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ASUS reveals the VivoTab Note 8, an 8-inch Windows tablet with Wacom pen input
ASUS' VivoTab Note 8 has been one of CES' worst-kept secrets, but we're still glad to see that it's finally official. The 8-inch Windows 8.1 tablet is a direct foil for Dell's Venue 8 Pro, and includes a familiar-sounding 1,280 x 800 IPS display, 2GB of RAM, a 5-megapixel rear camera and an HD-capable front cam. Most of the differences revolve around its namesake pen input; the VivoTab includes a Wacom stylus that can handle 1,000 pressure levels, arguably trumping Dell's less sophisticated (and purely optional) approach. An ever-so-slightly faster 1.86GHz Bay Trail Atom chip doesn't hurt, either. The tablet should ship either late in the first quarter or early in the second, with prices starting at a frugal $299 for a 32GB model and climbing to $349 for a 64GB edition.
ASUS VivoTab Note 8 leak hints at a cheap, pen-toting Windows 8.1 tablet
Dell's Venue 8 Pro may soon get some fresh competition. Mobile Geeks has discovered some imagery (albeit of the heavily pixelated variety) and full specs for ASUS' VivoTab Note 8, an entry-level Windows 8.1 slate with pen input and a worryingly Samsung-esque name. It looks like the VivoTab should closely match Dell's hardware, with an 8-inch 1,280 x 800 IPS display, a 1.33GHz Bay Trail-based Atom chip, 2GB of RAM and either 32GB or 64GB of expandable flash storage. ASUS may also reuse a few parts from the MeMO Pad HD 7, including the 5-megapixel rear camera, 1.2-megapixel front camera and a 3,950mAh battery. Take the launch details with a grain of salt, however. The image leak has the VivoTab Note 8 arriving during the holidays for $299, but time is running out and a release may not happen until the new year.
Switched On: Hinging on success
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. The announcement of the Acer Aspire R7 was the best example of the company's assertion that it was moving from computers designed with touch to computers designed for touch. But if having a fancy, even unprecedented, hinge is what defines a touch-optimized notebook, Acer is a bit late to the party. Last October, Switched On discussed the role that laptop-tablet hybrids -- namely convertibles and detachables -- would play in the differentiation of Windows 8 devices. Both types have seen their share of support. Detachables have included HP's Envy x2, ASUS' Transformer-inspired VivoTab and Microsoft's Surface. (Dell's XPS 10 is available only with Windows RT.)
ASUS VivoTab Smart review: a good, inexpensive Windows 8 tablet
More Info ASUS outs VivoTab Smart with Type Cover-esque keyboard cover ASUS VivoTab Smart hands-on (video) ASUS Vivo Tab Smart comes to the UK as the ME400, priced at £399 We've been rather busy cranking out reviews lately, and we've got all the usual PC makers to thank. Similar to how we spent 2011 reviewing various Android tablets, we're now facing an onslaught of laptop / tablet hybrids, most of them running full Windows 8 and chugging along on low-powered Clover Trail processors promising epic battery life. So far, we've tested models from Acer, HP, Lenovo and Samsung. But our review cycle wouldn't be complete without ASUS -- after all, the company was selling its Transformer tablets before keyboard docks were even a thing. Today we're taking a look at the VivoTab Smart, a $499 tablet offered with an optional Bluetooth keyboard and a thin, magnetically attached cover that doubles as a stand. (Yes, with four different color options, it looks kind of like that Smart Cover.) But that's only part of the story: this is also shaping up to be a fantastic bargain for people who want a relatively inexpensive device running full Windows 8. Think about it: for $499 you get a device with 64GB of built-in storage (not 32, but 64), an IPS display, 9.7mm-thick design and an 8-megapixel rear camera capable of 1080p video. Not bad at all for a device at that price. So is it as nice in person as it is on paper? Mostly.
ASUS Vivo Tab Smart comes to the UK as the ME400, priced at £399 (update)
ASUS may have confused some of us with its similar-sounding Windows hardware range and it's showing no signs of stopping. It just announced that the Vivo Tab Smart (now the Vivo Tab ME400 to UK readers) will arrive in the British Isles on January 31st, priced at £399. The 10-inch tablet will be running the full Windows 8 experience on a dual-core 1.8GHz Atom processor, with the rest of the specs also tallying with the US-bound iteration we got to play with earlier this month. It'll be available from both Argos and Carphone Warehouse and although there's no word yet on pricing for the optional (and slightly familiar) cover-stand yet, we'll update you when we hear more. Update: ASUS has been in touch, pricing up the cover at £39.99, while the cover with keyboard will ring in at £89.99.
ASUS VivoTab Smart hands-on (video)
You know how ASUS started with one Transformer tablet and then quickly grew that line to, like, half a dozen models? Yeah, well, the company's about to do the same thing for Windows 8 slates. The outfit already announced the VivoTab and VivoTab RT, and now it's about to start selling the VivoTab Smart, which comes with an optional cover. Yes, very similar to that smart cover. The difference, though, is that the "TransSleeve" here doesn't just protect the screen; it also doubles as a stand. Just fold it up, origami-style and you can rest the tablet against it without worrying about it toppling over. As it happens, we stumbled across it at a CES-related event here in Las Vegas, so naturally, we gave it the hands-on treatment. Follow past the break for the full spill. Follow all the latest CES 2013 news at our event hub.
Did ASUS' Atom-based VivoTab show at the FCC with AT&T-ready LTE?
ASUS' Atom-based VivoTab has largely stayed on the sidelines while the VivoTab RT takes the limelight. The FCC may have just hinted that it's time for the non-RT model to shine with a filing showing what could be a North America-specific variant. The absence of RT labeling across the descriptions is the main clue that there might be Intel Inside, although the slate on show clearly isn't a pedestrian WiFi model -- there's four-band LTE inside, including an AT&T-specific 700MHz frequency and AWS bands that would support both AT&T and Canadian carriers. There's no guarantee that Big Blue will carry the Windows 8 tablet, especially not when it's already offering the Windows RT version, but those craving both LTE and full-on app compatibility could be satisfied in short order.
ASUS VivoTab RT review: everything you loved about the Transformer tablets, but with Windows
More Info ASUS outs Tablets 600 and 810, Transformer-like slates running Windows 8 ASUS outs dockable Windows 8 VivoTab and VivoTab RT ASUS VivoTab RT 10.1-inch Windows 8 RT tablet comes to AT&T later this year, we go hands-on Read the comments on any of our ASUS Transformer Pad reviews. It doesn't matter if you pick the mid-range TF300 or the high-end Infinity. You'll invariably find someone saying, "That's nice, but can't it run Windows 8?" It's a perfectly sane request: sure, a tablet and optional keyboard dock make for a convenient setup, but how great would it be if you could use that keyboard to get work done in Microsoft Office? Ditto for the dock's USB port: being able to plug in a thumb drive is a good start, but it'd be even sweeter if you could drag and drop files, as you would on a PC. Well, ladies and gents, you can quit your fantasizing. ASUS is ready to start shipping the VivoTab RT (TF600), and we're guessing it's pretty darn close to whatever Franken-tablet you've been dreaming up. Which is to say, it takes everything we loved about ASUS' Transformer Pads, and adds Windows RT. Like other tablets in ASUS' lineup, it has a 10-inch Super IPS+ display with claimed 178-degree viewing angles and a 600-nit brightness rating. Other tried-and-true specs include a quad-core Tegra 3 chip; an 8-megapixel, autofocusing rear camera capable of recording 1080p video; SonicMaster audio; and long battery life -- in this case, up to nine hours for the tablet and up to seven for the keyboard dock. At 8.3mm thick and 1.2 pounds, it's also about as thin and light as any Transformer Pad. Lastly, the VivoTab has NFC -- something you won't find on any of ASUS' older slates. The VivoTab RT should be available beginning today, starting at $599 for the 32GB tablet with a keyboard dock included. A 64GB tablet-and-dock bundle will retail for $699. So is this as good a buy as ASUS' earlier tablets. And how does it compare to other Windows RT devices being offered at a similar price? Let's find out.
ASUS VivoTab RT pops up early at Office Depot, teases our Windows RT future
Want an early glimpse of the VivoTab RT without having to attend ASUS' special event? Thanks to our tipster, you've got it. An Office Depot has received at least one example of the Windows RT slate a full three days in advance. The short impressions: it's an "awesome" Tegra 3-packing tablet, although the OS reportedly chews up more than half of the 32GB of storage, and USB depends on an adapter if you're not relying on the keyboard. While price wasn't immediately available, we're not expecting retail to deviate greatly from the $599 pre-order formula.
ASUS teases October 23rd Vivo Book and Vivo Tab event, likens it to world history (video)
Most event teasers have at least some kind of grandiosity; we're not under illusions that they have to be modest. At the same time, ASUS may have crossed a humility barrier with a teaser for an October 23rd event launching its upcoming Vivo Tabs and (possibly TAICHI- or Transformer Book-linked) Vivo Books. In the space of 42 seconds, ASUS likens the New York City announcement for its touchscreen Windows 8 devices to the Apollo moon missions, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and having a child -- a bit much for slabs of aluminum and glass, we think. There's not much to see of the systems themselves beyond what we already know, although Notebook Italia has noticed at least one reseller listing a Vivo Book S200 laptop with an 11.6-inch touchscreen, a Core i3, 4GB of RAM and a 320GB hard drive for €499 ($647). That price would go a long way towards ASUS' promise of making touch "available to everyone..." we're just not convinced it's as important as Elvis.
Purported ASUS holiday roadmap pegs Windows 8 tablets at $599 and above
Windows 8 tablets have had their specs bandied about for months, but their prices have continued to remain off the radar. Now, however, a purported ASUS holiday roadmap sent to ZDNet may give us a glimpse as to how badly bank accounts could be affected this fall. According to the slide, the ASUS Vivo Tab will carry a $799 price tag and its Windows RT counterpart will come in at $599, which matches the previously reported price difference between slates running Redmond's latest OS with Intel and AMD processors. The ASUS Taichi dual-screen notebook / tablet hybrid is said to ring up at a heftier $1,299. As for the firm's Transformer Book, it will supposedly set purchasers back $1,399. If these prices are any indication of what we can expect from other OEMs, Microsoft's Surface might be pricier than hoped.
ASUS outs dockable Windows 8 Vivo Tab and Vivo Tab RT
It looks like IFA will be where many Windows 8 devices shown back at Computex get (more) official. Exhibit A is ASUS, which today pulled the curtains on the Vivo Tab and the Vivo Tab RT, previously known as the ASUS Tablet 810 and the ASUS Tablet 600, respectively. There's still no pricing info available, but the company has filled in some of the remaining spec gaps. As we previously knew, the Vivo Tab sports an 11.6-inch IPS display with a 1,366 x 768 resolution and supports a Wacom digitizer input in addition to 10-point multitouch. The tablet runs an Intel Atom CPU with 2GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. The Vivo Tab measures 0.33 inches thick and weighs in at 1.5 pounds. There's also an 8-megapixel camera with autofocus and LED flash, plus a 2-megapixel shooter up front. As we learned back in Taipei as well, an NFC sensor will be on board. Then there's the Vivo Tab RT, which is slightly smaller, at 0.33 inches thick and 1.1 pounds, and with a 10.1-inch screen. Like its non-RT brother, it boasts an IPS display with a 1,366 x 768 resolution, but it runs a Tegra 3 processor and a 12-core GPU, with 2GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. The RT tablet includes the same cameras and NFC sensor as the Vivo Tab. Of course, these two slates also come with a Transformer-like dock, which adds a full QWERTY keyboard, trackpad, two USB ports and a second battery. The missing element to this equation is still pricing and availability: check back for those details, and in the meantime hit up the press release below the break.
