but i wonder why is no manufacturer able (willing) to release a tablet in with a decent size screen (10 - 12 inch) which has a battery life of over 5 hours, internal optical drive and weights less than 1.5 kg? sony, panasonic, fujitsu and others already have non tablet models which all offer these specs or better. any ideas?
I think the tablets' LCDs are slightly thicker (to pick up digitizer input) and require more power because of this. As a result, manufacturers have deciding between a slim optical drive or bigger battery usually opt for the battery. Lack of an optical drive these days is really no big deal, external drives are cheap and fast, and how often do you really need to burn a disc away from your desk in the age of networks and massive USB flash drives?
Having used both a Toshiba R-15 tablet with a decent sized screen and a Compaq tc4400 with the 12 inch screen, I have to say that I prefer the smaller machine. It is much more portable and easier to handle while standing. I was also glad to see that they offered decent resolution on the screen. The Toshiba resolution was crap. This was an unfortunate side effect of pressure brought to bear by Best Buy in that they refused to sell Toshibas if Toshiba did not stop selling them on their website. By capitulating, consumers were robbed of being able to spec out a decent machine and instead I got stuck with a base line model from Best Buy.
Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're required.
happy to see a new tablet model again.
but i wonder why is no manufacturer able (willing) to release a tablet in with a decent size screen (10 - 12 inch) which has a battery life of over 5 hours, internal optical drive and weights less than 1.5 kg? sony, panasonic, fujitsu and others already have non tablet models which all offer these specs or better. any ideas?
I think the tablets' LCDs are slightly thicker (to pick up digitizer input) and require more power because of this. As a result, manufacturers have deciding between a slim optical drive or bigger battery usually opt for the battery. Lack of an optical drive these days is really no big deal, external drives are cheap and fast, and how often do you really need to burn a disc away from your desk in the age of networks and massive USB flash drives?
Having used both a Toshiba R-15 tablet with a decent sized screen and a Compaq tc4400 with the 12 inch screen, I have to say that I prefer the smaller machine. It is much more portable and easier to handle while standing.
I was also glad to see that they offered decent resolution on the screen. The Toshiba resolution was crap. This was an unfortunate side effect of pressure brought to bear by Best Buy in that they refused to sell Toshibas if Toshiba did not stop selling them on their website. By capitulating, consumers were robbed of being able to spec out a decent machine and instead I got stuck with a base line model from Best Buy.