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Dell's 'Dual Personality' Laptop
njkobie writes "Dell was the unlikely star of today's keynote at IDF, unveiling a convertible tablet. While that might sound a bit been there, done that, the Inspiron Duo can be used as a tablet or opened up to offer a keyboard. The screen rotates inside the frame, taking it to the netbook form factor. It runs on an Atom processor and will be available at the end of the year, Dell said."
But that is really cool and innovative. This product fulfills a need that is currently not being met. I'm sure that will be copycaters pretty soon.
I like this but...
I wonder how many times you can convert it before it breaks.
Does dirt and stuff get in the mechanism?
Gateway also had one like it in 2005 running Windows XP. The video on the netbook shows it better then the older review pictures though. All in all, it's a (what I feel) gimmicky twist on an old design, and possibly a bad move since I feel the screen without the case boarder would make it more delicate and more likely to be broken by Joe User.
Attention... all grammer nazi"s! Is they're anything; wrong with: my post,
The Sharp Mobilon TriPad PV-6000 from more than a decade ago had a similar form factor. It ran Windows CE and had 16 MB of RAM.
http://www.amazon.com/Sharp-Mobilon-TriPad-PV-6000-Handheld/dp/B00000J1AG
I'm not sure this is meant to be an iPad killer... it's meant to give you the option of using your laptop(/netbook) like a tablet if you want to do so.
And iPad cannot be used as a laptop, even if you want to do so.
It would not be much of a shock if the battery life of a netbook is about the same as other netbooks, nor much of a shock if the weight of a netbook is heavier than that of a big iPhone :)
Yeah, Dell too!
This is blinging
So it's a generic convertible tablet PC like we've had for ages, except the screen rotates along the x axis instead of the y axis? Why is this news?
What does this do that my X61t doesn't?
I have mixed feelings, having repaired laptops for a day job and battering plenty of my own.
The idea looks good at first glance, because tablets use something known cutely as The Achilles Hinge. The dell mechanism that swivels the screen does not depend on friction, but probably a latch.
But, there are a good number of hinge-related problems, namely cracked cases around the hinge supports. In this case the top clamshell dosen't have the weight and the sturdiness of a fully integrated LCD and, even with a latch, we may be left with a flimsy outer "picture frame" that may be prone to bending and even breaking. You know what I'm talking about if you've ever opened (carefully) a laptop clamshell without the LCD attached. Any hinges which depend on friction will render your gadget useless if they go limp.
It's all Apple's fault, of course. They had the change to make something more than a glorified, overpriced, locked-down "phone-without-the-phone."
I want to know if it has or can be upgraded to have a Wacom digitizer. Fingerpainting is fine, and reading books with your fingers has an intuitiveness to it, but I've been waiting ages for a nice thin pen-enabled tablet.
When will they realise that it's not the hardware that matters but the software.
I've seen a convertible laptop/tablet before at a customer site. He was trying to use it to take notes. But thanks to Windows it required a reboot as it wouldn't come out of sleep properly. It's a bit annoying when you all have to sit there and wait to start a meeting while a laptop boots.
Anything tablet like needs to be instant on/off. No HDDs, no x86 Intel processors and a keyboard should be totally detachable for those who don't want to use it.
If you don't know any details it's OK to say nothing.
It does, and it uses that proper input to emulate mouse movements which every app for the past 20 years has been written to expect on Windows.
When you start running apps with UIs designed for touch and not a mouse, then you can stop using touch as if its a mouse emulation layer.
Current apps are not designed for touch so having OS support means nothing.
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It does it in an entirely different way - one central hinge. That design - the one most convertible tablets use - puts a lot of strain on that one central point.
If you bother to read TFA you'll see that this one uses two hinges (twixt body and frame) to fold/unfold and two (on the screen within the frame) to roll the screen over. Providing the frame is strong enough, this is on the face of it a more robust design; any force acts less than half the screen diagonal from the fulcrum.
Leverage knacks hinges.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
The Dell looks pretty fragile to me, whereas the X41s we have are still going with no hinge problems after 5 years. But that's not the point I'd worry about. mrops has it right... the form factor is smaller still, and probably will be too slow to satisfy anyone who can afford it. With today's technology I bet you could fit a killer system inside a body the size of an X41.
This video says it has a dual core atom processor and Windows 7. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_JU0sYCpRs
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Behold its majesty.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vadem_Clio
I really wanted one when it came out, precisely because of the form factor. Given that it runs Wince 2.1 (Sorry, WinCE 2.1), I was probably better off.
But a clever design.
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It can do a lot a things as a netbook, but won't be able to as many things as a tablet or as well as a dedicated tablet.
That's the problem with the Windows Tablet (and has been for years) not all the programs available will take advantage of the tablet. Programs that do take advantage of the tablet, do it so poorly that you prefer to run it as a netbook. Thus all you end up with is a netbook with a neat gimmick.
There is something to be said about devices that are dedicated tablets. If it runs in Windows then I'm tempted to make a program that can use a keyboard so I can take advantage of an already large audience. There isn't as much temptation with iOS or Android because even though both have access to a keyboard (iOS via bluetooth) the devices do not have a ready made market of legacy devices that were keyboard centric.
These comments are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of my employer or colleagues...
Have you looked at the HP tm2t? I bought one recently to use for grad school and it has a Wacom digitizer. It's only about an inch and ahalf thick, around 5 hours battery life, and is pretty snappy with the low end 1.2 GHz Core i3. They're not exactly cheap, mine was about $900 after a $200 discount, but it's significantly cheaper than other similar tablets.
I wrote this post on my tm2t.
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." ~Thomas Jefferson
Wrong. If you want use just your fingers, then yes, they're not too hot - but if you use a pen, then Windows 7 is great on a tablet. Even the default handwriting recognition is pretty damn accurate (you can train it to better fit your writing style). Don't bash it until you try it.
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." ~Thomas Jefferson
I must agree with this sentiment. It does look very much like a gimmick. I feel that tablet PCs (the convertible type) are a gimmick. Having bought one thinking it could be used as a tablet, I was sorely disappointed. The size and weight make them cumbersome, and the UI is completely useless (icons, links, menus are too small in Windows 7).
If Dell were serious about making a tablet they'd ignore the convertible market and leave it up to the ruggedised designs then aim for the iPad/Galaxy Tab market.
Yup. From when I got my first 6x9 Wacom tablet, back in early 90's, have wanted a tablet display on it. At the time, I wasn't too concerned if it had to be hooked in to a parent machine but after seeing what the iPad and similar systems can do with size and weight, am really hoping for a real Wacom tablet.
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What are the things you almost ALWAYS need? Processor, screen, battery, wifi.
Whare are the things you SOMETIMES need? Keyboard, DVD/Blu-Ray drive (hey, some people still use them for movies), touchpad ...?
So, a tablet with a wireless "base" that has a DVD drive, keyboard, and touchpad, and which the tablet snaps into to protect the screen when not in use, seems the logical way to go. The main point is co-locate the screen and processor so you don't have the video signal sent through the hinge.
IF it ever comes out, Lenovo's U1 should be a better option than this Dell. A detachable screen that near-instantly boots into it's own 'pad' OS, and seamlessly reintegrates and syncs with the main system when reattached... Nice idea, but the implementation must be giving them hell, given that over 9 months have passed since they first showed a working demo model...
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Like an ipad with a charging dock that doubles as a keyboard. That's a pretty good idea. It's mine now.
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