But first things first. In the last three months, suddenly there's no lack of new 8" 1280x800 2 GB RAM Windows 8.1 tablets stamped out from apparently single prototype, but put in branded cases by likes of Toshiba, Lenovo, Acer. I might have omitted some brand to add here, but it doesn't mean much: these are you average, boring mini-Surface 2 slates with no sharp stylus. They would cost you between $330 and $380 unless you live long enough to see them at the fire sales some time next year when they become quite irrelevant.
In this class of 8-inchers, Dell Venue 8 Pro looks much more interesting both by lesser price (MSRP is $299, can be had for about $249 or less) and capability to work with relatively sharp stylus by Synaptics technology. The problem with this Dell tablet is it faces big problems in production, and especially in manufacturing good styli (or styluses?) for it.
ASUS VivoTab Note 8 might be even more interesting slate in this class, especially if rumors of it sporting Wacom screen/Wacom stylus turn out to be true.
This one is supposed to sell at $299 these holidays. Even without discount, this potentially Wacom slate looks like a much better deal than whatever Dell tries to accomplish with Synaptics. Besides, it looks like this VivoTab comes bundled and sitting snug in its silo, whereas quite defective and scarce Dell Venue 8 Pro stylus must be purchased separately.
Even more interesting, if in completely another category, will be this Sharp's
Robotic translations from Japanese still result in some weird Ingrish (=suck big time, after all these years,) so what I can offer out of my waning Japanese skills is there are actually two 10.1 Mebius Pads (TA-S10L-B and TA-H10L, one with Windows 8.1, another with Windows 8.1 Pro), both sport Intel Atom quad-core Z3770 CPU, 4 GB of LPDDR3-1066 non-expandable RAM, IPX5/IPX5 waterproof/dustproof certification, and yes, 2560x1600 IGZO screens that account for claimed 15.5 hours of battery life. Sharp's own capacitive sharp stylus really shines:
Price estimate for either one is 130,000 Yen, or roughly US$1250 in January 2014,or even in the end of 2013. My guesstimate it will start at $999 in US retail. That is, if Sharp solves serious ghosting/image retention problems in its IGZO production for Apple iPad Mini. IGZO displays in general are truly specimens of breakthrough technology, it's a current mass production of them that is at fault today.
What's sehr geehrter Herr August Ferdinand Möbius is doing here? Apparently, Sharp wanted to emphasize its achievements in eliminating parasitic surfaces and air gaps in their very thin IGZO screen design. One-sided Möbius strip was an inspiring design for them:
(Zemanta is banned at Blogger, so don't look for more links for extra reading on the matter. RIP, Zemanta, piece of spamming code)
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