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A Look At Competitors to the Surface and iPad

Posted by Soulskill on from the not-necessarily-also-rans dept.

"Asus and other Microsoft OEM partners have also launched their own versions of Windows RT tablets that will compete with Microsoft's Surface. It's interesting to see the different design approaches being taken, some of which are similar to Android devices currently on the market. The Asus Vivo Tab RT, for example, is based on a 1.3GHz Tegra 3 SoC with 2GB of DDR3 memory, 32GB or 64GB of on board Flash storage, and looks a lot like their Transformer Prime 10-inch slate. The internal electronics are similar to Surface, with NVIDIA's Tegra 3 claiming the lion's share of Windows RT designs at launch. Microsoft's new touch-centric OS handles smoothly on the tablet and performance looks to be impressive, especially with respect to multitasking and application switching." There's also the newly-launched Samsung Galaxy Note II (Android-based, and a so called "phablet," rather than a tablet), the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga (an upcoming Windows RT tablet with a keyboard permanently attached), and the Archos 101 XS.

4 of 193 comments (clear)

  1. Re:what does RT do that the ipad doesn't? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You didn't answer the question. He asked why there has to be one platform. You answered why you would prefer one platform over another. Good for your karma, poor for discussion.

    And as it stands, there are already two popular platforms that meet those criteria. A third isn't going to hurt anything, if it even catches on.

  2. Re:what does RT do that the ipad doesn't? by SomewhatRandom · · Score: 5, Informative

    Microsoft announced that Office will be available for iOS and Android in March 2013.

  3. Re:what does RT do that the ipad doesn't? by SomewhatRandom · · Score: 5, Informative

    Correction: The press release from the Microsoft Czech subsidiary outlining the release has since been denied by Microsoft:

    "The information shared by our Czech subsidiary is not accurate. We do not have anything further to share at this time."

  4. It's the software, stupid. by silverhalide · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Nobody cares about tablet specs outside of screen size, battery life, and price. It's all about the software. Is it fast, responsive, and usable?

    Is it easy to develop for? Will it be around for a while to justify developers investing in it? Does the company have a history of keeping platforms around?