CES Update: Hottest PC Tablets unveiled

Last week I blogged about “Apple – iSlate” tablet, It is still speculative though if Apple will launch a Tablet PC on January 27 or not. However, a slew of products are already ready to steal Apple Tablet’s thunder (if it gets launched). Aiming to bridge the gap between smartphones and laptops, this new novel category of mobile devices has suddenly swamped the technology industry. Hewlett Packard, Microsoft, Dell, Motorola, Asus, MSI and Lenovo are among a barrage of companies showing off these thin, touchscreen, multimedia devices at the ongoing Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.

In terms of functionality, these wireless gadgets — called Slate or Tablet — can broadly stream video, download music, surf the Web and play games. Here’s looking into some of the hottest Tablets unveiled at CES.

Motorola

Motorola Inc demonstrated a prototype media tablet that could be ready commercially by the fourth quarter. The prototype has a 7-inch screen, runs on Google Inc’s Android operating system, and has room for 32 gigabytes of external memory. It carries a chip from Nvidia Corp and a modem from Motorola. We can anticipate it being a $300 device In CES it was demonstrated how the tablet could stream movie trailers wirelessly, and said the device could also download and store video to watch later.

Dell

Dell Inc showed off a small slate computer that it could bring to market this year, exploring yet another type of device designed for computing on the go.

Dell’s Slate has a 5-inch screen and runs on Google Inc’s Android mobile operating system. Dell declined to provide other details, or say definitively if the new gadget, which looks like a large smartphone, would hit the market. Dell as i remember also recently released its first smartphone, the Mini 3, which is on sale in China and Brazil.

Lenovo

Lenovo unveiled IdeaPad U1, a hybrid tablet/laptop. Lenovo IdeaPad U1 features a detachable slate-style tablet screen.

With the screen attached to the laptop base the IdeaPad U1 is powered by an Intel CULV processor, but when detached it becomes a tablet smartbook powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 1GHz processor.

Hewlett-Packard

Microsoft Corp Chief Executive Steve Ballmer unveiled a new Hewlett-Packard Co Tablet computer. The Tablet — also known as a Slate, is a multitouch touchscreen one-piece portable computer without a physical keyboard. Ballmer said the HP tablet will be available later this year. He also gave a glimpse of two similar devices from Archos and Pegatron Corp.

Sony

Sony launched Dash, a tablet-like device which the company calls a “personal Internet viewer” at the CES. The device costs $199, and has approximately a 7-inch screen that gives users access to over 1,000 specially written Internet applications, for news, calendaring, weather, sports, social networking and more.

Dash also has built-in stereo speakers as well as a USB port so that users can transfer content to it from their PCs. Within the device, an internal accelerometer allows for two viewing angles: upright, ideal for a table or nightstand; and tilted, perfect for a countertop.

The main difference between Dash and other tablets, like the Lenovo IdeaPad U1 is that Dash does not run on an OS. Sony Dash is more of a large touchscreen portable media player than a computer.

Asus

Asus plans to launch its 10 inch Tablet-style netbook this year. The company first showed off the Eee PC T101 at CES 2008. Since then the device has undergone some changes and the new version looks slicker.

Eee PC T101MT has a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N450 Pine Trail processor, and it can run Windows 7 Starter or Home Premium. The Starter version will come with 1GB of RAM, and a 160GB hard drive, while the higher end model will pack a 320 GB HDD and 2GB of RAM. Users will also get 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth, and a 35 hr battery that Asus claims is good for up to 6.5 hours of run time. The Tablet PC has a capacitative multitouch display.

MSI

MSI demoed two new touchscreen concpet notebook tablets at show that could hit the shelves as soon as June.

The dual screen notebook, as it is currently called, runs Windows 7, and offers a 10-inch dual touch panel with virtual keyboard and ebook experience according to the Taiwanese company. Storage is offered via SSD and the processor is Intel’s Melow low power solution.

So the tablet war as begun and hope to soon how many of them to be forced into a customer and how sucessfully it’s going to be in the coming days…