NVIDIA Tegra tablet prototype hands-on

Hey, remember that mystery tablet NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang was pimping a mere couple of weeks ago? Well, it's made its way to London, and woe betide the Engadget editor who didn't get a hands-on with such an exclusive piece of hardware. So what we're looking at here is a Windows CE-powered, resistive touchscreen display spanning somewhere around 15 to 16 inches, with the same Tegra internals as may be found in the Zune HD or one of them smartbook devices. As we reported earlier, the company behind the machine is ICD, and this particular unit was built to try and entice T-Mobile into placing a few orders.

Being a prototype, the device on hand was quite literally rough around the edges, but what we saw was appetite-whetting. The overall construction is under an inch thin, 720p video playback was excellent, and there's even a terrific-looking wireless recharge station cum base accessory -- think of Palm's Touchstone, only enlarged and magnetized to the point where it can support the whole tablet in an upright position. If somebody marries all that hardware potential with the Stantum multitouch firmware and a more finger-friendly OS, this thing just might make the whole Apple tablet brouhaha utterly irrelevant. Video after the break.

NVIDIA Tegra tablet prototype hands-on

See more video at our hub!

[thinkbig Posted Nov 27th 2009 5:09PM]

first

[Bud92 Posted Nov 27th 2009 5:09PM]

aww man no Give away

[ARobinso0502 Posted Nov 27th 2009 10:25PM]

@Bud92
Forget the give-away, this thing can change computing... I'm very interested to see if where they would price this thing... The fact that the post mentions T-Mobile implies over $400 which is a shame... I'm willing to pay $200 for something about 10"-12" wide... C'mon manufactures, the technology is nothing new but with folks still buying +$2000 Macs the PC price will never break... Computing is moving to being shared among devices in a group and I wouldn't mind 3 or 4 of these around my house... no local disk just some sort of iSCSI call to a NAS or PXE boot.... blah... blah... blah...

[jimmylittle Posted Jan 22nd 2010 2:17PM]

@ARobinso0502 "the technology is nothing new but with folks still buying +$2000 Macs the PC price will never break"

I'm sorry to burst your bubble, but to get a $2000+ Mac, you have to get a 27" iMac, then customize it. And that includes a 27" monitor. Or a Mac Pro, which almost no one needs.

You can also configure a $2000 Dell, HP, or AlienWare. Without a 27" LED backlit LCD monitor.

When will the myth of Macs being more expensive die? I just bought a 21" iMac for $1199. I could buy a mid-range PC tower and monitor for less, but wouldn't have the gorgeous screen, the slim form factor, or the service. Macs have issues like all computers, but if I have an issue, I take it to an Apple store, not to FedEx.

[ericlin Posted Nov 27th 2009 5:11PM]

kitchen tablet eh?

[JakeMG Posted Nov 28th 2009 9:54AM]

@ericlin Yeah, I remember that HP was trying to market their Touchsmart PC as a kitchen device. Two issues with that. 1: Why do we need a computer in the kitchen? Is there really a necessity for that? 2: Isn't the kitchen the one place you'd probably rather not be using a touch screen computer?

[CRA1G Posted Nov 27th 2009 5:11PM]

Anyone know why none of Engadget's embedded Viddler videos work in Firefox 3.5?

[stueck Posted Nov 27th 2009 5:18PM]

@(Unverified) same problem here

[ranhalt Posted Nov 27th 2009 5:22PM]

@(Unverified) 3.5.5 and it works fine

[TheDoctah Posted Nov 27th 2009 5:23PM]

@(Unverified)

If you have Adblock Plus enabled, disable it.

They've changed the way the viddler videos show now, and AdBlock flags them as ads and blocks the server it communicates with. Very crafty on Engadgets end....

[Troll Posted Nov 27th 2009 5:23PM]

@(Unverified)
pretty sure its because firefox sucks

firefox also leaks memory, but you still use it

[gonintendo Posted Nov 27th 2009 6:04PM]

@TheDoctah couldn't you just whitelist it?

[fokka Posted Nov 27th 2009 6:09PM]

@Troll

thanks for being honest!

[kiyu727 Posted Nov 27th 2009 6:26PM]

@(Unverified)
working pretty well on Firefox 3.5

[lareeth Posted Nov 27th 2009 6:44PM]

@(Unverified) The latest firefox update fixed that problem for me

[MrPotK Posted Nov 27th 2009 9:29PM]

@TheDoctah Yeah they just started doing this about a week ago. Maybe it was with the redesign, it was driving me crazy trying to find the intuition videos.

[Drybones5 Posted Nov 27th 2009 11:08PM]

@(Unverified) Adblock plus now filters ads in viddler's videos

the filter is: ||fwmrm.net^$third-party

The address that it blocks on this page is: http://adm.fwmrm.net/p/viddler_flashplayer/AdManager.swf?logLevel=WARN&cb=1


I've added an exception to the filter I posted above, everything works now

[Drybones5 Posted Nov 27th 2009 11:09PM]

@TheDoctah nah, this is viddler's fault. They now put ads in their videos

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 27th 2009 11:18PM]

Many thanks to TheDoctah and Drybones5.

[bemymonkey Posted Nov 28th 2009 8:39AM]

@lareeth Same here.

[underpantsgnome Posted Nov 28th 2009 12:59PM]

@Drybones5 thanks a million, this works perfectly!

[kompulsive Posted Nov 28th 2009 9:18PM]

@(Unverified)

i'm using firefox 3.5.5 with adblock plus and the videos work fine. odds are your configuration is failure-ridden. the main problem is probably somewhere between your keyboard and the back of your chair.

[zafonic Posted Nov 30th 2009 4:07PM]

@(Unverified) all videos work in my install of firefox 3.5

[SrgBacon Posted Nov 27th 2009 5:12PM]

damn..thought this was a giveaway

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 27th 2009 5:12PM]

Too large. I want something like you see on star trek film. lol. It had the most form factor size.

[TRLKOR Posted Nov 27th 2009 5:14PM]

I'm guessing this one has a higher spec'd Tegra, compared to the one in the Zune HD (Tegra APX2600)
Otherwise, the proc in the Zune HD is much more capable than it shows...

[EGOvoruhk Posted Nov 27th 2009 5:21PM]

Why is that? The Zune is capable of 720p video playback just like this thing is

[James Posted Nov 27th 2009 5:15PM]

Need to get windows 7 on that. It would be great to take notes in class with.

[Bud92 Posted Nov 27th 2009 5:20PM]

@James

That, Or Chrome Os.

[DeviantmacG Posted Nov 27th 2009 6:22PM]

@Bud92

Or Mac OS 11 hahaha

[Jeff Posted Nov 27th 2009 6:35PM]

@James
OMG! i would ditch my notebooks if i could get one of these things in my messenger bag.

[ethana2 Posted Nov 27th 2009 11:07PM]

@James Good luck getting Windows 7 to run on ARM.

[Atlantian Posted Nov 28th 2009 2:11AM]

@(Unverified) theres always windows 7 mobile remember :D

[o29 Posted Nov 27th 2009 5:15PM]

How's the weight? To me, that's as important as its thickness.

[Vlad Savov Posted Nov 27th 2009 5:31PM]

@(Unverified) Pretty hefty actually. Can't give you a terribly scientific answer, but it's heavier than it looks yet still lighter than something like a Toshiba L300.

[geekthree Posted Nov 27th 2009 6:17PM]

@(Unverified)

thats what she said.

(sorry)

[credo Posted Nov 27th 2009 5:18PM]

Did I win? Wait, where am I? oO. A video!

[DestrictoEnse Posted Nov 27th 2009 5:20PM]

"Under an inch"

Uhh, that doesn't seem very thin to me, unless you meant that it's under a centimetre as well. A 15 inch diagonal, inch-thick slab really doesn't sound like something very weildy.

[G0nner419 Posted Nov 27th 2009 7:22PM]

@DestrictoEnse lol. PICKY. I'd settle with "under an inch" any day if the device was that sexy and use able.

[Spensar Posted Nov 27th 2009 5:21PM]

LUST

[Phranky Posted Nov 27th 2009 5:24PM]

A prototype with awful viewing angles.

[dannyry Posted Nov 27th 2009 5:25PM]

"there's even a terrific-looking wireless recharge station cum base accessory"

ok im going to be the first one to ask since i searched for cum base and all i got was porn results, what is a cum base accessory

[Bender Bending Rodriguez Posted Nov 27th 2009 5:34PM]

@dannyry

How about trying a dictionary next time.

cum |koŏm; kəm|
preposition [usu. in combination ]
— combined with; also used as (used to describe things with a dual nature or function) : "a study-cum-bedroom."
ORIGIN late 19th cent. : Latin.

[patsy Posted Nov 27th 2009 5:40PM]

@dannyry: +1 for funny

@(Unverified): +UTTER_FAIL in the humor department.

[nycland27 Posted Nov 27th 2009 6:57PM]

@(Unverified)
"cum base accessory" also known as Unverified's mom

[Bender Bending Rodriguez Posted Nov 28th 2009 2:44PM]

@dannyry

Maybe you’re right. Perhaps it was a very weak joke I completely missed.

[tylersmyler Posted Nov 27th 2009 5:27PM]

wow, that's quick! I'm impressed.

[teresasack Posted Nov 27th 2009 5:28PM]

yes

[1vanFG Posted Nov 27th 2009 5:31PM]

ME ME AND ME!!!!! =)

[Bender Bending Rodriguez Posted Nov 27th 2009 5:32PM]

"If somebody marries all that hardware potential with the Stantum multitouch firmware and a more finger-friendly OS, this thing just might make the whole Apple tablet brouhaha utterly irrelevant.”

Looking at this thing’s HW and OS there is nothing Apple has to fear about bringing a tablet to market. There is absolutely nothing worthwhile about this prototype.

The HW needs to be considerably thinner than a MacBook Pro, morea long the lines of 8" to 12” with a sweet spot of 10”, not this 15”/16” monstrosity. But most importantly it needs to have a UI that is tailored for finger-based input on a large display. This does not mean WinCE, Win7, iPhone OS or Mac OS. This means a new UI *designed* for the device.