a pretty neat design. Would be especially useful on planes, where you're always jacked when the guy in front of you leans his chair back when you're trying to use your laptop.

[bluemonq @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

actually, it looks like the only one with the intel gma is the celeron model. the centrino still has the go 6200. but zatz is right, too heavy.

[hobgoblin @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

i must say that i kinda like this way of doing a tablet more then i like the classical rotating laptop design :P

[Tablet PC @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

Indeed the design looks cool! I like fingerprint security because I lost my tablet pc once.