It looks like ASUS won't be the only Taiwanese manufacturer
whipping out new tablets at Computex in early June, and MSI will be joining the party with its Android and Windows 7 touchscreen devices. According to the company, the tablets will come in 8.9- and 10-inch varieties, and will ship sometime in the third quarter. We can't promise you big M's Tegra 2 and Atom-powered slates will be all that different from what we've been seeing from the
others out there, but we are told the pricing will be "extremely aggressive." That's intriguing, but unfortunately, that awesome
dualscreen tablet we saw at CES is farther behind. According to MSI's Andy Tung, the hardware implementation is the reason for the delay as the Atom-based tablet is not providing adequate endurance. "The two screens are a major drain on the battery, and even with a higher density battery and the Menlow CPU we are only getting three hours," he said. It looks like we will be waiting until the fourth quarter to get some two screen action, though we guess we could always pick up an Android and Win 7 slate and tape 'em together.
posted April 29th 2010 10:34AM
Ok that screams Pixel Qi Screen.
@Synergi
That's what I was thinking.
@Synergi
Now THIS is the tablet I have been waiting for!
....well this and the courier, they pretty much have the same design except one for productivity, and one for a 'PC' on the go.
BTW, Pixel Qi would be a god send on this! But may drive up the price...?
@Synergi
Screams why couldn't this be the courier? To me.
It's gonna be a pain to type on that thing
@steverl22
Why? The iPad is very easy to type on, I see this as being no different -- probably easier as the keys are bigger.
@steverl22
I can type twice as fast on my iPhone than I could on my previous phone with physical keys. Your fingers do less work when they don't have to push buttons down. Once you get used to it, they just glide.
@DoctarPeppar I agree it's easy to type on the iPad, but are you seeing the same pic as I am, the keys are all squished together and are probably half the width of the iPad keys. Looks like a total pain to type on, and that doesn't look like a capacitive screen....so yet another thing to fight with.
@steverl22 Typing is going to be horrendous. I HATE typing on my iPad... way too many mistakes, and very hard to fix them.
If someone is using to typing on the iPhone, the iPad is much harder because its auto-correction is much less aggressive, and your hands have to move around a lot more. It is horrendous!!!!
Touch screen keyboards are the worst!
@Downpour I can type twice as fast on my Milestone than I can on my old iPod touch.
@gentlefury I tried typing on the iPad while trying to rest the stupid thing on my knee. No thanks. This is light years better. I'm not sure what you're talking about.
@gentlefury It is actually two capacitive multi touch (2 finger input) screens. Engadget had a hands on review with it at CES. Can't wait till it comes out!
@steverl22 I'm still looking forward to this chrome tablet though.. http://j.mp/tablet-concept-from-google
I want the Courier. That is all.
@Discourse I want enough money to be able to afford the thing when if comes out, THEN I want a Courier
@Discourse
Your right there is Nother Better then that Next unreleased, Untested, Highly touted piece of hardware..
Imagination ALWAYS Trumps reality!!
@Discourse No courier sorry, its dead.
Add Wacom digitizer = SOLD
@Eternity +1 - not enough devices out there with active digitisers, and these would be awesome with them.
This is such an obvious idea, it was bound to happen sooner or later.
Physical keys really aren't as necessary as everyone makes out... and two screens offer some real advantages.
@Downpour I have tried the iPad and could not get used to typing on it. It in now way compares to a real keyboard.
What other benefits do you see from dual screen? I think I'd rather have a higher battery life, unless someone can come up with some really great use of a second screen. (Keyboard is not one of them in my opinion)
@Downpour
People who think physical keys are not an advantage don't know how to touch type.
@fourthletter Nah. Physical keyboards are still way faster. People who can't type faster on a physical keyboard might not know how to type properly.
@tosvus
You could try asking the millions of Nintendo DS owners... ;)
@fourthletter Touch typing actually makes typing on a screen easier, just like it makes it easier on a keyboard.
I touch-type on my iPhone... how is that possible without feeling the keys? Because my brain remembers the movement of my fingers, not the feel of the keys.
It really isn't that hard to adapt, our brains can perform more impressive feats than you are giving them credit for.
Taped together! BWAHAHAHA!
It looks like those 2 screens could almost butt against each other when straightened out. that would be cool... as in, having a full tablet which can snap in the middle and convert into a courier slash notebook with virtual keyboard.
WHEN IS THE HP SLATE COMING OUT!?!?!?!?!
@TheSunman89 *Crickets
I'd take 3 hours
At first I'm thinking it's a shame that batteries are holding us back but really it puts engineers hard at work to make things efficient, basically doing the work right.
I'd also take 3 hours of everything working at maximum performance but they didn't give us the details on the 3 hours meaning it could be even less.
@Schmich
Toss an ultra-light OS on here, like webOS, and the battery would go much farther.
Virtual keyboard? On a machine this big? Barf. If they're going to make it foldable like this they might as well use a real keyboard.
@Faceless Troll I think the second screen is designed to serve up multiple types of content, not just a keyboard; although what a great idea.
ds much?
I bet somehow they'll still squeeze a trackpad in there, just because the industry can't bare to be without one
@Gonzie Wouldn't need a track pad if it's all touch.
All those typing lessons from grade school are shot to hell now. Wont be able to type without looking since you cant feel.
I hate glossy screens and surfaces because of the fingerprint issue. I hate touchscreens because of the fingerprint issue. The android makes me hyperventilate.
This is headed in the right direction. It should have the capability for the android part to slide up to the top of the windows screen and fold down to make it a tablet. Also I think it can go without windows 7, Chrome OS and Android would go great together on a computer like this. If you want to take it one more step put a e-reader on the front of it so when its closed you can see notifications from android or read a book.
OK i have waited long enough engadget we want courier,we want it now,i also want beer,popcorn and err some yummy tasty spare ribs hmmm yummy,,But seriously you can see the tech in courier is 100% possible and workable its coming guys ,in all in yummy cherry pie goodness,nerd Nirvana here we come!.
the courier is dead the slate is dead all hope is with msi duel screen,or apple dominate
this is a prime candidate for android or chrome OS or something of the like. I could definitely see this taking on things like the ipad. i know its a slightly different market, but this ads so much usability and while the battery life is still a bit of an issue, i think running a lighter OS might benefit the device in that area.