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AMD Fusion tablets running Windows 8 at Build 2011: hands-on with video
You've already seen our in-depth hands-on with Samsung's Series 7 Slate, boasting an Intel processor and running Windows 8, and now it's time to give the other guys a little love. We got a chance to sit down with the folks at AMD, masters of the Fusion APU, before the Expo doors opened here at Build, and it would be an understatement to say that they're excited about getting their x86 chipsets running on Windows 8 machines. As with Samsung's Slate, AMD was showing off a pair of slates we've seen before, specifically the Acer Iconia Tab W500, running on the company's C-50 APU, and MSI's WinPad 110W, sporting the Z-01 APU. This is the first the company's seen of the Metro UI running on its chipsets, and like them, we're impressed with its performance. You'll get the same speedy boot-up here, as well as fast and fluid touch navigation. Unfortunately, they aren't giving up details on future devices, but we should see Brazos powering Windows 8 tablets, desktops , and notebooks in due time. For a look at AMD powering Windows 8, check out our video after break. %Gallery-133736%
MSI tablet moseys on through the FCC, exposes its inner secrets
What we have here, is a decidedly low-end Android tablet from the folks at MSI (possibly a member of the Enjoy family) flying through the FCC as fast as its single-core 1GHz Cortex A8 CPU and 512MB of RAM will carry it. Inside you'll find Bluetooth and WiFi antennas, as well as enough room for a full-sized SD card, though oddly the user manual says this model (listed as MS-N0Y1) only supports sizes up to 8GB. Up front you'll find a camera for video chatting, the requisite buttons for navigating the customized version of Gingerbread, and a 10-inch screen sporting a rather uninspiring 800x480 resolution. There's a second camera around back, as well as the all important FCC tag. Check out the gallery below and hit up the source for the aforementioned user manual and a special treat -- schematics for those Android pushing internals. %Gallery-129016%
AMD confirms tablet-friendly Z-series APU, next-gen Trinity APU for bigger devices
AMD likes to take its time before stepping inside the ring, but it's turned up at Computex with its gown off and mouthguard in. Its much-leaked Z-series Fusion APU (aka "Desna") for tablet devices is now official and could well steal some of ARM's thunder. Whereas ARM chips will get along with the next version of Windows, AMD's Z-series is already tuned into the here-and-now. Its integrated dual 1Ghz Bobcat chips and Radeon HD 6250 graphics should allow the full Windows 7 experience on a tablet, from USB peripheral compatibility right down to XBOX 360 Media Extender functionality. What's more, it drinks less than 6W of power so is significantly leaner than the 9W Ontario APU powering Acer's Iconia W500 Windows 7 tablet. Additionally, AMD claims MSI has already made that leap with its new WindPad 110w (though we can't be sure if the pre-release device we just handled was carrying a Z-series chip). Meanwhile, AMD left any traces of shyness far behind as it went on to confirm plans for a range of A-series and E-series chips with which it hopes to tackle Intel's dominance in the laptop and desktop spheres -- right up to the level of the Core i7. This includes the leaked high-end quad-core A8 and, more surprisingly, a new Trinity APU. Looking way into the future, AMD intends Trinity to be a successor to the mid-range A-series Llano, which isn't even out yet but is expected imminently. Unfortunately we have no concrete specs for the Trinity -- AMD thought it was sufficient to wave the thing around at the press conference and declare it "2012's best APU". Depending on how you look at it, that's either fighting talk or plain posturing.
MSI WindPad 100A, 110W, and 120W hands-on (video)
What's this? It looks like the MSI WindPad 100A that we discovered at CES and the WindPad 110W that we first saw at CeBit decided to make an appearance on the show floor here at Computex 2011. Only this time around they brought a new friend along to the party -- namely the MSI WindPad 120W. To refresh your memory, the WindPad 100A is a 10-inch NVIDIA Tegra 2-equipped tablet running Android (Gingerbread here in Taipei, but potentially Honeycomb in the future) while the 110W uses AMD's Brazos platform paired with Windows 7. The Windpad 120W shares the same exact 10-inch chassis as the 110W but swaps AMD's Fusion APU for an Intel Cedar Trail-based chipset together with a tasty serving of WiDi and HSPA wireless. We still have no information about availability or pricing, but for now we invite you to check out the gallery below and hit the break for our hands-on videos. %Gallery-124832%
MSI's Windows 7-based WindPad 100W now on sale for $710
MSI's first entry into the wild, wonderful, and oftentimes wishy-washy world of tablets is now on sale, but frankly, we aren't too sure we'd be jumping to hand over our $710 -- er, $709.95 -- for the WindPad 100W. The retailer is Simply Electronics, which just so happens to rank a few rungs below Amazon in terms of heardability-ness. At any rate, those willing to take a flying leap of faith should expect a 10.1-inch device loaded up with Windows 7 Starter, Intel's Atom Z530 1.6GHz single-core processor, 2GB of memory a 32GB SSD and a battery that'll keep things humming for around six hours. Here's hoping it'll perform better than that first wave of Win7 tablets, and you know, that you actually receive one.
MSI shows off tablet concept with an integrated projector
We're not sure how we missed this concept tablet at CES a few weeks ago -- oh right, there were over 40 something tablets hanging around! -- but MSI's projector-equipped Windows 7 slate sure is an interesting one. Yep, in addition to its crazy Butterfly and Angelow all-in-ones, MSI cobbled together a rather chunky, Atom-powered, 10-inch tablet with a built-in swivel projector. We don't have any details on the projector itself -- no lumens or resolution -- but according to Notebook Italia, it can be maneuvered to display on a wall or even flipped around to project downward onto a table. A MSI rep implied that the latter function could be used to enable some sort of laser projected keyboard (we're imagining it to be a lot like this one from Light Blue Optics), but there's no actual software in place for that yet. That seems to be a popular feature in concepts these days (see Mozilla's amazing Seabird) -- now just give us the real thing! Hit the source link for a few more shots of MSI's tablet / projector contraption. Updated: Our friends at NetbookNews spotted a video of the concept tablet on TBreak. As you'd expect this looks like one unfinished product, but hit the break to check it out for yourself.
MSI WindPad 100W and 100A tablets hit CES 2011, we go hands-on
The more things change, the more they stay the same at MSI, as the company's two tablets -- due to ship within three months -- still feel like early prototypes. MSI showed off both its Windows 7 and Android 10-inch slates at CES 2011, now known as the WindPad 100W and WindPad 100A, and both sport last-gen tablet specs. Despite pitching the Windows device as an Oak Trail device, the WindPad 100W's still got a 1.66GHz Atom Menlow Z530 CPU here, and Windows 7 is seriously laggy and unresponsive despite the presence of a 32GB SSD and 2GB of RAM. Though it have the promised HDMI port, it's basically the same device we saw in May of last year. Meanwhile, the WindPad 100A (nee WindPad 110) has indeed had a redesign, but possibly for the worse -- it presently only has a single physical key pulling double-duty as Back and Power, and MSI's no longer listing Tegra 2, just a ARM Cortex A8 chip from an undisclosed vendor. It's actually got a fairly useful custom skin on top to display icons at proper tablet resolution and quickly swap between multimedia, the full Android Market, and a full 1GB of RAM, but the device wasn't anything special otherwise. If you ask us, an Android 2.2 tablet with these specs is going to be a hard sell in a post-CES 2011 world. Still, it's always possible MSI could pull things together at the last minute and surprise us. PR after the break. %Gallery-113329%
MSI to reintroduce WindPad tablets at CES, claims Oak Trail improves performance and battery life
You'll remember that back at Computex MSI introduced two tablets or so-called WinPads -- there was the Windows 7 / Atom slate and another one of the Android / ARM variety. Well, MSI is planning to resurrect those with some slight improvements for CES, and this time it's gearing up to actually release them both. First up is the 10.1-inch Windows 7 Home Premium version, which will be one of the first Intel Atom Oak Trail-powered devices out there, says the company. According to MSI's Director of North American Sales Andy Tung, Intel's tablet solution does show both battery life and performance improvements over the current Atom chips, but it's "not extremely significant." Based on our discussion with Tung, we got the feeling that it's a step in the right direction for Atom but still not as long-lasting as it needs to be to compete with ARM-based tablets. Beyond that, the tablet measures less than an inch thick and will have a 1024 x 600-resolution, multitouch display, mini-HDMI and mini-USB ports, an SD card slot, and an accelerometer. Tung wasn't ready to reveal pricing, but he said it should be available in early 2011. On the Android side of things, MSI's got a dual-core Tegra 2-powered 10.1-inch, 1280 x 800-resolution slate prepped with the same selection of ports and features -- although, this one is slightly thinner and also has a drop-proof design. So, what version of Android will it run? Well, that depends on Google's timing, says Tung. If Android 3.0 or Honeycomb is available by the February / March timeframe MSI will go with that option -- however, if it's not, it will go with Gingerbread, so it can hit the market earlier in 2011. We have to say both tablets sound rather intriguing, but will they be able to go up against the hundreds of others coming at CES: The Tablet Year? We'll know more in Vegas, that's for sure!
MSI's 10-inch WindPad 100 advances past prototype stage, gets pictured with a dock
The wait for a legitimate mass market Windows 7 tablet continues, but at least MSI is showing signs of progress. The WindPad 100, which we saw at Computex in prototype form, has now reached design maturity and the concordant gallery of pictures has been distributed to the world. There's no word of any spec changes, meaning we're still looking at a 1.66GHz Atom Z530 CPU, 32GB SSD, 2GB RAM, Wind Touch UI overlay, and HDMI plus 2x USB ports on the stat sheet. The 100 has been joined by a new dock in these latest images, which will throw in the typical expanded connectivity options. We can probably expect to see both reappearing at IFA in Berlin in about a month's time.%Gallery-99506%
MSI WindPad 110: a 10-inch Tegra 2-powered Android tablet
Oddly MSI didn't officially talk about its Android-powered WindPad 110 during the press conference, but it definitely exists. The 10-inch slate runs Android 2.1 and is powered by an NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor. It's got a different design to the WindPad 100, but retains the same 10-inch capacitive touchscreen and will have a USB port and video-out capability. While the tablet runs just stock Android, we're definitely digging the curved form factor and the ability to swap out the back cover for a more "stylish" option. We heard very conflicting things about the availability of the tablet -- one product manager told us that the company hasn't decided if it will bring it to market, while another told us that they plan to sell it for $399 by the end of the year. Hopefully we'll clear that up soon, but we've got some hands-on pictures below, along with a video after the break. %Gallery-93941%
MSI WindPad 100 is a 10-inch, Intel Atom-powered Windows 7 tablet
Oh, hello WindPad! MSI just took the wraps off its 10-inch, Windows 7 tablet during the company's Computex press conference. The tablet is powered by a 1.66GHz Intel Atom Z530 processor, 2GB of RAM, and packs a 32GB SSD that boots Windows 7 Home Premium, though MSI has created a Wind Touch UI layer. While they were showing early prototypes, it will have two USB ports, an HDMI and a webcam when all is finalized. According to an MSI product manager on hand, the WindPad 100 will hit the market later this year for around $499. We just caught a few minutes with the tablet so hit the break for some early impressions and a short hands-on clip. %Gallery-93937%
