Dell Latitude XT tablet unboxing

Since some of you have apparently been waiting on Dell to make a tablet PC for well over three years now, we imagine that the first unboxing of the company's Latitude XT convertible will be welcome eye-candy to the true believers. With dual input methods (finger or pen), integrated 802.11n, and optional SSD and WWAN, this model definitely delivers on a number of fronts, though the relatively low resolution and high price may be too much for some to bear. Check out another shot after the break, and then hit up the Read link for the full ritual over at I Started Something.

[Chebwa @ Jan 18th 2008 10:13AM]

Everybody needs to shut it about the "low resolution."

First of all, it's not THAT LOW. And second, what do you want, super tiny buttons and small text when you're trying to touch them with a pen - or you finger?! When you're using a tablet it's not for ultra fine Blu-ray viewing. It's for getting s&*# done. A higher resolution wouldn't help that, it would impede it. I (sadly) have to use tablets at work all the time. If the crap on the screen was any smaller I'd frustrate myself into a coma.

[Shiftlock @ Jan 18th 2008 11:21AM]

A higher resolution screen isn't used to make things smaller, it's to make them look better. With a higher resolution screen, you can, of course, fit more on the screen if you don't mind things being smaller, but if that's not what you want then you can simply adjust the size of your icons/text/whatever to suit your preference. Besides price, there are no drawbacks to using a higher resolution screen.

[Chebwa @ Jan 18th 2008 11:26AM]

If you have ever really used "large fonts" or changed the DPI in Windows, you'll notice immediately that it looks messy and crappy.

Seriously, this resolution is just right for the screen size and for the purpose of the hardware. Higher resolutions might look better in some cases, but I just don't think that it would necessarily be more useful here. I mean, the screen really isn't that big. And it's not going to look BAD by any means at all.

[Hung @ Jan 18th 2008 5:52PM]

Who said it was low resolution? For a 12.1" screen, 1280x800 is standard. I don't think they make 12.1" screens in higher resolution.

[Chebwa @ Jan 18th 2008 7:20PM]

The article casually bitches about it.

"...the relatively low resolution and high price may be too much for some to bear..."

There's commenters on here asking for a 1600+ resolution on this screen, too... WTF? WHY?!

[Hung @ Jan 19th 2008 1:56PM]

Vista has largely fixed misproportioning when you change DPI. That's why the start button is round and the min/max/close buttons are so rectangular compared to the XP's squares. Tablet-usage is great, even when the DPI is low.

Yeah, but tablet's suck if you're not designing or drafting.

[ethana2 @ Jan 23rd 2008 4:28AM]

"If you have ever really used "large fonts" or changed the DPI in Windows, you'll notice immediately that it looks messy and crappy."

Explorer is horrible. Get a better DE.
Oh wait, you don't /have any/.

[Jimmy Jones @ Jan 18th 2008 10:21AM]

Seconded...Infact I support all your legit reasons... instead I'd rather go for the Lenovo X Series (tablet) and pay even less...to be exact about ~900$.

[smartkid @ Jan 18th 2008 10:26AM]

so what would be the best tablet to get for a non power user.( small presentations / email / internet ) and also lightweight for mobility with wireless ?

[Syphon Filter @ Jan 18th 2008 10:30AM]

That is an idiotic thing to say, a higher resolution does not mean things have to be smaller. Changing the DPI setting to a custom level can easily resolve that issue.

A higher resolution screen would be welcomed by many, especially at the price they are asking for these things.

[Chebwa @ Jan 18th 2008 10:42AM]

Eeeeh, that DPI stuff... it rarely looks good. Text and icons spill into one another and things just start to look sloppy. Very sloppy. And if you're just going to make everything bigger anyway with the DPI settings, would a higher resolution really benefit you THAT much?

Truth be told, though, I haven't had a chance to see how well that works on Vista yet (only XP). Maybe they've taken some strides in the right direction and I'd be impressed.

[jakem @ Jan 18th 2008 12:01PM]

I have the DPI turned up in Vista on my TV at home and (with the exception of a few websites that can't handle it) I have no problems at all. Almost every application I have scales perfectly with the exception of Firefox. Icons and labels scale perfectly.

[Jimmy Jones @ Jan 18th 2008 10:36AM]

@smartkid....i'd recommend eee pc or may be wait till touchscreen eeepc launches....

OR just forcefully become a power user and shed some benjamins on the Lenovo X series or one of the thin Fujitsu lifebooks... (only do this when you have paid the power user fee and your application 2 be a power user has been accepted .. :-)

[spm.peapot @ Jan 18th 2008 10:45AM]

Did anyone notice that Dell unit has a two-prong power cable? I am beginning to wonder...

[Tacticus @ Jan 18th 2008 11:55AM]

That's just an ungrounded Australian power connector.

and for the guy above 1280 x 800 on a 12" does not suit all people imo i would love to see a 1440x900 or better yet 1680 x 1050 on that laptop

[OneLove @ Jan 18th 2008 12:07PM]

Yeah! Give me back my 1680x1050 bee-otch!

[Hung @ Jan 18th 2008 5:57PM]

Yeah, that's pretty much unheard of. No one has regular 12.1" screens at that resolution; what makes you think Dell (especially Dell) would have anything higher on a 12.1" capacitive touch screen?

[Aaron Basrai @ Jan 18th 2008 12:19PM]

I've had a chance to check this thing out first hand. It is a really nice looking tablet PC, but it looks like I wont be trading in my X61T anytime soon. The hinges on the tablet screen feel flimsy making me wonder if physical integrity of the unit can be maintained. I can just picture them coming loose and ordering new hinges and LCD lids down the road.

[zunq @ Jan 18th 2008 11:47AM]

smartkid: The Fujitsu T2010 is exactly the same machine as the Dell XT except it doesn't have the Touch capabilities. The pen is much better than touch anyways. It can be had for as low as $1400 at a few popular online resellers.

[Ahmed @ Jan 18th 2008 12:14PM]

god this thing is ugly.

[Ronnie @ Jan 18th 2008 1:50PM]

I've had the XT for about a week and a half and all I can say is I love it. It's my first tablet and I may love it because a have a 17 pound desktop replacement laptop (Sager 9890 P4 3.8G 2Gig 2-100Gb 7200RPM RAID 0 7800 GTX 17" WUXGA Glossy TV Tuner Bluetooth 2-8x DVD+- combo drive with DVD+R DL) that I was lugging around. But I'm hoping to post up a video on youtube this weekend (most likely Sunday) so here is what I have, 1.2GHz Core2Dou,Vista Ultimate, 120GB 5400RPM, the LED screen, 802.11n, Bluetooth, built in AT&T HSDPA WWAN card, 6 Cell Battery, also the 45w/hr battery slice that I'm still waiting on receiving order it after initial order). Purchased a slow a$$ 32GB SSD Express card from Transend for extra storage and a 16GB SDHC SD card from A-Data for storage and ready boost, and a 250GB Western Digital Passport to create image backups.

Have any questions or things you want to see in the video let me know.

[Ronnie @ Jan 18th 2008 1:57PM]

Also total of 3GB of RAM

[az @ Jan 18th 2008 2:06PM]

I do like this tablet. It's a very nice start for DELL in this market

[eminem213486 @ Jan 19th 2008 2:27AM]

a higher resolution gives a sharper picture. in the obivious future of resolution independance (especially with tablets) its good to have nicer graphics and future proofing. higher resolution is always better, i run my 1680x1050 dell monitor at 1280x768 resolution on windows and is very good and bigger to the eye and i can switch to 1680 and get a much sharper picture and a smaller gui. by future i mean we should see a switch to touch interface on mobile tablets like a Vista Media Center gui

[Pending_Doom @ Jan 21st 2008 4:28PM]

Dell’s XT notebook has been a huge disappointment for me with Vista. Very sluggish with maximum power and even on battery saving mode the battery really only last about 2 hours at best. I also have the ATG and even running on full mode I easily get 3 and half hours out of it. I am a huge Dell user with over 700 units in our facility but this has been one of the most disappointing units we have used.
Executive toy at best.

[ethana2 @ Jan 23rd 2008 4:34AM]

Wait, so you get a new machine running Vista, notice that it's 'sluggish', and blame the /machine/?

...how does it perform under a /real/ OS? Anybody got hackint0SX, Ubuntu, Nexenta, or FreeBSD running on this thing?

note: I do not condone the use of Apple products (Apple is evil), but OSX is a pretty polished BSD, as they go.

[Pending_Doom @ Jan 28th 2008 8:47PM]

Okay so now I have nuked Vista and installed XP Tablet, wow the same results. Disapointment. Its cute and all but its an executives toy really.