Amtek intros the iTablet T221 UMPC

For those of you lusting after a UMPC or tablet solution, you may want to pause and take a look at the new Amtek iTablet T221. The stylish, thin slate looks like a dream come true for Gatesian types who are after something a little more natural for their day to day computing. The system features a 12.1-inch XGA display, an active digitizer, resistive touchscreen, a 1.2GHz Intel Core Duo CPU, up to 2GB of RAM, a 60GB hard drive, 802.11a/b/g, and a GMA 950 graphics chipset. We don't know when this baby is due in the States, or what it will be selling for, but we can tell you that the touch response looks quite frisky, and Vista seems to perform well on the tablet. Don't believe us? Check the video after the break and see for yourself.

Update: Price? €1,552, or about $2,237. Ouch.

[Via TodoUMPC, thanks Nicolas]

[saq Posted Dec 18th 2007 6:42PM]

As mentioned previously, at this price range it introduces nothing new, and nothing that hasn't been done considerably better by someone like Fujitsu. Their Stylistic tablets are incredible and even allow for 'hot swapping' batteries. Whats so great about this?

[reidme Posted Dec 18th 2007 8:11PM]

It looks to me like they've sped up the video to make it look more responsive. Notice the jerks in the hand movement.

[Armen Posted Dec 19th 2007 7:03PM]

I too think that this device shouldn't be called a UMPC. It's a tablet PC and it's gorgeous really, but I'm not sure of it's practical side. My concerns are text entry and battery life
(considering the powerful cpu on this device).

I own a Samsung Q1U (Q1 Ultra) which I use it for my daily internet surfing, I read all my news on it online, including news in local languages and English. I also read ebooks on it sometimes.

It's a very pleasurable experience laying back in an armchair or sofa surfing the net or reading an ebook (or in bed or at a cafe).

Actually I'm writing this comment on it too. But using Samsung Q1U for a while I noticed that presence of a physical keyboard on the device is *very* important/practical. It's almost a 'must' for these kind of devices. Samsung has made a very correct decision of adding physical keyboard to their second generation UMPC.

At first when I saw the photos of Samsung Q1U I thought "they have ruined the looks of the Q1, look at those tiny buttons ruining the beauty of the previous model." But I chose Q1U over Q1 because of 1024x600 screen and longer battery life. Both weight 680 gr which is among the lightest XP or Vista devices. Very comfortable weight to hold.

But now I know how vital the physical keyboard is. PC software user-interfaces are designed for
and still heavily rely on keyboard and mouse pointer input.

I use some physical key combinations that frequently that using the device while holding it with two hands would be very difficult and annoying experience to say the least.

The frequently used hard key combinations are: Ctrl-C, ctrl-v, ctrl-z, ctrl-a, ctrl-s, Ctrl-Enter, space (for scrolling), shift + space,
F11, Alt-Tab, Ctrl-Q, Ctrl-w, Ctrl- Mouse wheel up/down ...

I also use the keyboard for entering short texts into search fields or entering id/password or renaming files or folders (while holding the device with two hands). The analog joystick which controls the mouse pointer is another practically important feature (left and right mouse buttons are there too).

So I'd rate Samsung Q1U 9 out of 10. And not 10 because the screen has a lot of glare (though some like this x-brite kind of screens).

[charlie x Posted Jan 11th 2008 12:48AM]

Didn't the iNternet originate from apple too ?
at least its better than all those eDevices, still got a few letters left.